One of the most significant features of the nahḍah was the importance that was placed on the Arabic language. Nearly all intellectuals took an active interest in the language, and the majority of debates that characterised the nahḍah centred on issues related to it as scholars engaged one another on practically every aspect, from its qualities and shortcomings, its function and importance in society, to its various problems and need for reforms. These debates involved all the major intellectuals of the nahḍah, albeit that different linguistic, religious, ideological and even political impulses motivated these scholars, which often meant that they expressed divergent attitudes towards the language. As far as the question of language reform is concerned, however, one can isolate the proponents of two main discourses: the conservative reformists and the liberal reformists. The later part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries witnessed a considerable amount of linguistic controversy mainly, though not exclusively, between these two groups of scholars. Research to date has offered a number of explanations for the controversy, but has failed to realise the great extent to which pre-modern developments, especially among Christians, were a major factor in the linguistic debates that formed such an integral part of the nahḍah. Based on an extensive study of original sources, this chapter examines the main linguistic debates of the period and attempts to shed light on some of the underlying factors fuelling the controversy in the light of pre-modern developments.