Heike asked

I wrote

> > and that linguists have found a substrate language beneath the
> > Arabic of the Marsh Arabs dialect that could be Sumerian.
>
> Once again the notorious question: references?

I first heard this at a seminar at the School of African and Oriental
Studies at London University on the Dialect of the "Marsh Arabs" of
southern Mesopotamia given by Bruce Ingham, who is reader in Arabic
Studies at that University. The argument is that it could also be a
substrate dialect of Akkadian as well. I hope this is of some help

Regards

John