Northwest Arabian Arabic | |
---|---|
Levantine Bedawi Arabic Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic | |
Native to | Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Syria |
Native speakers | 3.0 million (2021–2021) [1] |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
Arabic alphabet | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
avl |
Glottolog |
east2690 |
Northwest Arabian Arabic (also called Levantine Bedawi Arabic or Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic) is a proposed [2] subfamily of Arabic encompassing the traditional Bedouin dialects of the Sinai Peninsula, the Negev, Gaza Strip, southern Jordan, and the northwestern corner of Saudi Arabia. [2]
The dialect of the Maʿāzah in the Egyptian Eastern Desert borders the dialect of the ʿAbābdah, who speak a dialect more closely related to Sudanese Arabic. [3] Research is needed to establish whether the Maʿāzah dialect is the southwestern extremity of Northwest Arabian on the Egyptian mainland. [3]
In Saudi Arabia, the dialects of the eastern coast of the Gulf of Aqaba, the Hisma, and the Harrat al-Riha belong to the Northwest Arabian type, but the dialect of the Bili to the south is not closely related. [4]
The Northwest Arabian Arabic dialects display several innovations from Proto-Arabic: [2]
Northwest Arabian Arabic can be divided into a western branch spoken in Sinai and the Negev, and an eastern branch spoken to the east of the Wadi Araba. [2] Several dialects of the eastern branch, such as that of the Zalabiah and Zawaidih of Wadi Ramm, [5] and that of the Bdul, [6] have been argued to be closely related to the western branch.
Western branch | Eastern branch | |
---|---|---|
b- imperfect | in regular use | does not occur in plain colloquial |
analytic genitive | šuġl, šuġlah, šuġlīn, šuġlāt as genitive markers | |
Form I imperfect performative | vowel harmony | generalized /a/ |
reflexes of *aw and *ay | partially monophthongized; monophthongs fluctuate with long phonemes /ō/ ~ /ū/, /ē/ ~/ī/. | well-established monophthongs /ō/ and /ē/ |
gawaha syndrome | gaháwa only | ghawa ~ gaháwa |
I-w imperfect | yawṣal ~ yōṣal | yāṣal |
3fsg object suffix | -ha/-hiy in Negev | -ha |
3msg object suffix | phonetically conditioned C-ih/-ah, C-u(h) in southern Sinai | C-ah |
1cpl subject pronoun | iḥna, aḥna | ḥinna, iḥna |
reflex of -ā(ʾ) in neutral environments | -iy | -a |
Labial | Interdental | Dental/ Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | emph. | plain | emph. | plain | emph. | |||||||
Nasal | m | n | ||||||||||
Plosive | voiceless | t | tˤ | k | kˤ | ( q) | ( ʔ) | |||||
voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||||||||
Affricate | d͡ʒ | |||||||||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | θ | s | sˤ | ʃ | x | ħ | h | |||
voiced | ð | ðˤ | z | ( zˤ) | ( ʒ) | ɣ | ʕ | |||||
Trill | r | ( rˤ) | ||||||||||
Approximant | l | lˤ | j | w |
Vowels occur in both long and short positions: [7]
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Close | i iː | u uː |
Mid | eː | oː |
Open | a aː |
Vowels are recognized as allophones in the following positions: [8]
Phoneme/Sound | Allophone | Notes |
---|---|---|
i [ i] | [ ɪ] | in lax position |
u [ u] | [ ʊ] | in lax position |
[ o] | when preceding emphatic sounds | |
a [ a] | [ ɐ] | in lax position |
[ ɑ] | when preceding or following emphatics | |
eː [ eː] | [ ɛː] | when following emphatic or back fricatives |
oː [ oː] | [ ɔː] | when preceding velar consonants |
aː [ aː] | [ ɑː] | in velarized environments |
[ ɐː] | when following pharyngeal consonants | |
ɛː ~ æː | in neutral position in the Tarabin dialect |
Some varieties of Negev Arabic are characterized by word-internal imala of *-ā- to /ē/ in patterns where /i/ historically occurred in an adjacent syllable. It does not occur when one of the adjacent consonants is emphatic or a back consonant. Some of the patterns where it is found include the following: [9]
Similar raising is found in the Bdul dialect of Jordan: minǣsif “mansaf (pl.)”, hǣḏi “this (f.)”, ḏ̣aygǣt “narrow (pl.)”, iblǣdna “our land”. [6]
Some of the western dialects of Northwest Arabian Arabic (Central Sinai and Negev in particular) are characterized by an Imala of Old Arabic word-final *-ā(ʾ) to /iy/ in certain patterns of nouns and adjectives. Emphatics seem to block the shift. The following examples are from Negev Arabic: [10]
In the dialects of southern Sinai, word-final imala typically results in /iʾ/. Some examples are íštiʾ “winter”, ǧiʾ “he came”, ḏiʾ “this, these”, tižibhiʾ “you get it”, ifṭarniʾ “we had breakfast”. In some, but not all groups, /a/ in a previous syllable blocks this imala. Like the dialects of central Sinai and Negev, the imala of feminine adjectives of color and defect on the pattern CaCCāʾ results in stressed /íy/: sōdíy “black; bad”. [3]
The following are some archaic features retained from Proto-Arabic: [2]
Northwest Arabian Arabic | |
---|---|
Levantine Bedawi Arabic Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic | |
Native to | Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Syria |
Native speakers | 3.0 million (2021–2021) [1] |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
Arabic alphabet | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
avl |
Glottolog |
east2690 |
Northwest Arabian Arabic (also called Levantine Bedawi Arabic or Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic) is a proposed [2] subfamily of Arabic encompassing the traditional Bedouin dialects of the Sinai Peninsula, the Negev, Gaza Strip, southern Jordan, and the northwestern corner of Saudi Arabia. [2]
The dialect of the Maʿāzah in the Egyptian Eastern Desert borders the dialect of the ʿAbābdah, who speak a dialect more closely related to Sudanese Arabic. [3] Research is needed to establish whether the Maʿāzah dialect is the southwestern extremity of Northwest Arabian on the Egyptian mainland. [3]
In Saudi Arabia, the dialects of the eastern coast of the Gulf of Aqaba, the Hisma, and the Harrat al-Riha belong to the Northwest Arabian type, but the dialect of the Bili to the south is not closely related. [4]
The Northwest Arabian Arabic dialects display several innovations from Proto-Arabic: [2]
Northwest Arabian Arabic can be divided into a western branch spoken in Sinai and the Negev, and an eastern branch spoken to the east of the Wadi Araba. [2] Several dialects of the eastern branch, such as that of the Zalabiah and Zawaidih of Wadi Ramm, [5] and that of the Bdul, [6] have been argued to be closely related to the western branch.
Western branch | Eastern branch | |
---|---|---|
b- imperfect | in regular use | does not occur in plain colloquial |
analytic genitive | šuġl, šuġlah, šuġlīn, šuġlāt as genitive markers | |
Form I imperfect performative | vowel harmony | generalized /a/ |
reflexes of *aw and *ay | partially monophthongized; monophthongs fluctuate with long phonemes /ō/ ~ /ū/, /ē/ ~/ī/. | well-established monophthongs /ō/ and /ē/ |
gawaha syndrome | gaháwa only | ghawa ~ gaháwa |
I-w imperfect | yawṣal ~ yōṣal | yāṣal |
3fsg object suffix | -ha/-hiy in Negev | -ha |
3msg object suffix | phonetically conditioned C-ih/-ah, C-u(h) in southern Sinai | C-ah |
1cpl subject pronoun | iḥna, aḥna | ḥinna, iḥna |
reflex of -ā(ʾ) in neutral environments | -iy | -a |
Labial | Interdental | Dental/ Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | emph. | plain | emph. | plain | emph. | |||||||
Nasal | m | n | ||||||||||
Plosive | voiceless | t | tˤ | k | kˤ | ( q) | ( ʔ) | |||||
voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||||||||
Affricate | d͡ʒ | |||||||||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | θ | s | sˤ | ʃ | x | ħ | h | |||
voiced | ð | ðˤ | z | ( zˤ) | ( ʒ) | ɣ | ʕ | |||||
Trill | r | ( rˤ) | ||||||||||
Approximant | l | lˤ | j | w |
Vowels occur in both long and short positions: [7]
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Close | i iː | u uː |
Mid | eː | oː |
Open | a aː |
Vowels are recognized as allophones in the following positions: [8]
Phoneme/Sound | Allophone | Notes |
---|---|---|
i [ i] | [ ɪ] | in lax position |
u [ u] | [ ʊ] | in lax position |
[ o] | when preceding emphatic sounds | |
a [ a] | [ ɐ] | in lax position |
[ ɑ] | when preceding or following emphatics | |
eː [ eː] | [ ɛː] | when following emphatic or back fricatives |
oː [ oː] | [ ɔː] | when preceding velar consonants |
aː [ aː] | [ ɑː] | in velarized environments |
[ ɐː] | when following pharyngeal consonants | |
ɛː ~ æː | in neutral position in the Tarabin dialect |
Some varieties of Negev Arabic are characterized by word-internal imala of *-ā- to /ē/ in patterns where /i/ historically occurred in an adjacent syllable. It does not occur when one of the adjacent consonants is emphatic or a back consonant. Some of the patterns where it is found include the following: [9]
Similar raising is found in the Bdul dialect of Jordan: minǣsif “mansaf (pl.)”, hǣḏi “this (f.)”, ḏ̣aygǣt “narrow (pl.)”, iblǣdna “our land”. [6]
Some of the western dialects of Northwest Arabian Arabic (Central Sinai and Negev in particular) are characterized by an Imala of Old Arabic word-final *-ā(ʾ) to /iy/ in certain patterns of nouns and adjectives. Emphatics seem to block the shift. The following examples are from Negev Arabic: [10]
In the dialects of southern Sinai, word-final imala typically results in /iʾ/. Some examples are íštiʾ “winter”, ǧiʾ “he came”, ḏiʾ “this, these”, tižibhiʾ “you get it”, ifṭarniʾ “we had breakfast”. In some, but not all groups, /a/ in a previous syllable blocks this imala. Like the dialects of central Sinai and Negev, the imala of feminine adjectives of color and defect on the pattern CaCCāʾ results in stressed /íy/: sōdíy “black; bad”. [3]
The following are some archaic features retained from Proto-Arabic: [2]