Varieties of Arabic

The Arab dialects have evolved from diversifying in antiquity ancient Arabic varieties. The Arab National grammarian Sibawayhi particular, traditional numerous regional, colloquial deviations from classical Arabic.

Ancient Arabic dialectal variants

Below is a small selection of these documented already in the old Arabic dialectal phenomena:

  • Replacing f by ف ث t [ IPA θ ]. It still remembers the commonly used today in many dialects Timm, Tumm, timm, tumm for high- Arab فم fam -un.
  • Pronunciation of ج Ǧ [ IPA ʤ ] than ž [ IPA ʒ ], as is familiar from many parts of Lebanon and Syria today.
  • Pronunciation ق q as k, as it is known from the rural Palestinian today.
  • Replacement of ك k by ش š [ IPA ʃ ], which can still be found in some regions of Yemen at the suffix of the second Ps Sg. But more likely it the Affrizierung of k meant to č [ IPA ʧ ], as it is known in young cattle nomads and in the Palestinian farmers.
  • Confusion of sounds ظ D [ IPA ð ~ ] and ض d [ IPA d ~ ].
  • Imala to ǟ ie raising of long ā ē or even in certain consonantal environment, as is known from numerous Arabic dialects today.
  • Deviation Präfixvokal in some or all persons in the past tense of certain verbs, ie for example niʕlam - u instead of classical correctly naʕlam -u " we know ".
  • Replacement of verbs of Morphemtyps faʕila by fiʕila, so with receding approximation of the vowel.
  • In many verbs regional variants of the middle vowel in the perfect tense, ie for example faʕila instead faʕala or faʕula and vice versa.
  • Different treatment of grammatical gender in many nouns, for example, when word طريق / Tariq /, path ' that was masculine in many tribes, treated feminine in others.
  • Different demonstrative in different strains, for example ذلك ḏālika and ذاك Daka for "that".
  • Failure of Hamza ء ʔ in the word inside, so for example, al - mara instead of al - marʔa for "the woman" or Ras -un -un instead raʔs for " head ".

The neuarabische type of language

With the Arab conquests from the 7th century, the Arab spread from its home territory, the Arabian Peninsula, westward to the Atlantic, east to central Asia, north to the territory of the present-day Turkey and south to Zanzibar. Due to vast distances isolated from each other and the influence of strong, because kinship exposed quite related substrate languages ​​- for example, the Aramaic - developed the neuarabischen dialects. The neuarabische type of language is within the Semitic family of languages ​​Aramaic closer than even the ancient Arabic language type, which in turn had a greater affinity for the Akkadian.

Over 1,000 years of language development have led to a variety of dialects, hostile to each other are partly understandable. That the understanding within the Arab world still works, due to the fact that based on the classic Arabic language form is used as a common building and roof language. The difference between high level language and colloquial language is huge, just imagine about for comparison, in Italy would still Latin used as a high - media and language, while you were speaking to each other in dealing otherwise Italian dialects.

The Neuarabische is not usually written, but is oral communication reserved. The fact that in all Arab countries, the high and written language is taught from the first to the last class in the schools, it is possible, for example, two Arabs from Morocco and Iraq not only writing, but also orally communicate by namely to reflect on their school Arabic and try to get as far hochzuschrauben linguistic level in the direction of written language until they come to a level where they understand each other. The condition that two very different periods of one and the same language are used as colloquial and standard language, is called diglossia.

A special position in the Arabic-speaking world takes Malta a, of which the Arabic dialect, although close is the Maghreb dialects, but has nevertheless already diverged so far from the Arab, that some linguists do not recognize the Maltese a special position within the Arab, but in addition to Arabic. The Maltese use one emerged from their vernacular literary language that is written in a modified Latin alphabet.

The high roof as Arab language also usually missing in the Arabic-speaking islands such as Cyprus, Turkey, Central Asia and parts of Black Africa.

Hallmark of most neuarabischen dialects

The essential characteristic of all dialects of neuarabischen type is the loss of all Flexionsvokale and nunation. When noun it means the complete loss of case inflection, so that the word order in the sentence can not be handled as flexible as the old Arabic. Indicative, subjunctive and Apokopat - - When the verb mode discrimination is lost, for which the dialects had to make do with neoplasms. Some dialects, particularly those who have survived isolated on the edge of the Arabic -speaking world, still have remnants of inflection.

There are other phenomena that are the most common Arabic dialects, including

  • Collapse of the once separate phonemes ظ D [ IPA ð ~ ] and ض d [ IPA d ~ ] in most dialects. But this will not be done consistently, with some words coincide both sounds, others do not. In the " Syrian " and " Egyptian " dialect both the ظ in ظلم / " do wrong " and the ض in ضاع is / " get lost " pronounced as in the high- Arab.
  • The actual Hamza ( ʔ ) has lost much of its phonemic status and is only spoken generally on the word-initial consistently. In the words inside it is omitted after consonants mostly full (except for eg: يسأل / yi ʾ al / " he asks, " ), while it can be after a long vowel to y (eg Nayim instead Nā ʾ in for " sleeping " ) and after a short vowel that often substitute lengthens (see example above, an exception is again سأل / sa ʾ al / " he asked "). However, in some dialects ق / q as Hamza pronounced (eg ʾ alb instead qalb for " heart "), even in the word inside.
  • Short vowels ( consonant short vowel ), in particular i and u often elided in unstressed syllables of the type Kv neuarabischen dialects by Aramaic model. Resulting consonant clusters are blown open by auxiliary vowels.
  • In many dialects the opposition between i and u is further weakened, as it was in the classical Arabic anyway. Sometimes they come together in a phoneme.
  • Widely available in a number of words usually i, instead of a classic: inta place anta "you" ( n ) Ihna instead Nahnu "we," il al - instead - for the product, min or min instead of one " who? " etc.
  • The prefix vowel of the past tense is only in rare cases such as in classical Arabic to a: yuktub instead yaktub -u " ( that ) he writes ," tinzil instead tanzil -u " ( that ) it descends ."
  • The internal passive fuʕila / yufʕalu is only detectable in trace elements in some unusual Bedouin dialects. In general, the Neuarabische uses the VII strain infaʕala to express passive voice.
  • Only a series of numbers for counting both genera.
  • No more dual forms on the verb and the personal pronoun. Only on the dual noun is still alive.
  • Reinvention of a genitive exponent in numerous dialects to express affiliation or ownership other than by the status Constructus, such as il -bet tabaʕi " my house ". More genitive exponent in different dialects: iddi, Hagg, Hal, time mtāʕ, bitāʕ, SIT, del, dial, etc.
  • No use of classical Futur particles sawfa, RAH instead, ta -, MAS, bā or like
  • Replacement of the question word ما mā " what? " Derived by one of أي شيء هو ayyu šayʔin ( huwa ) form, such as ES, ( š ) Su, Sinu, Wis. ( š ), ešnuwwe etc.
  • No denial of the perfect longer لم lam ( Apokopat ).

Frequent deviations from the classical Arabic

Some phenomena that occur in many, but by far not all Arabic dialects:

  • To ē monophthongization the diphthongs ay and aw, and ō so Bēt < bayt 'house' and NOM < nawm "sleep".
  • According shift of the interdental ث t [ IPA θ ], ذ d [ IPA ð ] and ظ D [ IPA ð ~ ], often to the closure sounds t, d and d. Examples of the preservation of the interdental most Bedouin dialects and the Palestinian peasant dialects.

Sociological division of neuarabischen dialects

The major dialect boundary runs in the Arabic-speaking world not along geographical boundaries, but according to historical- sociological criteria: nomads and residents dialect dialect. Main distinguishing feature is the realization of old ق q [ IPA q]: The residents realize the, sound always voiceless, Bedouin always voiced, moved about as ʔ, k or q, for example, as g or soft palate as G [ IPA ɢ ] or as Ǧ [ IPA ʤ ], the (former) camel nomads even in certain positions as ǵ [ IPA ʣ ].

The residents dialects are divided again in town and country dialects dialects. Typical characteristics of an urban dialect, the pronunciation ق q as Hamza ʔ and the displacement of Interdental to closure sounds, ie t> t, d > d, USA> e. This type dialect is spoken in Cairo, Jerusalem, Beirut, Damascus and many other cities in the Arab world, but not, for example, in Baghdad or Tripoli, as their population is originally Bedouin origin. That is, the Bedouin dialect type can be spoken in cities and in the countryside. Urban Arabic is found particularly in the Maghreb and in the countryside. The only thing that has not been discovered, are Bedouins who speak urban. The names are thus historical- sociological nature and do not reflect the actual current living conditions.

Geographical classification of dialects neuarabischen

Apart from this basic sociological classification can be the Arabic dialects classified geographically as follows:

  • Arabian Peninsula Gulf Arabic ( ISO 639-3: afb )
  • Hijaz - Naji dialects
  • Yemeni Arabic
  • North Arabian dialects
  • Oman Arabic
  • Mesopotamia Iraqi Arabic ( ISO 639-3, Mesopotamian acm ) qeltu dialects
  • Gilit dialects
  • Greater Syria Syrian Arabic
  • Lebanese Arabic
  • Palestinian- Arab
  • Jordanian Arabic
  • Cypriot Arabic
  • Outskirts Central Asian Arabic: Arabic Afghanistan, Khorasan - Arabic, Arabic - Uzbekistan
  • Central African Arabic: Nigerian Arabic, Chadian Arabic, Arabic - Mali, Niger - Arabic, Arabic - Cameroon.

An overview of the distribution area of the Arabian with approximate numbers of speakers can be found in the list of countries with indigenous mother tongue of Arab population.

Ausbausprache, Abstandsprache and Dachsprache#Dachsprache Maltese language Construct state Mesopotamian Arabic Languages of Syria
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