Levantine Arabic phonology

This article is about the phonology of Levantine Arabic also known as Shāmi Arabic, and its sub-dialects.

Varieties

As in most Arabic-speaking areas, the spoken language differs significantly between urban, rural and nomad populations.

Urban Levantine Arabic

As mentioned above, the urban varieties are remarkably homogeneous throughout the whole area, compared to the changes the language undergo in rural populations. This homogeneity is probably inherited from the trading network among cities in the Ottoman Empire. It may also represent an older state of affairs. As a matter of facts, there is a current trend to diverge from this unity, the language of the cities taking on some of the features of their neighboring villages (e.g. Jerusalem used to say as Damascus [ˈnɪħna] ('we') and [ˈhʊnne] ('they') at the beginning of the 20th century, and this has moved to the more rural [ˈɪħna] and [ˈhʊmme] nowadays.).[2] The table below shows the main variants which have shibboleth role, most of the rest of the language remaining the same.

City q ǧ we (subj.) you (pl, compl.) they (subj) they (compl.) I say he says I write he writes write! now it is not …
Aleppo[3] [ʔ] [] [ˈnəħne] [-kʊn] [ˈhənnen] [-hʊn] [baˈʔuːl] [bɪˈʔuːl] [ˈbaktʊb] [ˈbɪktʊb] [ktoːb] [ˈhallaʔ] [mʊ]
Damascus[4] [ʔ] [ʒ] [ˈnəħna] [-kʊn] [ˈhənnen] [-hʊn] [bʔuːl] [bəˈʔuːl] [ˈbəkteb] [ˈbjəkteb] [ktoːb] [ˈhallaʔ] [mʊ]
Beirut [ʔ] [ʒ] [ˈnɪħna] [-kʊn] [ˈhɪnne] [-ʊn] [bʔuːl] [bɪˈʔuːl] [ˈbɪktob] [ˈbjɪktob] [ktoːb] [ˈhallaʔ] [mɪʃ]
Haifa[5] [ʔ] [ʒ] [ˈɪħna] [-kʊ] [ˈhɪnne] [-hen] [baˈʔuːl] [bɪˈʔuːl] [ˈbaktɪb] [ˈbɪktɪb] [ˈɪktɪb] [ˈɪssa] [mɪʃ]
Jerusalem[6] [ʔ] [ʒ] [ˈɪħna] [-kʊm] [ˈhʊmme] [-hʊm] [baˈʔuːl] [bɪˈʔuːl] [ˈbaktʊb] [ˈbɪktʊb] [ˈʊktʊb] [ha-l-ˈʔeːt] [mʊʃ]
Hebron[7] [ʔ] [] [ˈɪħna] [-kʊ] [ˈhʊmme] [-hom] [baˈʔuːl] [bɪˈʔuːl] [ˈbaktob] [ˈbɪktob] [ˈʊktob] [haʔˈʔeːtɪ] [mʊʃ]
Gaza [ʔ] [ʒ] [ˈɪħna] [-kʊ] [ˈhʊmma] [-hʊm] [baˈʔuːl] [bɪˈʔuːl] [ˈbaktʊb] [ˈbɪktʊb] [ˈʊktʊb] [ˈhallaʔ] [mɪʃ]
Amman[8] [ʔ], [ɡ] [] [ˈɪħna] [-kʊm] [ˈhʊmme] [-hʊm] [baˈɡuːl] [bɪˈɡuːl] [ˈbaktʊb] [ˈbɪktʊb] [ˈʊktʊb] [hasˈsaːʕ] [mʊʃ]
al-Karak[9] [ɡ] [] [ˈɪħna] [-kʊm] [ˈhʊmmʊ] [-hʊm] [baˈɡuːl] [bɪˈɡuːl] [ˈbaktʊb] [ˈbɪktʊb] [ˈʊktʊb] [hasˈsaːʕ] [mʊ(ʃ)]

Rural subdialects

Rural Levantine Arabic can be divided into two groups of mutually intelligible subdialects.[10] Again, these dialect considerations have to be understood to apply mainly to rural populations, as the urban forms change much less.

  • a widespread pronunciation of /q/ as [ʔ] (the Druze, however, retain the uvular [q]).
  • A strong tendency to pronounce long /aː/ as [ɛː] (imala) in a front phonemic context or [] (tafkhim) in a back phonemic context. This tendency is stronger as one goes northward. For instance, Damascus and Beirut only have final /aː/ consistently pronounced as [e], e.g. /ʃitaː/ ('rain') is pronounced [ʃəte] . This feature may be used to distinguish Central from Northern Levantine.
  • A widespread realization of /dʒ/ as [ʒ], especially along the Mediterranean coast. This feature may be used to distinguish northwest (coastal, Nusayriyyah) from northeast (e.g. Aleppo, Idlib) Levantine Arabic where /dʒ/ is realized as [].
  • The second and third person plural pronominal suffixes end in /-n/ : /-kun/, /-hun/ (or /-hen/ in Galilee).
  • The characteristic vowel of the imperative is long: /ˈuktub/ > [ktoːb].
  • The first and third person singular imperfect are /bquːl/ ('I say') and /bəquːl/ ('he says') in Lebanon and Damascus instead of /baquːl/ and /biquːl/, respectively, everywhere else, which may be used to further distinguish Central from Northern and Southern Levantine Arabic.
  • Tafkhim is nonexistent there, and imala affects only the feminine ending /-ah/ > [e] after front consonants (and not even in Gaza where it remains /a/), while /ʃitaː/ is [ʃɪta].
  • In central Palestinian (Jaffa, West Bank, Nazareth, Tiberias) rural speech, /k/ changes to [], /q/ changes to [k], interdentals are conserved, and /dʒ/ is pronounced []. In southern Palestinian (Ashdod, Asqelon, Hebron countryside) as well as western Jordan and Syrian Hauran, /q/ changes to [ɡ] and /k/ changes to [] before front vowels. This latter feature resembles the North Arabian Bedouin dialects.

In Israel, apart from Galilee and the Negev, rural dialects are almost extinct, and this description gives is the pre-1948 state of affairs. Palestinian refugees in Jordan have brought with them their typical features, although they tend to adopt the emerging Jordanian urban speech.

To these typical, widespread subdialects, one could add marginal varieties such as:

Linguistic description

Phonetics

Consonants

The table below shows the correspondence between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) phonemes, and their counterpart realization in Levantine Arabic. The Urban speech is taken as reference, the variations are given relative to it.

MSA phoneme Common realisation Variants
/b/ [b]
/t/ [t]
/θ/ [t] [s] in some roots, [θ] in rural and outer Southern Levantine
/dʒ/ [ʒ] [] in Northern Levantine and rural Palestinian
/ħ/ [ħ]
/d/ [d]
/ð/ [d] [z] in some roots, [ð] in rural Southern Levantine
/r/ [ɾ]
/z/ [z]
/s/ [s]
/ʃ/ [ʃ]
/sˤ/ []
/dˤ/ []
/tˤ/ []
/zˤ/ [] [dˤ] in some words, [ðˤ] in rural Southern Levantine
/ʕ/ [ʕ]
/ɣ/ [ɣ]
/f/ [f]
/q/ [ʔ] [q] in the Druze and rural Lebanese speech, [k] in rural Palestinian(only in presence of front vowels in south Palestinian areas), [ɡ] in outer Southern Levantine
/k/ [k] [] in rural Palestinian (except central Palestinian areas and only in presence of front vowels in south Palestinian areas)
/l/ [l]
/m/ [m]
/n/ [n]
/h/ [h]
/w/ [w]
/j/ [j]

NB. Hamza has a special treatment: at the end of a closed syllable, it vanishes and lengthens the preceding vowel, e.g. /raʔs/ > [raːs] (see compensatory lengthening). If followed by /i/, it is realized as [j], /naːʔim/ > [naːjɪm]. These evolutions plead for a Hijazi origin of Levantine Arabic. Word initially, hamza is often realized as [h] in Southern Levantine.

Vowels and diphthongs

The table below shows the correspondence between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) phonemes and their counterpart realization in Levantine Arabic.

Phoneme Southern Lebanese Central Northern
/a/ [ɑ] or [ʌ] [æ] [ɑ] or [ʌ] [ɔ] or [ɛ]
/i/ [e] [j] [ə] (stressed), [j] (unstressed) [e]
/u/ [o] or [ʊ] [j] (stressed), [ʊ] (unstressed) [ə] (stressed), [o] (unstressed) [o]
-aʰ [ɑ] after back consonants, [e] after front consonants [ʌ] after back consonants, [e] after front consonants [ʌ] after back consonants, [e] after front consonants [ʌ] after back consonants, [e] after front consonants
/aː/ [aː], final [a] [ɛː] (front context), [ɔː] (back context), final [eː] [ɑː] (back context), [æː] (front context), final [e] [oː] (back context), [eː] (front context), final [e]
/iː/ [iː], final [i] [iː], final [i] [iː], final [i] [iː], final [i]
/uː/ [uː], final [u] [uː], final [u] [uː], final [u] [uː], final [u]
/aj/ [eː] [eɪ] [eː] [eː]
/aw/ [oː] [oʊ] [oː] [oː]

Levantine Arabic vowels can be represented in the Arabic script in many ways because of etymological and grammatical reasons, e.g. /əljoːm/ اليَوم ('today').

References

  1. See e.g. Yohanan Elihai, The olive tree dictionary: a transliterated dictionary of conversational Eastern Arabic (Palestinian). Washington, DC: Kidron Pub. 2004 (ISBN 0-9759726-0-X)
  2. U. Seeger, Mediterranean Language Review 10 (1998), pp. 89-145.
  3. Handbuch der arabische Dialekte - Jastrow & Fischer - Harrassowitz verlag
  4. Manuel Du Parler Arabe Moderne Au Moyen, Jean Kassab, Paul Geuthner ed., Paris (2006)
  5. Die arabischen Stadtdialekte von Haifa in der ersten Hälfte des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2004.
  6. Yohanan Elihai, The olive tree dictionary: a transliterated dictionary of conversational Eastern Arabic (Palestinian). Washington, DC: Kidron Pub. 2004 (ISBN 0-9759726-0-X)
  7. Der arabische Dialekt von il-Xalil (Hebron), Mediterranean Language Review Heft 10 (1998), S. 89-145
  8. Enam Al-Wer Jordanian Arabic (Amman) Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Managing Editors Online Edition: Lutz Edzard, Rudolf de Jong. Brill Online 2012
  9. Heikki Palva, Sedentary and Bedouin Dialects in Contact: Remarks On Karaki and Salti Dialects in Jordan, Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies vol 9 (2008)
  10. Handbuch der arabische Dialekte - Jastrow & Fischer - Harrassowitz verlag
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