The Arabic Language is not really a language but a
collection of languages. The Arab world is tightly knit together by the Muslim religion, which reads the
Qur'an as its holy book. The language of the Qur'an forms the basis of the Arabic which is used as a Lingua Franca among all Arabs to communicate. This Lingua Franca is the language taught in schools and is the language of writing. It is called
fus-Ha in Arabic.
Most books, magazines, newspapers, and websites are written in
fus-Ha. However, some books and magazines may be written in a local dialect, called a
lahja in Arabic. While Arabs tend to think of these dialects as
3amiiya or "slang" forms of the original Qur'anic Arabic, which they consider to be the
True Arabic Language, Western linguists (who are usually Christian or agnostic) consider them to be separate languages just as French, Spanish, and Portuguese are different from Latin.
The Arabic mindset is full of such socio-political factors and the entire language and culture is heavily influenced by Islam. When studying a culture as foreign as that of the Arab peoples, it should be kept in mind that Westerners have similar socio-political influences in our own lives, which are usually hidden from our own perception.
The Arabic dialects/languages are vastly different from the Lingua Franca
fus-Ha and mutual intelligibility is low in some countries. These dialects/languages are divided into
regions where the dialects are similar to each other, share vocabulary and pronunciation, and also have similar cultural outlooks.
In this post, we will examine the major
spoken Arabic regions of the Arab world.
Starting in the far Eastern side of the Arab world,
Region I:
The Maghreb
The
maghreb-i Arabic region consists of Moroccan, Algierian, Tunisian, and, tentatively, Libyan Arabic. Moroccan and Algerian are mutually intelligible, as both have been heavily influenced by the non-Semitic Berber languages. However, Moroccan has been more influence by Berber languages than Algerian. Berber languages have entire sentences devoid of any vowels, instead using sonorous letters such as "m", "n", "r" "sh" and "l" as vowels. Moroccan Arabic speech is vowel-scarce, and can be intimidating to Westerners to learn.
Moroccan
: mtshrféen- nice to meet you
Algerian:
mitshirféén- nice to meet you
A true Present tense is marked in Moroccan Arabic by the prefix
kan- attached to the Non-Past form.
nti kantktub-ii you(f) are writing.
nta kantktub you(m) are writing
Libyan Arabic is heavily influenced by the vowel-rich
Egyptian dialect region, which has rules to add vowels when too many consonants are found in a row.
Speakers of Libyan Arabic and Moroccan Arabic have trouble understanding each other, but Algerians understand both Moroccans and Libyans.
The Maghreb is also heavily influenced by
French as the three nations Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria used to be French colonies. Maghrebi Arabic is marked by thousands of imported French words in every day use, and widespread bilingualism between French and Arabic among the educated, with educated young people code'switching, alternating French and Arabic sentences in the streets of major cities. Maghrebi Arabic is also the Arabic most spoken in France, as most of France's Arab immigrants are of Maghrebi origin.
Region II:
Egyptian Arabic Region
This region comprises Egypt, which is the center of the Arab movie and music industry, and also tentatively includes Libya and Northern Sudan. Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab world, with over 80 million people, and over 20 million living in the metro area of the capital city,
al-qaahira (Cairo).
Egyptian Arabic is easily distinguished because the letter
j is pronounced as English
g, leading to pronunciations of words like
rajul as
ragul and
jamiil as
gameel. Other notable features of Egyptian are the definite article
il instead of Standard
aL and doubling of
k and
g.
ir-ragul ik-kabiir the big man (the great man)
This substitution of "
i" for "
a" pervades the language.
inta instead of
anta
inti instead of
anti
intu instead of
antum/antunna
The true Present Tense in Egyptian is marked with the prefix
b- attached to the Non-Past.
ana badrus I am studying
inti btadrosii You(f) are studying.
inta btadros You(m) are studying
(n)aHna mnadros We are studying.
The sound
q is pronounced as
' by Egyptians.
naquul we say becomes
na'uul.
Most Arabs have a working understanding of Egyptian, even if they can't speak it, since most movies, music, and television shows are produced in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. "What" in Egyptian Arabic is "
ey" and "yes" is a dark
aa sound as opposed to
na3am which is used for responding to one's name. "No" is chopped "
La' " with a noticeable glottal stop at the end.
Region III:
The Levant
Levantine Arabic is spoken in Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, a region called "The Levant" by Middle-Eastern political scientists. All of these dialects share features with each other, but Israeli and Palestinian Arabic are heavily influenced by both Egyptian and Hebrew. Levantine Arabic is the standard dialect stratum for teaching Colloquial Arabic to diplomats and students in universities. In common with Egyptian is the Present Tense marked by
b-. We will be using this prefix in this course to make Present Tense sentences. One notable difference from Egyptian among all Levantine dialects is the normal pronunciation of
j as
j or even as
zh as in English
pleasure or
measure. Feminine and final -
a(h) often become -
e(h), such as in
madrese for
madrasa, Tebbuule (English "tabbouli") for
Tabbuula,
ente for
anta and
m3alme for
mu3allimah teacher. Also,
inta is in someplaces replaced by
int, and
naHnu is replaced by
iHna. There are significant cultural and vocabulary differences from Egypt, especially the farther from Egypt you get, such as into Syria or Jordan. "What" in Levantine Arabic is
shuu and "yes" is a long "
éé" sound. "No" is drawn out, Light colored
laaa or a "
tsk" sound with an upward flick of the eyes.
Region IV:
The Gulf
Gulf Arabic is spoken in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emrates, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen, and Oman, with significant differences between the Iraqi dialect and the Omani dialect. The heart of the Gulf region is Saudi Arabia, home to Mecca
makka and Medina, the two holiest cities in Islam. (The third holiest city in Islam is
al-quds Jerusalem). Lying at the heart of the Arabic world, Saudi Arabic is the closest to
fus-Ha,with many forms resembling the Standard Language, and the highest level of mutual intelligibility between dialect and Standard Book Language. Gulf Arabic is marked by pronunciation of
q and often
k as English
g, and the standard forms
ana, anta, anti, howa, hiya, antu,
hum being augmented by
aHna for "we." (need to double check the
aHna).
Region V:
Muslim Sub-Saharan Africa
The fringe of the Arab world is found in the nations of South Sudan, Western Sahara, and Mauritania, where tribal languages compete with Arabic for the language of daily life. Educated Muslims can speak
fus-Ha somewhat fluently, but are often trilingual or polyglots, speaking four or five languages to communicate with other tribes. The level of Arabic proficiency in these regions is generally divided by race, with ethnic Arabs speaking fluent colloquial Arab dialects such as
Juba Arabic in Sudan, which is more of a creole of Arabic and local tribal languages than a dialect of Arabic
per se. Literate Muslims of all races can read, write and speak Standard Arabic according to their educational success. In the case of Somalia, a completely different language called
Somali is the language of daily life, which is written in a modified version of the Roman alphabet.
Speakers of
fus-Ha will favor slang and pronunciation drawn from their native colloquial dialect. Since no one is "born" a native speaker of Standard Arabic, the differences between regions are not considered "more" or "less" correct, but are modified from conversation to conversation so that communication between speakers from different regions becomes possible.
