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]
| Northwest Arabian Arabic | |
|---|---|
| Levantine Bedawi Arabic Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic | |
| Native to | Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Syria, Saudi Arabia |
Native speakers | 3.0 million (2021–2023)[1] |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
| Arabic alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | avl |
| Glottolog | east2690 |
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]
Classification
The Northwest Arabian Arabic dialects display several innovations from Proto-Arabic:[2]
- The voiced reflex of *q ([g])
- The gaháwah syndrome: insertion of /a/ after X in (C)aXC(V) sequences where X is /h/, /ʿ/, /ḥ/, /ġ/, or /ḫ/, e.g. gahwa(h) > gaháwa(h) "coffee", baġl > baġal "mule".
- The definite article al- and the relative pronoun alli are stressable as an integral part of the word, e.g. álwalad, áljabal. The initial /a/ is stable enough to be preserved after -ī (-iy), which is dropped: f-albēt, rāʿ-álġanam.
- A number of typical Bedouin lexical items (gōṭar "to go", sōlaf "to tell, narrate", ṭabb "to arrive", nišad ~ nišád "to ask").
- Absence of tanwīn and its residues.
- Absence of final /n/ in the imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular, 2nd person masculine plural, and 3rd person masculine plural.
- The pronominal suffix of the 2nd person masculine plural is -ku (-kuw).
- Stressed variants -ī and -nī of the pronominal suffix in the 1st person singular.
- Plural comm. forms haḏalla, haḏallāk, etc.
- Initial /a/ in Forms VII, VIII, and X in the perfect, and stressed when in stressable position.
- Initial /a/ in a number of irregular nouns (amm, aḫt, aḫwan, adēn, afám).
Varieties
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/ |
| gahawa 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 |
Phonology
Consonants
- Phonemes in parentheses occur either marginally or across different dialects
- [ʒ] can be heard as an allophone of /d͡ʒ/.
- /rˤ/ is mostly heard in the Hindiy and Ṭuwara dialects
Vowels
Vowels occur in both long and short positions:[7]
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 |
Imala
Word-internal imala of */-ā-/
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]
- Reflexes of *CāCiC: šēyib “elder, old man”, ḥēmiy “hot”, gēyil “having said”, bēkir “morning”, wēḥid “one”, ṯēniy “second”
- Reflexes of *CiCāC(ah): srēǧ “oil lamp”, ktēbih “writing”
- Reflexes of *miCCāC(ah): miftēḥ “key”, miknēsih “broom”
- Broken plurals *CaCāCiC: gibēyil “tribes”, šinētiy “bags”
- Imperfect *yuCāCiC: ysēwiy “it equals”, yǧēwib “he replies”
Similar raising is found in the Bdul dialect of Jordan: minǣsif “mansaf (pl.)”, hǣḏi “this (f.)”, ḏ̣aygǣt “narrow (pl.)”, iblǣdna “our land”.[6]
Word-final imala of */-ā(ʾ)/
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]
- Reflexes of *CiCāʾ, *CuCāʾ: štiy “rainy season”, ḥḏiy “footwear”, dʿiy “cursing”, ndiy “call”, zniy “adultery”, ġniy “song”, ʿšiy “evening prayer”, dliy “pails (pl.)”, mliy “full (pl.)”, rwiy “well-watered (pl.)”, miy “water”
- Reflexes of *CiCā, *CuCā: lḥiy “beards”, griy “hospitality”, hdiy “right guidance”, hniy “here”
- Reflexes of *CiCCā(ʾ), *CuCCā(ʾ): yimniy “right side”, yisriy “left side”, sifliy “nether millstone”, ʿilyiy “upper millstone”, miʿziy “goats”, ḥimmiy “fever”, ḥinniy “henna”, juwwiy “inside”, ḥiffiy “barefoot (pl.)”, mūsiy “Moses”, ʿīsiy “Jesus”
- Feminine adjective *CaCCāʾ: sawdíy “black”, ṭaršíy “deaf”, tarjíy “sloping downwards (ground)”, šahabíy “grey, light blue”, ḥawwíy “salt-and-pepper, black with white spots (animal)”, zargíy “blue”, ʿawjíy “crooked”, šadfíy “left-handed, left”, ḥawlíy “cross-eyed”, safʿíy “black-eared (goat)”
- Broken plural *CaCCā:[9] nōmiy “asleep (pl.)”, mōtiy ~ máwtiy “dead (pl.)”
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]
Characteristics
The following are some archaic features retained from Proto-Arabic:[2]
- Gender distinction in the 2nd and 3rd person plural pronouns, pronominal suffixes, and finite verbal forms.
- Productivity of Form IV (aC1C2aC3, yiC1C2iC3).
- The initial /a/ in the definite article al- and the relative pronoun alli.
- Frequent and productive use of diminutives (glayyil "a little", ḫbayz "bread").
- Absence of affricated variants of /g/ (< */q/) and /k/.
- The use of the locative preposition fi (fiy).
- The invariable pronominal suffix -ki of the 2nd person feminine singular.
See also
References
Sources
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