Gulf Arabic

For other Arabic dialects, see varieties of Arabic.

Gulf Arabic
Native to	Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Iran, UAE & Oman.
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Southern Gulf Arabic
Writing system	Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	afb

Gulf Arabic (also known as Khaliji, خليجي ḫalīǧī [xæˈliːd͡ʒiː] or اللهجة الخليجية al-lahǧah al-ḫaliǧiyyah [ælˈlæhd͡ʒæ l.xæˈliːˌd͡ʒijːæ]) is a variety of the Arabic language of the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family spoken around the shore of the Persian Gulf, in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Iran. These dialects are mutually intelligible at a high level, having very few differences.

Name

The dialect's full name al-lahǧah al-ḫaliǧiyyah (اللهجة الخليجية [ælˈlæhd͡ʒæ l.xæˈliːˌd͡ʒijːæ]) can be translated to "the dialect of the gulf". However, it is most commonly referred to as Khaliji (خليجي [xæˈliːd͡ʒiː]; ḫalīǧī), in which the noun خليج ([xæˈliːd͡ʒ]; ḫalīǧ) has been suffixed with the Nisba, literally meaning "of the bay" or "of the gulf".
There is a possibility that Khaliji could appear as Khaleeji, Khalijy, 5aliji, Khaleedji or differently, respectively. This can be traced back to the fact that Arabic transcription on-line is not normed. See Arabic chat alphabet for further information.

Phonology

Consonants

Gulf Arabic consonants

		Bilabial		Labiodental	Interdental		Dental	Alveolar		Palato- alveolar	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
		plain	pharyngealised		plain	pharyngealised		plain	pharyngealised
Stops	voiced	b	(bˤ)				d̪				g
	voiceless	(p)					t̪		tˤ		k	q		ʔ
Fricatives	voiced				ð	ðˤ	z̪				ɣ		ʕ
	voiceless			f	θ		s̪		sˤ	ʃ	x~χ		ħ	h
Affricates	voiced							d͡ʒ~ʒ
	voiceless							t͡ʃ
Nasals	voiced	m	(mˤ)					n
Laterals	voiced						l		ɫ
Flaps	voiced							ɾ~r	ɾˤ
Approximants	voiced									j	w

• ^1 The non-native Arabic letter Pāʾ (پ), or its native counterpart Bāʾ (ب), is used to denote that sound which occurs only in loan-, resp. foreign words, e.g.: piyāḷah (پيالة or بيالة [pijɑːɫɑh], "small glass"), from Hindi
• ^2 Ḍad (ض) has merged to Ẓāʾ (ظ). For further information, see below.
• ^3 The difference is not orthographically shown.

The differences in the phonology of the Arabic dialect group of the Persian Gulf, compared to Modern Standard Arabic, are following:

Letter	MSA pronunciation	Khaliji varieties	Examples	Notes
ج	[d͡ʒ]	[j] or [d͡ʒ~ʒ]	mōy or mōǧ (موج [moːj] or [moːd͡ʒ], "wave"); masīd, masyid or masǧid (مسجد [mæˈsiːd], [ˈmæsjid] or [ˈmæsd͡ʒid], "mosque")	Changes are optional, although ǧim (ج) never changes to [j] in loanwords.
ق	[q]	[g], optionally [d͡ʒ~ʒ] when followed by front vowels ([æ], [e] or [i]) or following a consonant preceded by a front vowel	ǧiddām or geddām (قدام [d͡ʒiˈdːæːm] or [geˈdːæːm], "in front of"); šarǧī or šargī (شرقي [ˈʃæɾd͡ʒiː] or [ˈʃæɾgiː], "eastern")	Some classicisms preserve the [q] sound. By Persian influence, sometimes the qaf (ق) changes to ġayn (غ) [ɣ].
غ	[ɣ]	[q]	qannā (غنى [ˈqanːaː], "to sing")	This change is extremely rare.
ك	[k]	[t͡ʃ] if preceded or followed by a front vowel or if 2nd person feminine singular suffixed/object pronoun	ʾubūč (أبوك [ʔuˈbuːt͡ʃ]; "your (f.sg.) father")	This change is optional, but encountered with more often when the kaf (ك) is used to denote the 2nd person feminine singular suffixed/object pronoun.
ض	[dˤ]	[ðˤ]	ẓāʿ (ضاع [ðˤɑːʕ], "to lose")	Ẓāʾ (ظ) and Ḍad (ض) cannot be distinguished by pronunciation as the Gulf dialects lack the pharyngealised [d].
ت	[t]	[t̪]	al-Imārāt (الإمارات [l.iˈmɑːɾˤɑːt̪], "the Emirates")	Tāʾ (ت) is realised as a dental, instead of an alveolar.
د	[d]	[d̪]	tidrī (تدري [t̪id̪ɾiː], "you (m./f.sg.) know" or "she knows")	Dal (د) is realised as a dental, instead of an alveolar.
ل	[l]	[ɫ] in dark environment	wiṣal (وصل [wisˤɑɫ], "to arrive")	Occurs mostly around pharyngeal(ised) consonants.

Morphology

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Gulf Arabic has 10 personal pronouns. The conservative dialect has preserved the gender differentiation of the 2nd and 3rd person in the plural forms, whereas dual forms have not survived. Following table bears the generally most common pronouns:

Person		Singular	Plural
1st		ʾānā (آنَا)	niḥin (نِحِنْ)
2nd	masculine	ʾinta (إِنْتَ)	ʾintum (إِنْتُمْ)
	feminine	ʾinti (إِنْتِ)	ʾintin (إِنْتِنْ)
3rd	masculine	huwa (هُوَ)	hum (هُمْ)
	feminine	hiya (هِيَ)	hin (هِنْ)

• ^1 Many speakers do not distinguish between masculine and feminine forms in the second person plural, replacing ʾintum and ʾintin with ʾintu (إنْتُ).
• ^2 Speakers that do not distinguish between masculine and feminine forms in the second person plural will also use hum (هُمْ) for both genders in the third person plural, respectively.

Some pronouns, however, have other (less frequent, resp. local) forms:

• ʾānā (آنَا):

  ʾanā (أَنَا)

  ʾāni (آنِي) (especially Baḥrānī)

• ʾinta (إِنْتَ):

  ʾint (إِنْتْ) (especially Qaṭarī)

  ʾinit (إِنِتْ)

• huwa (هُوَ):

  hū (هُوْ)

  huwwa (هُوَّ) (especially Baḥrānī and Qaṭarī)

  ʾuhu (أُهُو)

• hiya (هِيَ):

  hī (هِيْ)

  hiyya (هِيَّ) (especially Baḥrānī and Qaṭarī)

  ʾihi (إِهِي)

• niḥin (نِحِنْ):

  ḥinna (حِنَّ) (especially Qaṭarī)

  niḥna (نِحْنَ)

  ʾiḥna (إِحْنَا) (especially Baḥrānī and Qatarī)

• ʾintum (إِنْتُمْ):

  ʾintu (إنْتُ)

• hum (هُمْ):

  humma (هُمَّ) (especially Baḥrānī)

  ʾuhum (أُهُمْ)

See also

• Varieties of Arabic
• Arabic language