Levantine Arabic
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| Levantine Arabic | ||
|---|---|---|
| لهجات شامية | ||
| Spoken in | Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Cyprus | |
| Total speakers | 35,000,000 | |
| Language family | Afro-Asiatic
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| Writing system | Arabic alphabet | |
| Official status | ||
| Official language in | none | |
| Regulated by | none | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | None | |
| ISO 639-2 | – | |
| ISO 639-3 | either: apc – North Levantine Arabic ajp – South Levantine Arabic |
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| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Levantine Arabic (Arabic: شامي[citation needed] (Shami) and sometimes called Eastern Arabic) is a group of Arabic varieties spoken in the 100 km-wide eastern-Mediterranean coastal strip known as the Levant, i.e. in western Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Palestine, Israel, and western Jordan. This corresponds to the western wing of the Fertile Crescent, which clearly appears green on satellite photos.
To the East, in the Desert, the North Arabian Beduinic dialects are found. In the North, between Aleppo and the Euphrates valley, there may be a transition zone towards North Mesopotamian qeltu dialects (to be confirmed, since the Raqqah dialect in the Syrian Euphrates valley still seems to be quite close to South Iraqi and Beduinic dialects.)
Levantine Arabic can be divided into two major branches:
- North Levantine (Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus)
- South Levantine (Palestine, Israel, and Jordan)
South Levantine shows closer relationship with Egyptian Arabic (derived primarily from classical Yemeni Arabic), whereas North Levantine, though also rooted in classical Yemeni Arabic, shows more relations with classical Najdi Arabic. Northern Levantine can be sub-divided into the following branches:
- North Syrian (Aleppo)
- West (coastal) Syrian (Latakia to Tripoli)
- Central Syrian (Hama to Damascus)
- Lebanese (Mount Lebanon and Beirut)
- Cypriot Maronite Arabic (Cyprus)
The main difference between these three branches is the product of the standard long A vowel. It is predominantly /eː/ in North Syrian (Najdi shift), /oː/ in West Syrian (Canaanite shift), and /aː/ in Central Syrian.
There is a clear urban vs. rural contrast with regard to vowels in North Levantine. Rural dialects preserve the vowels and diphthongs of Classical Arabic unchanged; whereas urban dialects use vowels similar to those of the other modern varieties of Arabic.
South Levantine can be sub-divided as follows:
- Urban Palestinian (South Lebanon, Haifa, Nablus, Jaffa, Nazareth, Hebron, Jerusalem, ...)
- Rural Palestinian (Israel down to Bethlehem), west Jordan.
- Bedouin Palestinian dialects in the southern Margins (Israel, Jordan)
South Levantine sub-dialects differ in the following:
- Product of /aː/ (/eː/ common in Lebanese)
- Products of short vowles (classical short vowles predominantly preserved in Lebanese and Urban Palestinian)
- Products of classical diphthongs (/aj/ and /aw/ preserved in Lebanese)
- Realizations of the feminine ending -ah (-ih/-eh in Lebanese and Urban Palestinian)
- Realizations of ﻙ /k/, ﻕ /q/, and ﺝ /dʒ/.
- Conservation of interdentals ﺙ /θ/, ﺫ /ð/, and ﻅ /ðˁ/;
- Vocalism and consonnatism of suffix pronouns -at, -kum and -kunna
- The form of independent pronouns, huwa, hiya, hum and hunna
Differences between North and South Levantine:
- The use of ش /ʃ/ for negation (in South Levantine)
- The vowel following the second radical in verbal forms (often a in South Levantine)
- The common form of the active praticiple (faʕlaːn common in North Levantine)
- The realization of ق /ʔ/ (more pharyngealized in North Levantine)[1]
The table below shows how the variants are distributed.
| Dialect | /aː/ | /aj/ | /aw/ | /k/ | /q/ | /dʒ/ | /θ/ | /ð/ | /ðˁ/ | -ah | -kum | -kunna | hum | hunna | Not | We can | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Syrian | urban | /eː/, /æː/, /oː/ | /eː/ | /oː/ | /k/ | /ʔ/ | /dʒ/ | /t/ | /d/ | /dˁ/ | -e | -kon | -kon | hennen | hennen | mæː | nəʔder |
| rural | /eː/, /oː/ | /aj/ | /aw/ | /k/ | /ʔ/, /q/ | /dʒ/ | /t/ | /d/ | /dˁ/ | -i | -kun | -kun | hinni(n) | hinni(n) | mæː | niʔdir | |
| West Syrian | urban | /oː/, /aː/, /eː/ | /eː/ | /oː/ | /k/ | /ʔ/ | /ʒ/ | /t/ | /d/ | /dˁ/ | -e | -kon | -kon | henne(n) | henne(n) | moː, muː | nəʔdor |
| rural | /oː/, /eː/ | /aj/ | /aw/ | /k/ | /q/ | /ʒ/ | /t/ | /d/ | /dˁ/ | -i | -kun | -kun | hinni(n) | hinni(n) | moː, muː | niʔdur | |
| Central Syrian | urban | /aː/ | /eː/ | /oː/ | /k/ | /ʔ/ | /ʒ/ | /t/ | /d/ | /dˁ/ | -e | -kon | -kon | henne(n) | henne(n) | muː | nəʔder |
| rural | /aː/, /eː/ word-terminally | /aj/ | /aw/ | /k/ | /ʔ/, /q/ | /ʒ/ | /t/ | /d/ | /dˁ/ | -i | -kun | -kun | hinni(n), hinnon | hinni(n), hinnon | muː | niʔdir | |
| Lebanese | /eː/, /aː/ | /aj/ | /aw/ | /k/ | /ʔ/, /q/ | /ʒ/, | /t/ | /d/ | /dˁ/ | -i | -kun | -kun | hinni | hinni | miʃ, muʃ, -ʃ suffix | neʔdar, neʔdir | |
| Palestinian | urban | /æː/ | /eː/ | /oː/ | /k/ | /ʔ/ | /ʒ/ | /t/ | /d/ | /dˁ/ | -e, -i | -kom, -kum | -kom, -kum | homme, hommi | homme, hommi | miʃ, muʃ, -ʃ suffix | niʔdar |
| rural | /aː/ | /eː/ | /oː/ | /tʃ/ | /kˁ/ | /dʒ/ | /θ/ | /ð/ | /ðˁ/ | -e, -a | -kem | -ken | hemme | henne | miʃ, muʃ, -ʃ suffix | nikˁdar | |
| bedouin | /aː/ | /eː/ | /oː/ | /tʃ/ | /ɡ/ | /dʒ/ | /θ/ | /ð/ | /ðˁ/ | -a | -kom | -ken | homme | henne | miʃ, muʃ, -ʃ suffix | nigdar | |
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