North Syrian Arabic

North Syrian Arabic
Native to	Syria
Native speakers	over 5 million
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic South-Central Semitic Arabic North Syrian Arabic
Writing system	not written
Official status
Official language in	none
Regulated by	none
Language codes
ISO 639-3	?

North Syrian Arabic (Arabic: اللهجة السورية الشمالية) is a variety of Arabic spoken in Northern Syria. The dialect is spoken in a region extending from the city of Aleppo westward into the Idlib Governorate. It is a variant of Levantine Arabic.

Features

North Syrian Arabic is similar to general Syrian or North Levantine Arabic with few distinctions in phonology and morphology. Like other dialects of Arabic, North Syrian Arabic exhibits marked regional variation, socioeconomic variation, and community-based variation. For example, the word for "O father" is yāb in Idlib but yōb in Aleppo (yābī in Damascus, yā ʔabī in Classical Arabic). The word for "he defends" is ydāfeʕ in "fancy" Aleppine talk but ydēfeʕ in "popular" talk. The word for "head" is pronounced rās by the Muslims in Aleppo but rˠāsˠ by the Christians. The differences can also be lexical (e.g. "popular Aleppine" ḥakīm vs. "fancy Aleppine" dəktōr for "physician").

One characteristic of North Syrian phonology is the presence of imāla. This has led many western scholars to classify the dialect with the North Mesopotamian dialectical group (the so called qeltu-dialects). This is an example of the superficial knowledge western scholarship generally seems to exhibit when it comes to the study of modern Arabic dialecticology.

Phonology

The phonology of Aleppine Arabic is generally identical to that of Damascene Arabic with few distinctions that are fading today as people are more inclined towards imitating the prevalent dialect of Damascus. These include the following:

Consonants

• ج is realized more as /dʒ/ than /ʒ/ in the classical dialect of Aleppo.
• ق is pronounced /ʔ/ but is more backed than the southern Levantine variant.
• س is pronounced /ʃ/ in a few words (e.g. ʃatˠtˠaḥ vs. Damascene satˠtˠaḥ for "he laid down"). This occurs only in words that are common with Aramaic and is probably part of the Aramaic substratum but not a phonological innovation.
• ش is pronounced /tʃ/ in few words of the old fashioned or "popular" talk.

Vowels

The major difference between Damascus and Aleppo is the presence of the classical Najdi shift of /aː/ to /eː/ (imāla) in Aleppine Arabic. The rules of imāla in Aleppine Arabic are complicated and they are not equally operative in all the varieties. Generally speaking, where the "popular" variety of Aleppine possesses e, the "fancy" variety often tends to have æ. Other contrasts between the two varieties pertain to vowel elision (e.g. "popular" sˠnēdīʔ vs. "fancy" sˠanādīʔ for "boxes").

Example	Damascus	Aleppo
Story	ħkāye	ħkēye
Mirror	mrāye	mrēye
Chicken	jāje	jēje
Mosque	jāmeʕ	jēmeʕ
Tongue	lsān	lsēn
Scale	mīzān	mīzēn
High	ʕālī	ʕēlī
Last	ākher	ēkher
Yesterday	mbārħa	mbērħa
Men	rjāl	rjēl
Mountains	jbāl	jbēl
Ropes	ħbāl	ħbēl
Dogs	klāb	klēb
Days	iyyām	iyyēm
Keys	mafātīħ	mfētīħ
Windows	shabābīk	shbēbīk
Internal	jəwwānī	jəwwēnī
External	barrānī	bərrēnī
Frontal	əddāmī	əddēmī
Posterior	warrānī	wərrēnī
Doing	ʕāmel	ʕēmel
Writing	kāteb	kēteb
Sleeping	nāyem	nēyem
(He) fights	yʔātel	yʔētel
(He) defends	ydāfeʕ	ydēfeʕ
(He) travels	ysāfer	ysēfer
(He) fought	tʔātal	tʔētal
(He) handled	nāwal	nēwal
(He) consulted	shāwar	shēwar
(He) lazed	tkāsal	tkēsal
Fighting	ʔtāl	ʔtēl
Farming	flālħa	flēħa
Swimming	sbāħa	sbēħa

Imāla in North Syrian pronouns:

Example	Palestine/Lebanon	Damascus	Aleppo
Thou (masc.)	inta	ənte	ənte
We	(n)iħnā	nəħnā	nəħnē

Another phonological contrast between Aleppine and Damascene Arabic is the backing of vowels around the gutturals and the letter "r" in Aleppine Arabic. Also, vowels are rounded around "w". The backing effect of the non-guttural emphatics is less important.

Verb conjugation

The only notable difference between Aleppo and Damascus is the first person singular prefix of the imperfective.

Example		Damascus	Aleppo	Rural North Syrian, Idlib
(I) write	indicative	bəktob	baktob	bəktob
	subjunctive	əktob	aktob	əktob
(I) go	indicative	brūħ	barūħ	brūħ
	subjunctive	rūħ	arūħ	rūħ

Interrogative pronouns

• The pronoun shū (what) retains more primitive forms in north Syrian.

Damascus	Aleppo		Rural North Syrian, Idlib
shū	masc.	əsh(shu)	ashu
	fem.	əsh(shi)

Etymology: أيّ شيء هو/هي ؟

• The pronoun ēmta (when) is not used in north Syrian; rather the Aramaic equivalent ēmat is used. North Syrian in general uses more Aramaic vocabulary than elsewhere in Levant.

• The Aramaic pronoun ēna (which) is used in north Syrian instead of ayya.

• The pronoun addēsh (how many/much) often becomes shʔad in North Syrian.

Nominal negation

Negation of nominal sentences in Damascus is by mū, which comes from mā huw(a) and means "not." In Aleppo, mā alone is used (this is also found in the conservative Sudanese Arabic), or one of the following particles:

not	sing. masc.	maw
	sing. fem.	may
	plu.	man

The pronoun "her"

The pronoun her has two alternative forms in Damascus: a & ha. In rural north Syrian, the version ha is never used. In Aleppo, the ha version is used in only one case which is when attached to the preposition ʕalā or to a verb ending with -ā.

Example	Damascus	Aleppo	Rural North Syrian
(He) loved her	ħabha, ħabba	ħabba	ħabba
(He) forgot her	nsīha, nsiyya	nsiyya	nsiyya
(He) saw her	shāfha, shāfa	shāfa	shēfa
(He) forgets her	byənsāha	byənsāha	byənsiyya
On her	ʕalēha	ʕalēha, ʕalayya	ʕalayya

The demonstrative "ecce"

Although share a common etymology, the demonstratives of "here is/are" are different between Aleppo and Damascus.

	Damascus	Aleppo
		Near	Far
Here is/are	lēk	---	---
Here I am	lēknī	---	---
Here he is	lēko	ko(hne)	kohāk(e)
Here she is	lēka	ke(hne)	kehāk(e)
Here we are	lēknā	---	---
Here they are	lēkon	kehnen	kehāken

Etymology: إليك هو هنا/هناك

Grammar

Pronouns

North Syrian pronouns show clear influence from Syriac in addition to the slanting feature.

Subject Pronouns

	Urban	Rural
I	anā	anē
Thou (masc.)	ənte	inti, init
Thou (fem.)	ənti	inti, inte
He	həwwe	huwwi
She	həyye	hiyyi
We	nəħnē	niħnī
You	əntū	intū, intō
They	hənnen	hinnin

Object Pronouns

	Urban	Rural
Me	(n)ī	(n)ī, (n)ē
Thee (masc.)	ak	ak
Thee (fem.)	ek	ik
Him	o	o, u
Her	a	a
Us	nā	nā
You	kon	kun
Them	on	un

Demonstratives

		Near	Far
Singular	masc.	hād(a)	hadāk(e)
	fem.	hay(ye)	hadīk(e)
Plural		hadōl(e)	hadōlīk(e)

Place demonstratives

Near	Far
hōn(e)	h(u)nīk(e)

Interrogative pronouns

what	sing. masc.	əsh(shu)
	sing. fem.	əsh(shi)
	plu.	əsh(nen)
who		mīn
when		ēmat
where		wēn
how		kīf
how much/many		shʔad
which		ēna
why		lēsh

Numbers

	Urban	Rural
One	wāħed	wēħid
Two	tnēn	tnayn
Three	tlāte, tlēte	tlēti
Four	arbʕa	arbʕa
Five	khamse	khamsi
Six	sətte	sitti
Seven	sabʕa	sabʕa
Eight	tmēne	tmēni
Nine	təsʕa	tisʕa
Ten	"ashra	"ashra
Twenty	"əshrīn	"ishrīn
Thirty	tlētīn	tlētīn
Forty	arbʕīn	arbʕīn
Fifty	khamsīn	khamsīn
Sixty	səttīn	sittīn
Seventy	sabʕīn	sabʕīn
Eighty	tmēnīn	tmēnīn
Ninety	təsʕīn	tisʕīn
Hundred	məyye	miyyi

See also

• Levantine Arabic
• Syrian Arabic
• Varieties of Arabic