Egyptian Arabic (Maṣrī مصري) is part of the Arabic macrolanguage of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. It originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt around the capital Cairo. Descended from the spoken Arabic brought to Egypt during the AD seventh-century Muslim conquest, its development was influenced mainly by the indigenous Copto-Egyptian language of pre-Islamic Egypt,^[1][2][3] and later by other languages such as Turkish. Today Egyptian Arabic is the national language of Egypt, spoken by more than 76 million people. It is also understood across the Middle East due to the predominance of Egyptian media, making it one of the most widely spoken and most widely studied varieties of Arabic. Not to be confused with the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a language family with about 375 languages (SIL estimate) and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia (including some 200 million speakers of Arabic). ... 14th century BC diplomatic letter in Akkadian, found in Tell Amarna. ... 14th century BC diplomatic letter in Akkadian, found in Tell Amarna. ... 12th century Hebrew Bible script The Semitic languages are a family of languages spoken by more than 250 million people across much of the Middle East, where they originated, and North and East Africa. ... Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ... Writing systems of the world today. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing Arabic and various other languages, together with various closely related scripts that typically differ in the presence or absence of a few letters. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... Not to be confused with the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... This chart shows concisely the most common way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is applied to represent the English language. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... 14th century BC diplomatic letter in Akkadian, found in Tell Amarna. ... The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a language family with about 375 languages (SIL estimate) and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia (including some 200 million speakers of Arabic). ... NASA satellite photograph of the Nile Delta (shown in false colour) The Nile Delta (Arabic:دلتا النيل) is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. ... Nickname: Al Qahirah (The Triumphant City) Egypt: Site of Cairo (top center) Coordinates: Government  - Governor Dr. Abdul Azim Wazir Area  - City 210 km²  (81. ... Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ... Combatants Byzantine Empire Muslim Arabs (Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates) At the commencement of the Muslim conquest of Egypt, Egypt was part of the Byzantine Empire with its capital in Constantinople. ... Coptic is the most recent phase of ancient Egyptian. ... Written records of the ancient Egyptian language have been dated from about 3200 BC. Egyptian is part of the Afro-Asiatic group of languages and is related to Berber and Semitic (languages such as Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya and Hebrew). ... ↔--71. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... The Arabic language is classified as a Semitic language. ...

The terms Egyptian Arabic and Masri are usually used synonymously with "Cairene Arabic", the dialect of the Egyptian capital. Like the country's native name, Cairo is also referred to locally as Maṣr (i.e., Egypt). Similar to the role played by Parisian French and Castillian, Masri is by far the most dominant in all areas of national life. While it is mainly spoken, it is written in novels, plays, poems (vernacular literature) as well as in comics, advertising, some newspapers and transcriptions of popular songs. In most other written media and in TV news reporting, a standard register of Classical Arabic is used. The Egyptian vernacular is normally written in the Arabic alphabet for local consumption, although it is commonly transcribed into Latin letters in textbooks aimed at teaching non-native learners. This article is about the international language known as Spanish. ... Vernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular - the speech of the common people. ... Modern Standard Arabic is the form of Arabic currently used in Arabic books, newspapers and nearly all written media. ... Look up Vernacular in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing Arabic and various other languages, together with various closely related scripts that typically differ in the presence or absence of a few letters. ...

Geographic distribution

Egyptian Arabic is spoken by more than 77 million Egyptians in Egypt as well as by immigrant Egyptian communities in the Middle East, Europe and North America. Among the spoken varieties of Arabic, Egyptian is the only one to have become a lingua franca in other parts of the Arabic-speaking world for two main reasons: the proliferation and popularity of Egyptian films and other media in the region since the early 20th century; and the great number of Egyptian teachers and professors who were instrumental in setting up the education systems of various countries in the Arabian Peninsula and who also taught there. A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... This article is 150 kilobytes or more in size. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... The Arabic language is classified as a Semitic language. ... Lingua franca, literally Frankish language in Italian, was originally a mixed language consisting largely of Italian plus a vocabulary drawn from Turkish, Persian, French, Greek and Arabic and used for communication throughout the Middle East. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... The Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula (in Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية, or جزيرة العرب) is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia consisting mainly of desert. ...

In Yemen, for example, non-Yemenite Arabic speakers are often automatically seen as "Egyptians", and many Yemenites have adapted their everyday speech to Egyptian Arabic by borrowing Egyptian words (such as kuwayyis 'well, good') and occasionally Egyptian morphology. The same is true to varying degrees in Sudan, the Levant (particularly Palestine) and in Libya. This trend may now be shifting with the recent ascendancy of Lebanese media in the region, though many Lebanese artists choose to sing in Egyptian as well as Lebanese. The Levant The Levant (IPA: /ləvænt/) is an imprecise geographical term historically referring to a large area in the Middle East south of the Taurus Mountains, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and by the northern Arabian Desert and Upper Mesopotamia to the east. ... The Holy Land or Palestine Showing not only the Old Kingdoms of Judea and Israel but also the 12 Tribes Distinctly, and Confirming Even the Diversity of the Locations of their Ancient Positions and Doing So as the Holy Scriptures Indicate, a geographic map from the studio of Tobiae Conradi...

History

The Egyptians slowly adopted the Arabic language following the Arab-Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century AD. Up till then, they were speaking Egyptian in its Coptic form. For more than three centuries, there existed a period of Coptic-Arabic bilingualism in Lower Egypt. This trend would last for many more centuries in the south. Arabic may have been already familiar to Egyptians through pre-Islamic trade with Bedouin Arab tribes in the Sinai and the easternmost part of the Nile Delta. Egyptian Arabic seems to have begun taking shape in Fustat, the first Islamic capital of Egypt, and now part of modern-day Cairo. The variety of Arabic spoken by the Muslim military troops stationed in Fustat was already different from Classical Arabic, which in part accounts for some of the unique characteristics of the Egyptian dialect. Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ... The 7th century is the period from 601 - 700 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ... Coptic is the most recent phase of ancient Egyptian. ... A Bedouin man resting on a hillside at Mount Sinai Bedouin, derived from the Arabic ( ‎), a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic pastoralist groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via... NASA satellite photograph of the Nile Delta (shown in false colour) The Nile Delta (Arabic:دلتا النيل) is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. ... Fostat (also spelled Fustat; Arabic: ) was the first capital city of Egypt under Arab rule. ... Nickname: Al Qahirah (The Triumphant City) Egypt: Site of Cairo (top center) Coordinates: Government  - Governor Dr. Abdul Azim Wazir Area  - City 210 km²  (81. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

One of the earliest linguistic sketches of Egyptian Arabic is a 16th century document entitled Dafʻ al-ʼiṣr ʻan kalām ʼahl Miṣr ('The Removal of the Burden from the Language of the People of Egypt') by Yūsuf al-Maġribi. It contains key information on early Egyptian Arabic and the language situation in medieval Egypt. The main purpose of the document was to show that while the Egyptians' vernacular contained many critical "errors" vis-à-vis Classical Arabic, according to Maġribi, it was also related to Arabic in other respects. With the ongoing Islamization and Arabization of the country, Egyptian Arabic slowly supplanted spoken Egyptian. Local chroniclers mention the continued use of Coptic Egyptian as a spoken language until the 17th century AD by peasant women in Upper Egypt. Coptic is still the liturgical language of the Egyptian Coptic Church. (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... Islamization (also spelt Islamisation, see spelling differences) or Islamification means the process of a societys conversion to the religion of Islam, or a neologism meaning an increase in observance by an already Muslim society. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... A sacred language is a language, frequently a dead language, that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life. ... Christ - Coptic Art Coptic Orthodox Christianity is the indigenous form of Christianity that, according to tradition, the apostle Mark established in Egypt in the middle of the 1st century AD (approximately AD 60). ...

Official status

In the 20th century, Egyptian Arabic was regarded as the national language of Egypt, though to date it is not officially recognized. Standard Arabic, a modernized form of Classical Arabic, is the official language of Egypt (see diglossia.) Interest in the local vernacular began in the 19th century as the Egyptian national movement for independence was taking shape. Questions about the reform and modernization of Arabic came to fore, and for many decades to follow they were hotly debated in Egyptian intellectual circles. Proposals ranged from developing neologisms to replace archaic terminology in Standard Arabic; to the simplification of syntactical and morphological rules and the introduction of colloquialisms; to complete 'Egyptianization' (tamṣīr) by abandoning Arabic in favor of Masri or Egyptian Arabic. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... Modern Standard Arabic is the dialect of Arabic used in almost all writing and in formal spoken contexts. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... In linguistics, diglossia is a situation where, in a given society, there are two (often) closely-related languages, one of high prestige, which is generally used by the government and in formal texts, and one of low prestige, which is usually the spoken vernacular tongue. ... Look up Vernacular in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ... A neologism (Greek νεολογισμός [neologismos], from νέος [neos] new + λόγος [logos] word, speech, discourse + suffix -ισμός [-ismos] -ism) is a word, term, or phrase which has been recently created (coined) — often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts, or to make older terminology sound more contemporary. ... Modern Standard Arabic is the dialect of Arabic used in almost all writing and in formal spoken contexts. ... A colloquialism is an expression not used in formal speech or writing. ...

Proponents of language reform in Egypt included Qasim Amin, who also wrote the first Egyptian feminist treatise, former president of the Egyptian University, Ahmad Lutfy el-Sayyed, and noted intellectual Salama Moussa. They adopted a modernist, secular approach and disagreed with the Islamic assumption that Arabic was an immutable language because of its association with the Qur'an. For a while, Egyptian Arabic enjoyed a period of rich literary output until the movement was halted with the continuing rise of Islamism and Arab nationalism in Egypt and the Middle East, particularly with Nasser's assumption of power in 1954. The first modern Egyptian novel to be written in the vernacular was Muhammad Husayn Haykal's Zaynab in 1913. Other notable novelists such as Ihsan Abdel Quddous and Yusuf Idris, and poets such as Abnudi and Ahmed Fu'ad Negm (Fagumi), helped solidify vernacular literature as a distinct literary genre. Qasim Amin (1863-1908) was an Egyptian jurist, one of the founders of the Egyptian National Movement and Cairo University. ... Cairo University the biggest in Africa ] Cairo University (formerly Egyptian University) is an institute of higher education located in Giza, Egypt. ... Salama Moussa (Arabic: سلامه موسى ) (1887 - 1958) was a famous writer and thinker of the Arab world. ... This article concerns secularity, that is, being secular, in various senses. ... The Qurān [1] (Arabic: ‎, literally the recitation; also called ‎ The Noble Qurān; also transliterated as Quran, Koran, and Al-Quran) is the central religious text of Islam. ... Political Ideologies Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      This article is about political Islamism. ... Arab nationalism refers to a common nationalist ideology in wider Arab world. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... Gamal Abdel Nasser (Arabic: جمال عبد الناصر) Gamal Abdel Nasser (January 15, 1918 - September 28, 1970) was the second President of Egypt after Muhammad Naguib and is considered one of the most important Arab leaders in history. ... Muhammad Husayn Haykal (Arabic: ) ) was an Egyptian writer, journalist, politician and a former minister of Education in Egypt. ... Husayn Haykals Zaynab is the first modern Egyptian novel published in 1914. ... Yusuf Idris (Arabic: يوسف ادريس Transliteration: YÅ«suf IdrÄ«s ) (1927 - 1991) was an Egyptian writer of plays, short stories, and novels. ... Abd al-Rahman Abnudi (b. ...

Nasser undertook an Arabization campaign in Egypt's education system and government administration, which stoutly relegated Egyptian Arabic. In the last fifty years, educated Egyptian as a result became heavily influenced by Standard Arabic. Following Nasser's death, interest in the Egyptian dialect was rekindled by vernacular authors, and calls for making Egyptian Arabic an official language and the language of education reappeared. In the 21st century, the Liberal Egyptian Party was founded by a group of secular activists promoting political reform in Egypt, and calling for the official recognition of both Egyptian Arabic and indigenous Egyptian ('the languages of Egypt'). Some of its views continue to be a source of controversy among Egyptians, particularly with religious establishments such as Al-Azhar and the currently banned Muslim Brotherhood. The 21st century is the present century of the Anno Domini (common) era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... Liberal Egyptian Party (Arabic: الحزب المصري الليبرالي) is a grassroots movement and a secular political party in Egypt. ... Al-Azhar Islamic university in Cairo Egypt Al-Azhar University is connected to the mosque in Cairo named to honor Fatima Az-Zahraa, the daughter of Muhammad, from whom the Fatimid Dynasty claimed descent. ... The Muslim Brotherhood or The Muslim Brothers (Arabic: الإخوان المسلمون al-ikhwān al-muslimūn, full title The Society of the Muslim Brothers, often simply الإخوان al-ikhwān, the Brotherhood) is a world-wide Sunni Islamist movement, which has spawned several religious and political organizations in the Middle East, dedicated to...

"Language" vs. "dialect"

As the status of Egyptian Arabic vis-à-vis Classical Arabic (the language of the Qur'an) has political and religious implications in Egypt, many Egyptians consider Egyptian Arabic "only" a dialect. But even though Egyptian Arabic is descended from the Arabic language of the early Islamic Empire, some students of Arabic and linguists may find Egyptian Arabic sufficiently different to be considered an independent language (see Dialect: "Dialect" or "language" and Ethnologue's language identifiers). To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Qurān [1] (Arabic: ‎, literally the recitation; also called ‎ The Noble Qurān; also transliterated as Quran, Koran, and Al-Quran) is the central religious text of Islam. ... Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ... Template:Islamic Empire infobox The Ottoman Empire (1299 - 29 October 1923) (Ottoman Turkish: Devlet-i Aliye-yi Osmaniyye; literally, The Sublime Ottoman State, modern Turkish: Osmanlı Ä°mparatorluÄŸu), is also known in the West as the Turkish Empire. ... The following is a list of linguists, those who study linguistics. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language characteristic of a particular group of the languages speakers. ...

To be sure, Classical/Standard Arabic tends to be more conservative in its vocabulary and grammar, while Egyptian Arabic has been more open to influence by other languages, including Egyptian/Coptic (in the main), Greek, Turkish, Persian, Italian and French. There are, however, words peculiar to the Egyptian dialect, as opposed to other varieties of Arabic, that are still ultimately derived from Arabic. Coptic is the most recent phase of ancient Egyptian. ... Persian (Local names: فارسی Fârsi or پارسی Pârsi)* is an Indo-European language spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan as well as by minorities in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, India, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Southern Russia, neighboring countries, and elsewhere. ... The Arabic language is classified as a Semitic language. ...

Examples of loanwords: A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ...

• Egyptian/Coptic: ادي /ɪdi/ "give"
• Italian: جمبري /gam'bari/ "shrimp" (IT gamberi)
• Greek: برتقان /burtu'ʔaan/ "orange" (GK πορτοκαλί)
• Turkish: أوضة /'ʔooḍɑ/ "room" (TK oda)
• French: چیبة /'ʒiiba/ "skirt" (FR jupe)
• English: يفاول - فاول /'faawil/ - /yi'faawil/ "to foul (in football)"

Dialects

The Egyptian variants spoken in central and southern Egypt, referred to collectively as Sa'idi (Upper Egyptian), are mainly descended from the northern Egyptian dialect but are distinct from the Cairene sociolect in their phonology due to early contacts with Bedouin Arab dialects. They carry little prestige nationally though continue to be widely spoken, including in the north by rural migrants who have adapted partially to Lower Egyptian dialect. For example, the Sa'idi genitive exponent is usually replaced with Lower Egyptian bitāʕ, but the realization of /q/ as /g/ is retained. Second and third-generation southern Egyptian migrants are monolingual in Cairene Arabic, but maintain cultural and familial ties to the south. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In linguistics, a sociolect is the language spoken by a social group, social class or subculture. ... A Bedouin man resting on a hillside at Mount Sinai Bedouin, derived from the Arabic ( ‎), a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic pastoralist groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via... Monoglottism (Greek monos, alone, solitary, + glotta, tongue, language) is the condition of being able to speak only a single language. ...

The traditional division between Lower and Upper Egypt and their respective dialectal differences go back to ancient times. Egyptians today commonly refer to the people of the north as baḥarwa and to those of the south as ṣaʻayda. The dialectal differences throughout Egypt, however, are more wide ranging and do not neatly correspond to this simple division. There is a linguistic shift from the eastern to the western parts of the delta, and the dialects spoken from Gizah to el Minya are further grouped into a Middle Egypt cluster. Despite these differences, there are features distinguishing all Egyptian Arabic dialects from any other Arabic language, including the postposition of demonstratives and interrogatives, the modal meaning of the imperfect, and the integration of the participle. Map of Upper and Lower Egypt Ancient Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, known as Upper and Lower Egypt. ... NASA satellite photograph of the Nile Delta (shown in false colour) The Nile Delta (Arabic:دلتا النيل) is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. ... Giza (Arabic, الجيزة, transliterated al-ǧīzah; pronounced in Egyptian Arabic dialect of Cairo al-Gīza; also sometimes rendered in English as Gizeh, Ghizeh, or Geezeh) is a town in Egypt on the left bank of the Nile river, across from the... Al Minya (Arabic: محافظة المنيا ) is one of the governorates of Upper Egypt. ...

The dialect of western Alexandria is different from all other forms of Egyptian, as linguistically it forms part of the Maghrebi group of dialects. The same was formerly true of the Egyptian form of Judaeo-Arabic. ---- Alexandria (Greek: , Coptic: , Arabic: , Egyptian Arabic: Iskindireyya), (population of 3. ... Maghrebi Arabic is a cover term for the dialects of Arabic spoken in the Maghreb, including Western Sahara, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya. ... The Arabic language is classified as a Semitic language. ... The Judeo-Arabic languages are a collection of Arabic dialects spoken by Jews living or formerly living in Arabic-speaking countries; the term also refers to more or less classical Arabic written in the Hebrew script, particularly in the Middle Ages. ...

Phonology

Vowels

The Egyptian Arabic vocalic system has changed relatively little from the Classical system:

4 short vowels: /a/, /i/, /u/ and /ɑ/

6 long vowels: /aː/, /iː/, /uː/, /ɑː/, /eː/ and /oː/ from the former Classical diphthongs */ai/ and */au/

Where Egyptian Arabic differs considerably is in vowel reduction due to changes in syllable shape. The distinction between short and long vowels is still phonemic, but only stressed vowels can remain long. Unstressed long vowels are shortened, and stressed short vowels lengthened.

Long vowels in closed syllables are reduced to their short version:

• /ʔaːl/ "he said" + -/li/ "to me" (*/ʔaːlli/) > /ʔalli/ "he said to me"

Short vowels (especially /i/ and /u/), if unstressed in certain situations, are reduced to nothing (i.e. epenthesis): In poetry and phonetics, epenthesis (, from Greek epi on + en in + thesis putting) is the insertion of a consonant, a vowel, or a whole syllable into a word, usually to facilitate pronunciation. ...

• /fiː/ "in" + /kiˈtaːb/ "a book" > /fi-ktaːb/ "in a book"

Both of these tendencies can work simultaneously:

• /ˈsˁɑːħib/ (friend m.) + -/a/ "fem." (*/ˈsˁɑːħiba/) > /ˈsˁɑħbɑ/ (compare with Classical Arabic */sˁɑːħiba/)

Consonants

• The Classical Arabic (CA) letter jīm ج (/dʒ/) denotes /g/ in most Lower Egyptian (i.e. northern) dialects, including the dominant Cairene dialect: e.g. /gabal/ for /dʒabal/ (mountain), /gamiːl/ for /dʒamiːl/ (beautiful), and so forth. To speakers of other varieties of Arabic, the pronunciation of this one sound is considered the quintessential marker of Egyptian Arabic. However, this pronuncation also occurs in certain varieties of Yemeni Arabic, namely the Yafi'i and Adeni dialects. The sound is also attested in ancient Egyptian and is thought to have been the original proto-Semitic pronunciation of the sound - e.g. corresponding to the letter gimel in Hebrew and Aramaic. Some therefore consider the sound in Egyptian Arabic to be a direct retention from ancient Egyptian or proto-Semitic, or it may be a secondary development from a palatal or palatalized /g/ ([ɟ] or [gʲ]), which is the Sa'idi pronunciation of the consonant south of Cairo in the Sa'id, or Upper Egypt.
• The letter qāf ق (CA /q/ denotes a glottal stop /ʔ/ in Cairo and the eastern Delta. However, it denotes /q/ in the western Delta outside of Alexandria, and /g/ in Upper Egypt (the Sa'id), i.e. the consonant /g/ is represented by two separate original Arabic letters in Cairene and Sa'idi Arabic.
• The letter θāʔ ث (CA /θ/) denotes either /t/ in ordinary words (e.g. tāni "second") or /s/ in classicisms (e.g. sanawiyya "secondary (school)")
• The letter ðāl ذ (CA /ð/) denotes /d/ in ordinary words (e.g. danab "tail") or /z/ in classicisms (e.g. /ʔizaːʕa/ "broadcasting")
• The letter ð̣āʔ ظ (CA emphatic /ðˤ/) denotes /dˤ/ in ordinary words (e.g. ḍuhr "noon" ) or /zˤ/ in classicisms (e.g. ẓāhira "phenomenon")
• Egyptian Arabic maintains in all positions the early post-Classical distinctions between short /i/ and /u/ which become ktāb, jmāl, and xtār in several other dialects.:
  • kitāb "book"
  • gumāl "beautiful" (pl.) versus gimāl "camels"
  • ʔixtār "he chose", which is actually a contextual realization and the i may not phonemically be part of the word.

The Arabic language is classified as a Semitic language. ... Yemeni Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken in Yemen. ... Port of Aden (around 1910). ... 14th century BC diplomatic letter in Akkadian, found in Tell Amarna. ... Gimel is a commune in Switzerland of the canton of Vaud, located in the district of Aubonne. ... “Hebrew” redirects here. ... Aramaic is a group of Semitic languages with a 3,000-year history. ... Map of Upper and Lower Egypt Ancient Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, known as Upper and Lower Egypt. ... The glottal stop or voiceless glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. ... NASA satellite photograph of the Nile Delta (shown in false colour) The Nile Delta (Arabic:دلتا النيل) is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. ... ---- Alexandria (Greek: , Coptic: , Arabic: , Egyptian Arabic: Iskindireyya), (population of 3. ...

Syntax

Negation

One characteristic of Egyptian syntax in which it differs from many other Arabic dialects is in the double negation of verbs: /ma-...-ʃ(i)/

• Past: /katab/ "he wrote" /ma-katab-ʃ(i)/ "he didn't write"
• Present: /ji-ktib/ "he writes" /ma-ji-ktib-ʃ(i)/ "he doesn't write"

This double negation is similar to French.

(Exception: Future: /ħa-ji-ktib/ "he will write" /miʃ ħa-ji-ktib/ "he won't write")

The double negation surrounds the entire verbal composite including direct and indirect objects:

• /ma-katab-hum-liː-ʃ/ "'he didn't write them to me"

Coptic substratum

Egyptian Arabic appears to have retained a significant Coptic substratum in its lexicon, phonology, and syntax. Coptic was the latest stage of the indigenous Egyptian language spoken until the arrival of Arabic with Islam in the AD 7th century. Some features that Egyptian Arabic shares with the original ancient Egyptian language include certain prefix and suffix verbal conjugations, certain emphatic and glottalized consonants, as well as a large number of biliteral and triliteral lexical correspondences. Coptic is the most recent phase of ancient Egyptian. ... In linguistics, a substratum (lat. ... Look up lexicon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Phonology (Greek phonÄ“ = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). ... For other uses, see Syntax (disambiguation). ... Written records of the ancient Egyptian language have been dated from about 3200 BC. Egyptian is part of the Afro-Asiatic group of languages and is related to Berber and Semitic (languages such as Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya and Hebrew). ... Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ... Islam (Arabic:  ) is a monotheistic religion based upon the teachings of Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure. ...

Two syntactic features that are particular to Egyptian Arabic (inherited from Coptic) are postposed demonstratives as discoverd and described by the Egyptian linguist and researcher Bayoumi Andil in his book ( the current status of culture in Egypt)(i.e. "this" and "that" are placed after the noun) and in-situ wh words (i.e. "who", "when", "why" remain in their "logical" positions in a sentence rather than being preposed, or moved to the front of the sentence, as in Standard Arabic and English). Examples of the former: ʔir-rɑɑgil da "this man" (lit. "the man this"; in Standard Arabic haaðaa-r-rajul) and ʔil-bintⁱ di "this girl" (lit. "the girl this"; in Standard Arabic haaðihi-l-bint).

Examples of in-situ wh words:

• rɑɑħ mɑṣrⁱ ʔimta ? (راح مصر إمتى؟) "When (ʔimta) did he go to Egypt/Cairo?" (lit. "He went to Egypt/Cairo when?")
• rɑɑħ mɑṣrⁱ leeh ? (راح مصر ليه؟) "Why (leeh) did he go to Egypt/Cairo? (lit. "He went to Egypt/Cairo why?")
• miin [ʔilli] rɑɑħ mɑṣr ? (مين [اللي] راح مصر؟) "Who (miin) went to Egypt/Cairo? (literally - same order)

The same sentences in Standard Arabic (with all wh words in the beginning of the sentence) would be: Modern Standard Arabic is the dialect of Arabic used in almost all writing and in formal spoken contexts. ...

• mata ðahaba ʔila miṣr ?
• limaaða ðahaba ʔila miṣr ?
• man ðahaba ʔila miṣr ?

Text example

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Eleanor Roosevelt with the Spanish version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. ...

Egyptian (Arabic script):

الإعلان العالمي لحقوق الإنسان، المادة الأولانية

البني أدمين كلهم مولودين حرين ومتساويين في الكرامة والحقوق. إتوهبلهم العقل والضمير، والمفروض يعاملوا بعض بروح الأخوية.

Egyptian (phonetic transcription):

ʔil-madda ʔil-ʔawwalaniyya

ʔil-baniʔadmiin kulluhum mawluudiin ħurriin wi mitsawwyiin fil-kɑrɑɑmɑ wil-ħuʔuuʔ. ʔitwahab-luhum ʔil-ʕɑʔl wiḍ-ḍɑmiir wil-mɑfruuḍ yiʕamlu bɑʕḍ bi-ruuħ ʔil-ʔuxuwiyya.

English: The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in the spirit of brotherhood.

Characteristic words and sentences in Egyptian Arabic

• إزيك - ʔizzayyak? ("How are you [m.]")
• إزيك - ʔizzayyik? ("How are you [f.]")
• إزيكو - ʔizzayyuku? ("How are you [pl.]")
• إيه ده - ʔeeh da? ("What's all this?", "What's the point", "What's this?" - expression of annoyance)
  • Ex.: (ʔinta) bitʔulluhum ʕalayya kida leeh, ʔeeh da? "Why are you telling them such things about me, what's all this?"
• خلاص - xɑlɑɑṣ: several meanings, often adverbial
  • "Stop it!" Ex.: zihiʔt, xɑlɑɑṣ! "I'm annoyed, stop it!"
  • "It's over!", "finally, eventually" Ex.: ʔummi kaanit ʕayyaana wi-maatit, xɑlɑɑṣ. "My mother was ill and died finally." [or "...and it's over now."]
  • "Ok, then!" Ex.: "خلاص، أشوفك بكرة" "xɑlɑɑṣ, ʔaʃuufak bukrɑ" meaning "I'll see you tomorrow then"
• خالص - xɑɑliṣ "at all"
  • maʕandinaʃ ħaaga nakulha xɑɑliṣ "We have nothing at all to eat."
• كفاية - kifaaya! ("It's enough!" or "That's enough")
• يعني - yaʕni ("that's to say" or "meaning" or "y'know")
  • As answer to إنت عامل إيه؟ ʔinta ʕaamil ʔeeh? ("How do you do [m.]?") (as an answer: "I am so so" or "half half" = "not perfect"): يعني إيه؟ yaʕni ʔeeh? ("What does that mean?")
    إمتى هتخلص يعني؟** ʔimta hatxɑllɑṣ yaʕni? ("When are you finishing exactly, then?)
• بقى - baʔa (particle of enforcement --> "just" in imperative clauses and "well,...then?" in questions)
  • .هاته بقى haatu baʔa! "Just give it to me!"
    عمل إيه بقى؟ ʕamal ʔeeh baʔa? "Well, what did he do then?"

See also

• Arabic language
• Varieties of Arabic
• Egyptian language
• Coptic language
• Egypt
• Futuh or early Muslim military expansions
• Egyptian Arabic Swadesh list
• Liberal Egyptian Party
• UCLA Language Materials Project

Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ... The Arabic language is classified as a Semitic language. ... Written records of the ancient Egyptian language have been dated from about 3200 BC. Egyptian is part of the Afro-Asiatic group of languages and is related to Berber and Semitic (languages such as Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya and Hebrew). ... Coptic is the most recent phase of ancient Egyptian. ... Futūh (Arabic script فتوح, singular fath فتح) is an Arabic word with the literal meaning of openings. When appearing in classical Islamic literature it signifies the early Arab-Muslim conquests which facilitated the spread of Islam and Islamic civilization. ... Liberal Egyptian Party (Arabic: الحزب المصري الليبرالي) is a grassroots movement and a secular political party in Egypt. ... The UCLA Language Materials Project (LMP) http://www. ...

Notes

References

• Abdel-Massih, Ernest T.; A. Fathy Bahig (1978). Comprehensive Study of Egyptian Arabic: Conversation Texts, Folk Literature, Cultural Ethnological and Socio Linguistic Notes. Ann Arbor: Univ of Michigan. ISBN 0-932098-11-8. 
• Haeri, Niloofar (2003). Sacred Language, Ordinary People: Dilemmas of Culture and Politics in Egypt. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-23897-5. 
• Hinds, Martin; El-Said Badawi (1987). A Dictionary of Egyptian Arabic. French & European Pubns. ISBN 0-8288-0434-6. 
• Presse, Karl G.; Katrine Blanford, Elisabeth A. Moestrup, Iman El-Shoubary (2000). 5 Egyptian-Arabic One Act Plays: A First Reader, Bilingual edition, Museum Tusculanum. ISBN 87-7289-612-4. 
• Youssef, Ahmad Abdel-Hamid (2003). From Pharaoh's Lips: Ancient Egyptian Language in the Arabic of Today. American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 977-424-708-6. 

External links

• Coptic Words in Egyptian Arabic (Arabic)
• Description of Egyptian Arabic from UCLA's Language Materials Project
• Book on Egyptian roots of Egyptian Arabic (Arabic)
• Il Log'a-l Masri-g Gidiida - a Latin-based alphabet for the Egyptian language
• Egyptian Spoken Arabic at Ethnologue
• Liberal Egyptian Party Blog (Arabic)
• Newspaper article in partial Egyptian Arabic (Arabic)