The Arabic language is classified as a Semitic language. It has many varieties. Arabic (; , less formally, ) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... The Semitic languages are the northeastern subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic languages, and the only family of this group spoken in Asia. ...

Overview

In pre-Islamic times, Arabic had noticeable dialect distinctions - in particular between Qahtanite, Adnan, and Himyar. In modern times, the spoken languages or dialects of people throughout the Arab world differ radically from the Literary Arabic. For some of these, the question of "language" versus "dialect" is highly politicized; to avoid that, the neutral term "variety" will be used here. Qahtanite refers to al Arab al Aribah or the aboriginal Arabs. ... Adnan is the traditional ancestor of the northern (or musta`ribah) Arabs, said to be a descendant of Ishmael through his son Kedar. ... Himyar was a state in ancient South Arabia dating from 110 BCE. Conquered neighbouring Saba in 25 BCE, Qataban in 50 CE and Hadramaut 100 CE. Its political fortunes relative to Saba changed frequently until it achieved power around 280 CE. It was the dominant state in Arabia until 525... Fuṣḥa is the standard Arabic language, to be contrasted with spoken varieties of Arabic. ...

General varieties

The main division is between the Maghreb (North Africa) varieties (characterized by a first person singular in n-) and those of the Middle East, followed by that between sedentary varieties and the much more conservative Bedouin varieties. "Peripheral" varieties located in countries where Arabic is not a dominant language (e.g., Turkey, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Chad, and Nigeria) are particularly divergent in some respects, especially vocabulary, being less influenced by classical Arabic; however, historically they fall within the same dialect classifications as better-known varieties. In some areas, different religious communities spoke slightly different varieties - thus in Baghdad the Christians and Jews spoke a qeltu-variety while the Muslims spoke a gilit-variety. (Both words mean "I said". For further discussion, see Judæo-Arabic languages.) The Maghreb (المغرب العربي ; sometimes also rendered Moghreb), meaning western in Arabic, is the region of the continent of Africa north of the Sahara desert and west of the Nile — specifically, the modern countries of Morocco, Western Sahara (annexed and occupied by Morocco), Algeria, Tunisia, Libya — and to a much lesser extent... 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. ... Bedouin resting at Mount Sinai Bedouin, derived from the Arabic badawi بدوي, a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and... Average temperature (red) and precipitations (blue) in Baghdad Baghdad (Arabic: ) is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Province. ... 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. ...

Maltese, though descended from Arabic, is considered by its speakers to be a separate language and is in fact written with Latin letters. Probably the most divergent of non-creole Arabic varieties is Cypriot Maronite Arabic, a nearly extinct variety heavily influenced by Greek. Speakers of some of these varieties are unable to converse with speakers of another variety of Arabic; in particular, while Middle Easterners (including Egyptians) can generally understand one another, they often have difficulties understanding North Africans (excluding Egyptians) (although the converse is not true, due to the popularity of Egyptian films and other media.) Probably the most divergent of all Arabic dialects is Cypriot Maronite Arabic, still spoken by most of the 130 elderly Maronite Catholics in Kormakiti (Korucam) in Northern Cyprus, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. ...

One factor in the differentiation of the varieties is influence from the languages previously spoken in the areas, which have typically provided a significant number of new words, and have sometimes also influenced pronunciation or word order; however, a much more significant factor for most dialects is, as among Romance languages, retention (or change of meaning) of different classical forms. Thus Iraqi aku, Levantine and Egyptian Arabic fiih, and Maghreb Arabic kayen all mean "there is", and all come from Arabic (yakuun, fiihi, kaa'in respectively), but sound very different. The Romance languages, also called Romanic languages or New Latin languages, are a subset of the Italic languages, specifically the descendants of the Latin dialects spoken by the common people in what is known as Latin Europe (Italian/Portuguese/Spanish Europa latina, Catalan Europa llatina, French Europe latine, Romanian Europa... Egyptian Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Egypt - and more specifically, the prestige dialect spoken in the northern Nile Delta region and its urban centers Cairo and Alexandria. ... Maghreb arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in the Maghreb, including Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya. ...

The spoken varieties of Arabic have occasionally been written, usually in the Arabic alphabet. Notably, many plays and poems, as well as a few other works (even translations of Plato) exist in Lebanese Arabic and Egyptian Arabic; books of poetry, at least, exist for most varieties. In Algeria, colloquial Maghreb Arabic was taught as a separate subject under French colonization, and some textbooks exist. Mizrahi Jews throughout the Arab world translated parts of their liturgy into Arabic of varying levels of colloquialness, and wrote them, as well as letters and accounts and occasionally stories, in the Hebrew alphabet. The Latin alphabet was advocated for Lebanese Arabic by Said Aql, whose supporters published several books in his transcription. Earlier, in 1994, AbdElAziz Pasha Fahmi, a member of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Egypt proposed the replacement of the Arabic alphabet with the Latin alphabet. His proposal was discussed in two sessions in the communion but was rejected, and was faced with strong opposition in cultural circles. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing in the Arabic language. ... Lebanese or Lebanese Arabic is the spoken language of modern-day Lebanon, also used around the world by a large Lebanese diaspora. ... Egyptian Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Egypt - and more specifically, the prestige dialect spoken in the northern Nile Delta region and its urban centers Cairo and Alexandria. ... Maghreb arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in the Maghreb, including Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya. ... For the organization of the Religious Zionist Movement, please see Mizrachi. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... Lebanese or Lebanese Arabic is the spoken language of modern-day Lebanon, also used around the world by a large Lebanese diaspora. ... The Academy of the Arabic Language (مجمع اللغة العربية) is an academy in Cairo founded in 1934 in order to develop and regulate the Egypt. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing in the Arabic language. ...

Arabic-based pidgins, with a small largely Arabic vocabulary lacking most Arabic morphological features, are or have been widespread along the southern edge of the Sahara; the medieval geographer al-Bakri records a text in one (in a place probably corresponding to modern Mauritania) in the 11th century. In some areas, especially around the southern Sudan, these have creolized; see the list below. The resulting creoles are not mutually comprehensible with other Arabic varieties. This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Abu Abdullah al-Bakri (1014–1094) was a Spanish-Arab geographer and historian. ... // A Creole is a language descended from a pidgin that has become the native language of a group of people. ...

Classification of varieties

Classification of varieties, with some info from Versteegh [1]:

Pre-Islamic or pre-Arab Expansion

• Himyaritic language
• Southern Arabic (Qahtan)
• Northern Arabic (Adnan)
  • Eastern Arabic, the main source of Classical Arabic
  • Western Arabic (Hijaz)

Classical Arabic is the form of the Arabic language used in the Quran as well as in numerous literary texts from the same period. ...

Post-Islamic or post-Arab Expansion

Western varieties:

• Maghreb Arabic
  • Koines:
    • Moroccan Arabic (ISO 639-3:ary)
    • Algerian Arabic (ISO 639-3:arq , saharan: aao)
    • Tunisian Arabic (ISO 639-3:aeb)
  • Fully pre-Hilalian:
    • Jebli Arabic
    • Jijel Arabic
    • Siculo-Arabic (extinct)
    • Maltese language (ISO 639-3:mlt)
  • Bedouin:
    • Saharan Arabic
    • Libyan Arabic (ISO 639-3:ayl)
    • Hassaniya Arabic (ISO 639-3:mey)
• Andalusi Arabic (extinct)

Eastern varieties: Maghreb arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in the Maghreb, including Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya. ... The literal meaning of the Greek word koine (κοινή) is common. It is used in several senses: Koiné Greek (Κοινή Ἑλληνική), a Greek dialect that developed from the Attic dialect (of Athens) and became the spoken language of Greece at the time of the Empire of Alexander the Great. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Darija. ... Algerian Arabic is the dialect or dialects of Arabic native to Algeria. ... Tunisian Arabic is a Maghrebi dialect of the Arabic language, spoken by some 9 million people. ... Maltese is the national language of Malta, and an official language of the European Union. ... Libyan Arabic is Arabic as spoken in Libya. ... Hassaniya is a dialect of Arabic derived from the Arabic spoken by the Beni Hassan tribe, who extended their authority over most of the Mauritanian Sahara between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. ... Andalusi Arabic was a dialect of the Arabic language spoken in Al-Andalus, the regions of Spain under Muslim rule. ...

• Nile Arabic
  • Egyptian Arabic (ISO 639-3:arz)
  • Saidi Arabic
  • Sudanese Arabic (ISO 639-3:apd)
  • Baggara Arabic (Shuwa Arabic)
• Levantine Arabic
  • North Syrian Arabic
  • Lebanese Arabic/Syrian Arabic
  • Palestinian Arabic
  • Cypriot Maronite Arabic
• Iraqi Arabic (ISO 639-3, Mesopotamien acm)
  • qeltu-varieties
  • gilit-varieties
  • Central Asian Arabic (ISO 639-3: uzbek:auz tajiki:abh)
• Arabian Arabic
  • Gulf Arabic (ISO 639-3:afb)
  • Najdi Arabic
  • Hijazi Arabic
  • Yemeni Arabic

Creoles: Egyptian Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Egypt - and more specifically, the prestige dialect spoken in the northern Nile Delta region and its urban centers Cairo and Alexandria. ... Sudan is the melting pot for African and Arabian cultures. ... Levantine Arabic is a group of Arabic dialects spoken in the 100 km-wide eastern-Mediterranean coastal strip, i. ... Lebanese or Lebanese Arabic is the spoken language of modern-day Lebanon, also used around the world by a large Lebanese diaspora. ... Palestinian Arabic is a Levantine Arabic dialect subgroup. ... Probably the most divergent of all Arabic dialects is Cypriot Maronite Arabic, still spoken by most of the 130 elderly Maronite Catholics in Kormakiti (Korucam) in Northern Cyprus, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. ... Iraqi Arabic is a dialect of Arabic used in Iraq. ... Gulf Arabic or The Persian Gulf Arabic is a variety of the Arabic language spoken around both shores of the Persian Gulf, mainly in Kuwait, eastern Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and parts of Oman. ... Yemeni Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken in Yemen. ...

• Nubi Creole Arabic
• Babalia Creole Arabic
• Sudanese Creole Arabic (Juba Arabic)

The Nubi language (also called Ki-Nubi) is a Sudanese Arabic-based creole language spoken in Uganda around Bombo and Kenya around Kibera by the descendants of Emin Pashas Sudanese soldiers, settled there by the British. ...

Sedentary vs. Bedouin

A basic dialectal distinction that cuts across the entire geography of the Arabic-speaking world is between sedentary and Bedouin varieties. Across the Levant and North Africa (i.e. the areas of post-Islamic settlement), this is mostly reflected as an urban (sedentary) vs. rural (Bedouin) split, but the situation is more complicated in Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula. The distinction stems from the settlement patterns in the wake of the Arab conquests. As regions were conquered, army camps were set up that eventually grew into cities, and settlement of the rural areas by Bedouins gradually followed thereafter. Bedouin resting at Mount Sinai Bedouin, derived from the Arabic badawi بدوي, a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and... The Levant Levant 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 Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula is a mainly desert peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia and an important part of the greater Middle East. ...

The most obvious phonetic difference between the two dialect groups is the pronunciation of the letter ق qaaf, which is voiced in the Bedouin dialects (usually /g/, but sometimes a palatalized variation /ʤ/ or /ʒ/), but voiceless in the sedentary dialects (/q/ or /ʔ/). The other major phonetic difference is that the Bedouin dialects preserve the Classical Arabic (CA) interdentals /θ/ ث and /ð/ ذ, and merge the CA emphatic sounds /dˤ/ ض and /ðˤ/ ظ into /ðˤ/ rather than sedentary /dˤ/. Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ... Classical Arabic is the form of the Arabic language used in the Quran as well as in numerous literary texts from the same period. ... Interdental consonants are produced by placing the blade of the tongue against the upper incisors. ...

However, the most significant differences are in syntax. The sedentary dialects, in particular, share a number of common innovations from CA. This has led to the suggestion, first articulated by Charles Ferguson, that a simplified koine developed in the army staging camps in Iraq, from where the remaining parts of the modern Arab world were conquered. The literal meaning of the Greek word koine (κοινή) is common. It is used in several senses: Koiné Greek (Κοινή Ἑλληνική), a Greek dialect that developed from the Attic dialect (of Athens) and became the spoken language of Greece at the time of the Empire of Alexander the Great. ...

In general, the Bedouin dialects are more conservative than the sedentary dialects, and the Bedouin dialects within the Arabic peninsula are even more conservative than those elsewhere. Within the sedentary dialects, the western varieties (particularly, Moroccan Arabic) are less conservative than the eastern varieties. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Darija. ...

Morphological and syntactic variation

All dialects, sedentary and Bedouin, share the following innovations from Classical Arabic (CA): Classical Arabic is the form of the Arabic language used in the Quran as well as in numerous literary texts from the same period. ...

• The dominant order is subject-verb rather than verb-subject.
• Verbal agreement between subject and object is always complete.

• In CA, there was no number agreement between subject and verb when the subject was third-person and the subject followed the verb.

• Loss of case distinctions.
• Loss of original mood distinctions other than the indicative and imperative (i.e. subjunctive, jussive, energetic I, energetic II).

• The dialects differ in how exactly the new indicative was developed from the old forms. The sedentary dialects adopted the old subjunctive forms (feminine /ī/, masculine plural /ū/), while many of the Bedouin dialects adopted the old indicative forms (feminine /īna/, masculine plural /ūna/).
• The sedentary dialects developed new mood distinctions; see below.

• Loss of dual marking everywhere except on nouns.

• A frozen dual persists as the regular plural marking of a small number of words that normally come in pairs (e.g. eyes, hands, parents).
• In addition, a productive dual marking on nouns exists in most dialects. (Tunisian and Moroccan Arabic are exceptions.) This dual marking differs syntactically from the frozen dual in that it cannot take possessive suffixes. In addition, it differs morphologically from the frozen dual in various dialects, such as Levantine Arabic.
• The productive dual differs from CA in that its use is optional and factitive, whereas the use of the CA dual was mandatory even in cases of implicitly dual reference.
• The CA dual was marked not only on nouns by also on verbs, adjectives, pronouns and demonstratives.

• Development of an analytic genitive construction to rival the constructed genitive.

• Compare the similar development of shel in Modern Hebrew.
• The Bedouin dialects make the least use of the analytic genitive. Moroccan Arabic makes the most use of it, to the extent that the constructed genitive is no longer productive, and used only in certain relatively frozen constructions.

• The indirect object, marked in CA by the preposition /la-/ followed by an enclitic pronoun, has become fused onto the end of the verb.
• The relative pronoun is no longer inflected. (In CA, it took gender, number and case endings.)
• Pronominal clitics ending in a short vowel moved the vowel before the consonant.

• Hence, second singular /-ak/ and /-ik/ rather than /-ka/ and /-ki/; third singular masculine /-uh/ rather than /-hu/.
• Similarly, the feminine plural verbal marker /-na/ became /-an/.
• Because of the absolute prohibition in all Arabic dialects against having two vowels in hiatus, the above changes occurred only when a consonant preceded the ending. When a vowel preceded, the forms either remained as-is or lost the final vowel, becoming /-k/, /-ki/, /-h/ and /-n/, respectively. Combined with other phonetic changes, this resulted in multiple forms for each clitic (up to three), depending on the phonetic environment.
• The verbal markers /-tu/ (first singular) and /-ta/ (second singular masculine) both became /-t/, while second singular feminine /-ti/ remained.
• The forms given here were the original forms, and have often suffered various changes in the modern dialects.
• All of these changes were triggered by the loss of final short vowels (see below).

• Various simplifications have occurred in the range of variation in verbal paradigms.

• Third-weak verbs with radical /w/ and radical /y/ have merged in the form I perfect tense. (They had already merged in CA, except in form I.)
• Form I perfect fa9ula verbs have disappeared, often merging with fa9ila.
• Doubled verbs now have the same endings as third-weak verbs.
• Some endings of third-weak verbs have been replaced by those of the strong verbs (or vice-versa, in some dialects).

All dialects except some Bedouin dialects of the Arabian peninsula share the following innovations from CA: It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Darija. ... Levantine Arabic is a group of Arabic dialects spoken in the 100 km-wide eastern-Mediterranean coastal strip, i. ... Arabic is a Semitic language. ... The Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Darija. ...

• Loss of the inflected passive (i.e., marked through internal vowel change) in finite verb forms.

• New passives have often been developed by co-opting the original reflexive formations in CA, particularly verb forms V, VI and VII. (In CA these were derivational, not inflectional, as neither their existence nor exact meaning could be depended upon; however, they have often been incorporated into the inflectional system, especially in more innovative sedentary dialects.)
• Hassaniya Arabic contains a newly developed inflected passive that looks somewhat like the old CA passive.

• Loss of the indefinite /n/ suffix (tanwiin) on nouns.

• When this marker still appears, it is variously /an/, /in/, or /en/.
• In some Bedouin dialects it still marks indefiniteness on any noun, although this is optional and often used only in oral poetry.
• In other dialects it marks indefiniteness on post-modified nouns (by adjectives or relative clauses).
• All Arabic dialects preserve a form of the CA adverbial accusative /an/ suffix, which was originally a tanwiin marker.

• Loss of verb form IV, the causative.

• Verb form II sometimes gives causatives, but it is not productive.

• Uniform use of /i/ in imperfect verbal prefixes.

• CA had /u/ before form II, III and IV active, and before all passives, and /a/ elsewhere.
• Some Bedouin dialects in the Arabian peninsula have uniform /a/.
• Najdi Arabic has /a/ when the following vowel is /i/, and /i/ when the following vowel is /a/.

All sedentary dialects share the following additional innovations: Hassaniya is a dialect of Arabic derived from the Arabic spoken by the Beni Hassan tribe, who extended their authority over most of the Mauritanian Sahara between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. ...

• Loss of a separately distinguished feminine plural in verbs, pronouns and demonstratives. This is usually lost in adjectives as well.
• Development of a new indicative-subjunctive distinction.

• The indicative is marked by a prefix, while the subjunctive lacks this.
• The prefix is /b/ or /bi/ in Egyptian Arabic and Levantine Arabic, but /ka/ or /ta/ in Moroccan Arabic.
• Tunisian Arabic lacks an indicative prefix, and therefore does not have this distinction, along with at least some varieties of Algerian and Libyan Arabic.

• Loss of /h/ in the third-person masculine enclitic pronoun, when attached to a word ending in a consonant.

• The form is usually /u/ or /o/ in sedentary dialects, but /ah/ or /ih/ in Bedouin dialects.
• After a vowel, the bare form /h/ is used, but in many sedentary dialects the /h/ is lost here as well. In Egyptian Arabic, for example, this pronoun is marked in this case only by lengthening of the final vowel and concomitant stress shift onto it.

In addition, the following innovations are characteristic of many or most sedentary dialects: Egyptian Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Egypt - and more specifically, the prestige dialect spoken in the northern Nile Delta region and its urban centers Cairo and Alexandria. ... Levantine Arabic is a group of Arabic dialects spoken in the 100 km-wide eastern-Mediterranean coastal strip, i. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Darija. ... Tunisian Arabic is a Maghrebi dialect of the Arabic language, spoken by some 9 million people. ... Libyan Arabic is Arabic as spoken in Libya. ...

• Agreement (verbal, adjectival) with inanimate plurals is plural, rather than feminine singular, as in CA.
• Development of a circumfix negative marker on the verb, involving a prefix /ma-/ and a suffix /-ʃ/.

• In combination with the fusion of the indirect object and the development of new mood markers, this results in verbal complexes that are approaching agglutinative languages in their complexity.
• An example from Egyptian Arabic is

• /ma-bi-t-gib-u-ha-lnā-ʃ/
• [negation]-[indicative]-[2nd.person.subject]-bring-[plural.subject]-her-to.us-[negation]
• "You (plural) aren't bringing her to us."

• (NOTE: Versteegh glosses /bi/ as continuous.)

• In Egyptian, Tunisian and Moroccan Arabic, the distinction between active and passive participles has disappeared except in form I and in some Classical borrowings.

• These dialects tend to use form V and VI active participles as the passive participles of forms II and III.

Other notable innovations: Egyptian Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Egypt - and more specifically, the prestige dialect spoken in the northern Nile Delta region and its urban centers Cairo and Alexandria. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Darija. ...

• In the imperfect, Maghreb Arabic has replaced first person singular /ʔ-/ with /n-/, and the first person plural, originally marked by /n-/ alone, is also marked by the /-u/ suffix of the other plural forms.
• Moroccan Arabic has greatly rearranged the system of verbal derivation, so that the traditional system of forms I through X is not applicable without some stretching. It would be more accurate to describe its verbal system as consisting of two major types, triliteral and quadriliteral, each with a mediopassive variant marked by a prefixal /t-/ or /tt-/.

• The triliteral type encompasses traditional form I verbs (strong: /ktʔ/ "write"; geminate: /ʃəmm/ "smell"; hollow: /biʕ/ "sell", /gul/ "say", /xaf/ "fear"; weak /ʃri/ "buy", /ħbu/ "crawl", /bda/ "begin"; irregular: /kul/-/kla/ "eat", /ddi/ "take away", /ʒi/ "come").
• The quadriliteral type encompasses strong [CA form II, quadriliteral form I]: /sˤrˤfəq/ "slap", /hrrəs/ "break", /hrnən/ "speak nasally"; hollow-2 [CA form III, non-CA]: /ʕayən/ "wait", /gufəl/ "inflate", /mixəl/ "eat" (slang); hollow-3 [CA form VIII, IX]: /xtˤarˤ/ "choose", /ħmarˤ/ "redden"; weak [CA form II weak, quadriliteral form I weak]: /wrri/ "show", /sˤqsˤi/ "inquire"; hollow-2-weak [CA form III weak, non-CA weak]: /sali/ "end", /ruli/ "roll", /tiri/ "shoot"; irregular: /sˤifətˤ/-/sˤafətˤ/ "send".
• There are also a certain number of quinquiliteral or longer verbs, of various sorts, e.g. weak: /pidˤali/ "pedal", /blˤani/ "scheme, plan", /fanti/ "dodge, fake"; remnant CA form X: /stəʕməl/ "use", /stahəl/ "deserve"; diminutive: /t-birˤʒəz/ "act bourgeois", /t-biznəs/ "deal in drugs".
• Note that those types corresponding to CA forms VIII and X are rare and completely unproductive, while some of the non-CA types are productive. At one point, form IX significantly increased its productivity over CA, and there are perhaps 50-100 of these verbs currently, mostly stative but not necessarily referring to colors or bodily defects. However, this type is no longer very productive.
• Due to the merging of short /a/ and /i/, most of these types show no stem difference between perfect and imperfect, which is probably why the languages has incorporated new types so easily.

• Egyptian Arabic, probably under the influence of Coptic, puts the demonstrative pronoun after the noun (/al-X da/ "this X" instead of CA /hāðā l-X/) and leaves interrogative pronouns in situ rather than fronting them, as in other dialects.

Maghreb arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in the Maghreb, including Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Darija. ... In the terminology used to discuss the grammar of the Semitic languages, a triliteral is a root containing a sequence of three consonants. ... In the terminology used to discuss the grammar of the Semitic languages, a quadriliteral is a consonantal root containing a sequence of four consonants (instead of three consonants, as is more often the case). ... Egyptian Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Egypt - and more specifically, the prestige dialect spoken in the northern Nile Delta region and its urban centers Cairo and Alexandria. ... The Coptic language is the last phase of the Egyptian languages, and is the direct descendant of the ancient Egyptian language written in the hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic scripts. ... An interrogative pronoun (also known simply as an interrogative) is a pronoun used in asking questions. ... In situ (in place in Latin), a term used in: biology, where it means to examine the phenomenon exactly in place where it occurs (without removing it in some special medium etc. ...

Phonetic variation

• CA /ʔ/ is lost except initially.

• Depending on the exact phonetic environment, this either caused reduction of two vowels into a single long vowel or diphthong (when between two vowels), insertion of a homorganic glide /j/ or /w/ (when between two vowels, the first of which was short or long /i/ or /u/ and the second not the same), lengthening of a preceding short vowel (between a short vowel and a following non-vowel), or simple deletion (elsewhere). This resulted initially in a large number of complicated morphophonemic variations in verb paradigms.
• In CA and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), /ʔ/ is still pronounced.
• However, because this change had already happened in Meccan Arabic at the time the Koran was written, it is reflected in the orthography of written Arabic, where a diacritic known as hamza is inserted either above an alif, waaw or yaa, or "on the line" (between characters); or in certain cases, a diacritic alif maadda ("lengthened alif") is inserted over an alif. (As a result, proper spelling of words involving /ʔ/ is probably the most difficult issues in Arabic orthography. Furthermore, actual usage is inconsistent in many circumstances.)
• Modern dialects have smoothed out the morphophonemic variations, typically by deleting the associated verbs or moving them into another paradigm (for example, /qaraʔ/ "read" becomes /qara/, a third-weak verb).
• /ʔ/ has reappeared medially in various words due to borrowing from CA. (In addition, /q/ has become /ʔ/ in many dialects, although the two are marginally distinguishable in Egyptian Arabic, since words beginning with original /ʔ/ can elide this sound, whereas words beginning with original /q/ cannot.)

• ق qaaf (CA /q/) changes widely from variety to variety. In Bedouin dialects from Mauritania to Saudi Arabia, it is pronounced /g/, as in most of Iraq. In the Levant and Egypt (except in Upper Egypt (the Sa'id) where it is influenced by that of Arabia), as well as Malta and some North African towns such as Tlemcen, it is pronounced as a glottal stop /ʔ/, apart from rural Palestine where it becomes emphatic /kˤ/. In the Gulf, it becomes /ʤ/ in many words (adjacent to an original /i/), and is /g/ otherwise. Elsewhere, it is usually realized as uvular /q/.

• ج jiim (CA /ʤ/) too varies widely. In some Arabian Bedouin dialects, and parts of the Sudan, it is still realized as the medieval Persian linguist Sibawayh described it, as a palatalized /gʲ/. In Egypt and Yemen, it is a plain /g/. In most of North Africa and the Levant, it is /ʒ/, apart from Algeria. In the Gulf and Iraq, it often becomes /j/. Elsewhere, it is usually /ʤ/.

• ك kaaf (CA /k/) often becomes /ʧ/ in the Gulf, Iraq and in some Bedouin dialects (adjacent to an original /i/, particularly in the second singular feminine enclitic pronoun, where /ʧ/ replaces an original /ik/ or /ki/). In a very few Moroccan varieties, it affricates to /kʃ/. Elsewhere, it remains /k/.

• ر raa (CA /r/) is pronounced like French /ʁ/ in a few areas: Mosul, for instance, and the Jewish variety in Algiers. In much of the Maghreb, a phonemic distinction has emerged between plain and emphatic r, thanks to the merging of short vowels.

• ث thaa, ز dhaal (CA /θ/, /ð/) become s, z in the Levant, and t, d in much of Egypt and North Africa. In one Arabic-speaking town in Turkey, they become f, v.

• ت taa (CA /t/) (but not emphatic ط Taa (CA /tˤ/) is affricated to /tˢ/ in Moroccan Arabic; this is still distinguishable from the sequence /ts/.

• ع ayin (CA /ʕ/) is pronounced in Iraqi Arabic and Kuwaiti Arabic with glottal closure, something like [ʔˤ].

• The nature of "emphasis" differs somewhat from variety to variety. It is usually described as a concomitant pharyngealization, but in most sedentary varieties it is actually velarization, or a combination of the two. (The phonetic effects of the two are only minimally different from each other.) Usually there is some associated lip rounding; in addition, the stop consonants /t/ and /d/ are dental and lightly aspirated when non-emphatic, but alveolar and completely unaspirated when emphatic.

• CA short vowels /a/, /i/ and /u/ suffer various changes.

• Original final short vowels are mostly deleted.
• Many Levantine Arabic dialects merge /i/ and /u/ into a phonemic /ə/ except when directly followed by a single consonant; this sound may appear allophonically as /i/ or /u/ in certain phonetic environments.
• Maghreb dialects merge /a/ and /i/ into /ə/, which is deleted when unstressed.
• Moroccan Arabic, under the strong influence of Berber, goes even further. Short /u/ is converted to labialization of an adjacent velar, or is merged with /ə/. This schwa then deletes everywhere except in certain words ending /-CCəC/.

• The result is that there is no more distinction between short and long vowels; borrowings from CA have "long" vowels (now pronounced half-long) uniformly substituted for original short and long vowels.
• This also results in consonant clusters of great length, which are (more or less) syllabified according to a sonority hierarchy. (In practice, it is very difficult to tell where, if anywhere, there are syllabic peaks in long consonant clusters in a phrase such as /xsˤsˤk tktbi/ "you (fem.) must write".)

• In Egyptian Arabic and Levantine Arabic, short /i/ and /u/ (and merged /ə/, when it exists) are elided in various circumstances in unstressed syllables (typically, in open syllables; for example, in Egyptian Arabic, this occurs only in the middle vowel of a VCVCV sequence, ignoring word boundaries). In these dialects, however, clusters of three consonants are almost never permitted (absolutely never, in Egyptian Arabic). If such a cluster would occur, it is broken up through the insertion of a /ə/ -- between the second and third consonants in in Egyptian Arabic, and between the first and second in Levantine Arabic.

• CA long vowels are shortened in some circumstances.

• Original final long vowels are shortened in all dialects.
• In Egyptian Arabic and Levantine Arabic, unstressed long vowels are shortened.
• Egyptian Arabic also cannot tolerate long vowels followed by two consonants, and shorten them. (Such an occurrence was rare in CA, but often occurs in modern dialects as a result of elision of a short vowel.)

• In most dialects, particularly sedentary ones, CA /a/ and /ā/ have two strongly divergent allophones, depending on the phonetic context.

• Adjacent to an emphatic consonant and to /q/ (but not usually to other sounds derived from this, such as /g/ or /ʔ/), a back variant [ɑ] occurs; elsewhere, a strongly fronted variant [æ] is used.
• There is a tendency for emphatic consonants to cause non-adjacent low vowels to be backed, as well; this is known as emphasis spreading. The domain of emphasis spreading is potentially unbounded; in Egyptian Arabic, the entire word is usually affected, although in Levantine Arabic and some other varieties, it is blocked by an /i/ or /j/ (and sometimes /ʃ/).
• The two allophones are in the process of splitting phonemically in some dialects, as [ɑ] occurs in some words (particularly foreign borrowings) even in the absence of any emphatic consonants anywhere in the word. (Some linguists have postulated additional emphatic phonemes in an attempt to handle these circumstances; in the extreme case, this requires assuming that every phoneme occurs doubled, in emphatic and non-emphatic varieties. Some have attempted to make the vowel allophones autonomous and eliminate the emphatic consonants as phonemes. Others have asserted that emphasis is actually a property of syllables or whole words rather than of individual vowels or consonants. None of these proposals seems particularly tenable, however, given the variable and unpredictable nature of emphasis spreading.)
• CA /r/ is also in the process of splitting into emphatic and non-emphatic varieties, with the former causing emphasis spreading, just like other emphatic consonants. Originally, non-emphatic [r] occurred before /i/ or between /i/ and a following consonant, while emphatic [rˤ] occurred elsewhere.

• To a large extent, Eastern Arabic dialects reflect this, while the situation is rather more complicated in Egyptian Arabic. (The allophonic distribution still exists to a large extent, although not in any predictable fashion; nor is one or the other variety used consistently in different words derived from the same root. Furthermore, although derivational suffixes (in particular, relational /-i/ and /-iyya/) affect a preceding /r/ in the expected fashion, inflectional suffixes do not.)
• In Moroccan Arabic, short /a/ and /i/ have merged, obscuring the original distribution. In this dialect, the two varieties have completely split into separate phonemes, with one or the other used consistently across all words derived from a particular root except in a few situations.

• In Moroccan Arabic, the allophonic effect of emphatic consonants is more pronounced than elsewhere.

• Full /a/ is affected as above, but /i/ and /u/ are also affected, and are lowered to [e] and [o], respectively.
• In some varieties, such as in Marrakesh, the effects are even more extreme (and complex), where both high-mid and low-mid allophones exist ([e] and [ɛ], [o] and [ɔ]), in addition to front-rounded allophones of original /u/ ([y], [ø], [œ]), all depending on adjacent phonemes.
• On the other hand, emphasis spreading in Moroccan Arabic is less pronounced than elsewhere; usually it only spreads to the nearest full vowel on either side, although with some additional complications.

• Emphasis spreading also pharyngealizes consonants between the source consonant and affected vowels, although the effects are much less noticeable than for vowels, since the rise of emphasis spreading is associated with a concomitant decrease in the amount of pharyngealization of emphatic consonants.

• Interestingly, emphasis spreading does not affect the affrication of non-emphatic /t/ in Moroccan Arabic, with the result that these two phonemes are always distinguishable regardless of the nearly presence of other emphatic phonemes.

• Certain other consonants, depending on the dialect, also cause backing of adjacent sounds, although the effect is typically weaker than full emphasis spreading and usually has no effect on more distant vowels.

• The uvular consonants /x/ and /ɑ/ often cause partial backing of adjacent /a/ (and lowering of /u/ and /i/ in Moroccan Arabic). For Egyptian Arabic and Moroccan Arabic, the effect is sometimes described as half as powerful as an emphatic consonant, as a vowel with uvular consonants on both sides is affected similarly to having an emphatic consonant on one side.
• Interestingly, the pharyngeal consonants /ħ/ and /ʕ/ cause no emphasis spreading and may have little or no effect on adjacent vowels. In Egyptian Arabic, for example, an /a/ adjacent to either sound is a fully front [æ]. In other dialects, /ʕ/ is more likely to have an effect than /ħ/.
• In some Gulf Arabic dialects, /w/ and/or /l/ causes backing.
• In all dialects, the word الله /alˤlˤāh/ Allāh has backed [ɑ]'s and strongly pharyngealized /l/.

• CA diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/ have become /ē/ and /ō/ (but merge with original /ī/ and /ū/ in Maghreb dialects, which is probably a secondary development).

• The placement of the stress accent is extremely variable between varieties; nowhere is it phonemic.

• Most commonly, it falls on the last syllable containing a long vowel, or a short vowel followed by two consonants; but never farther from the end than the third-to-last syllable. This maintains the presumed stress pattern in CA (although there is some disagreement over whether stress could move farther back than the third-to-last syllable), and is also used in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA).

• In CA and MSA, stress cannot occur on a final long vowel; however, this does not result in different stress patterns on any words, because CA final long vowels are shortened in all modern dialects, and any current final long vowels are secondary developments from words containing a long vowel followed by a consonant.

• In Egyptian Arabic, the rule is similar, but stress falls on the second-to-last syllable in words of the form ...VCCVCV, as in /makˈtaba/.
• In Maghreb Arabic (excluding Maltese), stress is final in words of the (original) form CaCaC, after which the first /a/ is elided. Hence جَبَل "mountain" (MSA /ˈʤabal/) becomes /ˈʒbəl/.
• In Moroccan Arabic, phonetic stress is often not recognizable.

Modern Standard Arabic is the dialect of Arabic used in almost all writing and in formal spoken contexts. ... The Quran (Arabic al-qurʾān أَلْقُرآن; also transliterated as Quran, Koran, and less commonly Alcoran) is the holy book of Islam. ... For the Sahaba, see Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib For Hamza, the letter Ø¡ in the Arabic alphabet, representing /Ê”/, see (glottal stop). ... Egyptian Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Egypt - and more specifically, the prestige dialect spoken in the northern Nile Delta region and its urban centers Cairo and Alexandria. ... Bedouin resting at Mount Sinai Bedouin, derived from the Arabic badawi بدوي, a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and... The Levant Levant 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. ... Tlemcen (Arabic: تلمسان) is a town in Northwestern Algeria, and the seat of government for the wilaya of the same name. ... The glottal stop or voiceless glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. ... Map of the British Mandate of Palestine. ... The Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula is a mainly desert peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia and an important part of the greater Middle East. ... Bedouin resting at Mount Sinai Bedouin, derived from the Arabic badawi بدوي, a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and... Persian may refer to more than one article: the Western name for Iranian (see Iran/Persia naming controversy) Persian, an Iranian language the Persians, an ethnic group a Persian, a breed of cat Persian, a Pokémon character Etymology English Persian < Old English, < Latin *Persianus, < Latin Persia, < ancient Greek Persis... Sibawayh (سيبويه Sîbawayh in Arabic, سیبویه Sibuyeh in Persian) was a linguist of Persian origin born ca. ... North Africa is a region generally considered to include: Algeria Egypt Libya Mauritania Morocco Sudan Tunisia Western Sahara The Azores, Canary Islands, and Madeira are sometimes considered to be a part of North Africa. ... The Levant Levant 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. ... Bedouin resting at Mount Sinai Bedouin, derived from the Arabic badawi بدوي, a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and... Mosul (36°22′N 43°07′E; Arabic: , Kurdish: Mûsil, Assyrian: ܢܝܢܘܐ NînÄ›wâ) is a city in northern Iraq. ... Map of Algeria showing Algiers province Algiers (French Alger, (Arabic: ولاية الجزائر) El-Jazair, The Islands) is the capital and largest city of Algeria in North Africa. ... The Maghreb (المغرب العربي ; sometimes also rendered Moghreb), meaning western in Arabic, is the region of the continent of Africa north of the Sahara desert and west of the Nile — specifically, the modern countries of Morocco, Western Sahara (annexed and occupied by Morocco), Algeria, Tunisia, Libya — and to a much lesser extent... The Levant Levant 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. ... North Africa is a region generally considered to include: Algeria Egypt Libya Mauritania Morocco Sudan Tunisia Western Sahara The Azores, Canary Islands, and Madeira are sometimes considered to be a part of North Africa. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Darija. ... Iraqi Arabic is a dialect of Arabic used in Iraq. ... Pharyngealisation is a secondary feature of phonemes in a language. ... Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant. ... Levantine Arabic is a group of Arabic dialects spoken in the 100 km-wide eastern-Mediterranean coastal strip, i. ... The Maghreb (المغرب العربي ; sometimes also rendered Moghreb), meaning western in Arabic, is the region of the continent of Africa north of the Sahara desert and west of the Nile — specifically, the modern countries of Morocco, Western Sahara (annexed and occupied by Morocco), Algeria, Tunisia, Libya — and to a much lesser extent... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Darija. ... The Berbers (also called Imazighen, free men, singular Amazigh) are an ethnic group indigenous to Northwest Africa, speaking the Berber languages of the Afroasiatic family. ... Egyptian Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Egypt - and more specifically, the prestige dialect spoken in the northern Nile Delta region and its urban centers Cairo and Alexandria. ... Levantine Arabic is a group of Arabic dialects spoken in the 100 km-wide eastern-Mediterranean coastal strip, i. ... Levantine Arabic is a group of Arabic dialects spoken in the 100 km-wide eastern-Mediterranean coastal strip, i. ... Egyptian Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Egypt - and more specifically, the prestige dialect spoken in the northern Nile Delta region and its urban centers Cairo and Alexandria. ... Levantine Arabic is a group of Arabic dialects spoken in the 100 km-wide eastern-Mediterranean coastal strip, i. ... Egyptian Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Egypt - and more specifically, the prestige dialect spoken in the northern Nile Delta region and its urban centers Cairo and Alexandria. ... Egyptian Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Egypt - and more specifically, the prestige dialect spoken in the northern Nile Delta region and its urban centers Cairo and Alexandria. ... Levantine Arabic is a group of Arabic dialects spoken in the 100 km-wide eastern-Mediterranean coastal strip, i. ... Egyptian Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Egypt - and more specifically, the prestige dialect spoken in the northern Nile Delta region and its urban centers Cairo and Alexandria. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Darija. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Darija. ... Marrakech (مراكش marrākish), known as the Pearl of the South, is a city in southwestern Morocco in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Darija. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Darija. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Darija. ... Egyptian Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Egypt - and more specifically, the prestige dialect spoken in the northern Nile Delta region and its urban centers Cairo and Alexandria. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Darija. ... Egyptian Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Egypt - and more specifically, the prestige dialect spoken in the northern Nile Delta region and its urban centers Cairo and Alexandria. ... Gulf Arabic or The Persian Gulf Arabic is a variety of the Arabic language spoken around both shores of the Persian Gulf, mainly in Kuwait, eastern Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and parts of Oman. ... The Maghreb (المغرب العربي ; sometimes also rendered Moghreb), meaning western in Arabic, is the region of the continent of Africa north of the Sahara desert and west of the Nile — specifically, the modern countries of Morocco, Western Sahara (annexed and occupied by Morocco), Algeria, Tunisia, Libya — and to a much lesser extent... Modern Standard Arabic is the dialect of Arabic used in almost all writing and in formal spoken contexts. ... Egyptian Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Egypt - and more specifically, the prestige dialect spoken in the northern Nile Delta region and its urban centers Cairo and Alexandria. ... Maghreb arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in the Maghreb, including Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Darija. ...

Sources

• Jeffrey Heath, "Ablaut and Ambiguity: Phonology of a Moroccan Arabic Dialect" (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987)
• Versteegh
• Kees Versteegh, "The Arabic Language" (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997)