Palestinian Arabic is a dialect continuum comprising various mutually intelligible varieties of Levantine Arabic spoken by Palestinians in Palestine , which includes the State of Palestine , Israel , and the Palestinian diaspora .
133-598: The Arabic dialects spoken in the region of Palestine and Transjordan do not form a homogeneous linguistic unit; rather, they encompass a diverse range of dialects influenced by geographical, historical, and socioeconomic factors. Comparative studies of Arabic dialects indicate that Palestinian Arabic is among the closest dialects to Modern Standard Arabic , particularly the dialect spoken in the Gaza Strip . Additional distinctions can be made within Palestinian Arabic, such as
266-608: A Lingua Franca . Nabatean and Palestinian Aramaic dialects would both have been thought of as “Aramaic”, and almost certainly have been mutually comprehensible. Additionally, occasional Arabic loanwords can be found in the Jewish Aramaic documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls . The adoption of Arabic among the local population occurred most probably in several waves. After the Early Muslim Arabians took control of
399-678: A printing press in Egypt in 1798; it briefly disappeared after the French departure in 1801, but Muhammad Ali Pasha , who also sent students to Italy, France and England to study military and applied sciences in 1809, reintroduced it a few years later in Boulaq , Cairo . (Previously, Arabic-language presses had been introduced locally in Lebanon in 1610, and in Aleppo , Syria in 1702 ). The first Arabic printed newspaper
532-699: A "'bottom-up' orthography" and there is now "a high degree of normativization or standardisation in Arabizi orthography." Among consonants, only five (ج ,ذ ,ض ,ظ ,ق) revealed variability in their Arabizi representation. A 2012 study found that on the Jordanian forum Mahjoob about one-third of messages were written in Levantine in the Arabic script, one-third in Arabizi, and one-third in English. Another 2012 study found that on Facebook,
665-418: A 2013 study, Abuhakema investigated 270 written commercial ads in two Jordanian ( Al Ghad and Ad-Dustour ) and two Palestinian ( Al-Quds and Al-Ayyam ) daily newspapers. The study concluded that MSA is still the most used variety in ads, although both varieties are acceptable and Levantine is increasingly used. Most comedies are written in Levantine. In Syria, plays became more common and popular in
798-668: A classical author, whether taken from other languages (e. g. فيلم film ) or coined from existing lexical resources (e. g. هاتف hātif "caller" > "telephone"). Structural influence from foreign languages or from the vernaculars has also affected Modern Standard Arabic: for example, MSA texts sometimes use the format "A, B, C and D" when listing things, whereas Classical Arabic prefers "A and B and C and D", and subject-initial sentences may be more common in MSA than in Classical Arabic. For these reasons, Modern Standard Arabic
931-488: A country as their first language and colloquial Arabic dialects as their second language. Modern Standard Arabic is also spoken by people of Arab descent outside the Arab world when people of Arab descent speaking different dialects communicate to each other. As there is a prestige or standard dialect of vernacular Arabic, speakers of standard colloquial dialects code-switch between these particular dialects and MSA. Classical Arabic
1064-652: A few Aramaic-speaking villages, but it has left substrate influences on Levantine. Different Peninsular Arabic dialects competed for prestige, including the Hijazi vernacular of the Umayyad elites . In the Levant, these Peninsular dialects mixed with ancient forms of Arabic, such as the northern Old Arabic dialect. By the mid-6th century CE, the Petra papyri show that the onset of the article and its vowel seem to have weakened. The article
1197-640: A group of dialects of Arabic. Arabic manuals for the "Syrian dialect" were produced in the early 20th century, and in 1909 a specific "Palestinean Arabic" manual was published. The Palestinian Arabic dialects are varieties of Levantine Arabic because they display the following characteristic Levantine features: The noticeable differences between southern and northern forms of Levantine Arabic, such as Syrian Arabic and Lebanese Arabic , are stronger in non-urban dialects. The main differences between Palestinian and northern Levantine Arabic are as follows: There are also typical Palestinian words that are shibboleths in
1330-474: A mixture of the three. Arabizi is a non-standard romanization used by Levantine speakers in social media and discussion forums , SMS messaging , and online chat . Arabizi initially developed because the Arabic script was not available or not easy to use on most computers and smartphones; its usage declined after Arabic software became widespread. According to a 2020 survey done in Nazareth , Arabizi "emerged" as
1463-613: A modified version of the Classical language, which is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Classical Arabic and vernacular varieties all developed from an unattested common ancestor, Proto-Arabic . The ISO 639-3 standard classifies Levantine as a language, member of the macrolanguage Arabic. Sedentary vernaculars (also called dialects) are traditionally classified into five groups according to shared features: Peninsular , Mesopotamian, Levantine, Egyptian , and Maghrebi . The linguistic distance between these vernaculars
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#17330845483271596-591: A native language. Koine Greek was used among the Hellenized elite and aristocracy, and Mishanic Hebrew for liturgical purposes. The Negev desert was under the rule of the Nabatean Kingdom for the greater part of Classical antiquity , and included settlements such as Mahoza and Ein-Gedi where Judean and Nabatean populations lived in alongside each other, as documented by the Babatha archive which dates to
1729-508: A part of the general Palestinian vernacular. The 2009 film Ajami is mostly spoken in Palestinian Arabic. Interpretations of "Arabrew" are often colored by non-linguistic political and cultural factors, but how contact with Hebrew is realized has been studied, and has been described in linguistic terms and in terms of how it varies. "Arabrew" as spoken by Palestinians and more generally Arab citizens of Israel has been described as classical codeswitching without much structural effect While
1862-599: A post in the same script). Levantine speakers in Turkey use the Latin-based Turkish alphabet . The Arabic alphabet is always cursive , and letters vary in shape depending on their position within a word. Letters exhibit up to four distinct forms corresponding to an initial, medial (middle), final, or isolated position ( IMFI ). Only the isolated form is shown in the tables below. In the Arabic script, short vowels are not represented by letters but by diacritics above or below
1995-524: A preposition and a suffix pronoun. In the perfect, they are preceded by كان [kaːn], e.g. we wanted is كان بدنا [kaːn 'bɪddna]. Relative clause As in most forms of colloquial Arabic, the relative clause markers of Classical Arabic (الذي، التي، اللذان، اللتان، الذين and اللاتي) have been simplified to a single form إللي ['ʔɪlli]. Interrogatives pronouns The main Palestinian interrogative pronouns (with their Modern Standard Arabic counterparts) are
2128-430: A prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia – the use of two distinct varieties of the same language, usually in different social contexts. This diglossic situation facilitates code-switching in which a speaker switches back and forth between the two dialects of the language, sometimes even within the same sentence. People speak MSA as a third language if they speak other languages native to
2261-628: A regulated language which rules are followed (that is despite the number of academies regulating Arabic). It can be thought of as being in a continuum between CA (the regulated language described in grammar books) and the spoken vernaculars while leaning much more to CA in its written form than its spoken form. Regional variations exist due to influence from the spoken vernaculars . TV hosts who read prepared MSA scripts, for example in Al Jazeera , are ordered to give up national or ethnic pronunciations by changing their pronunciation of certain phonemes (e.g.
2394-441: A result, more short vowels are distinguished. In the north, stressed i and u merge. They usually become i , but might also be u near emphatic consonants. Syrians and Beirutis tend to pronounce both of them as schwa [ ə ] . The long vowel "ā" is pronounced similar to "ē" or even merges with "ē", when it is not near an emphatic or guttural consonant. Syllabification and phonotactics are complex, even within
2527-415: A single dialect. Speakers often add a short vowel, called helping vowel or epenthetic vowel, sounding like a short schwa right before a word-initial consonant cluster to break it, as in ktiːr mniːħ , 'very good/well'. They are not considered part of the word and are never stressed. This process of anaptyxis is subject to social and regional variation. They are usually not written. A helping vowel
2660-601: A specific vocabulary, they maintain the interdental consonants, they do not use the ش- [-ʃ] negative suffix, they always realise ك /k/ as [k] and ق /q/ as [g], and distinguish plural masculine from plural feminine pronouns, but with different forms as the rural speakers. As Sephardic Jews were expelled after the conclusion of the Reconquista , they established communities in Ottoman Palestine in Jerusalem and Galilee under
2793-634: A total of 273,989,700 second language speakers in the world. They add: "In most Arab countries, only the well-educated have adequate proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic." People who are literate in Modern Standard Arabic are primarily found in countries of the Arab League . It is compulsory in schools of most of the Arab League to learn Modern Standard Arabic. People who are literate in the language are usually more so passively , as they mostly use
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#17330845483272926-417: A verb) instead of noun phrases and semi-sentences, as well as avoiding phrasal adjectives and accommodating feminine forms of ranks and job titles. Because MSA speech occurs in fields with novel concepts, including technical literature and scientific domains, the need for terms that did not exist in the time of CA has led to coining new terms. Arabic Language Academies had attempted to fulfill this role during
3059-669: Is endangered . Bedouin varieties are spoken in the Negev and the Sinai Peninsula , areas of transition between Levantine and Egyptian. The dialect of Arish , Egypt, is classified by Linguasphere as Levantine. The Amman dialect is emerging as an urban standard in Jordanian Arabic , while other Jordanian and Palestinian Arabic dialects include Fellahi (rural) and Madani (urban). The Gaza dialect contains features of both urban Palestinian and Bedouin Arabic . The Levant
3192-540: Is a minority language . The Palestinian dialect is the closest vernacular Arabic variety to MSA, with about 50% of common words. Nevertheless, Levantine and MSA are not mutually intelligible. Levantine speakers therefore often call their language العامية al-ʿāmmiyya listen , ' slang ', 'dialect', or 'colloquial'. However, with the emergence of social media, attitudes toward Levantine have improved. The amount of written Levantine has significantly increased, especially online, where Levantine
3325-763: Is almost exclusively written in MSA. Internet users in the Arab world communicate with their dialect language (such as Levantine) more than MSA on social media (such as Twitter, Facebook, or in the comments of online newspapers). According to one study, between 12% and 23% of all dialectal Arabic content online was written in Levantine depending on the platform. Levantine phonology is characterized by rich socio-phonetic variations along socio-cultural (gender; religion; urban, rural or Bedouin) and geographical lines. For instance, in urban varieties, interdentals /θ/ , /ð/ , and /ðʕ/ tend to merge to stops or fricatives [t] ~ [s] ; [d] ~ [z] ; and [dʕ] ~ [zʕ] respectively. The Classical Arabic voiceless uvular plosive /q/
3458-617: Is an Arabic variety spoken in the Levant , namely in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel and southern Turkey (historically only in Adana , Mersin and Hatay provinces). With over 54 million speakers, Levantine is, alongside Egyptian , one of the two prestige varieties of spoken Arabic comprehensible all over the Arab world . Levantine is not officially recognized in any state or territory. Although it
3591-407: Is at least as large as between Germanic languages or Romance languages . It is, for instance, extremely difficult for Moroccans and Iraqis, each speaking their own variety, to understand each other. Levantine and Egyptian are the two prestige varieties of spoken Arabic; they are also the most widely understood dialects in the Arab world and the most commonly taught to non-native speakers outside
3724-504: Is becoming increasingly simpler, using less strict rules compared to CA, notably the inflection is omitted, making it closer to spoken varieties of Arabic. It depends on the speaker's knowledge and attitude to the grammar of Classical Arabic, as well as the region and the intended audience. Pronunciation of native words, loanwords, and foreign names in MSA is loose. Names can be pronounced or even spelled differently in different regions and by different speakers. Pronunciation also depends on
3857-475: Is characterized by ethnic diversity and religious pluralism . Levantine dialects vary along sectarian lines. Religious groups include Sunni Muslims , Shia Muslims , Alawites , Christians, Druze , and Jews. Differences between Muslim and Christian dialects are minimal, mainly involving some religious vocabulary. A minority of features are perceived as typically associated with one group. For example, in Beirut,
3990-481: Is considered normative; a few contemporary authors attempt (with varying degrees of success) to follow the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and to use the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as the Lisan al-Arab , Arabic : لِسَان الْعَرَب ). However, the exigencies of modernity have led to the adoption of numerous terms which would have been mysterious to
4123-401: Is generally treated separately in non-Arab sources. Speakers of Modern Standard Arabic do not always observe the intricate rules of Classical Arabic grammar. Modern Standard Arabic principally differs from Classical Arabic in three areas: lexicon, stylistics, and certain innovations on the periphery that are not strictly regulated by the classical authorities. On the whole, Modern Standard Arabic
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4256-457: Is in a mix of MSA and Lebanese Arabic. Levantine is seldom written, except for some novels, plays, and humorous writings. Most Arab critics do not acknowledge the literary dignity of prose in dialect. Prose written in Lebanese goes back to at least 1892 when Tannus al-Hurr published Riwāyat aš-šābb as-sikkīr ʾay Qiṣṣat Naṣṣūr as-Sikrī , 'The tale of the drunken youth, or The story of Nassur
4389-464: Is in the present tense conjugations of verbs. If the root vowel is rounded , then the roundness spreads to other high vowels in the prefix . Vowel harmony in PA is also found in the nominal verbal domain. Suffixes are immune to rounding harmony, and vowels left of the stressed syllable do not have vowel harmony. Palestinian Arabic has a regressive vowel harmony for these present tense conjugations: if
4522-471: Is inserted: In the Damascus dialect, word stress falls on the last superheavy syllable (CVːC or CVCC). In the absence of a superheavy syllable: Until recently, Levantine was rarely written. Brustad and Zuniga report that in 1988, they did not find anything published in Levantine in Syria. By the late 2010s, written Levantine was used in many public venues and on the internet, especially social media. There
4655-474: Is kept as [dˤ]. The Druzes have a dialect that may be classified with the Urban ones, with the difference that they keep the uvular pronunciation of ق qaf as [q]. The urban dialects also ignore the difference between masculine and feminine in the plural pronouns انتو ['ɪntu] is both 'you' (masc. plur.) and 'you' (fem. plur.), and ['hʊmme] is both 'they' (masc.) and 'they' (fem.) Rural or farmer (' fallahi ') variety
4788-495: Is learned through formal instruction rather than transmission from parent to child . This diglossia has been compared to the use of Latin as the sole written, official, liturgical , and literary language in Europe during the medieval period , while Romance languages were the spoken languages. Levantine and MSA are mutually unintelligible. They differ significantly in their phonology , morphology , lexicon and syntax . MSA
4921-590: Is no standard Levantine orthography. There have been failed attempts to Latinize Levantine, especially Lebanese . For instance, Said Akl promoted a modified Latin alphabet . Akl used this alphabet to write books and publish a newspaper, Lebnaan . Written communication takes place using a variety of orthographies and writing systems, including Arabic ( right-to-left script ), Hebrew (right-to-left, used in Israel, especially online among Bedouin , Arab Christians, and Druze ), Latin ( Arabizi , left-to-right), and
5054-526: Is not homogeneous; there are authors who write in a style very close to the classical models and others who try to create new stylistic patterns. Add to this regional differences in vocabulary depending upon the influence of the local Arabic varieties and the influences of foreign languages, such as French in Africa and Lebanon or English in Egypt, Jordan, and other countries. As MSA is a revised and simplified form of Classical Arabic, MSA in terms of lexicon omitted
5187-553: Is now urban Levantine. Then, the main phenomenon could have been the slow countryside shift of Aramaic-speaking villages to Arabic under the influence of Arabized elites, leading to the emergence of the rural Palestinian dialects. This scenario is consistent with several facts. The dialects spoken by the Arabs of the Levant – the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean – or Levantine Arabic , form
5320-693: Is primarily spoken by Arabs . It is also spoken as a first or second language by several ethnic minorities . In particular, it is spoken natively by Samaritans and by most Circassians in Jordan , Armenians in Jordan and Israel , Assyrians in Israel , Turkmen in Syria and Lebanon , Kurds in Lebanon , and Dom people in Jerusalem. Most Christian and Muslim Lebanese people in Israel speak Lebanese Arabic. Syrian Jews , Lebanese Jews , and Turkish Jews from Çukurova are native Levantine speakers; however, most moved to Israel after 1948 . Levantine
5453-680: Is pronounced [q] (among Druze), [ʔ] (in most urban centers, especially Beirut, Damascus, and Jerusalem, and in Amman among women), [ɡ] (in Amman among men, in most other Jordanian dialects and in Gaza), [k] or even /kʕ/ (in rural Palestinian). Vowel length is phonemic in Levantine. Vowels often show dialectal or allophonic variations that are socially, geographically, and phonologically conditioned. Diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/ are found in some Lebanese dialects, they respectively correspond to long vowels /eː/ and /oː/ in other dialects. One of
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5586-543: Is retaining the interdental consonants, and is closely related with rural dialects in the outer southern Levant and in Lebanon. They keep the distinction between masculine and feminine plural pronouns, e.g. انتو ['ɪntu] is 'you' (masc.) while انتن ['ɪntɪn] is 'you' (fem.), and همه ['hʊmme] is 'they' (masc.) while هنه ['hɪnne] is 'they' (fem.). The three rural groups in the region are the following: The Bedouins of Southern Levant use two different (' badawi ') dialects in Galilee and
5719-453: Is simple to speculate how Modern Standard Arabic words map onto Palestinian Arabic Words. The Swadesh list of basic words of Palestinian Arabic available on the Wiktionary (see external links below) may be used for this. However, some words are not transparent mappings from MSA, and deserve a description. This is due either to meaning changes in Arabic along the centuries – while MSA keeps
5852-456: Is sometimes written as /el-/ or simply /l-/. A similar, but not identical, situation is found in the texts from the Islamic period. Unlike the pre-Islamic attestations, the coda of the article in 'conquest Arabic' assimilates to a following coronal consonant . According to Pr. Simon Hopkins, this document shows that there is "a very impressive continuity in colloquial Arabic usage, and the roots of
5985-458: Is spoken among diaspora communities from the region, especially among the Palestinian , Lebanese , and Syrian diasporas . The language has fallen into disuse among subsequent diaspora generations , such as the 7 million Lebanese Brazilians . Starting in the 1st millennium BCE , Aramaic was the dominant spoken language and the language of writing and administration in the Levant. Greek
6118-471: Is the language of literature, official documents, and formal written media (newspapers, instruction leaflets, school books). In spoken form, MSA is mostly used when reading from a scripted text (e.g., news bulletins) and for prayer and sermons in the mosque or church. In Israel, Hebrew is the language used in the public sphere, except internally among the Arab communities . Levantine is the usual medium of communication in all other domains. Traditionally in
6251-410: Is the majority language in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, it is predominantly used as a spoken vernacular in daily communication, whereas most written and official documents and media in these countries use the official Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), a form of literary Arabic only acquired through formal education that does not function as a native language . In Israel and Turkey, Levantine
6384-620: Is the only form of Arabic taught in schools at all stages. Additionally, some members of religious minorities recite prayers in it, as it is considered the literary language . Translated versions of the Bible which are used in Arabic-speaking countries are mostly written in MSA, aside from Classical Arabic. Muslims recite prayers in it; revised editions of numerous literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times are also written in MSA. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides
6517-726: Is the only language of instruction in Arab schools . Hebrew is studied as a second language by all Palestinian students from at least the second grade and English from the third grade. In Jewish schools, in 2012, 23,000 pupils were studying spoken Palestinian in 800 elementary schools. Palestinian Arabic is compulsory in Jewish elementary schools in the Northern District ; otherwise, Jewish schools teach MSA. Junior high schools must teach all students MSA, but only two-thirds meet this obligation. At all stages in 2012, 141,000 Jewish students were learning Arabic. In 2020, 3.7% of Jewish students took
6650-478: Is the sole official language in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria; it has a "special status" in Israel under the Basic Law . French is also recognized in Lebanon. In Turkey, the only official language is Turkish. Any variation from MSA is considered a "dialect" of Arabic. As in the rest of the Arab world , this linguistic situation has been described as diglossia : MSA is nobody's first acquired language; it
6783-401: Is written using Arabic , Latin , or Hebrew characters . Levantine pronunciation varies greatly along social, ethnic, and geographical lines. Its grammar is similar to that shared by most vernacular varieties of Arabic. Its lexicon is overwhelmingly Arabic, with a significant Aramaic influence. The lack of written sources in Levantine makes it impossible to determine its history before
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#17330845483276916-515: The Bagrut exam in MSA. Most films and songs are in vernacular Arabic. Egypt was the most influential center of Arab media productions (movies, drama , TV series) during the 20th century, but Levantine is now competing with Egyptian. As of 2013, about 40% of all music production in the Arab world was in Lebanese. Lebanese television is the oldest and largest private Arab broadcast industry. Most big-budget pan-Arab entertainment shows are filmed in
7049-458: The Classical Arabic meanings – or to the adoption of non-Arabic words (see below). Note that this section focuses on Urban Palestinian unless otherwise specified. Prepositional pseudo verbs The words used in Palestinian to express the basic verbs 'to want', 'to have', 'there is/are' are called prepositional pseudo verbs because they share all the features of verbs but are constructed with
7182-531: The Knesset , but Arabic is rarely used. MK Ahmad Tibi often adds Palestinian Arabic sentences to his Hebrew speech but only gives partial speeches in Arabic. In the Levant, MSA is the only variety authorized for use in schools, although in practice, lessons are often taught in a mix of MSA and Levantine with, for instance, the lesson read out in MSA and explained in Levantine. In Lebanon , about 50% of school students study in French. In most Arab universities ,
7315-459: The Lebanese Civil War and expanded to the rest of the Arab world. In 2009, Al Jazeera used MSA only and Al Arabiya and Al-Manar used MSA or a hybrid between MSA and colloquial for talk shows. On the popular Lebanese satellite channel Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI), Arab and international news bulletins are only in MSA, while the Lebanese national news broadcast
7448-718: The Nabataeans —who used Aramaic for official purposes, the Tanukhids , and the Ghassanids . These dialects were local, coming from the Hauran —and not from the Arabian peninsula— and related to later Classical Arabic. Initially restricted to the steppe , Arabic-speaking nomads started to settle in cities and fertile areas after the Plague of Justinian in 542 CE. These Arab communities stretched from
7581-731: The Negev . The Negev desert Bedouins, who are also present in Palestine and Gaza Strip use a dialect closely related to those spoken in the Hijaz, and in the Sinai. Unlike them, the Bedouins of Galilee speak a dialect related to those of the Syrian Desert and Najd , which indicates their arrival to the region is relatively recent. The Palestinian resident Negev Bedouins, who are present around Hebron and Jerusalem have
7714-452: The Syrian Desert and the Negev , which belong to the dialects of the Arabian peninsula. Mesopotamian dialects from northeast Syria are also excluded. Other authors include Bedouin varieties. The term "Levantine Arabic" is not indigenous and, according to linguists Kristen Brustad and Emilie Zuniga, "it is likely that many speakers would resist the grouping on the basis that the rich phonological, morphological and lexical variation within
7847-522: The allomorphic variation between - a /- e in the feminine suffix. On the contrary, the insertion and deletion of vowels differ from the modern dialect. From 1516 to 1918, the Ottoman Empire dominated the Levant . Many Western words entered Arabic through Ottoman Turkish as it was the main language for transmitting Western ideas into the Arab world. The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in
7980-520: The continuum of mutually intelligible dialects spoken across the Levant. Other terms include "Syro-Palestinian", "Eastern Arabic", "East Mediterranean Arabic", "Syro-Lebanese" (as a broad term covering Jordan and Palestine as well), "Greater Syrian", or "Syrian Arabic" (in a broad meaning, referring to all the dialects of Greater Syria , which corresponds to the Levant). Most authors only include sedentary dialects, excluding Bedouin dialects of
8113-422: The exponent تاع tēʕ is only used by Muslims and never by Christians who use تبع tabaʕ . Contrary to others, Druze and Alawite dialects retained the phoneme /q/ . MSA influences Sunni dialects more. Jewish dialects diverge more from Muslim dialects and often show influences from other towns due to trade networks and contacts with other Jewish communities. For instance,
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#17330845483278246-497: The medium of instruction is MSA in social sciences and humanities , and English or French in the applied and medical sciences . In Syria , only MSA is used. In Turkey , article 42.9 of the Constitution prohibits languages other than Turkish from being taught as a mother tongue and almost all indigenous Arabic speakers are illiterate in the Arabic script unless they have learned it for religious purposes. In Israel, MSA
8379-560: The modern period . Aramaic was the dominant language in the Levant starting in the 1st millennium BCE; it coexisted with other languages, including many Arabic dialects spoken by various Arab tribes. With the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 7th century, new Arabic speakers from the Arabian Peninsula settled in the area, and a lengthy language shift from Aramaic to vernacular Arabic occurred. Scholars use "Levantine Arabic" to describe
8512-525: The verb precedes the object . SVO is more common in Levantine, while Classical Arabic prefers VSO. Subject-initial order indicates topic-prominent sentences, while verb-initial order indicates subject-prominent sentences. In interrogative sentences, the interrogative particle comes first. Nouns are either masculine or feminine and singular, dual or plural. The dual is formed with the suffix ين- -ēn . Most feminine singular nouns end with ـة tāʼ marbūṭah , pronounced as –a or -e depending on
8645-492: The vulgarisms encountered in Damascene poet Usama ibn Munqidh 's Memoirs : "All of them are found in today's spoken language of Syria and it is very interesting to note that that language is, on the whole, not very different from the language of ˀUsāma's days", in the 12th century. Lucas Caballero's Compendio (1709) describes spoken Damascene Arabic in the early 1700s. It corresponds to modern Damascene in some respects, such as
8778-461: The 1980s by using Levantine instead of Classical Arabic. Saadallah Wannous , the most renowned Syrian playwright, used Syrian Arabic in his later plays. Comic books , like the Syrian comic strip Kūktīl , are often written in Levantine instead of MSA. In novels and short stories, most authors, such as Arab Israelis Riyad Baydas [ ar ] and Odeh Bisharat [ ar ] , write
8911-595: The Arab people into different nations. On the other hand, Classical Arabic is seen as "the language of the Quran " and revered by Muslims who form the majority of the population. It is believed to be pure and everlasting, and Islamic religious ideology considers vernaculars to be inferior. Until recently, the use of Levantine in formal settings or written form was often ideologically motivated, for instance in opposition to pan-Arabism. Language attitudes are shifting, and using Levantine became de-ideologized for most speakers by
9044-508: The Arab world, colloquial varieties, such as Levantine, have been regarded as corrupt forms of MSA, less eloquent and not fit for literature, and thus looked upon with disdain. Because the French and the British emphasized vernaculars when they colonized the Arab world, dialects were also seen as a tool of colonialism and imperialism . Writing in the vernacular has been controversial because pan-Arab nationalists consider that this might divide
9177-556: The Arab world. Levantine is spoken in the fertile strip on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean : from the Turkish coastal provinces of Adana , Hatay , and Mersin in the north to the Negev, passing through Lebanon, the coastal regions of Syria ( Latakia and Tartus governorates) as well as around Aleppo and Damascus, the Hauran in Syria and Jordan, the rest of western Jordan, Palestine and Israel. Other Arabic varieties border it: Mesopotamian and North Mesopotamian Arabic to
9310-599: The Arabic language against linguistic corruption. It was the lingua franca across the Middle East and North Africa during classic times and in Al-Andalus before classic times. Napoleon 's campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) is generally considered to be the starting point of the modern period of the Arabic language, when the intensity of contacts between the Western world and Arabic culture increased. Napoleon introduced
9443-618: The Arabic script was dominant in Syria, while the Latin script dominated in Lebanon. Both scripts were used in Palestine, Israel, and Jordan. Several factors affect script choice: formality (the Arabic script is more formal), ethnicity and religion (Muslims use the Arabic script more while Israeli Druze and Bedouins prefer Hebrew characters), age (young use Latin more), education (educated people write more in Latin), and script congruence (the tendency to reply to
9576-512: The Arabic spoken by Israeli Arabs Arabrew (in Hebrew, ערברית "Aravrit "). The list of words adopted contain: Palestinians in the Palestinian territories sometimes refer to their brethren in Israel as "the b'seder Arabs" because of their adoption of the Hebrew word בְּסֵדֶר [beseder] for 'O.K.', (while Arabic is ماشي [ma:ʃi]). However words like ramzor רַמְזוֹר 'traffic light' and maḥsom מַחְסוֹם 'roadblock' have become
9709-667: The Drunkard'. In the 1960s, Said Akl led a movement in Lebanon to replace MSA as the national and literary language, and a handful of writers wrote in Lebanese. Foreign works, such as La Fontaine's Fables , were translated into Lebanese using Akl's alphabet. The Gospel of Mark was published in Palestinian in 1940, followed by the Gospel of Matthew and the Letter of James in 1946. The four gospels were translated in Lebanese using Akl's alphabet in 1996 by Gilbert Khalifé. Muris 'Awwad translated
9842-526: The Jewish dialect of Hatay is very similar to the Aleppo dialect, particularly the dialect of the Jews of Aleppo. It shows traits otherwise not found in any dialect of Hatay. Koineization in cities such as Damascus leads to a homogenization of the language among religious groups. In contrast, the marginalization of Christians in Jordan intensifies linguistic differences between Christian Arabs and Muslims. Levantine
9975-485: The Lebanese dialect in the studios of Beirut. Moreover, the Syrian dialect dominates in Syrian TV series (such as Bab Al-Hara ) and in the dubbing of Turkish television dramas (such as Noor ), famous across the Arab world. As of 2009 , most Arabic satellite television networks use colloquial varieties in their programs, except news bulletins in MSA. The use of vernacular in broadcasting started in Lebanon during
10108-539: The Levant carries important social meanings and distinctions." Levantine speakers often call their language العامية al-ʿāmmiyya , ' slang ', 'dialect', or 'colloquial' ( lit. ' the language of common people ' ), to contrast it to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Classical Arabic ( الفصحى al-fuṣḥā , lit. ' the eloquent ' ). They also call their spoken language عربي ʿarabiyy , 'Arabic'. Alternatively, they identify their language by
10241-503: The Levant. As is very common in Arabic-speaking countries, the Arabic dialect spoken by a person depends on both the region of origin, and socio-economic class. The hikaye , a form of women's oral literature inscribed to UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Palestine , is recited in both the urban and rural dialects of Palestinian Arabic. The Urban ('madani') dialects resemble closely northern Levantine Arabic dialects, that is,
10374-569: The Palestinian dialect of Arab Israelis since the establishment of Israel in 1948. In the 1960s, Said Akl—inspired by the Maltese and Turkish alphabets — designed a new Latin alphabet for Lebanese and promoted the official use of Lebanese instead of MSA, but this movement was unsuccessful. Although Levantine dialects have remained stable over the past two centuries, in cities such as Amman and Damascus, language standardization occurs through variant reduction and linguistic homogenization among
10507-453: The Quran in its original language. Written Classical Arabic underwent fundamental changes during the early Islamic era, adding dots to distinguish similarly written letters and adding the tashkīl (diacritical markings that guide pronunciation) by scholars such as Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali and Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi to preserve the correct form and pronunciation of the Quran and to defend
10640-735: The Semitic languages. The position of Levantine and other Arabic vernaculars in the Arabic macrolanguage family has also been contested. According to the Arabic tradition, Classical Arabic was the spoken language of the pre-Islamic and Early Islamic periods and remained stable until today's MSA. According to this view, all Arabic vernaculars, including Levantine, descend from Classical Arabic and were corrupted by contacts with other languages. Several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars are not
10773-491: The area, so as to maintain their regular activity, the upper classes had to quickly become fluent in the language of the new rulers who most probably were only few. The prevalence of Northern Levantine features in the urban dialects until the early 20th century, as well as in the dialect of Samaritans in Nablus (with systematic imala of /a:/) tends to show that a first layer of Arabization of urban upper classes could have led to what
10906-1078: The area; these are only partially mutually intelligible with both MSA and with each other depending on their proximity in the Arabic dialect continuum . Many linguists consider MSA to be distinct from Classical Arabic (CA; اللغة العربية الفصحى التراثية al-Lughah al-ʻArabīyah al-Fuṣḥā at-Turāthīyah ) – the written language prior to the mid-19th century – although there is no agreed moment at which CA turned into MSA. There are also no agreed set of linguistic criteria which distinguish CA from MSA; however, MSA differs most markedly in that it either synthesizes words from Arabic roots (such as سيارة car or باخرة steamship ) or adapts words from foreign languages (such as ورشة workshop or إنترنت Internet ) to describe industrial and post-industrial life. Native speakers of Arabic generally do not distinguish between "Modern Standard Arabic" and "Classical Arabic" as separate languages; they refer to both as Fuṣḥā Arabic or al-ʻArabīyah al-Fuṣḥā ( العربية الفصحى ), meaning "the most eloquent Arabic". They consider
11039-635: The codeswitching by the majority of Arab or Palestinian citizens of Israel who are Christian or Muslim from the North or the Triangle is described as limited, more intense codeswitching is seen among Arabs who live in Jewish-majority settlements as well as Bedouin (in the South) who serve in the army, although this variety can still be called codeswitching, and does not involve any significant structural change deviating from
11172-795: The colloquial variants of western Syria and Lebanon . This fact, that makes the urban dialects of the Levant remarkably homogeneous, is probably due to the trading network among cities in Ottoman Syria , or to an older Arabic dialect layer closer to the North Mesopotamian Arabic (the 'qeltu dialects"). Urban dialects are characterised by the [ʔ] ( hamza ) pronunciation of ق qaf , the simplification of interdentals as dentals plosives, i.e. ث as [t], ذ as [d] and both ض and ظ as [dˤ]. In borrowings from Modern Standard Arabic , these interdental consonants are realised as dental sibilants, i.e. ث as [s], ذ as [z] and ظ as [zˤ] but ض
11305-428: The dialect from which it sprung, likely Old Hijazi. Scholars disagree on the dates of phonological changes. The shift of interdental spirants to dental stops dates to the 9th to 10th centuries or earlier. The shift from / q / to a glottal stop is dated between the 11th and 15th centuries. Imāla seems already important in pre-Islamic times. Swedish orientalist Carlo Landberg [ sv ] writes about
11438-470: The dialects spoken in the northern West Bank and the Hebron area, which exhibit similarities to those spoken by descendants of Palestinian refugees . Palestinian Arabic dialects reflect a historical layering of languages previously spoken in the region, including Canaanite , Hebrew (both Biblical and Mishnaic ), Aramaic (especially Western Aramaic ), Persian , Greek , and Latin . Furthermore, during
11571-408: The dialogues in their Levantine dialect, while the rest of the text is in MSA. Lebanese authors Elias Khoury (especially in his recent works) and Kahlil Gibran wrote the main narrative in Levantine. Some collections of short stories and anthologies of Palestinian folktales ( turāṯ , 'heritage literature') display full texts in dialect. On the other hand, Palestinian children's literature
11704-637: The early 20th century reduced the use of Turkish words due to Arabization and the negative perception of the Ottoman era among Arabs. With the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (1920–1946), the British protectorate over Jordan (1921–1946), and the British Mandate for Palestine (1923–1948), French and English words gradually entered Levantine Arabic. Similarly, Modern Hebrew has significantly influenced
11837-421: The early modern period, these dialects were influenced by Turkish and various European languages . Since the establishment of Israel in 1948, Palestinian Arabic has also been shaped by Modern Hebrew influences. Prior to their adoption of the Arabic language from the seventh century onwards, most of the inhabitants of Palestine spoke varieties of Palestinian Aramaic ( Jewish , Christian , Samaritan ) as
11970-405: The exact boundary. The dialect of Aleppo shows Mesopotamian influence. The prestige dialect of Damascus is the most documented Levantine dialect. A "common Syrian Arabic" is emerging. Similarly, a "Standard Lebanese Arabic" is emerging, combining features of Beiruti Arabic (which is not prestigious) and Jabale Arabic, the language of Mount Lebanon . In Çukurova , Turkey, the local dialect
12103-401: The following ones. Note that it is tempting to consider the long [iː] in مين [miːn] 'who?' as an influence of ancient Hebrew מי [miː] on Classical Arabic من [man], but it could be as well an analogy with the long vowels of the other interrogatives. Marking Indirect Object In Classical Arabic, the indirect object was marked with the particle /li-/ ('for', 'to'). For instance 'I said to him'
12236-613: The four gospels and The Little Prince in 2001 in Lebanese in Arabic script. The Little Prince was also translated into Palestinian and published in two biscriptal editions (one Arabic/Hebrew script, one Arabic/Latin script). Newspapers usually use MSA and reserve Levantine for sarcastic commentaries and caricatures. Headlines in Levantine are common. The letter to the editor section often includes entire paragraphs in Levantine. Many newspapers also regularly publish personal columns in Levantine, such as خرم إبرة xurm ʾibra , lit. ' [through the] needle's eye ' in
12369-420: The history of Levantine before the modern period is unknown. Old Arabic was a dialect continuum stretching from the southern Levant (where Northern Old Arabic was spoken) to the northern Hijaz , in the Arabian Peninsula , where Old Hijazi was spoken. In the early 1st century CE, a great variety of Arabic dialects were already spoken by various nomadic or semi-nomadic Arabic tribes in the Levant , such as
12502-549: The invitation of Sultan Bayezid II . Their Maghrebi Judeo-Arabic dialect mixed with Palestinian Arabic. It peaked at 10,000 speakers and thrived alongside Yiddish among Ashkenazis until the 20th century in Mandatory Palestine . Today it is nearly extinct, with only 5 speakers remaining in the Galilee. It contained influence from Judeo-Moroccan Arabic and influence Judeo-Lebanese Arabic and Judeo-Syrian Arabic . On
12635-614: The language in reading and writing, not in speaking. In Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, French is the language of higher education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), while in the Gulf region it is English. Several reports mentioned that the use of Modern Standard Arabic is on the decline in the Arab world, especially in Gulf countries , such as the United Arab Emirates , where foreign workers make up more than 80% of
12768-458: The language of administration in 700 by order of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik . The language shift from Aramaic to vernacular Arabic was a long process over several generations, with an extended period of bilingualism , especially among non-Muslims. Christians continued to speak Syriac for about two centuries, and Syriac remained their literary language until the 14th century. In its spoken form, Aramaic nearly disappeared, except for
12901-903: The late 2010s. Levantine is now regarded in a more positive light, and its use in informal modes of writing is acknowledged, thanks to its recent widespread use online in both written and spoken forms. Code-switching between Levantine, MSA, English, French (in Lebanon and among Arab Christians in Syria ), and Hebrew (in Israel ) is frequent among Levantine speakers, in both informal and formal settings (such as on television). Gordon cites two Lebanese examples: "Bonjour, ya habibti, how are you?" ("Hello, my love, how are you?") and "Oui, but leish?" ("Yes, but why?"). Code-switching also happens in politics. For instance, not all politicians master MSA in Lebanon, so they rely on Lebanese. Many public and formal speeches and most political talk shows are in Lebanese instead of MSA. In Israel, Arabic and Hebrew are allowed in
13034-487: The letters. When Levantine is written with the Arabic script, short vowels are usually only indicated if a word is ambiguous. In the Arabic script, a shadda above a consonant doubles it. In Latin alphabet, the consonant is written twice: مدرِّسة , mudarrise , 'a female teacher' / مدرسة , madrase , 'a school'. Said Akl's Latin alphabet uses non-standard characters. VSO and SVO word orders are possible in Levantine. In both cases,
13167-553: The many languages they have been in contact with throughout history. From Hebrew, especially the Arab citizens of Israel have adopted many Hebraisms , like yesh יֵשׁ ("we did it!" – used as sports cheer) which has no real equivalent in Arabic. According to sociolinguist David Mendelson from Givat Haviva's Jewish-Arab Center for Peace , there is an adoption of words from Hebrew in Arabic spoken in Israel where alternative native terms exist. According to linguist Mohammed Omara, of Bar-Ilan University some researchers call
13300-444: The many regional dialects derived from Classical Arabic spoken daily across the region and learned as a first language , and as second language if people speak other languages native to their particular country. They are not normally written, although a certain amount of literature (particularly plays and poetry, including songs) exists in many of them. Literary Arabic (MSA) is the official language of all Arab League countries and
13433-458: The mixture of Arabic and Hebrew words within syntactic clauses, such as the use of a Hebrew preposition for an Arabic element and vice versa, and the adherence to gender and number agreement between Arabic and Hebrew elements (i.e. a Hebrew possessive adjective must agree with the gender of the Arabic noun it describes). While Hebrew definite articles can only be used for Hebrew nouns, Arabic definite articles are used for Hebrew nouns and are, in fact,
13566-481: The modern vernaculars are thus seen to lie very deep". The Damascus Psalm Fragment , dated to the 9th century but possibly earlier, sheds light on the Damascus dialect of that period. Because its Arabic text is written in Greek characters , it reveals the pronunciation of the time; it features many examples of imāla (the fronting and raising of /a/ toward /i/ ). It also features a pre-grammarian standard of Arabic and
13699-436: The most common DP structure. The Gospel of Mark was published in Palestinian Arabic in 1940, with the Gospel of Matthew and the Letter of James published in 1946. Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic ( MSA ) or Modern Written Arabic ( MWA ) is the variety of standardized , literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in some usages also
13832-434: The most distinctive features of Levantine is word-final imāla , a process by which the vowel corresponding to ة tāʼ marbūṭah is raised from [a] to [æ] , [ɛ] , [e] or even [i] in some dialects. The difference between the short vowel pairs e and i as well as o and u is not always phonemic. The vowel quality is usually i and u in stressed syllables. Vowels in word-final position are shortened. As
13965-414: The name of their country. شامي šāmi can refer to Damascus Arabic , Syrian Arabic , or Levantine as a whole. Lebanese literary figure Said Akl led a movement to recognize the " Lebanese language " as a distinct prestigious language instead of MSA. Levantine is a variety of Arabic, a Semitic language . There is no consensus regarding the genealogical position of Arabic within
14098-461: The non-Hebrew influenced norm. For the most part among all Christian and Muslim Arabs in Israel, the impact of Hebrew contact on Palestinian Arabic is limited to borrowing of nouns, mostly for specialist vocabulary, plus a few discourse markers. However, this does not apply to the Arabic spoken by the Israeli Druze, which has been documented as manifesting much more intense contact effects, including
14231-494: The north and north-east; Najdi Arabic to the east and south-east; and Northwest Arabian Arabic to the south and south-west. The similarity among Levantine dialects transcends geographical location and political boundaries. The urban dialects of the main cities (such as Damascus , Beirut , and Jerusalem ) have much more in common with each other than they do with the rural dialects of their respective countries. The sociolects of two different social or religious groups within
14364-464: The noun or adjective and has multiple pronunciations. Its vowel is dropped when the preceding word ends in a vowel. A helping vowel "e" is inserted if the following word begins with a consonant cluster. It assimilates with " sun letters " (consonants that are pronounced with the tip of the tongue). The letter Jeem ( ج ) is a sun letter for speakers pronouncing it as [ ʒ ] but not for those pronouncing it as [ d͡ʒ ]. For nouns referring to humans,
14497-439: The obsolete words used in Classical Arabic. As diglossia is involved, various Arabic dialects freely borrow words from MSA. This situation is similar to Romance languages , wherein scores of words were borrowed directly from formal Latin (most literate Romance speakers were also literate in Latin); educated speakers of standard colloquial dialects speak in this kind of communication. Reading out loud in MSA for various reasons
14630-449: The partition of the Levant of several states in the course of the 20th century. The Rural description given above is moving nowadays with two opposite trends. On the one hand, urbanisation gives a strong influence power to urban dialects. As a result, villagers may adopt them at least in part, and Beduin maintain a two-dialect practice. On the other hand, the individualisation that comes with urbanisation make people feel more free to choose
14763-484: The person's education, linguistic knowledge, and abilities. There may be sounds used which are missing in Classical Arabic but exist in colloquial varieties. For example, the consonants / v / , / p / , / t͡ʃ / (often realized as [ t ] + [ ʃ ] ) (which may or may not be written with special letters) and the vowels [ o ] , [ e ] (both short and long). There are no special letters in Arabic to distinguish between [e~i] and [o~u] pairs but
14896-892: The population and where English has become the lingua franca of commerce, media, and education. Content in Modern Standard Arabic is also under-represented online and in literature. According to the 2017 Arab Youth Survey done by polling firm PSB Insights , 24% of respondents (young urban Arabs aged 18 to 24) agreed with the statement: "On a daily basis, I use English more than Arabic." They were 56% in GCC countries . The New York Times reported that most Arab students of Northwestern University in Qatar and Georgetown University in Qatar did not have "professional proficiency" in Modern Standard Arabic. Levantine Arabic Levantine Arabic , also called Shami ( autonym : شامي šāmi or اللهجة الشامية el-lahje š-šāmiyye ),
15029-404: The preceding consonant: -a after guttural ( ح خ ع غ ق ه ء ) and emphatic consonants ( ر ص ض ط ظ ), -e after other consonants. Unlike Classical Arabic, Levantine has no case marking . Levantine has a definite article , which marks common nouns (i.e. nouns that are not proper nouns) as definite. Its absence marks common nouns as indefinite. The Arabic definite article ال il precedes
15162-689: The realization of the Classical jīm ج as [ ɡ ] by Egyptians), though other traits may show the speaker's region, such as the stress and the exact value of vowels and the pronunciation of other consonants. People who speak MSA also mix vernacular and Classical in pronunciation, words, and grammatical forms. Classical/vernacular mixing in formal writing can also be found (e.g., in some Egyptian newspaper editorials); others are written in Modern Standard/vernacular mixing, including entertainment news. According to Ethnologue , there are no native speakers of Modern Standard Arabic, but
15295-484: The regular (also called sound) masculine plural is formed with the suffix -īn. The regular feminine plural is formed with -āt. The masculine plural is used to refer to a group with both genders. There are many broken plurals (also called internal plurals), in which the consonantal root of the singular is changed . These plural patterns are shared with other varieties of Arabic and may also be applied to foreign borrowings. Several patterns of broken plurals exist, and it
15428-584: The same country may also show more dissimilarity with each other than when compared with their counterparts in another country. The process of linguistic homogenization within each country of the Levant makes a classification of dialects by country possible today. Linguist Kees Versteegh classifies Levantine into three groups: Lebanese/Central Syrian (including Beirut, Damascus, Druze Arabic , Cypriot Maronite ), North Syrian (including Aleppo), and Palestinian/Jordanian. He writes that distinctions between these groups are unclear, and isoglosses cannot determine
15561-555: The same name: Fuṣḥā Arabic or al-ʻArabīyah al-Fuṣḥā ( العربية الفصحى ), meaning "the most eloquent Arabic". When the distinction is made, they do refer to MSA as Fuṣḥā al-ʻAṣr ( فصحى العصر ), meaning "Contemporary Fuṣḥā" or "Modern Fuṣḥā", and to CA as Fuṣḥā at-Turāth ( فصحى التراث ), meaning "Hereditary Fuṣḥā" or "Historical Fuṣḥā". MSA tends to use simplified sentence structures and drop more complicated ones commonly used in Classical Arabic. Some examples include reliance on verb sentences (sentences that begin with
15694-603: The second century. The earliest Old Arabic inscription most resembling of Classical Arabic is found in Ayn Avadat , being a poem dedicated to King Obodas I , known for defeating the Hasmonean Alexander Jannaeus . Its date is estimated between 79 and 120 CE, but no later than 150 CE at most. The Nabataeans tended to adopt Aramaic as a written language as shown in the Nabataean language texts of Petra , as well as
15827-509: The second half of the 20th century with neologisms with Arab roots, but MSA typically borrows terms from other languages to coin new terminology. For some speakers MSA can include sounds not present in CA, like / eː / , / oː / , / t͡ʃ / , / p / and / v / , which occur in loanwords. MSA is loosely uniform across the Middle East as it is based on the convention of Arabic speakers rather than being
15960-410: The sounds o and e (short and long) exist in the colloquial varieties of Arabic and some foreign words in MSA. Modern Standard Arabic, like Classical Arabic before it, has three pairs of long and short vowels: /a/ , /i/ , and /u/ : While there are differences between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, Arabic speakers tend to find these differences unimportant, and generally refer to both by
16093-652: The southern extremities of the Syrian Desert to central Syria, the Anti-Lebanon Mountains , and the Beqaa Valley . The Muslim conquest of the Levant (634–640 ) brought Arabic speakers from the Arabian Peninsula who settled in the Levant. Arabic became the language of trade and public life in cities, while Aramaic continued to be spoken at home and in the countryside. Arabic gradually replaced Greek as
16226-542: The two forms to be two historical periods of one language. When the distinction is made, they do refer to MSA as Fuṣḥā al-ʻAṣr ( فصحى العصر ), meaning "Contemporary Fuṣḥā" or "Modern Fuṣḥā", and to CA as Fuṣḥā at-Turāth ( فصحى التراث ), meaning "Hereditary Fuṣḥā" or "Historical Fuṣḥā". Classical Arabic , also known as Quranic Arabic, is the language used in the Quran as well as in numerous literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times (7th to 9th centuries). Many Muslims study Classical Arabic in order to read
16359-401: The urban dialects side, the current trend is to have urban dialects getting closer to their rural neighbours, thus introducing some variability among cities in the Levant. For instance, Jerusalem used to say as Damascus ['nɪħna] ("we") and ['hʊnne] ("they") at the beginning of the 20th century, and this has moved to the more rural ['ɪħna] and ['hʊmme] nowadays. This trend was probably initiated by
16492-480: The variety of spoken Arabic that approximates this written standard. MSA is the language used in literature , academia , print and mass media , law and legislation , though it is generally not spoken as a first language , similar to Contemporary Latin . It is a pluricentric standard language taught throughout the Arab world in formal education , differing significantly from many vernacular varieties of Arabic that are commonly spoken as mother tongues in
16625-442: The various religious groups and neighborhoods. Urbanization and the increasing proportion of youth constitute the causes of dialect change . Urban forms are considered more prestigious, and prestige dialects of the capitals are replacing the rural varieties. With the emergence of social media, the amount of written Levantine has also significantly increased online. Levantine is not recognized in any state or territory. MSA
16758-406: The verb stem's main vowel is /u/, then the vowel in the prefix is also /u/, else the vowel is /i/. This is compared with standard Arabic (which can be seen as representative of other Arabic dialects), where the vowel in the prefix is consistently /a/. Examples: The Ancient peoples of Palestine , as well as their Palestinians successors, have either developed vocabularies, or borrowed them from
16891-413: The way they speak than before, and in the same way as some will use typical Egyptian or Lebanese features as [le:] for [le:ʃ], others may use typical rural features such as the rural realisation [kˤ] of ق as a pride reaction against the stigmatisation of this pronunciation. As Palestinian Arabic originated in the heartland of the Semitic languages, it has kept many regular Semitic words. For this reason, it
17024-520: The weekend edition of Al-Ayyam . From 1983 to 1990, Said Akl's newspaper Lebnaan was published in Lebanese written in the Latin alphabet. Levantine is also commonly used in zajal and other forms of oral poetry. Zajal written in vernacular was published in Lebanese newspapers such as Al-Mashriq ("The Levant", from 1898) and Ad-Dabbur ("The Hornet", from 1925). In the 1940s, five reviews in Beirut were dedicated exclusively to poetry in Lebanese. In
17157-445: Was established in 1828: the bilingual Turkish-Arabic Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriyya had great influence in the formation of Modern Standard Arabic. It was followed by Al-Ahram (1875) and al-Muqattam (1889). The Western–Arabic contacts and technological developments in especially the newspaper industry indirectly caused the revival of Arabic literature, or Nahda , in the late 19th and early 20th century. Another important development
17290-407: Was spoken natively by most Jews in Jerusalem , but the community shifted to Modern Hebrew after the establishment of Israel. Levantine is the second language of Dom people across the Levant, Circassians in Israel , Armenians in Lebanon , Chechens in Jordan , Assyrians in Syria and Lebanon , and most Kurds in Syria . In addition to the Levant, where it is indigenous , Levantine
17423-639: Was the establishment of Arabic-only schools in reaction against the Turkification of Arabic-majority areas under Ottoman rule . Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the literary standard across the Middle East , North Africa and Horn of Africa , and is one of the six official languages of the United Nations . Most printed material in the Arab League —including most books, newspapers, magazines, official documents, and reading primers for small children—is written in MSA. "Colloquial" Arabic refers to
17556-540: Was the language of administration of the Seleucid Empire (in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE ) and was maintained by the Roman (64 BCE–475 CE ), then Byzantine (476–640 ) empires. From the early 1st millennium BCE until the 6th century CE, there was a continuum of Central Semitic languages in the Arabian Peninsula, and Central Arabia was home to languages quite distinct from Arabic. Because there are no written sources,
17689-532: Was قلت له ['qultu 'lahu] and 'I wrote to her' was كتبت لها [ka'tabtu la'ha:]. In Palestinian Arabic, the Indirect Object marker is still based on the consonant /l/, but with more complex rules, and two different vocal patterns. The basic form before pronouns is a clitic [ɪll-], that always bears the stress, and to which person pronouns are suffixed. The basic form before nouns is [la]. For instance The most often cited example of vowel harmony in Palestinian Arabic
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