Bedouin Arabic

Bedouin Arabic
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Bedouin Arabic
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Bedouin Arabicrefers to a typological group ofArabic dialectshistorically linked toBedouintribes, that has spread among both nomadic and sedentary groups across theArab World.The group of dialects originate from Arabian tribes inNajdand theHejazthat have spread since the10th centuryuntil modern day. Bedouin dialects vary by region and tribe, but they typically share a set of features which distinguish them from sedentary-type dialects in each region.

The term can be ambiguous, as it can refer to dialects of nomadic Bedouins, dialects of Bedouin-descended populations, or sedentary dialects that have been influenced by Bedouin dialects.

Background

The similarities between Bedouin dialects are due to their historical contact with one another, due to rapid population movements that quickly erase linguistic diversity.

Features

• Voiced pronunciation ofQāf,in contrast to voiceless pronunciations, such as/q/in many sedentary dialects, or/ʔ/inEgyptian Arabic,Levantine Arabic,and theMaltese language.This is the only innovation that can be said to unite all Bedouin dialects.In most cases, this voiced pronunciation is aVoiced velar plosive,but it is sometimes affricated in some Eastern Bedouin dialects to/d͡z/inNajd,or to/d͡ʒ/inEastern Arabia,Mesopotamia,andShawi dialects.
• Preserving interdental consonantsṮāʾ/θ/,Ḏāl/ð/,andẒāʾ/ðˤ/. Like in most other dialects,Ḍādand Ẓāʾ have merged, soḌādis also pronounced as /ðˤ/. Many sedentary dialects preserve them as well, while many pronounce them as/t/,/d/,and /dˤ/, respectively. In some sedentary dialects in Egypt and the Levant, interdental consonants in loans from Standard Arabic are often pronounced as/s/,/z/,and /zˤ/.
• Preservingnunationas suffix-in,for example:bintin zēnah.
• Distinguishing masculine and feminine plural pronouns-humand-hun.
• Internal passive verb forms, such askutib(passive voice ofkatab). In sedentary dialects, prefixes such asin-(inkatab) andit-(itkatab) are used.

Eastern Bedouin features

• Verbal suffix-ūnto mark plural subjects.
• Palatalizationof /g/ (qāf) and /k/ occurring before front vowels, with two realizations:
  • /g/ →/d͡ʒ/and /k/ →/tʃ/inGulf,Mesopotamian,andShawi dialects.
  • /g/ →/d͡z/and /k/ →/ts/in the Najdi dialect group.

Examples

Eastern dialects:

• Najdi Arabic,spoken in Saudi Arabia, theSyrian Desert,andUpper Mesopotamia.
• Shawi Arabic,spoken by sheep-rearing tribes living between theTigrisand theEuphrates,but also in northernJordan,Palestine,westernSyria,andLebanon.
• Northwest Arabian Arabic,a variety of Arabic spoken by Bedouins mostly in northwestern Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan, southern Israel, and eastern Egypt.
• Omani bedouin dialects.
• Gulf Arabic,spoken by sedentary populations on the Persian Gulf coast, many of whom descend from Bedouin tribes.
• The Gelet dialects ofMesopotamian Arabic,spoken in the majority ofIraq.

Western dialects:

• Hilalian dialects,a group ofMaghrebidialects that include most bedouin dialects in theMaghreb.
• Hassaniya Arabic,the variety of Arabic originally spoken by the Beni Hassān Bedouin tribes.
• Libyan Arabicor Sulaimitian Arabic, a variety of Arabic spoken in Libya and neighboring countries.
• Saharan Arabic,a variety of Arabic spoken in Algeria.
• Chadian Arabic,the variety of Arabic spoken inNigeria,Chad,andSudan.

See also

• Bedouin,a predominantly desert-dwelling Arabian ethnic group
• Varieties of Arabic,regional and other varieties of the Arabic language