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Palestinian Arabic is a
dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated vari ...
of mutually intelligible varieties of
Levantine Arabic Levantine Arabic, also called Shami ( autonym: or ), is a group of mutually intelligible vernacular Arabic varieties spoken in the Levant, in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Turkey (historically in Adana, Mersin and Hatay on ...
spoken by most
Palestinians Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
in Palestine,
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
and in the
Palestinian diaspora The Palestinian diaspora ( ar, الشتات الفلسطيني, ''al-shatat al-filastini''), part of the wider Arab diaspora, are Palestinian people living outside the region of Palestine. History Palestinian individuals have a long history of ...
. Together with
Jordanian Arabic Jordanian Arabic is a dialect continuum of mutually intelligible varieties of Arabic spoken by the population of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Jordanian Arabic can be divided into sedentary and Bedouin varieties. Sedentary varieties belon ...
, it has the
ISO 639-3 ISO 639-3:2007, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages'', is an international standard for language codes in the ISO 639 series. It defines three-letter codes for ...
language code "ajp", known as
South Levantine Arabic South Levantine Arabic ( ar, اللهجة الشامية الجنوبية), a subdivision of Levantine Arabic, is spoken in the Southern Levant, mostly the Palestinian Territories (the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip) and ...
. In two dialect comparison researches, Palestinian Arabic was found to be the closest Arabic dialect to
Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of standardized, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; occasionally, it also re ...
, mainly the dialect of the people in
Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
. Further dialects can be distinguished within Palestine, such as spoken in the northern
West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
, that spoken by Palestinians in the Hebron area, which is similar to Arabic spoken by descendants of Palestinian refugees living in Jordan and south-western Syria.


History

The variations between dialects probably reflect the different historical steps of
Arabization Arabization or Arabisation ( ar, تعريب, ') describes both the process of growing Arab influence on non-Arab populations, causing a language shift by the latter's gradual adoption of the Arabic language and incorporation of Arab culture, aft ...
of Palestine. Prior to their adoption of the Arabic language from the seventh century onwards, the inhabitants of Palestine predominantly spoke
Jewish Palestinian Aramaic Jewish Palestinian Aramaic or Jewish Western Aramaic was a Western Aramaic language spoken by the Jews during the Classic Era in Judea and the Levant, specifically in Hasmonean, Herodian and Roman Judea and adjacent lands in the late first m ...
(as witnessed, for example, in Palestinian Jewish and Palestinian
Christian literature Christian literature is the literary aspect of Christian media, and it constitutes a huge body of extremely varied writing. Scripture While falling within the strict definition of literature, the Bible is not generally considered literature. Ho ...
), as well as
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
(probably in the upper or trader social classes), and some remaining traces of
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
. At that time in history, Arabic-speaking people living in the Negev desert or in the Jordan desert beyond Zarqa, Amman or Karak had no significant influence. Arabic-speaking people such as the Nabataeans tended to adopt Aramaic as a written language as shown in the Nabataean language texts of
Petra Petra ( ar, ٱلْبَتْرَاء, Al-Batrāʾ; grc, Πέτρα, "Rock", Nabataean: ), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō, is an historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. It is adjacent to the mountain of Ja ...
. Jews and Nabataeans lived side by side in Mahoza and other villages, and their dialects of what they would both have thought of as “Aramaic” would almost certainly have been mutually comprehensible. Additionally, occasional Arabic loan 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 Arabs took control of the area, so as to maintain their regular activity, the upper classes had quickly to get fluency in the language of the new masters 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 Samaritans (; ; he, שומרונים, translit=Šōmrōnīm, lit=; ar, السامريون, translit=as-Sāmiriyyūn) are an ethnoreligious group who originate from the ancient Israelites. They are native to the Levant and adhere to Samarit ...
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 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 rural forms can be correlated with features also observed in the few Syrian villages where use of Aramaic has been retained up to this day. Palatalisation of /k/ (but of /t/ too), pronunciation ˤof /q/ for instance. Note that the first also exists in Najdi Arabic and
Gulf Arabic Gulf Arabic ( ' local pronunciation: or ', local pronunciation: ) is a variety of the Arabic language spoken in Eastern Arabia around the coasts of the Persian Gulf in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, southern Iraq, eastern Sa ...
, but limited to palatal contexts (/k/ followed by i or a). Moreover, those Eastern dialects have or ʒfor /q/ . * The less-evolutive urban forms can be explained by a limitation owed to the contacts urban trader classes had to maintain with Arabic speakers of other towns in Syria or Egypt. * The Negev Bedouins dialect shares a number of features with bedouin Hejazi dialects (unlike Urban Hejazi).


Differences compared to other Levantine Arabic dialects

The dialects spoken by the Arabs of the Levant – the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean – or
Levantine Arabic Levantine Arabic, also called Shami ( autonym: or ), is a group of mutually intelligible vernacular Arabic varieties spoken in the Levant, in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Turkey (historically in Adana, Mersin and Hatay on ...
, form 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: * A conservative stress pattern, closer to Classical Arabic than anywhere else in the Arab world. * The indicative imperfect with a b- prefix * A very frequent Imāla of the feminine ending in front consonant context (names in -eh). * A realisation of /q/ in the cities, and a realisation of /q/ by the
Druze The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...
, and more variants (including in the countryside. * A shared lexicon The noticeable differences between southern and northern forms of Levantine Arabic, such as
Syrian Arabic Syrian Arabic refers to any of the Arabic varieties spoken in Syria, or specifically to Levantine Arabic. Aleppo, Idlib, and Coastal dialects Aleppo and surroundings Characterized by the imperfect with ''a''-: ''ašṛab'' ‘I drink’, ...
and
Lebanese Arabic Lebanese Arabic ( ar, عَرَبِيّ لُبْنَانِيّ ; autonym: ), or simply Lebanese ( ar, لُبْنَانِيّ ; autonym: ), is a variety of North Levantine Arabic, indigenous to and spoken primarily in Lebanon, with significant ...
, are stronger in non-urban dialects. The main differences between Palestinian and northern Levantine Arabic are as follows: * Phonetically, Palestinian dialects differ from Lebanese regarding the classical diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/, which have simplified to ːand :in Palestinian dialects as in Western Syrian, while in Lebanese they have retained a diphthongal pronunciation: ɪand ʊ * Palestinian dialects differ from Western Syrian as far as short stressed /i/ and /u/ are concerned: in Palestinian they keep a more or less open and pronunciation, and are not neutralised to as in Syrian. * The Lebanese and Syrian dialects are more prone to imāla of /a:/ than the Palestinian dialects are. For instance شتا 'winter' is ʃɪtain Palestinian but ʃətein Lebanese and Western Syrian. Some Palestinian dialects ignore imala totally (e.g. Gaza). Those dialects that prominently demonstrate imāla of /a:/ (e.g. Nablus) are distinct among Palestinian dialects. * In morphology, the plural personal pronouns are إحنا ɪħna'we', همه hʊmmealso hunne �نه'they', كو uكم- kʊm'you', هم- hʊmهني ennethem' in Palestinian, while they are in Syria/Lebanon نحنا nɪħna'we', هنه hʊnne'they', كن- kʊn'you', هن- hʊn'them'. The variants كو 'you', ـهن hen'them', and هنه inne'they' are used in Northern Palestinian. * The conjugation of the imperfect 1st and 3rd person masculine has different prefix vowels. Palestinians say بَكتب baktʊb'I write' بَشوف aʃuːf'I see' where Lebanese and Syrians say بِكتب bəktʊband بْشوف ʃuːf In the 3rd person masculine, Palestinians say بِكتب bɪktʊb'He writes' where Lebanese and Western Syrians say بيَكتب bjəktʊb * Hamza-initial verbs commonly have an :prefix sound in the imperfect in Palestinian. For example, Classical Arabic has اكل /akala/ 'to eat' in the perfect tense, and آكل /aːkulu/ with :sound in the first person singular imperfect. The common equivalent in Palestinian Arabic is اكل /akal/ in the perfect, with imperfect 1st person singular بوكل /boːkel/ (with the indicative b- prefix.) Thus, in the Galilee and Northern West Bank, the colloquial for the verbal expression, "I am eating" or "I eat" is commonly bo:kel/ bo:tʃel rather than ba:kʊlused in the Western Syrian dialect. Note however that ba:kelor even ba:kʊlare used in the South of Palestine. * The conjugation of the imperative is different too. 'Write!' is اكتب ʊktʊbin Palestinian, but كتوب toːb with different stress and vowel and length, in Lebanese and Western Syrian. * For the
negation In logic, negation, also called the logical complement, is an operation that takes a proposition P to another proposition "not P", written \neg P, \mathord P or \overline. It is interpreted intuitively as being true when P is false, and false ...
of verbs and prepositional pseudo-verbs, Palestinian, like Egyptian, typically suffixes ش on top of using the preverb negation /ma/, e.g. 'I don't write' is مابكتبش a bak'tʊbʃin Palestinian, but مابكتب a 'bəktʊbin Northern Levantine (although some areas in southern Lebanon utilise the ش suffix). However, unlike Egyptian, Palestinian allows for ش without the preverb negation /ma/ in the present tense, e.g. بكتبش ak'tubɪʃ * In vocabulary, Palestinian is closer to Lebanese than to Western Syrian, e.g. 'is not' is مش əʃin both Lebanese and Palestinian (although in a few villages مهوش ahuʃand مهيش ahiʃ which are found in Maltese and North African dialects, are used) while it is مو uin Syrian; 'How?' is كيف iːfin Lebanese and Palestinian while it is شلون �loːnin Syrian (though كيف is also used) . However, Palestinian also shares items with
Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and ...
, e.g. 'like' (prep.) is زي ejjin Palestinian in addition to مثل ɪtl as found in Syrian and Lebanese Arabic. There are also typical Palestinian words that are
shibboleth A shibboleth (; hbo, , šībbōleṯ) is any Convention (norm), custom or tradition, usually a choice of phrasing or even a single word, that distinguishes one group of people from another. Shibboleths have been used throughout history in many s ...
s in the Levant. * A frequent Palestinian إشي ɪʃi'thing, something', as opposed to شي �iin Lebanon and Syria. * Besides common Levantine هلق hallaʔ'now', Central Rural dialects around Jerusalem and Ramallah use هالقيت alke:t(although alʔe:tis used in some cities such as Tulkarm, Hebron, and Nablus alongside هلق allaʔ(both from هالوقت /halwaqt/ ) and northern Palestinians use إسا ɪssɑ إساع ɪssɑʕ and هسة assɑfrom الساعة/ɪs:ɑ:ʕɑ/). Peasants in the southern West Bank also use هالحين alaħinor هالحينة alħina(both from هذا الحين aːða ‘alħin *Some rural Palestinians use بقى
aqa AQA, formerly the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, is an awarding body in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It compiles specifications and holds examinations in various subjects at GCSE, AS and A Level and offers vocational q ...
(meaning 'remained' in MSA) as a verb to be alongside the standard كان a:n([ka:na in MSA)


Social and geographic dialect structuration

As is very common in Arabic-speaking countries, the dialect spoken by a person depends on both the region he/she comes from, and the social group he/she belongs to.


Palestinian urban dialects

The Urban ('madani') dialects resemble closely northern Levantine Arabic dialects, that is, 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 the Ottoman Levant, or to an older Arabic dialect layer closer to the qeltu dialects still spoken in
Upper Mesopotamia Upper Mesopotamia is the name used for the uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. Since the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century, the region has been ...
. Urban dialects are characterised by the (
hamza Hamza ( ar, همزة ') () is a letter in the Arabic alphabet, representing the glottal stop . Hamza is not one of the 28 "full" letters and owes its existence to historical inconsistencies in the standard writing system. It is derived from ...
) pronunciation of ق qaf, the simplification of interdentals as dentals plosives, i.e. ث as ذ as and both ض and ظ as ˤ Note however that in borrowings from
Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of standardized, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; occasionally, it also re ...
, these interdental consonants are realised as dental sibilants, i.e. ث as ذ as and ظ as ˤbut ض is kept as ˤ 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 The urban dialects also ignore the difference between masculine and feminine in the plural pronouns انتو ɪntuis both 'you' (masc. plur.) and 'you' (fem. plur.), and hʊmmeis both 'they' (masc.) and 'they' (fem.)


Rural varieties

Rural or farmer (' fallahi') variety 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 ɪntuis 'you' (masc.) while انتن ɪntɪnis 'you' (fem.), and همه hʊmmeis 'they' (masc.) while هنه hɪnneis 'they' (fem.). The three rural groups in the region are the following: * North Galilean rural dialect - does not feature the k > tʃ palatalisation, and many of them have kept the realisation of ق (e.g. Maghār, Tirat Carmel). In the very north, they announce dialect thats is more closely to the Northern Levantine dialects with n-ending pronouns such as كن- kʊn'you', هن- hʊn'them' (Tarshiha, etc.). * Central rural Palestinian (From Nazareth to Bethlehem, including Jaffa countryside) exhibits a very distinctive feature with pronunciation of ك 'kaf' as ʃ'tshaf' (e.g. كفية 'keffieh' as ʃʊ'fijje and ق 'qaf' as pharyngealised /k/ i.e. ˤ'kaf' (e.g. قمح 'wheat' as ˤɑmᵊħ. This k > tʃ sound change is not conditioned by the surrounding sounds in Central Palestinian. This combination is unique in the whole Arab world, but could be related to the 'qof' transition to 'kof' in the Aramaic dialect spoken in Ma'loula, north of
Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...
. * Southern outer rural Levantine Arabic (to the south of an Isdud/
Ashdod Ashdod ( he, ''ʾašdōḏ''; ar, أسدود or إسدود ''ʾisdūd'' or '' ʾasdūd'' ; Philistine: 𐤀𐤔𐤃𐤃 *''ʾašdūd'') is the sixth-largest city in Israel. Located in the country's Southern District, it lies on the Mediterran ...
-
Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital ...
line) has k > tʃ only in presence of front vowels (ديك 'rooster' is i:tʃin the singular but the plural ديوك 'roosters' is ju:kbecause u prevents /k/ from changing to ʃ. In this dialect ق is not pronounced as but instead as This dialect is actually very similar to northern Jordanian (
Ajloun Ajloun ( ar, عجلون, ''‘Ajlūn''), also spelled Ajlun, is the capital town of the Ajloun Governorate, a hilly town in the north of Jordan, located 76 kilometers (around 47 miles) north west of Amman. It is noted for its impressive ruins of ...
,
Irbid Irbid ( ar, إِربِد), known in ancient times as Arabella or Arbela (Άρβηλα in Ancient Greek), is the capital and largest city of the Irbid Governorate. It also has the second largest metropolitan population in Jordan after Amman, wit ...
) and the dialects of Syrian
Hauran The Hauran ( ar, حَوْرَان, ''Ḥawrān''; also spelled ''Hawran'' or ''Houran'') is a region that spans parts of southern Syria and northern Jordan. It is bound in the north by the Ghouta oasis, eastwards by the al-Safa field, to the s ...
. In Southern rural Palestinian, the feminine ending often remains


Bedouin variety

The Bedouins of Southern Levant use two different ('
badawi In Arabic onomastics ("Nisba (onomastics), ''nisbah''"), Al-Badawi denotes a relationship to or from Bedouin areas (consequently "badawi" may sometimes imply ''rustic''). It is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: * ...
') dialects in
Galilee Galilee (; he, הַגָּלִיל, hagGālīl; ar, الجليل, al-jalīl) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and Lower Gali ...
and the
Negev The Negev or Negeb (; he, הַנֶּגֶב, hanNegév; ar, ٱلنَّقَب, an-Naqab) is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its sout ...
. The Negev desert Bedouins, who are also present in Palestine and
Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
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 The Syrian Desert ( ar, بادية الشام ''Bādiyat Ash-Shām''), also known as the North Arabian Desert, the Jordanian steppe, or the Badiya, is a region of desert, semi-desert and steppe covering of the Middle East, including parts of so ...
and
Najd Najd ( ar, نَجْدٌ, ), or the Nejd, forms the geographic center of Saudi Arabia, accounting for about a third of the country's modern population and, since the Emirate of Diriyah, acting as the base for all unification campaigns by the ...
, which indicates their arrival to the region is relatively recent. The Palestinian resident Negev Bedouins, who are present around Hebron and Jerusalem have a specific vocabulary, they maintain the interdental consonants, they do not use the ش- ʃnegative suffix, they always realise ك /k/ as and ق /q/ as and distinguish plural masculine from plural feminine pronouns, but with different forms as the rural speakers.


Current evolutions

On 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 ɪħnaand hʊmmenowadays. This trend was probably initiated by 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 the way they speak than before, and in the same way as some will use typical Egyptian or Lebanese features as e:for e:ʃ others may use typical rural features such as the rural realisation ˤof ق as a pride reaction against the stigmatisation of this pronunciation.


Phonology


Consonants

* Sounds are mainly heard in both the rural and Bedouin dialects. Sounds and / are mainly heard in the urban dialects. is heard in the rural dialects. * is heard in the Bedouin dialects, and may also be heard as a uvular . * mainly occurs as a palatalization of , and is only heard in a few words as phonemic. In some rural dialects has replaced as a phoneme. * may de-pharyngealize as in certain phonetic environments. * can also be heard as velar among some rural dialects. * can be heard as within devoiced positions.


Vowels

* The short vowel is typically heard as , when in unstressed form. * are heard as when following and preceding a pharyngealized consonant. The short vowel as , can also be raised as in lax form within closed syllables. * can be lowered to when in lax form, or within the position of a post-velar consonant.


Specific aspects of the vocabulary

As Palestinian Arabic is spoken in the heartland of the Semitic languages, it has kept many typical semitic words. For this reason, it is relatively easy to guess how
Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of standardized, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; occasionally, it also re ...
words map onto Palestinian Arabic Words. The list (Swadesh list) of basic word 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 the
Classical Arabic Classical Arabic ( ar, links=no, ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ, al-ʿarabīyah al-fuṣḥā) or Quranic Arabic is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notab ...
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 a preposition and a suffix pronoun. * ''there is, there are'' is فيه iin the imperfect, and كان فيه a:n fiin the perfect. * To want is formed with bɪdd + suffix pronouns and to have is formed with ʕɪnd + suffix pronouns. In the imperfect they are In the perfect, they are preceded by كان aːn e.g. ''we wanted'' is كان بدنا aːn 'bɪddna Relative clause As in most forms of colloquial Arabic, the relative clause markers of
Classical Arabic Classical Arabic ( ar, links=no, ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ, al-ʿarabīyah al-fuṣḥā) or Quranic Arabic is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notab ...
(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 the following ones. Note that it is tempting to consider the long ːin مين iːn'who?' as an influence of ancient Hebrew מי on Classical Arabic من an 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' was قلت له qultu 'lahuand 'I wrote to her' was كتبت لها a'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 �ll- that always bears the stress, and to which person pronouns are suffixed. The basic form before nouns is a For instance * ... قلت لإمك ʔʊlət la-'ɪmmak ...'I told your mother ...' * ...اعطينا المكتوب لمدير البنك �ɑʕtˤeːna l maktuːb la mʊ'diːɾ ɪl baŋk'We gave the letter to the bank manager' * ... قلت إله �ʊlt- 'ɪll-o ...'I told him ...' * ... قلت إلها �ʊlt- 'ɪl(l)-ha ...'I told her ...' * ... كتبت إلّي atabt- 'ɪll-i ...'You wrote me ...' Borrowings Palestinians have borrowed words from the many languages they have been in contact with throughout history. For example, * from Aramaic - especially in the place names, for instance there are several mountains called جبل الطور ʒabal ɪtˤ tˤuːɾwhere طور ˤuːɾis just the Aramaic טור for 'mountain'. * Oda for 'room' from Turkish oda. * Kundara (or qundara) for 'shoe' from Turkish kundura. * Dughri (دُغْرِيّ) for 'forward' from Turkish doğru * Suffix -ji denoting a profession eg. kahwaji (café waiter) from Turkish kahveci. And sufraji, sabonji, etc. * Latin left words in Levantine Arabic, not only those as قصر �asˤɾ< castrum 'castle' or قلم �alam< calamus which are also known in MSA, but also words such as طاولة ˤa:wle< tabula 'table', which are known in the Arab world. * from Italian بندورة an'do:ra< pomodoro 'tomato' * from French كتو ketto< gâteau 'cake' * from English بنشر banʃar< puncture, rɪkk< truck * From Hebrew, especially the
Arab citizens of Israel The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic an ...
have adopted many
Hebraism Hebraism �hiːbreɪz(ə)mis a lexical item, usage or trait characteristic of the Hebrew language. By successive extension it is often applied to the Jewish people, their faith, national ideology or culture. Idiomatic Hebrew Hebrew has many idiom ...
s, like ("we did it!" - used as sports cheer) which has no real equivalent in Arabic. According to social linguist Dr. 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 Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academi ...
some researchers call the Arabic spoken by Israeli Arabs ''Arabrew'' (in Hebrew, ערברית ''"Aravrit''"). The list of words adopted contain: ** رمزور am'zo:rfrom 'traffic light' ** شمنيت ʃamenetfrom 'sour cream' ** بسدر e'sederfrom 'O.K, alright' ** كوخفيت oxa'vi:tfrom 'asterisk' ** بلفون ele'fo:nfrom 'cellular phone'. 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 esederfor 'O.K.', (while Arabic is ماشي a:ʃi. However words like 'traffic light' and 'roadblock' have become a part of the general Palestinian vernacular. The 2009 film '' Ajami'' is mostly spoken in Palestinian-Hebrew 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 In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. Code-switching is different from plurilingualism ...
without much structural effect While 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 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 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, the most common DP structure.


Vowel harmony

The most often cited example of
vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, me ...
in Palestinian Arabic is in the
present tense The present tense ( abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present ...
conjugation Conjugation or conjugate may refer to: Linguistics *Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form * Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language Mathematics *Complex conjugation, the change ...
s of verbs. If the root vowel is rounded, then the roundness spreads to other high vowels in the
prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy''. Particul ...
. Vowel harmony in PA is also found in the nominal verbal domain.
Suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carr ...
es are immune to rounding harmony, and vowels left of the stressed
syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological ...
do not have vowel harmony. Palestinian Arabic has a regressive vowel harmony for these present tense conjugations: if 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 Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of Standard language, standardized, Literary language, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th ...
(which can be seen as representative of other Arabic dialects), where the vowel in the prefix is consistently /a/. Examples: *‘he understands’: PA ‘''bifham''’ (MSA, or standard Arabic, ‘''yafhamu''’) *‘he studies’: PA ‘''budrus''’ (MSA, ‘''yadrusu''’) *‘she wears’: PA ‘''btilbis''’ (MSA, ‘''talbisu''’) *‘she writes’: PA ‘''btuktub''’ (MSA, ‘''taktubu''’) *‘oven’: PA ‘''furun’ (MSA, ‘''furn''’) *‘wedding’: PA ‘''Urus''’ (MSA,‘'urs'’)


Publications

The
Gospel of Mark The Gospel of Mark), or simply Mark (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). is the second of the four canonical gospels and of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist to h ...
was published in Palestinian Arabic in 1940, with the
Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and form ...
and the Letter of James published in 1946.


See also

* Palestine *
Varieties of Arabic The varieties (or dialects or vernacular languages) of Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family originating in the Arabian Peninsula, are the linguistic systems that Arabic speakers speak natively. There are considerable vari ...
*
Jordanian Arabic Jordanian Arabic is a dialect continuum of mutually intelligible varieties of Arabic spoken by the population of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Jordanian Arabic can be divided into sedentary and Bedouin varieties. Sedentary varieties belon ...
*
Syrian Arabic Syrian Arabic refers to any of the Arabic varieties spoken in Syria, or specifically to Levantine Arabic. Aleppo, Idlib, and Coastal dialects Aleppo and surroundings Characterized by the imperfect with ''a''-: ''ašṛab'' ‘I drink’, ...
*
Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and ...
*
Music of Palestine The music of Palestine ( ar, الموسيقى الفلسطينية) is one of many regional subgenres of Arabic music. While it shares much in common with Arabic music, both structurally and instrumentally, there are musical forms and subject matt ...
* Arabic language in Israel ** Academy of the Arabic Language in Israel


References


Further reading

*P. Behnstedt, Wolfdietrich Fischer and Otto Jastrow, ''Handbuch der Arabischen Dialekte''. 2nd ed. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1980 () *Haim Blanc, ''Studies in North Palestinian Arabic: linguistic inquiries among the Druzes of Western Galilee and Mt. Carmel''. Oriental notes and studies, no. 4. Jerusalem: Typ. Central Press 1953. *J. Blau, "Syntax des palästinensischen Bauerndialektes von Bir-Zet: auf Grund der Volkserzahlungen aus Palastina von Hans Schmidt und Paul kahle". Walldorf-Hessen: Verlag fur Orientkunde H. Vorndran 1960. *J. Cantineau, "Remarques sur les parlés de sédentaires syro-libano-palestiniens", in: ''Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris'' 40 (1938), pp. 80–89. *R. L. Cleveland, "Notes on an Arabic Dialect of Southern Palestine", in: ''Bulletin of the American Society of Oriental Research'' 185 (1967), pp. 43–57. *Olivier Durand, ''Grammatica di arabo palestinese: il dialetto di Gerusalemme'', Rome: Università di Roma La Sapienza 1996. *Yohanan Elihai, ''Dictionnaire de l’arabe parlé palestinien: français-arabe''. Jerusalem: Typ. Yanetz 1973. *Yohanan Elihai, ''The olive tree dictionary: a transliterated dictionary of conversational Eastern Arabic (Palestinian)''. Washington, DC: Kidron Pub. 2004 () *Elias N. Haddad, "Manual of Palestinian Arabic". Jerusalem: Syrisches Weisenhaus 1909. *Moin Halloun, ''A Practical Dictionary of the Standard Dialect Spoken in Palestine''. Bethlehem University 2000. *Moin Halloun, ''Lehrbuch ds Palästinensisch-Arabischen''. Heidelberg 2001. *Moin Halloun, ''Spoken Arabic for Foreigners. An Introduction to the Palestinian Dialect''. Vol. 1 & 2. Jerusalem 2003. *Arye Levin, ''A Grammar of the Arabic Dialect of Jerusalem'' [in
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
]. Jerusalem: Magnes Press 1994 () *M. Piamenta, ''Studies in the Syntax of Palestinian Arabic''. Jerusalem 1966. *Frank A. Rice and Majed F. Sa'ed, ''Eastern Arabic: an introduction to the spoken Arabic of Palestine, Syria and Lebanon''. Beirut: Khayat's 1960. *Frank A. Rice, ''Eastern Arabic-English, English-Eastern Arabic: dictionary and phrasebook for the spoken Arabic of Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine/Israel and Syria''. New York: Hippocrene Books 1998 () *H. Schmidt & P. E. Kahle, "Volkserzählungen aus Palaestina, gesammelt bei den Bauern von Bir-Zet". Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1918. *Kimary N. Shahin, ''Palestinian Rural Arabic (Abu Shusha dialect)''. 2nd ed. University of British Columbia. LINCOM Europa, 2000 ()


External links

*
The Arabic dialect of central Palestine


*
Phonological change and variation in Palestinian Arabic as spoken inside Israel
, Dissertation Proposal by Uri Horesh, Philadelphia, December 12, 2003 (
PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
)
The Corpus of Spoken Palestinian Arabic (CoSPA)
project description by Otto Jastrow. {{Authority control Languages of the State of Palestine South Levantine Arabic Languages of Israel