Levantine Arabic, also called Shami (
autonym: or ), is an
Arabic variety spoken in the
Levant
The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...
, namely in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel and southern Turkey (historically only in
Adana
Adana is a large city in southern Turkey. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative seat of the Adana Province, Adana province, and has a population of 1 81 ...
,
Mersin
Mersin () is a large city and port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of Mediterranean Region, Turkey, southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of the Mersin Province (formerly İçel). It is made up of four district governorates ...
and
Hatay
Hatay Province (, ) is the southernmost Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is , and its population is 1,686,043 (2022). It is situated mostly outside Anatolia, ...
provinces). With over 60 million speakers, Levantine is, alongside
Egyptian
''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt.
Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to:
Nations and ethnic groups
* Egyptians, a national group in North Africa
** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...
, one of the two
prestige varieties of
spoken Arabic comprehensible all over the
Arab world
The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...
.
Levantine is not
officially recognized in any state or territory. Although it is the
majority language in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, it is predominantly used as a spoken
vernacular
Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
in daily communication, whereas most written and official documents and media in these countries use the official
Modern Standard Arabic
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA) is the variety of Standard language, standardized, Literary language, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in some usages al ...
(MSA), a form of
literary
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, ...
Arabic only
acquired through formal education that does not function as a
native language
A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' ...
. In Israel and Turkey, Levantine is a
minority language
A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) and ...
.
The
Palestinian dialect is lexically 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 , '
slang
A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...
', 'dialect', or 'colloquial'. With the emergence of social media, attitudes toward Levantine have improved. The amount of written Levantine has significantly increased, especially online, where Levantine is written using
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
,
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
, 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
Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...
influence.
The lack of written sources in Levantine makes it impossible to determine its history before the
modern period
The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500 ...
. 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
The Muslim conquest of the Levant (; ), or Arab conquest of Syria, was a 634–638 CE invasion of Byzantine Syria by the Rashidun Caliphate. A part of the wider Arab–Byzantine wars, the Levant was brought under Arab Muslim rule and develope ...
in the 7th century, new Arabic speakers from the
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world.
Geographically, the ...
settled in the area, and a lengthy
language shift
Language shift, also known as language transfer, language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceived ...
from Aramaic to vernacular Arabic occurred.
Naming and classification

Scholars use "Levantine Arabic" to describe the
continuum of
mutually intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intellig ...
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
Syria, ( or ''Shaam'') also known as Greater Syria or Syria-Palestine, is a historical region located east of the Mediterranean Sea in West Asia, broadly synonymous with the Levant. The region boundaries have changed throughout history. Howe ...
, which corresponds to the Levant). Most authors only include
sedentary dialects, excluding
Levantine Bedawi Arabic of the
Syrian Desert
The Syrian Desert ( ''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 about of West Asia, including parts of northern Saudi Arabia, ea ...
and the
Negev
The Negev ( ; ) or 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 southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort town, resort city ...
, which belongs to
Peninsular Arabic
Peninsular Arabic are the varieties of Arabic spoken throughout the Arabian Peninsula. This includes the countries of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Southern Iran, South Iraq, Southern Iraq and Jordan.
...
.
Mesopotamian Arabic
Mesopotamian Arabic (), also known as Iraqi Arabic or the Iraqi dialect (), or just as Iraqi (), is a group of varieties of Arabic spoken in the Mesopotamian basin of Iraq, as well as in Syria, southeastern Turkey, Iran, Kuwait and Iraqi diaspora ...
from northeast Syria is also excluded. Other authors include
Bedouin
The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...
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 the Levant carries important social meanings and distinctions." Levantine speakers often call their language , '
slang
A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...
', 'dialect', or 'colloquial' (), to contrast it to
Modern Standard Arabic
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA) is the variety of Standard language, standardized, Literary language, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in some usages al ...
(MSA) and
Classical Arabic
Classical Arabic or Quranic Arabic () is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notably in Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid literary texts such as poetry, e ...
( , ).
They also call their spoken language , 'Arabic'. Alternatively, they identify their language by the name of their country.
[ can refer to ]Damascus Arabic
Damascus Arabic (), also called Damascus dialect or Damascene dialect is a Levantine Arabic spoken dialect, indigenous to and spoken primarily in Damascus. As the dialect of the capital city of Syria, and due to its use in the Syrian broadcast ...
, Syrian Arabic, or Levantine as a whole.[ Lebanese literary figure ]Said Akl
Said Akl (; 4 July 1911 – 28 November 2014) was a Lebanese poet, linguist, philosopher, writer, playwright and language reformer. He is considered one of the most important Lebanese poets of the modern era. He is most famous for his advocacy on ...
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
The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic,
Amharic, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew, Maltese, Modern South Arabian languages and numerous other ancient and modern languages. They are spoken by mo ...
. There is no consensus regarding the genealogical position of Arabic within 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 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
Proto-Arabic is the name given to the hypothetical reconstructed ancestor of all the varieties of Arabic attested since the 9th century BC.
Evidence
There are two lines of evidence to reconstruct Proto-Arabic:
*Evidence of Arabic becomes m ...
. 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 ...
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
''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt.
Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to:
Nations and ethnic groups
* Egyptians, a national group in North Africa
** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...
, and Maghrebi. The linguistic distance between these vernaculars is at least as large as between Germanic languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoke ...
or Romance languages
The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
. 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 vernaculars in the Arab world and the most commonly taught to non-native speakers outside the Arab world.
Geographical distribution and varieties
Dialects
Levantine is spoken in the fertile strip on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean: from the Turkish coastal provinces of Adana
Adana is a large city in southern Turkey. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative seat of the Adana Province, Adana province, and has a population of 1 81 ...
, Hatay
Hatay Province (, ) is the southernmost Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is , and its population is 1,686,043 (2022). It is situated mostly outside Anatolia, ...
, and Mersin
Mersin () is a large city and port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of Mediterranean Region, Turkey, southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of the Mersin Province (formerly İçel). It is made up of four district governorates ...
in the north to the Negev, passing through Lebanon, the coastal regions of Syria (Latakia
Latakia (; ; Syrian Arabic, Syrian pronunciation: ) is the principal port city of Syria and capital city of the Latakia Governorate located on the Mediterranean coast. Historically, it has also been known as Laodicea in Syria or Laodicea ad Mar ...
and Tartus
Tartus ( / ALA-LC: ''Ṭarṭūs''; known in the County of Tripoli as Tortosa and also transliterated from French language, French Tartous) is a major port city on the Mediterranean coast of Syria. It is the second largest port city in Syria (af ...
governorates) as well as around Aleppo
Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...
and Damascus,[ the ]Hauran
The Hauran (; 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, to the northeast by the al-Safa field, to the east and south by the Harrat ...
in Syria and Jordan, the rest of western Jordan, Palestine and Israel.[ Other Arabic varieties border it: Mesopotamian and ]North Mesopotamian Arabic
North Mesopotamian Arabic, also known as Moslawi (meaning 'of Mosul
Mosul ( ; , , ; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghda ...
to the north and north-east; Najdi Arabic
Najdi Arabic (, Najdi Arabic: , ) is the group of Arabic varieties originating from the Najd region of Saudi Arabia. Outside of Saudi Arabia, it is also the main Arabic variety spoken in the Syrian Desert of Iraq, Jordan, and Syria (with the exc ...
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
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
, Beirut
Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...
, and Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
) have much more in common with each other than they do with the rural dialects of their respective countries. The sociolect
In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, age group, or other social group.
Sociolects involve both passive acquisit ...
s of two different social or religious groups within 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 isogloss
An isogloss, also called a heterogloss, is the geographic boundary of a certain linguistics, linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or the use of some morphological or syntactic feature. Isoglosses are a ...
es cannot determine 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
Mount Lebanon (, ; , ; ) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It is about long and averages above in elevation, with its peak at . The range provides a typical alpine climate year-round.
Mount Lebanon is well-known for its snow-covered mountains, ...
. In Çukurova
Çukurova (), or the Cilician Plain (''Cilicia Pedias'' in antiquity), is a large fertile plain in the Cilicia region of southern Anatolia. The plain covers the easternmost areas of Mersin Province, southern and central Adana Province, western Os ...
, Turkey, the local dialect is endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...
. Bedouin varieties are spoken in the Negev and the Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai ( ; ; ; ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a land bridge between Asia and Afri ...
, areas of transition between Levantine and Egyptian. The dialect of Arish
ʻArish or el-ʻArīsh ( ' ) is the capital and largest city of the North Sinai Governorate of Egypt, as well as the largest city on the Sinai Peninsula, lying on the Mediterranean coast northeast of Cairo and west of the Egypt–Gaza border ...
, Egypt, is classified by Linguasphere as Levantine. The Amman
Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...
dialect is emerging as an urban standard in Jordanian Arabic
Jordanian Arabic is a dialect continuum of mutually intelligible varieties of Arabic spoken in Jordan.
Jordanian Arabic can be divided into sedentary and Bedouin varieties. Sedentary varieties belong to the Levantine Arabic dialect continuum. ...
, while other Jordanian and Palestinian Arabic
Palestinian Arabic (also known as simply Palestinian) is part of a dialect continuum comprising various mutually intelligible varieties of Levantine Arabic spoken by Palestinians in Palestine, which includes the State of Palestine, Israel, and t ...
dialects include ''Fellahi'' (rural) and ''Madani'' (urban). The Gaza dialect contains features of both urban Palestinian and Bedouin Arabic.
Ethnicity and religion
The Levant is characterized by ethnic diversity
Multiculturalism is the coexistence of multiple cultures. The word is used in sociology, in political philosophy, and colloquially. In sociology and everyday usage, it is usually a synonym for ''ethnic'' or cultural pluralism in which various ...
and religious pluralism
Religious pluralism is an attitude or policy regarding the diversity of religion, religious belief systems co-existing in society. It can indicate one or more of the following:
* Recognizing and Religious tolerance, tolerating the religio ...
. Levantine dialects vary along sectarian lines. Religious groups include Sunni Muslims
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Musli ...
, Shia Muslims
Shia Islam is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political Succession to Muhammad, successor (caliph) and as the spiritual le ...
, Alawites
Alawites () are an Arab ethnoreligious group who live primarily in the Levant region in West Asia and follow Alawism, a sect of Islam that splintered from early Shia as a ''ghulat'' branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate Ali ...
, Christians, Druze
The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...
, 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, the exponent
In mathematics, exponentiation, denoted , is an operation involving two numbers: the ''base'', , and the ''exponent'' or ''power'', . When is a positive integer, exponentiation corresponds to repeated multiplication of the base: that is, i ...
is only used by Muslims and never by Christians who use . Contrary to others, Druze and Alawite dialects retained the phoneme . 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, 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 is primarily spoken by Arabs
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world.
Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...
. It is also spoken as a first or second language
A second language (L2) is a language spoken in addition to one's first language (L1). A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a foreign language.
A speaker's dominant language, which ...
by several ethnic minorities
The term "minority group" has different meanings, depending on the context. According to common usage, it can be defined simply as a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half of a population. Usually a minority g ...
. In particular, it is spoken natively by Samaritans
Samaritans (; ; ; ), are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Hebrews and Israelites of the ancient Near East. They are indigenous to Samaria, a historical region of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah that ...
and by most Circassians in Jordan, Armenians in Jordan and Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
, Assyrians in Israel, Syrian Turkmen, Turkmen in Syria and Lebanese Turkmen, Lebanon, Kurds in Lebanon, and Dom people in Jerusalem. Most Christian and Muslim Lebanese people in Israel speak Lebanese Arabic. Syrian Jews, History of the Jews in Lebanon, Lebanese Jews, and History of the Jews in Turkey, Turkish Jews from Çukurova are native Levantine speakers; however, most Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries, moved to Israel after 1948. Levantine was spoken natively by most Jewish Quarter (Jerusalem), 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 Assyrians in Lebanon, Lebanon, and most Kurds in Syria.][
]
Speakers by country
In addition to the Levant, where it is Indigenous language, indigenous, Levantine is spoken among diaspora communities from the region, especially among the Palestinian diaspora, Palestinian, Lebanese diaspora, Lebanese, and Syrian diasporas. The language has fallen into disuse among Immigrant generations, subsequent diaspora generations, such as the 7 million Lebanese Brazilians.[
]
History
Pre-Islamic antiquity
Starting in the 1st millennium BCE, Aramaic
Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...
was the dominant spoken language and the language of writing and administration in the Levant. Greek was the language of administration of the Seleucid Empire (in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE) and was maintained by the Roman Empire, Roman (64 BCE–475 CE), then Byzantine Empire, 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, the history of Levantine before the modern period
The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500 ...
is unknown. Old Arabic was a dialect continuum stretching from the southern Levant (where Northern Old Arabic was spoken) to the northern Hejaz, Hijaz, in the Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world.
Geographically, the ...
, 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
The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...
, such as the Nabataeans—who used Aramaic for official purposes, the Tanukhids, and the Ghassanids. These dialects were local, coming from the Hauran
The Hauran (; 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, to the northeast by the al-Safa field, to the east and south by the Harrat ...
—and not from the Arabian Peninsula— and related to later Classical Arabic. Initially restricted to the Middle East steppe, 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 the southern extremities of the Syrian Desert to central Syria, the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, and the Beqaa Valley.
Muslim conquest of the Levant
The Muslim conquest of the Levant
The Muslim conquest of the Levant (; ), or Arab conquest of Syria, was a 634–638 CE invasion of Byzantine Syria by the Rashidun Caliphate. A part of the wider Arab–Byzantine wars, the Levant was brought under Arab Muslim rule and develope ...
(634–640) brought new groups of Arabic speakers from the Arabian Peninsula who settled in the Levant. Arabic became the language of trade and public life in cities, while Western Aramaic languages continued to be spoken at home and in the countryside. Arabic gradually replaced early Medieval Greek as the language of administration in 700 by order of the Umayyad dynasty, Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. The language shift
Language shift, also known as language transfer, language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceived ...
from Aramaic to vernacular Arabic was a long process over several generations, with an extended period of multilingualism, especially among non-Muslims. Christians continued to speak Syriac language, Syriac for about two centuries, and Syriac remained their literary language until the 14th century. In its spoken form, Aramaic nearly disappeared, except for a few Western Neo-Aramaic-speaking villages, but it has left Stratum (linguistics), substrate influences on Levantine.
Different Peninsular Arabic dialects competed for prestige in the Levant, including the Old Hijazi Arabic of the Umayyad elites. These Peninsular dialects mixed with ancient Levantine forms of Arabic. By the mid-6th century, the Petra papyri show that the onset of the Article (grammar), article and its vowel seem to have weakened. The article 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 Syllabic coda, 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 the modern vernaculars are thus seen to lie very deep".
Medieval and early modern era
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 alphabet, Greek characters, it reveals the pronunciation of the time; it features many examples of imāla (the fronting and raising of toward ). It also features a pre-grammarian standard of Arabic and the dialect from which it sprung, likely Old Hijazi. Scholars disagree on the dates of phonological changes. The shift of Interdental consonant, interdental spirants to Dental consonant, dental stops dates to the 9th to 10th centuries or earlier. The shift from to a glottal stop is dated between the 11th and 15th centuries. Imāla seems already important in pre-Islamic times.
Swedish orientalist writes about 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 the allomorphic variation between -''a''/-''e'' in the feminine suffix, while the insertion and deletion of vowels differ.
From 1516 to 1918, the Ottoman Empire dominated the Ottoman Syria, Levant. Many Western words entered Arabic through Ottoman Turkish as it was the main language for transmitting Western culture, Western ideas into the Arab world.
20th and 21st centuries
The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in 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 Mandate for Syria and Lebanon, French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (1920–1946), the Emirate of Transjordan, British protectorate over Jordan (1921–1946), and the Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine (1923–1948), French and English words gradually entered Levantine Arabic. Similarly, Modern Hebrew has significantly influenced the Palestinian dialect of Arab citizens of Israel, Arab Israelis since the establishment of Israel in 1948. In the 1960s, Said Akl—inspired by the Maltese alphabet, Maltese and Turkish alphabet reform, 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, Standard language, language standardization occurs through Variation (linguistics), variant reduction and linguistic homogenization among the various religious groups and neighborhoods. Urbanization and the increasing proportion of youth constitute the causes of Language change, dialect change. Urban forms are considered more prestigious, and Prestige (sociolinguistics), 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.
Status and usage
Diglossia and code-switching
Levantine is not recognized in any state or territory. MSA is the sole official language in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria; it has a "special status" in Israel under the Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, Basic Law. French language in Lebanon, 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
The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...
, this linguistic situation has been described as diglossia: MSA is nobody's first acquired language; it is learned through formal instruction rather than Traditional transmission, transmission from parent to child. This diglossia has been compared to the use of Latin as the sole written, official, Sacred language, liturgical, and literary language in Europe during the Middle Ages, medieval period, while Romance languages were the spoken languages. Levantine and MSA are mutually unintelligible. They differ significantly in their phonology, Morphology (linguistics), morphology, lexicon and syntax.
MSA 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 localities in Israel, Arab communities. Levantine is the usual medium of communication in all other domains.
Traditionally in 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, vernaculars were also seen as a tool of colonialism and imperialism. Writing in the vernacular has been controversial because pan-Arabism, pan-Arab nationalists consider that this might divide 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 Islamism, 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 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 Christianity in Syria, 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 the Knesset, but Arabic is rarely used. Member of Knesset, MK Ahmad Tibi often adds Palestinian Arabic sentences to his Hebrew speech but only gives partial speeches in Arabic.
Education
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 Education in Lebanon, Lebanon, about 50% of school students study in French. In most Higher Education in the Arab World, Arab universities, the medium of instruction is MSA in social sciences and humanities, and English or French in the Applied science, applied and Medicine, medical sciences. In List of universities in Syria, Syria, only MSA is used. In Education in Turkey, Turkey, article 42.9 of the Constitution of Turkey, Constitution prohibits languages other than Turkish from being taught as a mother tongue and almost all indigenous Arabic speakers are Functional illiteracy, illiterate in the Arabic script unless they have learned it for religious purposes.
In Israel, MSA is the only language of instruction in Education in Israel#Arab sector, 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 (Israel), 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 the Bagrut certificate, Bagrut exam in MSA.
Films and music
Most films and songs are in vernacular Arabic. Cinema of Egypt, Egypt was the most influential center of Arab media productions (movies, Arab television drama, drama, TV series) during the 20th century, but Levantine is now competing with Egyptian. As of 2013, about 40% of all Arabic music, 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 the Lebanese dialect in the studios of Beirut. Moreover, the Syrian dialect dominates in List of Syrian television series, Syrian TV series (such as ''Bab Al-Hara'') and in the Dubbing (filmmaking), dubbing of Turkish television dramas (such as ''Gümüş (TV series), Noor''), famous across the Arab world.
, most List of Arabic-language television channels, 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 the Lebanese Civil War and expanded to the rest of the Arab world. In 2009, Al Jazeera Arabic, 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 is in a mix of MSA and Lebanese Arabic.
Written media
Levantine is seldom written, except for some novels, plays, and humorous writings. Most Arab critics do not acknowledge the literary dignity of prose in vernacular. Prose written in Lebanese goes back to at least 1892 when Tannus al-Hurr published , 'The tale of the drunken youth, or The story of Nassur 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, 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 Epistle of James, Letter of James in 1946. The four gospels were translated in Lebanese using Akl's alphabet in 1996 by Gilbert Khalifé. Muris 'Awwad translated 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 , in the weekend edition of ''Al-Ayyam (Ramallah), 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 List of newspapers in Lebanon, 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 a 2013 study, Abuhakema investigated 270 written commercial ads in two Jordanian (''Al Ghad'' and ''Ad-Dustour (Jordan), Ad-Dustour'') and two Palestinian (''Al-Quds (newspaper), 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 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 , are often written in Levantine instead of MSA. In novels and short stories, most authors, such as Arab Israelis and , write the dialogues in Levantine, 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 folklore, folktales (, 'heritage literature') display full texts in Levantine. On the other hand, Palestinian children's literature is almost exclusively written in MSA.
Internet users in the Arab world communicate with their vernacular 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 vernacular Arabic content online was written in Levantine depending on the platform.
Phonology
Levantine phonology is characterized by rich Sociophonetics, socio-phonetic variations along socio-cultural (gender; religion; urban, rural or Bedouin) and geographical lines. For instance, in urban varieties, interdentals , , and tend to merge to stops or fricatives ~ ; ~ ; and ~ respectively. The Classical Arabic voiceless uvular plosive is pronounced (among Druze), (in most urban centers, especially Beirut, Damascus, and Jerusalem, and in Amman among women), (in Amman among men, in most other Jordanian dialects and in Gaza), or even (in rural Palestinian).
Vowel length is Phoneme, phonemic in Levantine. Vowels often show dialectal or Allophone, allophonic variations that are socially, geographically, and phonologically conditioned. Diphthongs and are found in some Lebanese dialects, they respectively correspond to long vowels and in other dialects. One of the most distinctive features of Levantine is word-final imāla, a process by which the vowel corresponding to is raised from to , , or even in some dialects. The difference between the short vowel pairs and as well as and is not always phonemic. The vowel quality is usually and in stressed syllables. Vowels in word-final position are shortened. As a result, more short vowels are distinguished.
In the north, stressed and merge. They usually become , but might also be near emphatic consonants. Syrians and Beirutis tend to pronounce both of them as schwa . 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 a single dialect. Speakers often add a short vowel, called helping vowel or Epenthesis, epenthetic vowel, sounding like a short schwa right before a word-initial consonant cluster to break it, as in , '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 is inserted:
* Before the word, if this word starts with two consonants and is at the beginning of a sentence,
* Between two words, when a word ending in a consonant is followed by a word that starts with two consonants,
* Between two consonants in the same word, if this word ends with two consonants and either is followed by a consonant or is at the end of a sentence.
In the Damascus dialect, stress (linguistics), word stress falls on the last Syllable weight, superheavy syllable (CVːC or CVCC). In the absence of a superheavy syllable:
* if the word is bisyllabic, stress falls on the wikt:penultimate, penultimate,
* if the word contains three or more syllables and none of them is superheavy, then stress falls:
** on the penultimate, if it is heavy (CVː or CVC),
** on the antepenult, if the penultimate is light (CV).
Orthography and writing systems
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 is no standard Levantine orthography. There have been failed attempts to Romanization, Latinize Levantine, especially Lebanese language, 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
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
(right-to-left script), Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew (right-to-left, used in Israel, especially online among Bedouin#Israel, Bedouin, Arab Christians, and Druze in Israel, Druze), Latin (Arabizi, left-to-right), and a mixture of the three. Arabizi is a non-standard romanization used by Levantine speakers in social media and Internet forum, discussion forums, Text messaging, 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 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, 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 a post in the same script). Levantine speakers in Turkey use the Turkish alphabet, 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 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: , , 'a female teacher' / , , 'a school'. Said Akl's Latin alphabet uses non-standard characters.
Grammar
Verb–subject–object, VSO and Subject–verb–object, SVO word orders are possible in Levantine. In both cases, the VO word order, verb precedes the object. SVO is more common in Levantine, while Classical Arabic prefers VSO. Subject-initial order indicates Topic-prominent language, topic-prominent sentences, while verb-initial order indicates subject-prominent sentences. In interrogative sentences, the Interrogative word, interrogative particle comes first.
Nouns and noun phrases
Nouns are either masculine or feminine and singular, dual or plural. The dual is formed with the suffix . Most feminine singular nouns end with , pronounced as –a or -e depending on the preceding consonant: -a after guttural () and emphatic consonants (), -e after other consonants. Unlike Classical Arabic, Levantine has no Grammatical case, 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 precedes 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 and moon letters, sun letters" (consonants that are pronounced with the tip of the tongue). The letter Gimel#Arabic ǧīm, Jeem () is a sun letter for speakers pronouncing it as [] but not for those pronouncing it as [].
For nouns referring to humans, 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 nonconcatenative morphology, 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 is impossible to predict them exactly. One common pattern is for instance CvCvC => CuCaCa (e.g.: singular: , 'manager'; plural: , 'managers'). Animacy, Inanimate objects take feminine singular agreement in the plural, for verbs, attached pronouns, and adjectives.
The Genitive construction, genitive is formed by putting the nouns next to each other in a construct called ''iḍāfah'', . The first noun is always indefinite. If an indefinite noun is added to a definite noun, it results in a new definite compound noun: , 'the book of the teacher'. Besides Possession (linguistics), possessiveness, the ''iḍāfah'' can also specify or define the first term. Although there is no limit to the number of nouns in an ''iḍāfah'', it is rare to have three or more. The first term must be in the construct state: if it ends in the feminine marker (/-ah/, or /-ih/), it changes to (/-at/, /-it/) in pronunciation (i.e. pronounced as /t/): , 'New York City'.
Adjectives typically have three forms: a masculine singular, a feminine singular, and a plural. In most adjectives, the feminine is formed through the addition of -a/e. Many adjectives have the pattern ( / CCīC or / CaCīC), but other patterns exist. Adjectives derived from nouns using the suffix are called Arabic nouns and adjectives#Nisba, nisba adjectives. Their feminine form ends in and their plural in . Nouns in dual have adjectives in plural. The plural of adjectives is either regular ending in or is an irregular "broken" plural. It is used with nouns referring to people. For non-human, inanimate, or abstract nouns, adjectives use either the plural or the singular feminine form regardless of gender.
Adjectives follow the noun they modify and agree with it in definiteness. Adjectives without an article after a definite noun express a clause with the Zero copula, invisible copula "to be":
* , 'a big house'
* , 'the big house'
* , 'the house is big'
The Elative (gradation), elative is used for comparison, instead of separate Comparison (grammar), comparative and superlative forms. The elative is formed by adding a hamza at the beginning of the adjective and replacing the vowels by "a" (pattern: / aCCaC, e.g.: , 'big'; , 'bigger/biggest'). Adjective endings in (i) and (u) are changed into (a). If the second and third consonant in the root are the same, they are geminated (pattern: / ʾaCaCC). When an elative modifies a noun, it precedes the noun, and no definite article is used.
Levantine does not distinguish between adverbs and adjectives in adverbial function. Almost any adjective can be used as an adverb: , 'good' vs. , 'Did you sleep well?'. MSA adverbs, with the suffix -an, are often used, e.g., , 'at all'. Adverbs often appear after the verb or the adjective. , 'very' can be positioned after or before the adjective. Adverbs of manner can usually be formed using bi- followed by the nominal form: , 'fast, quickly', .
or in Syrian Arabic negate adjectives (including active participles), demonstratives, and nominal phrases:
* , 'I'm not Palestinian.'
* , 'She doesn't know.'
* / , 'That's not good.'
Pronouns
Levantine has eight Grammatical person, persons and eight pronouns. Contrary to MSA, dual pronouns do not exist in Levantine; the plural is used instead. Because conjugated verbs indicate the subject with a prefix or a suffix, independent subject pronouns are usually unnecessary and mainly used for emphasis. Feminine plural forms modifying human females are found primarily in rural and Bedouin areas. They are not mentioned below.
Direct object pronouns are indicated by suffixes attached to the conjugated verb. Their form depends on whether the verb ends with a consonant or a vowel. Suffixed to nouns, these pronouns express possessive. Levantine does not have the verb "to have". Instead, possession is expressed using the prepositions , (meaning "to possess") and , (meaning "to have on oneself"), followed by personal pronoun suffixes.
Indirect object pronouns (Dative construction, dative) are suffixed to the conjugated verb. They are formed by adding an ل (-l) and then the possessive suffix to the verb. They precede object pronouns if present:
* , 'he brought the newspaper to my father',
* , 'he brought it to my father',
* , 'he brought him the newspaper',
* , 'he brought it to him'.
Demonstrative pronouns have three referential types: immediate, Demonstrative#Distal and proximal demonstrative, proximal, and distal. The distinction between proximal and distal demonstratives is of physical, temporal, or metaphorical distance. The genderless and numberless immediate demonstrative article is translated by "this/the", to designate something immediately visible or accessible.
Verbs and verb phrases
Root and verb forms
Most Levantine verbs are based on a Semitic root, triliteral root (also called radical or Semitic root) made of three consonants. The set of consonants communicates the basic meaning of a verb, e.g. k-t-b ('write'), q-r- ('read'), -k-l ('eat'). Changes to the vowels in between the consonants, along with prefixes or suffixes, specify grammatical functions such as tense, person, and number, in addition to changes in the meaning of the verb that embody grammatical concepts such as mood (e.g., indicative, subjunctive, imperative), voice (active or passive), and functions such as causative, intensive, or reflexive. Semitic root#Quadriliteral roots, Quadriliteral roots are less common but often used to coin new vocabulary or Arabicize foreign words. The base form is the third-person masculine singular of the perfect (also called past) tense.
Almost all Levantine verbs belong to one of ten verb forms (also called verb measures, stems, patterns, or types). Form I, the most common one, serves as a base for the other nine forms. Each form carries a different verbal idea relative to the meaning of its root. Technically, ten verbs can be constructed from any given triconsonantal root, although not all of these forms are used. After Form I, Forms II, V, VII, and X are the most common. Some irregular verbs do not fit into any of the verb forms.
In addition to its form, each verb has a "quality":
* Sound (or regular): 3 distinct radicals, neither the second nor the third is 'w' or 'y',
* Verbs containing the radicals 'w' or 'y' are called weak. They are either:
** Hollow: verbs with 'w' or 'y' as the second radical, which becomes a long 'a' in some forms, or
** Defective: verbs with 'w' or 'y' as the third radical, treated as a vowel,
* Geminate (or doubled): the second and third radicals are identical, remaining together as a double consonant.
Regular verb conjugation
The Levantine verb has only two tenses: past (perfect) and present (also called imperfect, b-imperfect, or bi-imperfect). The present tense is formed by adding the prefix b- or m- to the verb root. The future tense is an extension of the present tense. The negative imperative is the same as the negative present with helping verb (imperfect). Various prefixes and suffixes designate the grammatical person and grammatical number, number as well as the grammatical mood, mood. The following table shows the paradigm of a sound Form I verb, , 'to write'. There is no Copula (linguistics), copula in the present tense in Levantine. In other tenses, the verb is used. Its present tense form is used in the future tense.
The b-imperfect is usually used for the Realis mood, indicative mood (Nonpast tense, non-past present, habitual/general present, narrative present, planned future actions, or potential). The prefix b- is deleted in the subjunctive mood, usually after modal verbs, auxiliary verbs, pseudo-verbs, prepositions, and particles. The future can also be expressed by the imperfect preceded by the particle or by the prefixed particle . The present continuous is formed with the progressive particle followed by the imperfect, with or without the initial b/m depending on the speaker.
The active participle, also called present participle, is grammatically an adjective derived from a verb. Depending on the context, it can express the present or present continuous (with verbs of motion, location, or mental state), the near future, or the present perfect (past action with a present result). It can also serve as a noun or an adjective. The passive participle, also called past participle, has a similar meaning as in English (i.e., sent, written). It is mainly used as an adjective and sometimes as a noun. It is inflected from the verb based on its verb form. However, passive participles are largely limited to verb forms I (CvCvC) and II (CvCCvC), becoming maCCūC for the former and mCaCCaC for the latter.
Compound tenses
The verb , followed by another verb, forms compound tenses. Both verbs are conjugated with their subject.
Passive voice
Form I verbs often correspond to an equivalent passive form VII verb, with the prefix n-. Form II and form III verbs usually correspond to an equivalent passive in forms V and VI, respectively, with the prefix t-. While the verb forms V, VI and VII are common in the simple past and compound tenses, the passive participle (past participle) is preferred in the present tense.
Negation
Verbs and prepositional phrases are negated by the particle either on its own or, in the south, together with the suffix at the end of the verb or prepositional phrase. In Palestinian, it is also common to negate verbs by the suffix only.
Vocabulary
The Levantine Arabic vocabulary, lexicon of Levantine is overwhelmingly Arabic, and a large number of Levantine words are shared with at least another vernacular Arabic variety outside the Levant, especially with Egyptian. Many words, such as verbal nouns (also called gerunds or ), are derived from a Semitic root. For instance, , 'a lesson' is derived from , 'to study, to learn'. Levantine also includes layers of ancient languages: Aramaic (mainly Western Aramaic languages, Western Aramaic), Canaanite languages, Canaanite, classical Hebrew (Biblical Hebrew, Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew, Mishnaic), Old Persian, Persian, Ancient Greek, Greek, and Latin.
Aramaic influence is significant, especially in vocabulary and in rural areas. Aramaic words underwent morphophonemic adaptation when they entered Levantine. Over time, it has become difficult to identify them. They belong to different fields of everyday life such as seasonal agriculture, housekeeping, tools and utensils, and Christian religious terms. Western Neo-Aramaic, Aramaic is still spoken in the Syrian villages of Maaloula, Al-Sarkha (Bakhah), al-Sarkha, and Jubb'adin; near them, Aramaic borrowings are more frequent.
Since the early modern period, Levantine has borrowed from Turkish and European languages, mainly English (particularly in technology and entertainment), French (especially in Lebanese due to the French Mandate), German, and Italian. Modern Hebrew significantly influences the Palestinian dialect spoken by Arab Israelis. Loanwords are gradually replaced with words of Arabic root. For instance, borrowings from Ottoman Turkish that were common in the 20th century have been largely replaced by Arabic words after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Arabs in Turkey, Arabic-speaking minorities in Turkey (mainly in Hatay) are still influenced by Turkish.
With about 50% of common words, Levantine (especially Palestinian) is the closest colloquial variety to MSA in terms of lexical similarity. In the vocabulary of five-year-old native Palestinians: 40% of the words are not present in MSA, 40% are related to MSA but phonologically different (sound change, addition, or deletion), and 20% are identical to MSA. In terms of morphemes, 20% are identical between MSA and Palestinian Arabic, 30% are strongly overlapping (slightly different forms, same function), 20% are partially overlapping (different forms, same function), and 30% are unique to Palestinian Arabic.
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Levantine Arabic,
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