Libyan Arabic (), also called
Sulaimitian Arabic by scholars, is a
variety of Arabic spoken in
Libya
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...
, and neighboring countries. It can be divided into two major dialect areas: the eastern centred in
Benghazi
Benghazi () () is the List of cities in Libya, second-most-populous city in Libya as well as the largest city in Cyrenaica, with an estimated population of 859,000 in 2023. Located on the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, Ben ...
and
Bayda, and the western centred in
Tripoli and
Misrata
Misrata ( ; , Libyan Arabic: ; also spelled Misratah and known by the Italian spelling Misurata) is a city in northwestern Libya located in the Misrata District, situated to the east of Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast near Cape Misrata. ...
. The Eastern variety extends beyond the borders to the east and share the same dialect with far Western Egypt,
Western Egyptian Bedawi Arabic, with 1 million speakers in Egypt. A distinctive southern variety, centered on
Sabha, also exists and is more akin to the western variety. Another Southern dialect is also shared along the borders with
Niger
Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...
with 14,400 speakers in Niger as of 2024.
Note on transcription notation
The
transcription of Libyan Arabic into
Latin script
The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...
poses a few problems. First, there is not one standard transcription in use even for
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 ...
. The use of the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...
alone is not sufficient as it obscures some points that can be better understood if several different
allophone
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is one of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plos ...
s in Libyan Arabic are transcribed using the same symbol.
On the other hand, Modern Standard Arabic transcription schemes, while providing good support for representing Arabic sounds that are not normally represented by the Latin script, do not list symbols for other sounds found in Libyan Arabic.
Therefore, to make this article more legible,
DIN 31635
DIN 31635 is a (DIN) standard for the transliteration of the Arabic alphabet adopted in 1982. It is based on the rules of the (DMG) as modified by the International Orientalist Congress 1935 in Rome. The most important differences from English-ba ...
is used with a few additions to render
phoneme
A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...
s particular to Libyan Arabic. These additions are as follow:
History
Two major historical events have shaped the Libyan dialect: the
Hilalian-
Sulaimi migration, and the migration of Arabs from
al-Andalus
Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...
to the
Maghreb
The Maghreb (; ), also known as the Arab Maghreb () and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb al ...
following the
Reconquista
The ''Reconquista'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese for ) or the fall of al-Andalus was a series of military and cultural campaigns that European Christian Reconquista#Northern Christian realms, kingdoms waged ag ...
. Libyan Arabic has also been influenced by
Greek
Greek may refer to:
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 of all kno ...
and
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
, and to a lesser extent by
Turkish. It contains a few
Berber
Berber or Berbers may refer to:
Ethnic group
* Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa
* Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages
Places
* Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile
People with the surname
* Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
loanwords which represent 2–3% of its vocabulary.
Domains of use
The Libyan dialect is used predominantly in spoken communication in
Libya
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...
. It is also used in Libyan folk poetry, TV dramas and comedies, songs, as well as in cartoons. Libyan Arabic is also used as a
lingua franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...
by non-Arab Libyans whose mother tongue is not Arabic. Libyan Arabic is not normally written, as the written
register
Register or registration may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Music
* Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc.
* ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller
* Registration (organ), ...
is normally
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 ...
, but Libyan Arabic is the main language for cartoonists, and the only suitable language for writing Libyan folk poetry. It is also written in internet forums, emails and in instant messaging applications.
Phonology
As is the case with all
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 ...
dialects and some Urban dialects, the sound of Modern Standard Arabic is realized as a , except sometimes in words recently borrowed from literary Arabic.
The following table shows the consonants used in Libyan Arabic. Note: some sounds occur in certain
regional varieties while being completely absent in others.
In western dialects, the interdental fricatives have merged with the corresponding dental stops . Eastern dialects generally still distinguish the two sets, but there is a tendency to replace with .
is heard as in unstressed closed syllables. is heard as before and after velar consonants and as in free variation before non-velar consonants. phonetically occurs as a more central near-close sound .
The e and o vowels exist only in long form. This can be explained by the fact that these vowels were originally
diphthong
A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...
s in Classical Arabic with replacing and replacing . In some eastern varieties, however, the classical has changed to and to .
Libyan Arabic has at least three
clicks, which are used
interjection
An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling, situation or reaction. It is a diverse category, with many different types, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curses (''da ...
ally, a trait shared with the
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 ...
dialects of central
Arabia
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 ...
. The first is used for affirmative responses and is generally considered very casual and sometimes associated with low social status. The second is a
dental click
Dental (or more precisely denti-alveolar) clicks are a family of click consonants found, as constituents of words, only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia.
In English, the ''tut-tut!'' (British spelling, "tutting") o ...
and used for negative responses and is similar to the English 'tut'. The third is a
palatal click
The palatal or palato-alveolar clicks are a family of click consonants found, as components of words, only in southern Africa. The tongue is nearly flat, and is pulled back rather than down as in the postalveolar clicks, making a sharpe ...
used exclusively by women having a meaning close to that of the English word 'alas'.
Syllable structure
Although Western Libyan Arabic allows for the following
syllable structure to occur.
:syllable: C
1(C
2)V
1(V
2)(C
3)(C
4)
:(C = consonant, V = vowel, optional components are in parentheses.)
An
anaptyctic is inserted between C
3 and C
4 to ease pronunciation, changing the structure above into the following.
:C
1(C
2)V
1(V
2)(C
3)(əC
4).
On the other hand, Eastern Libyan always has an
anaptyctic between C
1 and C
2 in the following manner.
:C
1(əC
2)V
1(V
2)(C
3)(C
4).
Vocabulary
Most of the vocabulary in Libyan Arabic is of Old Arabic origin, usually with a modified interconsonantal vowel structure. Many Italian
loanwords
A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...
also exist, in addition to
Turkish,
Berber
Berber or Berbers may refer to:
Ethnic group
* Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa
* Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages
Places
* Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile
People with the surname
* Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
,
Spanish, and
English words.
Relation to Classical Arabic vocabulary
The bulk of vocabulary in Libyan Arabic has the same meaning as in Classical Arabic. However, many words have different but related meanings to those of
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 ...
. The following table serves to illustrate this relation. The
past tense
The past tense is a grammatical tense whose function is to place an action or situation in the past. Examples of verbs in the past tense include the English verbs ''sang'', ''went'' and ''washed''. Most languages have a past tense, with some hav ...
is used in the case of verbs as it is more distinctive and has been traditionally used in Arabic
lexicon
A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...
s. Canonically, these verbs are pronounced with the final 'a' (marker of the past tense in Classical Arabic). This notation is preserved the table below. However, the relation between Libyan and Classical Arabic verbs can be better understood if the final 'a' is dropped, in accordance with the
elision
In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run to ...
rule of pre-pause vowels of Classical Arabic.
1. Western Libyan pronunciation is used in the above table.
Italian loanwords
Italian loanwords exist mainly, but not exclusively, as a technical jargon. For example, machinery parts, workshop tools, electrical supplies, names of fish species, etc.
Turkish loanwords
Turkish words were borrowed during the
Ottoman era of Libya. Words of Turkish origin are not as common as Italian ones.
Berber loanwords
Before the mass
Arabization
Arabization or Arabicization () is a sociology, sociological process of cultural change in which a non-Arab society becomes Arabs, Arab, meaning it either directly adopts or becomes strongly influenced by the Arabic, Arabic language, Arab cultu ...
of what corresponds to modern-day Libya,
Berber
Berber or Berbers may refer to:
Ethnic group
* Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa
* Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages
Places
* Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile
People with the surname
* Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
was the native language for most people. This led to the borrowing of a number of Berber words in Libyan Arabic. Some examples of the Berber words in Libyan Arabic are .
Grammar
Libyan Arabic shares the feature of the
first person singular
Singular may refer to:
* Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms
* Singular or sounder, a group of boar, see List of animal names
* Singular (band), a Thai jazz pop duo
*'' Singula ...
initial n- with the rest of the
Maghrebi Arabic
Maghrebi Arabic, often known as ''ad-Dārija'' to differentiate it from Literary Arabic, is a vernacular Arabic dialect continuum spoken in the Maghreb. It includes the Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, Libyan, Hassaniya and Saharan Arabic di ...
dialect continuum
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...
to which it belongs. Like other
colloquial Arabic dialects, Libyan does not mark
grammatical case
A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and Numeral (linguistics), numerals) that corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a Nominal group (functional grammar), n ...
s by
declension
In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence by way of an inflection. Declension may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and det ...
. However, it has a rich
verb
A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
al
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 o ...
structure.
Nouns
Nouns in Libyan Arabic are marked for two
grammatical gender
In linguistics, a grammatical gender system is a specific form of a noun class system, where nouns are assigned to gender categories that are often not related to the real-world qualities of the entities denoted by those nouns. In languages wit ...
s, termed masculine and feminine, and three
grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a Feature (linguistics), feature of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement (linguistics), agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and many other ...
s, singular, dual and plural.
Paucal
In linguistics, grammatical number is a feature of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and many other languages present number categories of singula ...
number also exists for some nouns. The
diminutive
A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment, and sometimes to belittle s ...
is also still widely used
productively (especially by women) to add an endearing or an empathetic connotation to the original noun. As in Classical Arabic, rules for the diminutive formation are based on vowel
apophony.
Indefiniteness is not marked. Definite nouns are marked using the
Arabic definite article
(, also Romanization of Arabic, romanized as ''el-'', ''il-'', and ''l-'' as pronounced in some varieties of Arabic), is the definite article in the Arabic language: a grammatical particle, particle (''ḥarf'') whose function is to render the ...
but with somewhat different rules of pronunciation:
* For nouns beginning with
"moon" letters, the definite article is pronounced either , for words with an initial single consonant
onset, or , for words with a double consonant onset. Except for the letter j , moon letters in Libyan Arabic are the same as in Classical Arabic even for letters that have become different phonemes such as ''q'' changing to ''g''. The letter j , which corresponds to the Modern Standard Arabic phoneme , has changed from a moon letter to a sun letter.
* For nouns beginning with sun letters, which, in Libyan Arabic, include the letter
j , the definite article is pronounced , with the first consonant
geminated
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (; from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
.
Dual
While marking verbs for the dual number has been lost completely in Libyan Arabic as in other Arabic varieties, nouns have a specialized dual number form. However, in Eastern Libyan it tends to be more widespread.
Demonstratives
Various sets of demonstratives exist in Libyan Arabic. Following is a list of some of these. The grouping in columns does not necessarily reflect grouping in reality:
Verbs
Similar to Classical Arabic stem formation is an important morphological aspect of Libyan Arabic. However, stems III and X are unproductive whereas stems IV and IX do not exist. The following table shows Classical Arabic stems and their Libyan Arabic counterparts.
Tripoli dialect is used in the table above
Conjugation
Like Classical Arabic and other Arabic dialects, Libyan Arabic distinguishes between two main categories of roots: strong roots (those that do not have vowels or
hamza
The hamza ( ') () is an Arabic script character that, in the Arabic alphabet, denotes a glottal stop and, in non-Arabic languages, indicates a diphthong, vowel, or other features, depending on the language. Derived from the letter '' ʿayn'' ( ...
) and
weak roots.
= Conjugation of strong roots
=
Strong roots follow more predictable rules of conjugation, and they can be classified into three categories for
Stem I in Western Libyan Arabic:
* i-verbs (e.g. k-t-b to write) follow an interconsonantal vowel structure that is predominated by an i (normally pronounced
�
* a-verbs (e.g. r-k-b to mount, to ascend) follow an interconsonantal vowel structure that is predominated by an a
* u-verbs (e.g. r-g-ṣ to dance) follow an interconsonantal vowel structure that is predominated by an u
This classification is not always strictly followed. For example, the third person feminine past of the root r-g-d, which is a u-verb, is usually pronounced , instead of . Also, a-verbs and u-verbs follow the same rules in the past conjugation.
1. The i in an i-verb is usually pronounced .
2. In roots with initial uvular, pharyngeal and glottal phonemes ( but not ), i in the present and imperative is pronounced . For example, the root (to overcome) is conjugated as , , etc.
1.Realized variously as a and ɑ depending on the consonant structure of the word.
1. In roots with initial uvular, pharyngeal or glottal phonemes ( but not ), u, in the present and the imperative, is realised by . For example, the root (to scoop up) is conjugated as , , etc.
Conjugation in the Eastern Libyan Arabic is more fine grained, yielding a richer structure.
Future tense
Future in Libyan Arabic is formed by prefixing an initial , usually contracted to , to the present tense conjugation. Thus, 'tiktəb' (she writes) becomes 'btiktəb' (she will write). It should not be confused with the
indicative
A realis mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentence
Dec ...
marker common in some Eastern Arabic varieties.
Intelligibility with other varieties of Arabic
Western Libyan Arabic of
Tripolitania
Tripolitania (), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province of Libya.
The region had been settled since antiquity, first coming to prominence as part of the Carthaginian empire. Following the defeat ...
and
Fezzan
Fezzan ( , ; ; ; ) is the southwestern region of modern Libya. It is largely desert, but broken by mountains, uplands, and dry river valleys (wadis) in the north, where oases enable ancient towns and villages to survive deep in the otherwise in ...
is highly intelligible to Tunisians and to a good extent to eastern Algerians. However, for Egyptian and Middle Eastern Arabic speakers, Libyan Arabic can be extremely difficult to understand as it is a Maghrebi dialect influenced by Italian, Turkish, and Berber words.
On occasion, Libyans replace some Libyan words with Modern Standard or
Egyptian Arabic
Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian, or simply as Masri, is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic variety in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt. The esti ...
words to make themselves understood to other Arabic speakers, especially those from
the
Middle East
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
. The following table shows some of the commonly replaced words:
Generally, all Italian and to some extent Turkish loanwords are substituted.
If a word is replaced, it does not mean that it is exclusively Libyan. The situation sometimes arises because the speaker mistakenly guesses that the word does not exist in the hearer's dialect. For example, the word zarda (feast, picnic) has close variants in other Maghrebi dialects but is usually substituted in Maghrebi contexts because most speakers do not know that such variants exist.
Pidgin Libyan Arabic
Pidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified form of contact language that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn f ...
Libyan exists in Libya as a
contact language
Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact with and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. Language contact can occur at language borders, between adstratum ...
used by non-Arabs, mostly Saharan and sub-Saharan Africans living in
Libya
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...
. Like other pidgins, it has a simplified structure and limited expressive power.
See also
*
Transliteration of Libyan placenames
*
Varieties of Arabic
Varieties of Arabic (or dialects or vernaculars) are the linguistic systems that Arabic speakers speak natively. Arabic is a Semitic languages, Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic family that originated in the Arabian P ...
*
Maghrebi Arabic
Maghrebi Arabic, often known as ''ad-Dārija'' to differentiate it from Literary Arabic, is a vernacular Arabic dialect continuum spoken in the Maghreb. It includes the Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, Libyan, Hassaniya and Saharan Arabic di ...
*
Tunisian Arabic
Tunisian Arabic, or simply Tunisian (), is a Varieties of Arabic, variety of Arabic spoken in Tunisia. It is known among its 13 million speakers as ''Tūnsi'', "Tunisian" or ''Maghrebi Arabic, Derja'' (; meaning "common or everyday dialect") t ...
*
Algerian Arabic
Algerian Arabic (, romanized: ), natively known as , or , is a variety of Arabic spoken in Algeria. It belongs to the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum and is mostly intelligible with the Tunisian and Moroccan dialects. Darja () means "eve ...
*
Moroccan Arabic
Moroccan Arabic ( ), also known as Darija ( or ), is the dialectal, vernacular form or forms of Arabic spoken in Morocco. It is part of the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum and as such is mutually intelligible to some extent with Algerian ...
References
Citations
General references
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Ester Panetta, "Vocabolario e fraseologia dell’arabo parlato a Bengasi" – (Letter A): ''Annali Lateranensi'' 22 (1958) 318–369; ''Annali Lateranensi'' 26 (1962) 257–290 – (B) in: ''A Francesco Gabrieli. Studi orientalistici offerti nel sessantesimo compleanno dai suoi colleghi e discepoli'', Roma 1964, 195–216 – (C) : ''AION'' n.s. 13.1 (1964), 27–91 – (D) : ''AION'' n.s. 14.1 (1964), 389–413 – (E) : ''Oriente Moderno'' 60.1–6 (1980), 197–213
External links
{{Authority control
Moroccan Arabic