Libyan Arabic ( ar, ليبي, Lībī) is a variety of Arabic spoken mainly in

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Su ...

, and neighboring countries. It can be divided into two major dialect areas; the eastern centred in

Benghazi Benghazi () , ; it, Bengasi; tr, Bingazi; ber, Bernîk, script=Latn; also: ''Bengasi'', ''Benghasi'', ''Banghāzī'', ''Binghāzī'', ''Bengazi''; grc, Βερενίκη ('' Berenice'') and '' Hesperides''., group=note (''lit. Son of he Gha ...

and Bayda, and the western centred in

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in t ...

and Misrata. The Eastern variety extends beyond the borders to the east and share the same dialect with far Western

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

with between 90,000 and 402,000 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 ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagestranscription of Libyan Arabic into

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic 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 Greece, Greek city of Cumae, in southe ...

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), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of standardized, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; occasionally, it also re ...

. The use of the International Phonetic Alphabet 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 a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...

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 is used with a few additions to render

phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...

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 translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the Mus ...

to the

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...

following the

Reconquista The ' ( Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Na ...

. Libyan Arabic has also been influenced by the Greek and Italian, and to a lesser extent by

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

. A significant Berber and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

(

African Romance African Romance or African Latin is an extinct Romance language that was spoken in the Roman province of Africa by the Roman Africans during the later Roman and early Byzantine Empires, and several centuries after the annexation of the region ...

) substratum also exists.

Domains of use

The Libyan dialect is used predominantly in spoken communication in

. 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 by non-Arab Libyans whose mother tongue is not Arabic. Libyan Arabic is not normally written, as the written register is normally

, 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 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, 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 the speech ...

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 or reaction. It is a diverse category, encompassing many different parts of speech, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curse ...

ally, a trait shared with the Bedouin dialects of central

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...

. 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 and used for negative responses and is similar to the English 'tut'. The third is a palatal click 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: C₁(C₂)V₁(V₂)(C₃)(C₄) :(C = consonant, V = vowel, optional components are in parentheses.) An anaptyctic is inserted between C₃ and C₄ to ease pronunciation, changing the structure above into the following. :C₁(C₂)V₁(V₂)(C₃)(əC₄). On the other hand, Eastern Libyan always has an anaptyctic between C₁ and C₂ in the following manner. :C₁(əC₂)V₁(V₂)(C₃)(C₄).

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 loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...

also exist, in addition to

, Berber, 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. 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 lexicons. 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 toget ...

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

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 of what corresponds to modern-day Libya, Berber was the native language for most people. This led to the borrowing of a number of Berber words in Libyan Arabic. Many Berber-speaking people continue to live in Libya today but it is not clear to what extent Berber language continues to influence Libyan Arabic. Some examples of the Berber words in Libyan Arabic are .

Grammar

Libyan Arabic shares the feature of the

first person First person or first-person may refer to: * First person (ethnic), indigenous peoples, usually used in the plural * First person, a grammatical person * First person, a gender-neutral, marital-neutral term for titles such as first lady and first ...

singular initial n- with the rest of the Maghrebi Arabic

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...

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), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In va ...

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 some inflection. Declensions may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and ...

. However, it has a rich

verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...

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 ...

structure.

Nouns

Nouns in Libyan Arabic are marked for two

grammatical gender In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns ...

s, termed masculine and feminine, and three

grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and other languages present number categories of ...

s, singular, dual and plural. Paucal number also exists for some nouns. The

diminutive A diminutive is a root word that has been modified 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. A ( abbreviated ) is a word-form ...

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 In linguistics, apophony (also known as ablaut, (vowel) gradation, (vowel) mutation, alternation, internal modification, stem modification, stem alternation, replacive morphology, stem mutation, internal inflection etc.) is any Alternation (lin ...

. Indefiniteness is not marked. Definite nouns are marked using the Arabic definite article 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 Onset may refer to: * Onset (audio), the beginning of a musical note or sound * Onset, Massachusetts, village in the United States **Onset Island (Massachusetts), a small island located at the western end of the Cape Cod Canal *Interonset interval ...

, 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 (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct fr ...

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. Note that 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) 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 Note that 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 sentences. Mo ...

marker common in some Eastern Arabic varieties.

Intelligibility with other varieties of Arabic

Libyan Arabic is highly intelligible to Tunisians and to a good extent to eastern Algerians. However, for Middle Eastern and

Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, an ...

speakers, Libyan can be extremely difficult to understand as it is a Maghrebi dialect which is highly influenced by Tamazigh, Italian and Turkish words. Libyans usually have to substitute some Libyan Arabic words to make themselves understood to other Arabic speakers, especially

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

erners. Substitute words are usually borrowed from Modern Standard or

. 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 means of communication 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 from s ...

Libyan exists in Libya as a contact language used by non-Arabs, mostly Saharan and sub-Saharan Africans living in

. Like other pidgins, it has a simplified structure and limited expressive power.

References

Citations

General references

* Roger Chambard, ''Proverbes libyens recueillis par R. Ch.'', ed. by Gilda Nataf & Barbara Graille, Paris, GELLAS-Karthala, 2002 p. 465–580: index arabe-français/français-arabe * Eugenio Griffini, ''L'arabo parlato della Libia – Cenni grammaticali e repertorio di oltre 10.000 vocaboli, frasi e modi di dire raccolti in Tripolitania'', Milano: Hoepli, 1913 (reprint Milano: Cisalpino-Goliardica, 1985) *Elfitoury, Abubaker Abdalla. 1976. ''A Descriptive Grammar of Libyan Arabic''. Ann Arbor: UMI. (Doctoral dissertation, Georgetown University; vi+146pp.) * Christophe Pereira, ''Le parler arabe de Tripoli (Libye)'', Zaragoza: Instituto de Estudios Ilamicós y del oriente próximo, 2010 * Abdulgialil M. Harrama. 1993. "Libyan Arabic morphology: Al-Jabal dialect", University of Arizona PhD dissertation * Jonathan Owens, "Libyan Arabic Dialects", ''Orbis'' 32.1–2 (1983) ctually 1987 p. 97–117 * Jonathan Owens, ''A Short Reference Grammar of Eastern Libyan Arabic'', Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1984. . * 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 Arabic languages Languages of Libya Languages of Africa Maghrebi Arabic