Damascus Arabic Explained

Damascus Arabic
Nativename:	Arabic: اللهجِة الشاميِّة
States:	Syria
Speakers:	1.6 million
Date:	2004
Ref:	^[1]
Familycolor:	Afroasiatic
Fam2:	Semitic
Fam3:	Central Semitic
Fam4:	Arabic
Fam5:	Levantine Arabic
Fam6:	North Levantine Arabic
Listclass:	hlist
Script:	Arabic alphabet Arabic chat alphabet
Iso3comment:	(covered by apc)
Iso3:	none
Isoexception:	dialect
Ietf:	apc-u-sd-sydi
Notice:	IPA
Map:	Levantine Arabic red blue.svg

Damascus Arabic or Damascus Dialect is a North 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 media, it is prestigious and widely recognized by speakers of other Syrian dialects, as well as in Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan. Accordingly, in modern times it is sometimes known as Syrian Arabic or the Syrian Dialect; however, the former term may also be used to refer to the group of similar urban sedentary dialects of the Levant, or to mean Levantine Arabic in general.^{[2] [3]}

History

Classification

DA, like other Levantine dialects, is influenced by Aramaic.^[4]

Studies

DA is one of the most represented and researched Arabic dialects; It has been researched or discussed by Grotzfeld,^[5] Ambros (1977),^[6] Cowell,^[3] Cantineau and Helbaoui (1953),^[7] Kuhnt (1958),^[8] Kassab (1970),^[9] Ferguson (1961),^[10] Bloch (1964)^[11] and (1965),^[12] Bergsträsser (1924),^[13] which also contains around fifty-pages worth of transcribed DA, and the twelve-volume course written by the US Defense Language Institute (1983).^{[14] [15]}

Of its dictionaries which focus on the old varieties of DA, there are Strowasser's (English-DA Arabic),^[16] Ṭīb al-Kalām (Arabic-DA Arabic)^[17] and the long-awaited Salamé and Lentin's (French-DA Arabic).^[18] A dictionary of idioms has been released by Borhan Ahmad.^[19]

Modern usage

Media

DA most influential position is in media, where it is the de facto official Syrian dialect/accent in the media when MSA is not used and is the most influential dialect in Arabic drama. It has been said that DA is taking the traditional place of Egyptian Arabic there.^[20] The most influential Syrian series that is used almost only in DA, Bab Al-Hara, acquired a staggering 50 million view per episode in its peaks^[21] and the success of some Turkish shows in the Arab world has been attributed to dubs in DA.^[22]

Literature

It is not common for DA to be written in literature, as MSA is usually used in this genre instead. It has however made its way to al-turath al-sha'bi in several pieces of literature, like Siham Turjuman's Yā māl al-Shām (only dialogues), Munīr Kayāl's Ḥikāyāt dimašqiyya (only dialogues) and Institut Francais du Proche-Orient's fifteen-volume Sirat Al-Malik Al-Zahir Baibars Hsab Al-Riwaya Al-Shamiyya (scattered).^[23]

Phonology

Consonants

DA Consonants

		Labial		Dental	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
		plain	emphatic		plain	emphatic
Nasal		pronounced as /link/	mˤ		pronounced as /link/
Stop	voiceless	(pronounced as /link/)			pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	(pronounced as /link/)	pronounced as /link/	(pronounced as /link/)		pronounced as /link/
	voiced	pronounced as /link/	bˤ		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	(pronounced as /link/)	(pronounced as /link/)
Fricative	voiceless	pronounced as /link/		(pronounced as /link/)	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
	voiced	(pronounced as /link/)		(pronounced as /link/)	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Tap/trill					pronounced as /link/
Approximant					pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/

• The phonemes pronounced as //p, v, g, q// appear mainly in borrowings and loanwords. A rare /tʃ/ has been reported in Turkish loanwords but it is usually articulated as /pronounced as /link//.
• pronounced as //p// is not generally replaceable by pronounced as //b//, as in kɔmpyūtər 'computer'; although unaspirated [p] is a frequent allophone of /b/ before voiceless obstruents /f, k, x, ħ, q, s, ʃ, sˤ, t, tˤ/ and at the end of phrases.
• Uvular pronounced as //q// is frequent in borrowings from Classical Arabic and sometimes alternates freely with pronounced as //ʔ//; but always using /q/ instead of the dialectal /ʔ/ (as used in some rural dialects) is not prestigious in DA, where it could be mocked.^{[24] [3]}
• While they are used more in rural dialects than in the urban DA,^[3] voiceless /pronounced as /link// is an educated variant of /pronounced as /link// and /pronounced as /link// in words with /pronounced as /link// in MSA. Similarly, its voiced variant /pronounced as /link// is an educated variant of /pronounced as /link// and /pronounced as /link// in words with /pronounced as /link// in MSA. These two variants are mainly noticeable from educated men whose professions require the frequent usage of MSA in its written form and is considered a literary, educated and a religious usage.^{[25] [26]}
• All of pronounced as //m, b, l// have emphatic (velarised) equivalents but a standard method of writing them in the Arabic script does not exist. e.g. Minimal pairs typically exist in Mayy for (a female name) while /mˤ/ in ṃayy for (water), /b/ in bab[h]a (her door) and two /bˤ/ in ḅaḅa (dad), two /l/ in 'all[h]a (he told her) and two /lˤ/ in aḷḷa[h] (Allah).
• [dʒ] is used in the Aleppo region, and in more rural parts of Greater Syria, instead of /ʒ/. [tʃ] only occurs in certain words of the Aleppo region, and in certain rural dialects elsewhere, in place of /k/ in certain positions.
• While Lentin argues that /r/ contrasts with /rˤ/ as in [i]nhār (he broke down) and nhāṛ (daytime), Cowell denies that an /r/ and /rˤ/ distinction exists in DA.
• DA makes frequent use of doubled (long) consonants and the difference is phonemic.^[3] e.g. katab (wrote) and kattab (made someone write), ġani (rich) and ġanni (sing!).
• Usually, the velarisation of one consonant velarises adjacent consonants in a word or even the whole word, but /e/, /i/ and /ə/ can restrain it.^{[3] [27]}

Vowels

DA typically contains at most eleven different phonemic vowels with six of them (including schwa) being short vowels or at least eight phonemic vowels.^[28]

Vowel	Value	DA example	English example
/i:/	[iː]	/fi:d/ (do something useful!)	feed monophthong
/e:/	[eː]	/ze:d/ (male first name)	Scottish English: face
/a:/	[aː]	/ha:d/ (this one)	NZE bra
/o:/	[oː]	/xo:d/ (take!)	RP: North
/u:/	[uː]	/hu:d/ (Islamic prophet name)	mood monophthong
/i/	[ɪ]	/hidd/ (destroy)	kit monophthong
/e/	[ɛ]	/na:hed/ (male first name)	Traditional RP: bet
/a/	[æ]	/had/ (he destroyed)	Contemporary RP: cat
/o/	[o]	/hidhod/ (hoopoe)	Scottish English go
/u/	[ʊ]	/huda/ (female first name)	Scottish English: foot

• No standard method of writing [e], [o], or [ə] exists in the typical Arabic script. Usually, [e] and [i] are considered both kasrah, [u] and [o] are considered as both dhammah, while [ə] is occasionally represented by both diacritics for DA speakers. Similarly, /e:/ and /i:/ are considered mad bil-ya while /o:/ and /u:/ are considered mad bil-waw. Only six vowels could be written with the standard Arabic script and as such, most speakers of DA can describe them easily in Arabic while this is not the case for the other vowels.
• The phonemic quality of [e], [o] and [ə] is disputed by some researchers who analyse them as allophones; nevertheless, Lentin analyses every non-final syllable /e, i, u, o/ as /ə/ although this /ə/ has different allophones.
• Typically, most diphthongs in Classical Arabic are monophthonged in DA with a fixed pattern: *aw= /o:/, *ay=/e:/, *ey & *əy=/i:/, *əw=/u:/; exceptions to this include: *aww and *ayy are preserved (at the end of syllables they change to *aw and *ay though), morphological constraints occasionally prevent monophthongization and diphthongs could occur as loanwords from Classical Arabic.^[29]

Intonation

One of the most distinctive features of typical DA, which is most pronounced in the old quarters, is the lengthening of the last vowel of interrogative and exclamative sentences.^[29] This peculiar intonation has a 'sing-songy' feeling which leads some to call it as 'singing' rather than speaking when compared to Egyptian Arabic.^[30]

The actor of 'Moataz' in Bab al-Hara is quite famous for this during fights. This is frequently parodied by non-DA speakers.^[31]

Variation

MSA influence

Due to Syria's education in MSA and global communication, DA is experiencing changes towards classicalism, pseudo-classicalism, neologisms and journalese; local characteristics are rapidly being abandoned in favour of such uses.^[3] For example, the traditional zōzi (my husband) is being replaced by žōzi and the new semi-classical variant zōži emerged.^[24] This rapid influence can be considered the main difference between the traditional and contemporary DA versions.^[32]

Religion

Velarisation tends to be more pronounced in Christian quarters.^[33]

Jews in Iskenderun and Antakya used to speak with dialects quite close to Damascus and Aleppo urban dialects due to their interaction with the Jews there, which differentiated them from people living there. Syrian Jews also used to pronounce Hebrew loanwords containing with their biblical Hebrew and Arabic equivalents.^{[34] [35]}

Traditional and new quarters

Velarisation tends to be more pronounced in old quarters, like in al-Mīdān.^[33]

Notes and References

1. Book: Lentin, Jérôme. Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Foreign Language Study. 2006. 9789004177024.
2. Book: Versteegh . Kees . Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics . Brill . 9004144730 . v1.492, v1.546, v1.604, v4.403–409.
3. Book: Mark W.. Cowell. A Reference Grammar of Syrian Arabic (based on the Dialect of Damascus). xv, xvii. Georgetown University Press. 2005 . 1589010515. Google Books.
4. Book: Versteegh . Kees . Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics . Brill . 9004144730 . v4. p.403.
5. Book: Grotzfeld . Heinz . Syrisch-arabische grammatik: dialekt von damaskus . 2006 . Eisenbrauns . 3447006919.
6. Book: Ambros . Arne . Damascus Arabic . 1977 . Undena Publications . 9780890030097 .,
7. Book: Manuel élémentaire d'arabe oriental : Parler de Damas. Helbaoui. Youssef. Cantineau. Jean. 1953. B001820C8O.
8. Book: Syrisch-arabischer Sprachführer. Kuhnt. Eberhard. 1958. B0000BKLAS.
9. Book: Kassab . Jean . Manuel du parler arabe moderne au Moyen-Orient. Tome premier, Cours élémentaire . 2006 . P. Geuthner . 270530455X . 2e éd.
10. Book: Ferguson . Charles . et al . Damascus Arabic . Centre for Applied Linguistics . 1974 . 0872810240 .
11. Book: Grotzfeld . Heinz . Bloch . Ariel . Damaszenisch-arabische Texte: Mit Übersetzung, Anmerkungen und Glossar . 1964 . 978-3447049429 .
12. Book: Die Hypotaxe im Damaszenisch-Arabischen mit Vergleichen zur Hypotaxe im Klassisch-Arabischen. Bloch. Ariel. 978-3935556040.
13. Book: Bergsträsser . Gotthelf . Zum arabischen Dialekt von Damaskus. I. Phonetik . 1924 . Georg Olm Verlagsbuchhandlung, Hildesheim.
14. Book: Arabic Syrian Course . 1983 . Defense language institute: Foreign Language Center.
15. Book: Klimiuk, Maciej . Phonetics and Phonology of Damascus Arabic . Katedra Arabistyki i Islamistyki, Uniwersytet Warszawski . 2013 . 9788390318851 . Warsaw . 2013 . 65–72 . Vowels . https://books.google.com/books?id=TbZFEAAAQBAJ.
16. Book: Stowasser . Karl . Moukhtar . Ani . A dictionary of Syrian Arabic : English-Arabic . 1964 . Georgetown University Press . 1589011058.
17. Book: al-Zaʿīm . Wafīq . Ṭīb al-kalām : [bi-lahjat ahl al-Shām : muʿjam] . Dār al-Fikr . 978-9933-10-217-3 . 1st.
18. Book: Versteegh . Kees . Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics . Brill . 9004144730 . vol 1–546.
19. Book: Ahmad . Borhan . The Dictionary of Levantine Idioms: +300 Idioms of Everyday Syrian Dialect . 2018 . B07GJN38ZB.
20. Web site: Uthman . Ahmad . Ahmad Maher: Damascus Arabic is a real threat to Egyptian drama . www.eremnews.com . 23 November 2018 . ar-AR.
21. Web site: Does Syrian star Jihad Abdo turned pizza delivery boy still have a shot at Hollywood fame? . www.albawaba.com . 23 November 2018 . en . 5 January 2017.
22. Web site: Rizvi . Anam . Arab viewers get taste of different cultures with translated TV shows in the UAE . The National . 15 December 2018 . en.
23. Book: Bohas . Georges. Georges Bohas. Hassan . Iyas . Sīrat al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Baybarṣ : ḥasab al-riwāyah al-Shāmīyah . Institut Français du Proche-Orient . 978-2-901315-59-9 . 11.
24. Book: Versteegh . Kees . Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics . Brill . 9004144730 . v1. p.548.
25. Book: Omar . Margaret . Levantine & Egyptian Arabic : comparative study . 1976 . University of California Libraries . 978-1125382011 .
26. Book: Albirini . Abdulkafi . Modern Arabic sociolinguistics : diglossia, variation, codeswitching, attitudes and identity . September 11, 2015 . Routledge . 978-0415707473 . 196 . 1.
27. Book: Versteegh . Kees . Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics . Brill . 9004144730 . 548 v.1.
28. Web site: Acoustic analysis of the Syrian Arabic vowel system. Almbark. Rana. Hellmuth. Sam. University of York. 5 November 2018.
29. Book: Versteegh . Kees . Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics . Brill . 9004144730 . 547 v.1.
30. Web site: Kulk . Friso . Odé . Cecilia . Manfred . Woidich . The Intonation of Colloquial Damascene Arabic: a pilot study . www.fon.hum.uva.nl . University of Amsterdam, Institute of Phonetic Sciences . 2 January 2019.
31. Book: Belnap . Kirk . Haeri . Niloofar . Structuralist studies in Arabic linguistics : Charles A. Ferguson's papers, 1954-1994 . August 1, 1997 . E.J. Brill . 9004105115 . 104.
32. Book: Versteegh . Kees . Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics . Brill . 9004144730 . v4. 408.
33. Book: Versteegh . Kees . Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics . Brill . 9004144730 . v1. p.547.
34. Web site: Arnold . Werner . Judeo-Arabic, Syria, Hebrew Component in . Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics . 6 January 2019 . en . 24 June 2013.
35. Book: Kahn . Lily . Rubin . Aaron . Handbook of Jewish languages . October 30, 2015 . Brill Academic Pub . 978-9004217331 . 43.