Levantine Arabic phonology explained

pronounced as /notice/

This article is about the phonology of Levantine Arabic also known as Shāmi Arabic, and its sub-dialects.

Phonology

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Labial	Denti-alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Pharyngeal	Glottal
plain	emphatic
Nasal		pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: م	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ن
Occlusive	voiceless		pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ت	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ط		pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ك		pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ء Arabic: ق
	voiced	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ب	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: د	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ض
Fricative	voiceless	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ف	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: س Arabic: ث	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ص	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ش	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: خ	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ح	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ه
	voiced		pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ز Arabic: ذ	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ظ	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ج	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: غ	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ع
Trill / Tap			pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ر
Approximant			pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ل	(pronounced as /link/)	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: ي	pronounced as /link/ – Arabic: و

Consonants

The table below shows the correspondence between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) phonemes, and their counterpart realization in Levantine Arabic. The Urban speech is taken as reference, the variations are given relative to it.

MSA phoneme	Common realisation	Variants
pronounced as //b//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //t//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //θ//	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/ in some roots, pronounced as /link/ in rural and outer Southern Levantine
pronounced as //d͡ʒ//	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/ in Northeastern Levantine and rural Palestinian
pronounced as //ħ//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //d//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //ð//	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/ in some roots, pronounced as /link/ in rural Southern Levantine
pronounced as //r//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //z//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //s//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //ʃ//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //sˤ//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //dˤ//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //tˤ//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //ðˤ//	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /[dˤ]/ in some words, pronounced as /[ðˤ]/ in rural Southern Levantine
pronounced as //ʕ//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //ɣ//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //f//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //q//	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/ in the Druze, rural Lebanese, coastal Syria and Idlib, pronounced as /link/ in rural Palestinian (only in presence of front vowels in southern and central Palestinian areas), pronounced as /link/ in rural Hebron and Gaza Strip and outer Southern Levantine
pronounced as //k//	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/ in rural Palestinian (except southern and central Palestinian areas and only in presence of front vowels in south Palestinian areas)
pronounced as //l//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //m//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //n//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //h//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //w//	pronounced as /link/
pronounced as //j//	pronounced as /link/

NB. Hamza has a special treatment: at the end of a closed syllable, it vanishes and lengthens the preceding vowel, e.g. pronounced as //raʔs// > pronounced as /[raːs]/ (see compensatory lengthening). If followed by pronounced as //i//, it is realized as pronounced as /[j]/, pronounced as //naːʔim// > pronounced as /[naːjem]/. These evolutions plead for a Hijazi origin of Levantine Arabic. Word initially, hamza is often realized as pronounced as /[h]/ in Southern Levantine.

Vowels and diphthongs

The table below shows the correspondence between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) phonemes and their counterpart realization in Levantine Arabic.

Phoneme	Southern	Lebanese	Central	Northern
pronounced as //a//	pronounced as /[ɑ]/ or pronounced as /[ʌ]/	pronounced as /[æ]/	pronounced as /[ɑ]/ or pronounced as /[ʌ]/	pronounced as /[ɔ]/ or pronounced as /[ɛ]/
pronounced as //i//	pronounced as /[e]/	pronounced as /[ɪ]/	pronounced as /[ə]/ (stressed), pronounced as /[ɪ]/ (unstressed)	pronounced as /[e]/
pronounced as //u//	pronounced as /[o]/ or pronounced as /[ʊ]/	pronounced as /[ɪ]/ (stressed), pronounced as /[ʊ]/ (unstressed)	pronounced as /[ə]/ (stressed), pronounced as /[o]/ (unstressed)	pronounced as /[o]/
pronounced as /-aʰ/	pronounced as /[ɑ]/ after back consonants, pronounced as /[e]/ after front consonants	pronounced as /[ʌ]/ after back consonants, pronounced as /[e]/ after front consonants	pronounced as /[ʌ]/ after back consonants, pronounced as /[e]/ after front consonants	pronounced as /[ʌ]/ after back consonants, pronounced as /[e]/ after front consonants
pronounced as //aː//	pronounced as /[aː]/, final pronounced as /[a]/	pronounced as /[ɛː]/ (front context), pronounced as /[ɔː]/ (back context), final pronounced as /[eː]/	pronounced as /[ɑː]/ (back context), pronounced as /[æː]/ (front context), final pronounced as /[e]/	pronounced as /[oː]/ (back context), pronounced as /[eː]/ (front context), final pronounced as /[e]/
pronounced as //iː//	pronounced as /[iː]/, final pronounced as /[i]/	pronounced as /[iː]/, final pronounced as /[i]/	pronounced as /[iː]/, final pronounced as /[i]/	pronounced as /[iː]/, final pronounced as /[i]/
pronounced as //uː//	pronounced as /[uː]/, final pronounced as /[u]/	pronounced as /[uː]/, final pronounced as /[u]/	pronounced as /[uː]/, final pronounced as /[u]/	pronounced as /[uː]/, final pronounced as /[u]/
pronounced as //aj//	pronounced as /[eː]/	pronounced as /[eɪ]/	pronounced as /[eː]/	pronounced as /[eː]/
pronounced as //aw//	pronounced as /[oː]/	pronounced as /[oʊ]/	pronounced as /[oː]/	pronounced as /[oː]/

Levantine Arabic vowels can be represented in the Arabic script in many ways because of etymological and grammatical reasons, e.g. pronounced as //əljoːm// Arabic: اليَوم ('today').

In French borrowings, nasal vowels /pronounced as /link//, /pronounced as /link//, /pronounced as /link// and /pronounced as /link// occur: ("lift"), "mobile phone".^[1]

Varieties

As in most Arabic-speaking areas, the spoken language differs significantly between urban, rural and nomad populations.

• In the Levant, nomads trace to various tribes of the Arabian Peninsula, and their dialect is consequently close to Peninsular Arabic (Najdi). Note that although claiming a Bedouin ancestry sounds prestigiousin the Levant, the Bedouin influence on this old sedentary area should not be overestimated. These dialects are not covered in detail here, as they are not specific to the area.
• The rural language is the one that changes most, and as in every old sedentary area, the changes are gradual, with more marked forms in extremal or isolated areas (e.g. general shift of pronounced as /link/ to pronounced as /link/ in rural Palestinian, or conservation of the diphthongs pronounced as //aj// and pronounced as //aw// in the Lebanese mountains).
• The urban language spoken in the major cities is remarkably homogeneous, with a few shibboleths (markers) only to distinguish the various cities (see below). Levantine Arabic is commonly understood to be this urban sub-variety. Teaching manuals for foreigners provide a systematic introduction to this sub-variety, as it would sound very strange for a foreigner to speak a marked rural dialect, immediately raising questions on unexpected family links, for instance.^[2]

Urban Levantine Arabic

As mentioned above, the urban varieties are remarkably homogeneous throughout the whole area, compared to the changes the language undergo in rural populations. This homogeneity is probably inherited from the trading network among cities in the Ottoman Empire. It may also represent an older state of affairs. As a matter of facts, there is a current trend to diverge from this unity, the language of the cities taking on some of the features of their neighboring villages (e.g. Jerusalem used to say as Damascus pronounced as /[ˈnɪħna]/ ('we') and pronounced as /[ˈhʊnne]/ ('they') at the beginning of the 20th century, and this has moved to the more rural pronounced as /[ˈɪħna]/ and pronounced as /[ˈhʊmme]/ nowadays.).^[3] The table below shows the main historical variants which have shibboleth role, most of the rest of the language remaining the same.

City	q	ǧ	we (subj.)	you (pl, compl.)	they (subj)	they (compl.)	I say	he says	I write	he writes	write!	now	it is not …
Aleppo^[4]	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /[ˈnəħne]/	pronounced as /[-kon]/	pronounced as /[ˈhənnen]/	pronounced as /[-on]/	pronounced as /[baˈʔuːl]/	pronounced as /[bɪˈʔuːl]/	pronounced as /[ˈbaktob]/	pronounced as /[ˈbjəktob]/	pronounced as /[ktoːb]/	pronounced as /[ˈhallaʔ]/	pronounced as /[mʊ]/
Damascus^[5]	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /[ˈnəħna]/	pronounced as /[-kʊn]/	pronounced as /[ˈhənnen]/	pronounced as /[-hʊn]/	pronounced as /[bʔuːl]/	pronounced as /[bəˈʔuːl]/	pronounced as /[ˈbəkteb]/	pronounced as /[ˈbjəkteb]/	pronounced as /[ktoːb]/	pronounced as /[ˈhallaʔ]/	pronounced as /[mʊ]/
	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /[ˈnɪħna]/	pronounced as /[-kʊn]/	pronounced as /[ˈhɪnne]/	pronounced as /[-ʊn]/	pronounced as /[bʔuːl]/	pronounced as /[bɪˈʔuːl]/	pronounced as /[ˈbɪktob]/	pronounced as /[ˈbjɪktob]/	pronounced as /[ktoːb]/	pronounced as /[ˈhallaʔ]/	pronounced as /[mɪʃ]/
Haifa^[6]	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /[ˈɪħna]/	pronounced as /[-kʊ]/	pronounced as /[ˈhɪnne]/	pronounced as /[-hen]/	pronounced as /[baˈʔuːl]/	pronounced as /[bɪˈʔuːl]/	pronounced as /[ˈbaktɪb]/	pronounced as /[ˈbɪktɪb]/	pronounced as /[ˈɪktɪb]/	pronounced as /[ˈɪssa]/	pronounced as /[mɪʃ]/
Jerusalem^[7]	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /[ˈɪħna]/	pronounced as /[-kʊm]/	pronounced as /[ˈhʊmme]/	pronounced as /[-hʊm]/	pronounced as /[baˈʔuːl]/	pronounced as /[bɪˈʔuːl]/	pronounced as /[ˈbaktʊb]/	pronounced as /[ˈbɪktʊb]/	pronounced as /[ˈʊktʊb]/	pronounced as /[ha-l-ˈʔeːt]/ pronounced as /[halˈlaʔ]/	pronounced as /[mʊʃ]/
Hebron^[8]	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /[ˈɪħna]/	pronounced as /[-kʊ]/	pronounced as /[ˈhʊmme]/	pronounced as /[-hom]/	pronounced as /[baˈʔuːl]/	pronounced as /[bɪˈʔuːl]/	pronounced as /[ˈbaktob]/	pronounced as /[ˈbɪktob]/	pronounced as /[ˈʊktob]/	pronounced as /[haʔˈʔeːteː]/	pronounced as /[mʊʃ]/
	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /[ˈɪħna]/	pronounced as /[-kʊ]/	pronounced as /[ˈhʊmma]/	pronounced as /[-hʊm]/	pronounced as /[baˈguːl]/	pronounced as /[bɪˈguːl]/	pronounced as /[ˈbaktʊb]/	pronounced as /[ˈbɪktʊb]/	pronounced as /[ˈʊktʊb]/	pronounced as /[ˈhalˈgeːt]/	pronounced as /[mɪʃ]/
Amman^[9]	pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /[ˈɪħna]/	pronounced as /[-kʊm]/	pronounced as /[ˈhʊmme]/	pronounced as /[-hʊm]/	pronounced as /[baˈɡuːl]/	pronounced as /[bɪˈɡuːl]/	pronounced as /[ˈbaktʊb]/	pronounced as /[ˈbɪktʊb]/	pronounced as /[ˈʊktʊb]/	pronounced as /[hasˈsaːʕ]/	pronounced as /[mʊʃ]/
al-Karak^[10]	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /[ˈɪħna]/	pronounced as /[-kʊm]/	pronounced as /[ˈhʊmmʊ]/	pronounced as /[-hʊm]/	pronounced as /[baˈɡuːl]/	pronounced as /[bɪˈɡuːl]/	pronounced as /[ˈbaktʊb]/	pronounced as /[ˈbɪktʊb]/	pronounced as /[ˈʊktʊb]/	pronounced as /[hasˈsaːʕ]/	pronounced as /[mʊ(ʃ)]/
Irbid^[11]	pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /[ˈɪħna]/	pronounced as /[-kʊm]/	pronounced as /[ˈhʊmme]/	pronounced as /[-hʊm]/	pronounced as /[baˈɡuːl]/	pronounced as /[bɪˈɡuːl]/	pronounced as /[ˈbaktʊb]/	pronounced as /[ˈbɪktʊb]/	pronounced as /[ˈʊktʊb]/	pronounced as /[hasˈsaːʕ]/	pronounced as /[mʊʃ]/

Rural subdialects

Rural Levantine Arabic can be divided into two groups of mutually intelligible subdialects.^[12] Again, these dialect considerations have to be understood to apply mainly to rural populations, as the urban forms change much less.

• Northern Levantine Arabic, spoken in Lebanon, Syria (except the Hauran area south of Damascus) and Northern Israel. It is characterized by:

• a widespread pronunciation of pronounced as //q// as pronounced as /link/ (the Druze, however, retain the uvular pronounced as /link/).

• A strong tendency to pronounce long pronounced as //aː// as pronounced as /link/ (imala) in a front phonemic context or pronounced as /link/ (tafkhim) in a back phonemic context. This tendency is stronger as one goes northward. For instance, Damascus and Beirut only have final pronounced as //aː// consistently pronounced as pronounced as /link/, e.g. pronounced as //ʃitaː// ('rain') is pronounced pronounced as /[ʃəte]/ . This feature may be used to distinguish Central from Northern Levantine.

• A widespread realization of pronounced as //dʒ// as pronounced as /link/, especially along the Mediterranean coast. This feature may be used to distinguish northwest (coastal, Nusayriyyah) from northeast (e.g. Aleppo, Idlib) Levantine Arabic where pronounced as //dʒ// is realized as pronounced as /link/.

• The second and third person plural pronominal suffixes end in pronounced as //-n// : pronounced as //-kun//, pronounced as //-hun// (or pronounced as //-hen// in Galilee).

• The characteristic vowel of the imperative is long: pronounced as //ˈuktub// > pronounced as /[ktoːb]/.

• The first and third person singular imperfect are pronounced as //bquːl// ('I say') and pronounced as //bəquːl// ('he says') in Lebanon and Damascus instead of pronounced as //baquːl// and pronounced as //biquːl//, respectively, everywhere else, which may be used to further distinguish Central from Northern and Southern Levantine Arabic.
• South Levantine Arabic, spoken in Palestine between Nazareth and Bethlehem, in the Syrian Hauran mountains, and in western Jordan and Israel.

• Tafkhim is nonexistent there, and imala affects only the feminine ending pronounced as //-ah// > pronounced as /[e]/ after front consonants (and not even in Gaza where it remains pronounced as //a//), while pronounced as //ʃitaː// is pronounced as /[ʃɪta]/.

• In central Palestinian (Jaffa, West Bank, Nazareth, Tiberias) rural speech, pronounced as //k// changes to pronounced as /link/, pronounced as //q// changes to pronounced as /link/, interdentals are conserved, and pronounced as //dʒ// is pronounced pronounced as /link/. In southern Palestinian (Ashdod, Asqelon, Hebron countryside) as well as western Jordan and Syrian Hauran, pronounced as //q// changes to pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as //k// changes to pronounced as /link/ before front vowels. This latter feature resembles the North Arabian Bedouin dialects.

In Israel, apart from Galilee and the Negev, rural dialects are almost extinct, and this description gives is the pre-1948 state of affairs. Palestinian refugees in Jordan have brought with them their typical features, although they tend to adopt the emerging Jordanian urban speech.

To these typical, widespread subdialects, one could add marginal varieties such as:

• Outer South Levantine, spoken in the Gaza–Beersheva area in Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as in cities east of the Dead Sea in Jordan (Karak, Tafilah), which display different Bedouin influences as compared to south Levantine. For instance, there, pronounced as //k// never changes to pronounced as /link/. This reflects Hijazi or Sinai Bedouin Arabic pronunciation rather than that of North Arabian Bedouin dialects.
• Bedouin dialects proper, which on top of the above-mentioned features that influence the sedentary dialects, present typical stress patterns (e.g. gahawa syndrome) or lexical items.

Notes and References

1. Book: Jérôme . Lentin . Damascus Arabic . Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics . Lutz . Edzard . Rudolf . de Jong . 10.1163/1570-6699_eall_EALL_COM_0077 . Brill.
2. See e.g. Yohanan Elihai, The olive tree dictionary: a transliterated dictionary of conversational Eastern Arabic (Palestinian). Washington, DC: Kidron Pub. 2004
3. U. Seeger, Mediterranean Language Review 10 (1998), pp. 89-145.
4. Handbuch der arabische Dialekte - Jastrow & Fischer - Harrassowitz verlag
5. Manuel Du Parler Arabe Moderne Au Moyen, Jean Kassab, Paul Geuthner ed., Paris (2006)
6. Die arabischen Stadtdialekte von Haifa in der ersten Hälfte des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2004.
7. Yohanan Elihai, The olive tree dictionary: a transliterated dictionary of conversational Eastern Arabic (Palestinian). Washington, DC: Kidron Pub. 2004
8. Der arabische Dialekt von il-Xalil (Hebron), Mediterranean Language Review Heft 10 (1998), S. 89-145
9. Enam Al-Wer Jordanian Arabic (Amman) Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Managing Editors Online Edition: Lutz Edzard, Rudolf de Jong. Brill Online 2012
10. Heikki Palva, Sedentary and Bedouin Dialects in Contact: Remarks On Karaki and Salti Dialects in Jordan, Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies vol 9 (2008)
11. Enam Al-Wer Jordanian Arabic (Irbid) Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Managing Editors Online Edition: Lutz Edzard, Rudolf de Jong. Brill Online 2012
12. Handbuch der arabische Dialekte - Jastrow & Fischer - Harrassowitz verlag