Hejazi Arabic


Hejazi Arabic or Hijazi Arabic, also known as West Arabian Arabic, is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Hejaz region in Saudi Arabia. Strictly speaking, there are two main groups of dialects spoken in the Hejaz region, one by the urban population, originally spoken mainly in the cities of Jeddah, Mecca and Medina and another by the urbanized rural and bedouin populations.. However, the term most often applies to the urban variety which is discussed in this article.
In antiquity, the Hejaz was home to the Old Hejazi dialect of Arabic recorded in the consonantal text of the Qur'an. Old Hejazi is distinct from modern Hejazi Arabic, and represents an older linguistic layer wiped out by centuries of migration, but which happens to share the imperative prefix vowel /a-/ with the modern dialect.

Classification

Hejazi Arabic belongs to the western Peninsular Arabic branch of the Arabic language, which itself is a Semitic language. It includes features of both urban and bedouin dialects given its history between the ancient cities of Jeddah, Medina and Mecca and the bedouin tribes that lived on the outskirts of these cities and the external influences from the neighboring urban dialects which created the urban Hejazi dialect distinctly from other Peninsular dialects.

Features

Also referred to as the sedentary Hejazi dialect, this is the form most commonly associated with the term "Hejazi Arabic", and is spoken in the urban centers of the region, such as Jeddah, Mecca, and Medina. With respect to the axis of bedouin versus sedentary dialects of the Arabic language, this dialect group exhibits features of both. Like other sedentary dialects, the urban Hejazi dialect is less conservative than the bedouin varieties in some aspects and has therefore shed some Classical forms and features that are still present in bedouin dialects, these include gender-number disagreement, and the feminine marker -n. But in contrast to bedouin dialects, the constant use of full vowels and the absence of vowel reduction plus the distinction between the emphatic letters and is generally retained.

Innovative features

  1. The present progressive tense is marked by the prefix بـ or قاعد as in بيدرس or قاعد يدرس .
  2. The future tense is marked by the prefix حـ or راح as in حيدرس.
  3. the internal passive form, which in Hejazi, is replaced by the pattern or.
  4. The dominant case ending before the 3rd person masculine singular pronoun is -u, rather than the -a that is prevalent in bedouin dialects. For example, بيته , عنده , أعرفه .
  5. All numbers have no gender except for the number "one" which is واحد m. and وحدة f..
  6. The pronunciation of the interdental letters ,, and.
  7. loss of gender-specificity in plural verb forms, e.g. يركبوا instead of masculine يركبون and feminine يركبن.
  8. loss of gender-specificity in plural adjectives, e.g. طفشانين "bored" can be used to describe both feminine and masculine plural nouns.
and Najd

Conservative features

  1. Hejazi Arabic does not employ double negation, nor does it append the negation particles -sh to negate verbs: Hejazi ما اعرف , as opposed to Egyptian معرفش and Palestinian بعرفش.
  2. The habitual present tense is not marked by any prefixes as in يِدْرُس , as opposed to Egyptian بيدرس.
  3. The prohibitive mood of Classical Arabic is preserved in the imperative: لا تروح .
  4. The possessive suffixes are generally preserved in their Classical forms. For example, بيتكم "your house".
  5. The plural first person pronoun is نحنا / نِحْنَ or إحنا, as opposed to the bedouin حنّا or إنّا.
  6. When indicating a location, the preposition في is preferred to بـ. In bedouin dialects, the preference differs by region.
  7. The pronunciation of the is as in Modern Standard Arabic.
  8. The hamzated verbs like أخذ and أكل keep their classical form as opposed to خذا and كلى.
  9. The glottal stop can be added to final syllables ending in a vowel as a way of emphasising.
  10. the definite article الـ is pronounced as opposed to Egyptian or Kuwaiti.
  11. Compared to neighboring dialects, urban Hejazi retains most of the short vowels of Classical Arabic with no vowel reduction, for example:

    History

The Arabic of today is derived principally from the old dialects of Central and North Arabia which were divided by the classical Arab grammarians into three groups: Hejaz, Najd, and the language of the tribes in adjoining areas. Though the modern Hejazi dialects has developed markedly since the development of Classical Arabic, and Modern Standard Arabic is quite distinct from the modern dialect of Hejaz. Standard Arabic now differs considerably from modern Hejazi Arabic in terms of its phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon, such diglossia in Arabic began to emerge at the latest in the sixth century CE when oral poets recited their poetry in a proto-Classical Arabic based on archaic dialects which differed greatly from their own.
Historically, it is not well known in which stage of Arabic the shift from the Proto-Semitic pair qāf and gīm came to be Hejazi gāf and jīm, although it has been attested as early as the eighth century CE, and it can be explained by a chain shift * → → that occurred in one of two ways:
  1. Drag Chain: Proto-Semitic gīm palatalized to Hejazi jīm first, opening up a space at the position of, which qāf * then moved to fill the empty space resulting in Hejazi gāf, restoring structural symmetrical relationships present in the pre-Arabic system.
  2. Push Chain: Proto-Semitic qāf * changed to Hejazi gāf first, which resulted in pushing the original gīm forward in articulation to become Hejazi jīm, but since most modern qāf dialects as well as standard Arabic also have jīm, hence the push-chain of qāf to gāf first can be discredited, although there are good grounds for believing that old Arabic qāf had both voiced and voiceless allophones; and after that gīm was fronted to jīm, possibly as a result of pressure from the allophones.
The development of to have also been observed in languages like Azeri, in which the Old Turkic is pronounced as a velar rather than as in Turkish or in Bashkir, Uyghur, Kazakh, etc.
In general, Hejazi native phonemic inventory consists of 26 to 28 consonant phonemes depending on the speaker's background and formality, in addition to the marginal phoneme and two foreign phonemes ⟨پ⟩ and ⟨ڤ⟩ used by a number of speakers. Furthermore, it has an eight-vowel system, consisting of three short and five long vowels, in addition to two diphthongs.. Consonant length and Vowel length are both distinctive and being a Semitic language the four emphatic consonants are treated as separate phonemes from their plain counterparts.
The main phonological feature that differentiates urban Hejazi from other peninsular dialects is the pronunciation of the letters ,, and , while retaining the standard pronunciation of . Another differential feature is the lack of palatalization for the letters ك, ق and ج, unlike in other peninsular dialects where they can be palatalized in certain positions e.g. Hejazi جديد 'new' vs. Gulf Arabic and Hejazi عندك 'with you' vs. traditional Najdi. The marginal /ɫ/ is only used in the word الله /aɫːaːh/ 'god' and in words derived from it, unlike other neighboring dialects where might be velarized allophonically in certain positions, as in عقل pronounced in Hejazi and in other peninsular Arabic dialects.
A conservative phonological feature that Hejazi holds is the constant use of full vowels and the absence of vowel reduction, for example قلنا لهم 'we told them', is pronounced in Hejazi with full vowels but pronounced with the reduced vowel as in Najdi, in addition to that, the absence of initial consonant cluster as in نحسب 'we count' or سمعت 'she heard' which are pronounced and in Hejazi but and in other Saudi dialects.

Consonants

Phonetic notes:
Phonetic notes:
Most of the occurrences of the two diphthongs and in the Classical Arabic period underwent monophthongization in Hejazi, and are realized as the long vowels and respectively, but they are still preserved as diphthongs in a number of words which created a contrast with the long vowels,, and.
Example MeaningHejazi ArabicModern Standard Arabic
دوريleague
دوريmy turn
دوريturn around!
دوريsearch!

Not all instances of mid vowels are a result of monophthongization, some are from grammatical processes قالوا 'they said' → قالوا لها 'they said to her', and some occur in modern Portmanteau words e.g. ليش 'why?'.

Vocabulary

Hejazi vocabulary derives primarily from Arabic Semitic roots. The urban Hejazi vocabulary differs in some respect from that of other dialects in the Arabian Peninsula. For example, there are fewer specialized terms related to desert life, and more terms related to seafaring and fishing. Loanwords are uncommon and they are mainly of French, Italian, Persian, Turkish and most recently of English origins, and due to the diverse origins of the inhabitants of Hejazi cities, some loanwords are only used by some families. Some old loanwords are fading or became obsolete due to the influence of Modern Standard Arabic and their association with lower social class and education, e.g. كنديشن "air conditioner" was replaced by Standard Arabic مكيّف. Most of the loanwords tend to be nouns, with a change of meaning sometimes as in: "overpass" from Turkish / originally meaning "bridge" and وَايْت "water tanker truck" from English and جزمة "shoe" from Turkish / originally meaning "boot", or it can be derived from a sentence as in روج "lipstick" from French. Loaned verbs include "to hack" from English "" and "to agitate" from French "" or English "".
Some general Hejazi expressions include بالتوفيق "good luck", إيوه "yes", لأ "no", لسة "not yet, still", قد or قيد "already", دحين or "now", أبغى "I want", لو سمحت "please/excuse me" to a male and لو سمحتي "please/excuse me" to a female.

Portmanteau

A common feature in Hejazi vocabulary is portmanteau words ; in which parts of multiple words or their phones are combined into a new word, it is especially innovative in making Interrogative words, examples include:
The Cardinal number system in Hejazi is much more simplified than the Classical Arabic
numbers 1-10IPA11-20IPA10sIPA100sIPA
1 واحد11 احدعش10 عشرة100 مية
2 اثنين or 12 اثنعش or 20 عشرين200 ميتين or
3 ثلاثة or 13 ثلثطعش or 30 ثلاثين or 300 ثلثميَّة or
4 أربعة14 أربعطعش40 أربعين400 أربعميَّة
5 خمسة15 خمسطعش or 50 خمسين500 خمسميَّة
6 ستة16 ستطعش60 ستين600 ستميَّة
7 سبعة17 سبعطعش70 سبعين700 سبعميَّة
8 ثمنية or 18 ثمنطعش or 80 ثمانين or 800 ثمنميَّة or
9 تسعة19 تسعطعش90 تسعين900 تسعميَّة
10 عشرة20 عشرين100 ميَّة1000 ألف

A system similar to the German numbers system is used for other numbers between 20 and above : 21 is واحد و عشرين which literally mean and 485 is أربعمية و خمسة و ثمانين which literally mean.
Unlike Classical Arabic, the only number that is gender specific in Hejazi is "one" which has two forms واحد m. and وحدة f. as in كتاب واحد or سيارة وحدة , with كتاب being a masculine noun and سيّارة a feminine noun.

Subject pronouns

In Hejazi Arabic, personal pronouns have eight forms. In singular, the 2nd and 3rd persons differentiate gender, while the 1st person and plural do not. The negative articles include لا as in لا تكتب , ما as in ما بيتكلم and مو as in مو كذا

Verbs

Hejazi Arabic verbs, as with the verbs in other Semitic languages, and the entire vocabulary in those languages, are based on a set of three, four, or even five consonants called a root. The root communicates the basic meaning of the verb, e.g. k-t-b 'to write', ʼ-k-l 'to eat'. Changes to the vowels in between the consonants, along with prefixes or suffixes, specify grammatical functions such as :
Hejazi has two grammatical number in verbs instead of the Classical, in addition to a present progressive tense which was not part of the Classical Arabic grammar. In contrast to other urban dialects the prefix is only used for present continuous as in بِيِكْتُب "he is writing" while the habitual tense is without a prefix as in أَحُبِّك "I love you" f. unlike بحبِّك in Egyptian and Levantine dialects and the future tense is indicated by the prefix as in حَنِجْري "we will run".

Regular verbs

The most common verbs in Hejazi have a given vowel pattern for past to present. Combinations of each exist:
According to Arab grammarians, verbs are divided into three categories; Past ماضي, Present مضارع and Imperative أمر. An example from the root k-t-b the verb katabt/ʼaktub 'i wrote/i write' :
While present progressive and future are indicated by adding the prefix and respectively to the present :
Example: katabt/aktub "write": non-finite forms
Number/Genderاسم الفاعل Active Participleاسم المفعول Passive Participleمصدر Verbal Noun
Masc. Sg.kātib كاتبmaktūb مكتوبkitāba كتابة
Fem. Sg.kātb-a كاتبةmaktūb-a مكتوبةkitāba كتابة
Pl.kātb-īn كاتبينmaktūb-īn مكتوبينkitāba كتابة

Active participles act as adjectives, and so they must agree with their subject. An active participle can be used in several ways:
  1. to describe a state of being.
  2. to describe what someone is doing right now as in some verbs like رحت the active participle رايح is used instead of present continuous form to give the same meaning of an ongoing action.
  3. to indicate that someone/something is in a state of having done something.

    Passive Voice

The passive voice is expressed through two patterns; or, while most verbs can take either pattern as in أتكتب or أنكتب "it was written" and يتكتب or ينكتب "it is being written", other verbs can only have one of the two patterns as in أتوقف "he was stopped" and يتوقف "he is being stopped".

Adjectives

In Hejazi, adjectives, demonstratives and verbs fully agree in gender and number, e.g. ولد كبير "big boy" and بنت كبيرة "big girl". But there are two exceptions; First, there is no agreement in dual number; e.g. بنتين "two girls" takes the plural adjective as in بنتين كبار "two big girls". Second, and more importantly, gender agreement is syncretic in the plural, in which inanimate plural nouns take a feminine singular adjective e.g. سيارات كبيرة "big cars" instead of the plural adjective, while animate plural nouns take the plural adjective as in بنات كبار "big girls". The plural feminine adjective كبيرات can be used as well but it is rather archaic.
Number/GenderAdjectiveUsage notes
Masc. Sg.kabīr كبيرwith singular masculine nouns
Fem. Sg.kabīra كبيرةwith singular feminine and inanimate plural nouns
Common Pl.kubār كبار or kabīrīn كبيرينwith dual and animate plural nouns

Pronouns

Enclitic pronouns

forms of personal pronouns are suffixes that are affixed to various parts of speech, with varying meanings:
Unlike Egyptian Arabic, in Hejazi no more than one pronoun can be suffixed to a word.
General Modifications:-
Modifications to Hollow Verbs when added to Indirect object pronouns :
Hejazi does not have a standardized form of writing and mostly follows Classical Arabic rules of writing. The main difference between classical Arabic and Hejazi are the alternations of the Hamza, some verb forms and the final long vowels, this alternation happened since most word-final short vowels from the classical period have been omitted and most word-final unstressed long vowel have been shortened in Hejazi. Another alternation is writing the words according to the phoneme used while pronouncing them, rather than their etymology which mainly has an effect on the three letters and, for example writing تخين instead of ثخين or ديل instead of ذيل although this alternation in writing is not considered acceptable by most Hejazi speakers. The alphabet still uses the same set of letters as Classical Arabic in addition to two letters ⟨پ⟩ and ⟨ڤ⟩ which are only used in writing loanwords and they can be substituted by and respectively depending on the writer, in addition to that the vowels and which were not part of the CA phonemic inventory are represented by the letters and respectively.
Differences Between Classical and Hejazi writing
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Mistakes in Hejazi spelling
The table below shows the Arabic alphabet letters and their corresponding phonemes in Hejazi:
Notes:
The varieties of Arabic spoken in the smaller towns and by the bedouin tribes in the Hejaz region are relatively under-studied. However, the speech of some tribes shows much closer affinity to other bedouin dialects, particularly those of neighboring Najd, than to those of the urban Hejazi cities. The dialects of northern Hejazi tribes merge into those of Jordan and Sinai, while the dialects in the south merge with those of 'Asir and Najd. Also, not all speakers of these bedouin dialects are figuratively nomadic bedouins; some are simply sedentary sections that live in rural areas, and thus speak dialects similar to those of their bedouin neighbors.

Al-`Ula

The dialect of Al-`Ula governorate in the northern part of the Madinah region. Although understudied, it is considered to be unique among the Hejazi dialects, it is known for its pronunciation of Classical Arabic as a , the dialect also shows a tendency to pronounce long as , in some instances the Classical becomes a as in قايلة becomes جايلة, also the second person singular feminine pronoun tends to be pronounced as /iʃ/ becomes رجلش.

Badr

The dialect of Badr governorate in the western part of the Madinah region is mainly noted for its lengthening of word-final syllables and its alternative pronunciation of some phonemes as in سؤال which is pronounced as سعال, it also shares some features with the general urban dialect in which modern standard Arabic ثلاجة is pronounced تلاجة, another unique feature of the dialect is its similarity to the Arabic dialects of Bahrain.