Hejazi Arabic phonology
The phonological system of the Hejazi Arabic consists of approximately 26 to 28 native consonant phonemes, and 8 vowel phonemes, in addition to 2 diphthongs. Consonant length and Vowel length are both distinctive in Hejazi.
Strictly speaking, there are two main groups of dialects spoken in the Hejaz region, one by the urban population حَضَرْ originally spoken in the cities of Jeddah, Medina and Mecca where they constitute the majority and partially in Ta'if, and another dialect by the bedouin or rural populations which is also currently spoken as well in the mentioned cities. However, the term most often applies to the urban variety which is discussed in this article.
- phonemes will be and allophones.
Consonants
Phonetic notes:
- the marginal phoneme only occurs in the word الله and words derived from it, it contrasts with in والله vs. ولَّا .
- the phonemes and the trill are realised as a and a tap respectively by a number of speakers or in a number of words.
- the phonemes and can be realised as uvular fricatives and in few instances.
- the reintroduced phoneme is partially used as an alternative phoneme, while most speakers merge it with or depending on the word.
- the reintroduced phoneme is partially used as an alternative phoneme, while most speakers merge it with or depending on the word.
- the classicized is an optional allophone for ⟨ظ⟩. In general, Hejazi speakers pronounce it as or merge it with depending on the word.
- has the velar allophone, which occurs before velar consonants as in انكب and مِنقَل .
- the foreign phonemes ⟨پ⟩ and ⟨ڤ⟩ which exist only in loanwords, are used by a number of speakers and can be substituted by ⟨ب⟩ and ⟨ف⟩ respectively.
- occurs only in foreign words and it is not considered to be part of the phonemic inventory but as a sequence of ⟨ت⟩ and ⟨ش⟩, as in تْشَاد .
Illustrative words
Glottal Stop
Glottal stop was lost early in Old Hejazi Arabic period which is clear in Modern Hejazi as in يقروا "they read" and مايل "diagonal" vs. Classical Arabic يقرؤوا and مائل. In Initial position, the glottal stop's phonemic value is debatable and most words that begin with a glottal stop according to Classical Arabic orthography can be analyzed as beginning with a vowel rather than a glottal stop e.g. إسورة "bracelet" can be analyzed as or and آكل "I eat" analyzed as or, but it is still phonemic and distinguished in medial and final positions and distinguished as such in words, as in يسأل "he asks" or words under the influence of Modern Standard Arabic such as بيئة "environment" and مسؤول "administrator, responsible".Gemination
Long consonants are pronounced exactly like short consonants, they occur between vowels and they are marked with a shaddah if needed, e.g. كَتَّب or kattab "he made write" vs. كَتَب katab "he wrote". They can occur phonemically at the end of the words as well but they are pronounced as a single consonant not geminated, e.g. فَمّ which is pronounced with a single final consonant.Assimilation
Consonant assimilation is a phonological process which can occur between two consecutive consonants as in before as in جَنْب 'next to' → or , or between dental consonants; before as in أخذت 'next to' →, or before as in أَتْضَيَّف 'next to' →, before as in أَنْبَسَطْت 'I enjoyed it' → which is differentiated from أَنْبَسَطْ "he was flattened / he enjoyed" by the stress, in the former the stress falls on the last syllable while on the latter it falls on the first.Dental Assimilation
Notes:- is a distinct phoneme not a merger, e.g. ظَنّ vs. زَنّ .
- is an allophone for based on spelling pronunciation, not a distinct phoneme.
- Both common and spelling pronunciations are used in Hejazi, sometimes even by the same speaker.
- The assimilation can also be reflected in the orthography, so ثلاثة 'three' becomes تلاتة with a , but most writers keep the Modern Standard Arabic spelling of the words.
Mergers depend on each word, while most words have only one pronunciation, few words have two optional mergers e.g. كذب might be pronounced as by some speakers or by others. The partial merger between the phonemes has lead to some homophones that did not exist in Modern Standard Arabic e.g. تظليل 'dimming' and تضليل 'mislead' both pronounced, while the assimilation of the word ثَانِيَة has made a split into two pronunciations and .
The usage of spelling pronunciation depends on the speakers, for example many might refrain from the usage of as a pronunciation for and only merge with in most words while keeping it in others, this phenomenon might be due to the influence of Modern Standard Arabic and neighboring dialects. When speaking or reading Modern Standard Arabic, Hejazi speakers pronounce each consonant distinctly according to its modern standard phonemic value, and any mergers such as the merge between and can be stigmatized.
Vowels
Hejazi has eight vowel phonemes: three short,, and five long,,, and, with length as a distinctive feature, and two diphthongs and. Unlike other Arabic dialects, it did not develop allophones for the vowels and in the vicinity of emphatic consonants, and they are always pronounced as an open front or open central depending on the speaker, and retains most of the long and short vowels of Classical Arabic with no vowel reduction, although in few words and are pronounced with an open back.The main phonological feature that differentiates urban Hejazi from the neighboring dialects of the Arabian peninsula and the Levant, is the constant use of full vowels and the absence of vowel reduction. For example قلت لك 'I told you', is pronounced or in Hejazi with full vowels but pronounced with the reduced vowel as in most of the Gulf region or in Lebanese and urban Syrian. It also retains the Classical mid breaking vowels as in بَناتَكُم in Hejazi as opposed to or in Egyptian and Najdi and rural Hejazi.
Most inherited words with the two diphthongs and from the Old Arabic period underwent monophthongization in Hejazi, and are realized as the long vowels and respectively, but they are still preserved in many words as in حيوان 'animal', and have resurfaced in a number of words borrowed later from Modern Standard Arabic which created a contrast with the inherited monophthongized words as in inherited صوتي 'my voice' vs. borrowed صَوْتي 'acoustic', and inherited عيني 'my eye' vs. borrowed عَيْني 'ophthalmic'. But 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 Portmanteau words e.g. ليش 'why?'.
| Example | Meaning | Hejazi Arabic | Modern Standard Arabic |
| عيني | ophthalmic | ||
| عيني | my eye | ||
| عيني | aid! | ||
| عيني | appoint! |
The pronunciation of word initial and medial and depends on the nature of the surrounding consonants, whether the syllable is stressed or unstressed, and on the accent of the speaker, and speech rate. As a general rule, word initial or medial is pronounced or, but strictly as an at the end of the word or before , while word initial or medial is pronounced or, and strictly as an at the end of the word or before , though this complementary distribution in allophones is not found among all speakers of Hejazi and some use and in all positions.
Phonetic notes:
- and are pronounced either as an open front vowel or an open central vowel depending on the speaker, even when adjacent to emphatic consonants.
- * is an allophone for and in some words such as ألمانيا , يابان and بابا .
- long and are pronounced as true-mid vowels and respectively.
- long and are pronounced as and respectively.
- short has two main pronunciations:
- *lax or less likely in word initial or medial syllables, e.g. فُك pronounced or and أُخْته pronounced or.
- *tense at the end of words or before or when isolate, although short can occur at the end of a foreign word but that depends on the speaker's knowledge of the foreign language.
- short has two main pronunciations:
- *lax or less likely in word initial or medial syllables, e.g. قِرْفَة pronounced or and إنْتِ pronounced or.
- *tense at the end of words or before or when isolate, although short can occur at the end of a foreign word but that depends on the speaker's knowledge of the foreign language.
Phonological processes
The linking conjunction و pronounced is often linked with the consonant or the vowel or for emphasis only left as it is :-- ِانا و إنتِ is either pronounced as where the connected to the vowel before it or pronounced as where the connected to the vowel after it or left as it is for emphasis .
- واحد و خمسين is either pronounced or for emphasis .
- خمسة و سبعين is either pronounced or for emphasis .
| Operation | Original | After operation | Pronunciation |
| Vowel shortening | قول 'tell' + لهم them' | قل لهم | 'tell them' |
| Vowel lengthening | قريوا 'they read' + ـها 'it ' | قِرْيوها | 'they read it' |
| Vowel deletion | لا 'don't' + تقول 'say' | لا تقول | 'don't say' |
Vowel Shortening
Medial vowel shortening occurs before indirect object pronouns, where medial word long vowel in verbs is shortened as in عاد /ʕaːd/ "he repeated" becomes عاد لهم /ʕadlahum/ "he repeated to them" or as in رايحين له "going to him" which is pronounced /raːjħinlu/ with a shortened /i/ and rarely /raːjħiːnlu/, this can also effect the spelling of the words depending on the writer, e.g. نروح becomes نرح لهم without the long vowel or it can be written نروح لهم but it does not effect 3rd person masculine past verbs as in the example below.Vowel shortening also occurs only in few words as in جاي "I'm coming" pronounced /d͡ʒaj/ or /d͡ʒaːj/.