Lebanese Arabic

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Lebanese or Lebanese Arabic is the colloquial form of Arabic spoken in Lebanon.

1 Classification
2 Changes from Classical Arabic
3 Spelling reform
4 Books
5 External links

[edit] Classification

Lebanese is considered to be a part of the Levantine dialects of Arabic, spoken around Lebanon and Syria. Some Lebanese disagree over whether it is a dialect of Arabic, or a descendant of it (as Italian is a descendant of Latin). This distinction is largely motivated by political stance; e.g. whether the Lebanese people are considered part of the pan-Arabic culture or as a distinct, isolated ethnicity. Many local Maronites in particular consider it a separate language, as well as the radical right-wing group Guardians of the Cedars.

[edit] Changes from Classical Arabic

Lebanese shares many featural similarities with other modern dialects of Arabic. Syntax has become simpler, losing both mood and case markings. Also, verbal agreement regarding number and gender is required for all subjects, whether already mentioned or not. Also, plural inanimate nouns are treated as feminine. Classical Arabic on the other hand requires the singular for newly introduced subjects. For example, the expression "the mites have eaten me" is rendered "akalatni al-barağītu" ("the-mites it-ate-me") in literary Arabic, and "aklūnē l-Breğīt" ("the-mites they-ate-me") in Lebanese.

Lebanese vocabulary and phonology (as in other modern-day dialects) differ from Classical Arabic.

Examples:

In Arabic, "look inside" is translated as: unð̣ur fid-dāxil, or in the feminine, unð̣urī fid-dāxil.
In Lebanese, as in Syrian and Palestinian Arabic, it becomes: šūf žuwwa, or in the female command form, šūfī žuwwa.
The following example demonstrates two differences between Standard Arabic and Spoken Lebanese. "Coffee" is "qahwa" in Arabic, and "ah-way" in Spoken Lebanese. The letter "qaaf" is not pronounced, and the letter "alif" becomes a softer "ay" sound.
As a general rule of thumb, the "qaaf" is dropped from the words in which it appears, and is replaced instead with the "hamza" or glottal stop: e.g. "daqiqa" (minute) becomes "da'i'a".

The divergence of vocabulary has been driven by modest borrowings from other languages, such as Aramaic, Greek, French, Turkish, and possibly Phoenician.

[edit] Spelling reform

Lebanese is rarely written, except in novels where an accent is implied or in some types of poetry that do not use classical Arabic at all (see poetry of Younis Al-Ibn [1]). Formal publications in Lebanon, such as newspapers, are typically written in standard classical Arabic. Like Chinese, Arabic uses a single literary language (Fuṣ′ḥá) for writing. While Arabic script is usually employed, informal usage such as online chat may mix-and-match Latin letter transliterations. Saïd Akl first proposed the use of the Latin alphabet, leading to many attempts at a new transciption system. While some works, such as Romeo and Juliet and Plato's Dialogues have been transliterated using such systems, they have not gained widespread acceptance.

[edit] Books

Spoken Lebanese. Maksoud N. Feghali, Appalachian State University. Parkway Publishers, 1999 (ISBN 1-887905-14-6)
M. Feghali, Syntaxe des parlers arabes actuels du Liban, Geuthner, Paris, 1928.
Elie Kallas, 'Atabi Lebnaaniyyi. Un livello soglia per l'apprendimento del neoarabo libanese, Cafoscarina, Venice, 1995.
Angela Daiana Langone, Btesem ente lebneni. Commedia in dialetto libanese di Yahya Jaber, Università degli Studi La Sapienza, Rome, 2004.
Jérome Lentin, "Classification et typologie des dialectes du Bilad al-Sham", in Matériaux Arabes et Sudarabiques n. 6, 1994, 11-43.