Egyptian Arabic

Egyptian Arabic
مصري Maṣrī 
Pronunciation: [mɑsˁɾɨ]
Spoken in: Egypt and a few other countries
Total speakers: 76,000,000 +[1]
Language family: Afro-Asiatic
 Semitic
  West Semitic
   Central Semitic
    South Central Semitic
     Arabic
      Egyptian Arabic 
Writing system: Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-1: None
ISO 639-2: arz
ISO 639-3: arz
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Egyptian Arabic (مصري Maṣrī; formally:[2] [3] لغة مصرية عامية Logha Miṣriyya AAmeyya & logha mâṣreyya Ameya in Egyptian Arabic) is a variety of the Arabic language of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. It originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt around the capital Cairo. Descended from the spoken Arabic brought to Egypt during the AD seventh-century Muslim conquest, its development was influenced mainly by the indigenous Copto-Egyptian language of pre-Islamic Egypt,[4][5][6] and later by other languages such as Turkish, French and English. Egyptian Arabic is spoken by more than 76 million people in Egypt.[1] It is also understood across most of the Arab World due to the predominance of Egyptian media, making it the most widely spoken and one of the most widely studied varieties of Arabic.

The terms Egyptian Arabic and Masri are usually used synonymously with "Cairene Arabic", the dialect of the Egyptian capital. The country's native name, Maṣr, is used locally to refer to the capital Cairo itself. Similar to the role played by Parisian French, Masri is by far the most dominant in all areas of national life. While it is essentially a spoken language, it is encountered in written form in novels, plays, poems (vernacular literature) as well as in comics, advertising, some newspapers and transcriptions of popular songs. In most other written media and in TV news reporting, a standard register of Classical Arabic is used. The Egyptian vernacular is normally written in the Arabic alphabet for local consumption, although it is commonly transcribed into Latin letters or in the International Phonetic Alphabet in linguistics text and textbooks aimed at teaching non-native learners.

Contents

Geographic distribution

A continuum of varieties of Arabic is spoken by more than 77 million Egyptians in Egypt as well as by immigrant Egyptian communities in the Middle East, Europe, North America, Australia and South East Asia. Accents of all regions of Egypt have been increasingly adapting idioms. This has accelerated with the proliferation of education and central, government-controlled radio and TV during the past 30 years.

Among the spoken varieties of Arabic, Egyptian Cairene is the only one to have become a lingua franca in other parts of the Arabic-speaking world, in addition to within Egypt, for two main reasons[7][8]: the proliferation and popularity of Egyptian films and other media in the region since the early 20th century; and the great number of Egyptian teachers and professors who were instrumental in setting up the education systems of various countries in the Arabian Peninsula and who also taught there and in other countries such as Algeria and Libya.

In Yemen, many Yemenites have adapted their everyday speech to Egyptian Arabic by borrowing Egyptian words (such as kowayyes 'well, good') and occasionally Egyptian morphology.[9] Similar occurrences to varying degrees can be found in elsewhere in Arabia, Sudan, the Levant (particularly Palestine) and in Libya.[10] This trend may now be shifting with the recent ascendancy of Lebanese media in the region, though many Lebanese artists choose to sing in Egyptian as well as Lebanese.

History

The Egyptians slowly adopted the Arabic language following the Arab-Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century AD. Up till then, they were speaking Egyptian in its Coptic form. For more than three centuries, there existed a period of Coptic-Arabic bilingualism in Lower Egypt. This trend would last for many more centuries in the south. Arabic may have been already familiar to Egyptians through pre-Islamic trade with Bedouin Arab tribes in the Sinai and the easternmost part of the Nile Delta. Egyptian Arabic seems to have begun taking shape in Fustat, the first Islamic capital of Egypt, and now part of modern-day Cairo. The variety of Arabic spoken by the Muslim military troops stationed in Fustat was already different from Classical Arabic[11], which in part accounts for some of the unique characteristics of the Egyptian dialect.

One of the earliest linguistic sketches of Egyptian Arabic is a 16th century document entitled Daf` al-'iṣr`an kalām 'ahl Miṣr ('The Removal of the Burden from the Language of the People of Egypt') by Yūsuf al-Maġribi. It contains key information on early Egyptian Arabic and the language situation in medieval Egypt. The main purpose of the document was to show that while the Egyptians' vernacular contained many critical "errors" vis-à-vis Classical Arabic, according to Maġribi, it was also related to Arabic in other respects. With the ongoing Islamization and Arabization of the country, Egyptian Arabic slowly supplanted spoken Egyptian. Local chroniclers mention the continued use of Coptic Egyptian as a spoken language until the 17th century AD by peasant women in Upper Egypt. Coptic is still the liturgical language of the Egyptian Coptic Church.

Official status

Egyptian Masri had no official status, and to date it is not officially recognized. Standard Arabic, a modernized form of Classical Arabic, is the official language of Egypt (see diglossia.) Interest in the local vernacular began in the 19th century as the Egyptian national movement for independence was taking shape. Questions about the reform and modernization of Arabic came to fore, and for many decades to follow they were hotly debated in Egyptian intellectual circles. Proposals ranged from developing neologisms to replace archaic terminology in Standard Arabic; to the simplification of syntactical and morphological rules and the introduction of colloquialisms; to complete 'Egyptianization' (tamṣīr) by abandoning the so-called Standard Arabic in favor of Masri or Egyptian Arabic.[12]

Proponents of language reform in Egypt included Qasim Amin, who also wrote the first Egyptian feminist treatise, former president of the Egyptian University, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, and noted intellectual Salama Moussa. They adopted a modernist, secular approach and disagreed with the assumption that Arabic was an immutable language because of its association with the Qur'an. For a while, Egyptian Arabic enjoyed a period of rich literary output until the movement was halted with the continuing rise of Islamism and Arab nationalism in Egypt and the Middle East, particularly with Nasser's assumption of power in 1954. The first modern Egyptian novel to be written in the vernacular was Muhammad Husayn Haykal's Zaynab in 1913. Other notable novelists such as Ihsan Abdel Quddous and Yusuf Idris, and poets such as Salah Jaheen, Abnudi and Fagoumi, helped solidify vernacular literature as a distinct literary genre.[12]

Nasser undertook an Arabization campaign in Egypt's education system and government administration, which stoutly relegated Egyptian Arabic. In the last fifty years, educated Egyptian as a result became heavily influenced by the official language - Standard Arabic. Following Nasser's death, interest in the Egyptian dialect was rekindled by vernacular authors, and calls for making Egyptian Arabic an official language and the language of education reappeared, after it did when Egypt became independent from Britain in 1922. In the 21st century, the Liberal Egyptian Party was founded by a group of secular activists promoting political reform in Egypt, and calling for the official recognition of both Egyptian Arabic and indigenous Egyptian ('the languages of Egypt'). Some of its views continue to be a source of controversy among Egyptians, particularly with organizations such as the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

As the status of Egyptian Arabic vis-à-vis Classical Arabic can have such political and religious implications in Egypt, the question of whether Egyptian Arabic should be considered a "dialect" or "language" can be a source of debate. In sociolinguistics, Egyptian Arabic can be seen as one of many distinct lects which, despite arguably being languages on abstand grounds, are united by a common dachsprache in Literary Arabic (MSA).

Dialects

The Egyptian variants spoken in central and southern Egypt, referred to collectively as Sa'idi Arabic (Upper Egyptian) and given a separate identity in Ethnologue and ISO 639-3, are mainly descended from the northern Egyptian dialect but are distinct from the Cairene sociolect in their phonology due to early contacts with Bedouin Arab dialects. They carry little prestige nationally though continue to be widely spoken, including in the north by rural migrants who have adapted partially to Lower Egyptian dialect. For example, the Sa'idi genitive exponent is usually replaced with Lower Egyptian bitāʕ, but the realization of /q/ as /g/ is retained. Second and third-generation southern Egyptian migrants are monolingual in Cairene Arabic, but maintain cultural and familial ties to the south.

The traditional division between Lower and Upper Egypt and their respective dialectal differences go back to ancient times. Egyptians today commonly refer to the people of the north as baḥarwa and to those of the south as ṣaʻayda. The dialectal differences throughout Egypt, however, are more wide ranging and do not neatly correspond to this simple division. There is a linguistic shift from the eastern to the western parts of the delta, and the dialects spoken from Gizah to el Minya are further grouped into a Middle Egypt cluster. Despite these differences, there are features distinguishing all the Egyptian Arabic dialects of the Nile Valley from any other Arabic variety. Such features include reduction of long vowels in open and unstressed syllables, the postposition of demonstratives and interrogatives, the modal meaning of the imperfect, and the integration of the participle.[13]

The dialect of the western desert is different from all forms of Egyptian, as linguistically it forms part of the Maghrebi group of dialects. The same was formerly true of the Egyptian form of Judaeo-Arabic.

Phonology

Vowels

(See the discussion on the talk page).

The Egyptian Arabic vocalic system has changed relatively little from the Classical system:

4 short vowels: /a/ [æ], /e/ or /i/, /o/ and /ɑ/; Egyptian Arabic (especially Cairene) usually pronounces short vowels; /i/ as → /ɪ/~/e/, /u/ as → /o/~/ɵ/. If long /uː/ is shortened, it becomes → /o/~/ɵ/. If long /iː/ is shortened, it becomes → /ɪ/~/e/, but, this is usually restricted to those vowels when appearing in the middle or beginning of words.

6 long vowels: /aː/, /iː/, /uː/, /ɑː/; Classical Arabic diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/ became realized as /eː/ and /oː/ respectively; for some Cairene speakers, these monophthongs are allophonically shortened in closed syllables; in addition to loanwords from Standard Arabic with diphthongs—with minimal pairs like /ʃajla/ ('carrying' f.s.) vs /ʃeːla/ ('burden') and, among educated speakers, [ˈgibna] ('cheese') vs [ˈgebna] ('our pocket')- can also exist as a result of shortening of unstressed long vowels as in |mu+daːwal+a| →/mudawla/~/modawla/ ('consultation').[14]

The distinction between short and long vowels (/e:/ /o:/) is still phonemic, but only stressed vowels can remain long. Unstressed long vowels (/a:/ /ɑ:/ /u:/ /i:/ →) are shortened (→ /a/ /ɑ/ /o~ɵ/ /ı~e/), and stressed short vowels are usually lengthened; example: رجل-راجل /ˈrɑgul/ → /ˈrɑ:gel/

Long vowels in closed syllables are reduced to their short version:

Short vowels (especially /e/or/i/ and /o/), if unstressed in certain situations, are deleted (i.e. syncope):

Both of these tendencies can work simultaneously:

Consonants

Egyptian Arabic consonant phonemes[15]
  Labial Dental/Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn-
geal		 Glottal
plain emphatic plain emphatic
Nasal m (mˤ) n            
Stop voiceless (p)   t tˤ   k (q)   ʔ
voiced b (bˤ) d dˤ (d͡ʒ)1 g      
Fricative voiceless f   s sˤ ʃ x   ħ h
voiced (v)   z zˤ (ʒ) ɣ   ʕ  
Tap     ɾ~r ɾˤ          
Approximant     l (lˤ) j w      
  1. [d͡ʒ] occurs rarely and only in the South.

Egyptian Arabic differs from that of Standard Arabic (if spoken with a Leventine phonetic background) in a number of ways. Classical Arabic reflex <jim> ج is realized velar in Cairene in the same way as it is in some Yemeni Arabic dialects. So that جَبَلٌ ('mountain') is pronounced /ˈgabal/ rather than /ˈd͡ʒabal/ as it is in the Standard Arabic. Because of loanwords from other languages, Egyptian Arabic possesses the sound /ʒ/. There are no interdental consonants and those of Standard Arabic /θ ð ðˤ/ correspond to sibilant consonants /s z zˤ/ in Egyptian Arabic.[16]

Other consonants are more marginal. [rˤ] appears mostly in loanwords from European languages, such as /barˤaʃott/ ('parachutte'), and native words with guttural vowels, such as /baʔarˤi/ ('my cows').[17] Labial emphatics /bˤ/ and /mˤ/ also come from loanwords; minimal pairs include /bˤaːbˤa/ ('pope/pontiff/patriarch') vs /baːba/ ('Paopi').[18] Classical Arabic /q/ became /ʔ/ in Cairo and the eastern Delta (a feature shared with Lebanese and other forms of Levantine Arabic), but /q/ is retained natively in some dialects of the western Delta outside of Alexandria,[19] and has been reintroduced as a marginal phoneme from Standard Arabic in other dialects.[20] /v/, /p/, and /ʒ/ also appear in loanwords, though only the latter is not restricted to more educated speakers, /ʒakitta/ ('jacket').[21]

Egyptian Arabic maintains in all positions the early post-Classical distinctions between short /i/ and /u/ which become /ktaːb/, d͡ʒmaːl/, and /xtaːr/ in several other dialects.:

Syntax

Negation

One characteristic of Egyptian syntax which it shares with other North African varieties as well as some Levantine dialect areas is in the two-part negative verbal circumfix /ma-...-ʃ(i)/

This double negation is similar to French "ne... pas."

The negative circumfix surrounds the entire verbal composite including direct and indirect object pronouns:

Interrogative sentences can be formed by adding the negation clitic "meʃ" before the verb:

Coptic substratum

Egyptian Arabic appears to have retained a significant Coptic substratum in its lexicon, phonology, and syntax. Coptic was the latest stage of the indigenous Egyptian language spoken until the mid-17th century when it was finally completely supplanted by Arabic. Some features that Egyptian Arabic shares with the original ancient Egyptian language include certain prefix and suffix verbal conjugations, certain emphatic and glottalized consonants, as well as a large number of biliteral and triliteral lexical correspondences.

Two syntactic features that are particular to Egyptian Arabic inherited from Coptic[22] are:

Examples: ʔer-rɑɑgel da "this man" (lit. "the man this"; in Standard Arabic hāðā-r-rajul) and ʔel-bente di "this girl" (lit. "the girl this"; in Standard Arabic hāðihi-l-bint).
Examples:
  • rɑɑħ mɑṣre ʔemta ? (راح مصر إمتى؟) "When (ʔemta) did he go to Egypt/Cairo?" (lit. "He went to Egypt/Cairo when?")
  • rɑɑħ mɑṣre lēh ? (راح مصر ليه؟) "Why (lēh) did he go to Egypt/Cairo? (lit. "He went to Egypt/Cairo why?")
  • mīn [ʔelli] rɑɑħ mɑṣr ? (مين [اللي] راح مصر؟) "Who (mīn) went to Egypt/Cairo? (literally - same order)
The same sentences in Standard Arabic (with all the question words (wh-words) in the beginning of the sentence) would be:
  • متى ذهب إلى مصر؟ mata ðahaba ʔila miṣr?
  • لماذا ذهب إلى مصر؟ limāða ðahaba ʔila miṣr?
  • من ذهب إلى مصر؟ man ðahaba ʔila miṣr?

Studying Egyptian Arabic

Egyptian Arabic has been a subject of study by scholars and laypersons in the past and the present for many reasons, including personal interest, egyptomania, business, news reporting, and diplomatic and political interactions. Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA) is now a field of study in both graduate and undergraduate levels in many higher education institutions and universities in the world. When added to academic instruction, Arabic language schools and university programs provide Egyptian Arabic courses in a classroom fashion, while others facilitate classes for online study.

Text example

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Egyptian/Masri (Arabic script):

الإعلان العالمي لحقوق الإنسان، المادة الأولانية

البني أدمين كلهم مولودين حرين ومتساويين في الكرامة والحقوق. إتوهبلهم العقل والضمير, والمفروض يعاملوا بعض بروح الأخوية.

Egyptian (phonetic transcription):

ʔel-ʔeʕlān ʔel-ʕalami le-ħoʔūʔ ʔel-ʔensān, ʔel-madda ʔel-ʔawwalaneyya

ʔel-baniʔadmīn kollohom mawludīn ħorrīn we-metsawwyīn fel-kɑrɑɑmɑ wel-ħoʔūʔ. ʔetwahab-lohom ʔel-ʕɑʔl weḍ-ḍɑmīr wel-mɑfrūḍ yeʕamlu bɑʕḍ be-rōħ ʔel-ʔaxaweyya.

Egyptian/Masri - (Arabic Chat Alphabet):

الإعلان العالمي لحقوق الإنسان، المادة الأولانية

el e3lan el 3alami le 72u2 el ensan, el madda el awalaneya

el bani2admin kollohom mawludin 7orrin we metsawyin fel karama w el 7o2u2. Etwahablohom el 3a2l wel damir, w el mafrud ye3amlo ba3d be ro7 el akhaweya.

English:

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in the spirit of brotherhood.

Characteristic words and sentences in Egyptian Arabic

  • إزيك - ʔezzayyak? ("How are you [m.]")
  • إزيك - ʔezzayyek? ("How are you [f.]")
  • إزيكو - ʔezzayyoko (ʔezzayyoku)? ("How are you [pl.]")
  • إيه ده - ʔēh da? ("What's all this?", "What's the point", "What's this?" - expression of annoyance)
    • Ex.: (ʔenta) betʔollohom ʕalayya keda lēh, ʔēh da? "Why are you telling them such things about me, what's all this?"
  • خلاص - xɑlɑɑṣ: several meanings, often adverbial
    • "Stop it!" Ex.: zeheʔt, xɑlɑɑṣ! "I'm annoyed, stop it!"
    • "It's over!", "finally, eventually" Ex.: ʔommi kānet ʕayyāna we-mātet, xɑlɑɑṣ. "My mother was ill and died finally." [or "...and it's over now."]
    • "Ok, then!" Ex.: "خلاص، أشوفك بكرة" "xɑlɑɑṣ, ʔaʃuufak bokrɑ" meaning "I'll see you tomorrow then"
  • خالص - xɑɑleṣ "at all"
    • maʕandenaʃ ħāga nakolha xɑɑleṣ "We have nothing at all to eat."
  • كفاية - kefāya! ("It's enough!" or "That's enough")
  • يعني - yaʕni ("that's to say" or "meaning" or "y'know")
    • As answer to إنت عامل إيه؟ ʔenta ʕāmel ʔēh? ("How do you do [m.]?") (as an answer: "I am so so" or "half half" = "not perfect")
    • يعني إيه؟ yaʕni ʔēh? ("What does that mean?")
    • إمتى هتخلص يعني؟** ʔemta hatxɑllɑṣ yaʕni? ("When are you finishing exactly, then?)
  • بقى - baʔa (particle of enforcement --> "just" in imperative clauses and "well,...then?" in questions)
    • .هاته بقى hātu~o baʔa! "Just give it to me!"
      عمل إيه بقى؟ ʕamal ʔēh baʔa? "Well, what did he do then?"

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Egyptian Arabic UCLA Language Materials Project
  2. ↑ Islam online on Mahmoud Timor
  3. ↑ Arabworld books
  4. ↑ Nishio, Tetsuo. "Word order and word order change of wh-questions in Egyptian Arabic: The Coptic substratum reconsidered". Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of L'Association Internationale pour la Dialectologie Arabe. Cambridge: University of Cambridge. 1996, pp. 171-179
  5. ↑ Bishai, Wilson B. "Coptic grammatical influence on Egyptian Arabic". Journal of the American Oriental Society. No.82, pp. 285-289.
  6. ↑ Youssef (2003), below.
  7. ↑ Haeri (2003)
  8. ↑ Jenkins, Siona. Egyptian Arabic Phrasebook. Lonely Planet Publications, 2001. p. 205
  9. ↑ Versteegh, Kees (2001). The Arabic Language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 139. ISBN 0748614362. 
  10. ↑ op cit.
  11. ↑ Holes, Clive (2004). Modern Arabic: Structures, Functions, and Varieties (2nd ed ed.). Washington: Georgetown University Press. ISBN 1589010221. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Gershoni, I., J. Jankowski. (1987). Egypt, Islam, and the Arabs. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
  13. ↑ Versteegh, p. 162
  14. ↑ Watson (2002:23)
  15. ↑ Watson (2002:21)
  16. ↑ Watson (2002:22)
  17. ↑ Watson (2002:16)
  18. ↑ Watson (2002:14)
  19. ↑ Behnstedt and Woidich 1985
  20. ↑ Watson (2002:22)
  21. ↑ Watson (2002:22)
  22. ↑ Nishio, 1996

References

  • Abdel-Massih, Ernest T.; A. Fathy Bahig (1978). Comprehensive Study of Egyptian Arabic: Conversation Texts, Folk Literature, Cultural Ethnological and Socio Linguistic Notes. Ann Arbor: Univ of Michigan. ISBN 0-932098-11-8. 
  • Peter, Behnstedt; Manfred Woidich (1985). Die ägyptisch-arabischen Dialekte, vols. I, II. Wiesbaden: L. Reichert. 
  • Gary, Judith Olmsted, & Saad Gamal-Eldin. 1982. Cairene Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. Lingua Descriptive Studies 6. Amsterdam: North Holland.
  • Haeri, Niloofar (2003). Sacred Language, Ordinary People: Dilemmas of Culture and Politics in Egypt. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-23897-5. 
  • Harrell, Richard S. 1957. The Phonology of Colloquial Egyptian Arabic. American Council of Learned Societies Program in Oriental Languages Publications Series B, Aids, Number 9. New York: American Council of Learned Societies.
  • Hinds, Martin; El-Said Badawi (1987). A Dictionary of Egyptian Arabic. French & European Pubns. ISBN 0-8288-0434-6. 
  • Mitchell, T.F. 1956. An Introduction to Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Mitchell, T.F. 1962. Colloquial Arabic: the Living Language of Egypt. London: The English Universities Press.
  • Presse, Karl G.; Katrine Blanford, Elisabeth A. Moestrup, Iman El-Shoubary (2000). 5 Egyptian-Arabic One Act Plays: A First Reader (Bilingual edition ed.). Museum Tusculanum. ISBN 87-7289-612-4. 
  • Youssef, Ahmad Abdel-Hamid (2003). From Pharaoh's Lips: Ancient Egyptian Language in the Arabic of Today. American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 977-424-708-6. 
  • Tomiche, Nada. 1964. Le parler arabe du Caire. Paris: Mouton.
  • Versteegh, Kees (2001). The Arabic Language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0748614362. 
  • Watson, Janet (2002), written at New York, The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, Oxford University Press

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