Mesopotamian Arabic

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Mesopotamian Arabic
Iraqi Arabic
عراقي ʕirāqi
Pronunciation [ʕɪˈrɑːqi]
Native to Iraq, Syria, Iran, Turkey
Region Mesopotamia, Armenia, Cilicia
Native speakers
unknown (undated figure of 15 million)[1]
Dialects
Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3 acm

Mesopotamian Arabic, also known as Iraqi Arabic, is a continuum of mutually intelligible Arabic varieties native to the Mesopotamian basin of Iraq as well as spanning into central and northern Syria,[2] western Iran,[2] southeastern Turkey,[3] and spoken in Iraqi diaspora communities. In its various forms, it is the official vernacular of Iraq.[citation needed]

History

Aramaic was the lingua franca in Mesopotamia from the early 1st millennium BCE until the late 1st millennium CE, and as may be expected; Iraqi Arabic shows signs of an Aramaic substrate.[4] The Gelet variety has retained features of Babylonian Aramaic.[4]

Due to Iraq's inherent multiculturalism as well as history, Iraqi Arabic in turn bears extensive borrowings in its lexicon from Aramaic, Akkadian, Persian, Kurdish and Turkish.

Varieties

Different Arabic dialects in the Arab world

Mesopotamian Arabic has two major varieties. A distinction is recognised between Gelet Mesopotamian Arabic and Qeltu Mesopotamian Arabic, the names deriving from the form of the word for "I said".[5]

The southern (Gelet) group includes a Tigris dialect cluster, of which the best-known form is Baghdadi Arabic, and a Euphrates dialect cluster, known as Furati (Euphrates Arabic). The Gelet variety is also spoken in the Khuzestan Province of Iran.[2] Baghdadi Gelet Arabic and other Gelet Iraqi dialects share many features with Gulf Arabic. Gilit Arabic is of Bedouin provenance, unlike Christian and Jewish Baghdadi, which is believed to be descendant of Medieval Iraqi Arabic.

The northern (Qeltu) group includes the north Tigris dialect cluster, also known as North Mesopotamian Arabic or Maslawi (Mosul Arabic), as well as both Jewish and Christian sectarian dialects (such as Baghdad Jewish Arabic).

Distribution

Both the Gelet and the Qeltu varieties of Iraqi Arabic are spoken in some parts of Syria,[2][3] the former is spoken on the Euphrates east of Aleppo, and the latter is spoken in the Upper Khabur area and across the border in Turkey.[3]

Cypriot Arabic shares a large number of common features with Mesopotamian Arabic;[6] particularly the northern variety, and has been reckoned as belonging to this dialect area.[7]

References

  1. Mesopotamian Arabic reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Arabic, Mesopotamian | Ethnologue
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Arabic, North Mesopotamian | Ethnologue
  4. 4.0 4.1 Muller-Kessler, Christa (July-September 2003). "Aramaic 'K', Lyk' and Iraqi Arabic 'Aku, Maku: The Mesopotamian Particles of Existence.". The Journal of the American Oriental Society 123 (3): 641–646. 
  5. Mitchell, T. F. (1990). Pronouncing Arabic, Volume 2. Clarendon Press. p. 37. ISBN 0-19-823989-0. 
  6. Versteegh, Kees (2001). The Arabic Language. Edinburgh University Press. p. 212. ISBN 0-7486-1436-2. 
  7. Owens, Jonathan (2006). A Linguistic History of Arabic. Oxford University Press. p. 274. ISBN 0-19-929082-2. 
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