Hejazi Arabic

Hejazi Arabic
حجازي Ḥijāzi
Pronunciation /ħi'd͡ʒaːzi/
Native to Hejaz region, Saudi Arabia
Native speakers
6 million (1996)[1]
Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3 acw
Glottolog hija1235[2]

  regions where Hejazi is the language of the majority
  regions considered as part of modern Hejaz region

Hejazi Arabic or Hijazi Arabic (Arabic: حجازي ḥijāzī), also known as West Arabian Arabic, is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Hejaz region in Saudi Arabia. Although, strictly speaking, there are two distinct dialects spoken in the Hejaz region,[3] one by the bedouin rural population, and another by the urban population, the term most often applies to the urban variety, spoken in cities such as Jeddah, Mecca, Yanbu, Ta'if, and Medina.

Urban Hejazi appears to be most closely related to the Arabic dialects of Central Arabian Peninsula (Najdi Arabic), Northern Sudan and Egyptian Arabic in both pronunciation and grammar. Hejazi Arabic has many close similarities between Egyptian Arabic and Najdi Arabic.[4] Hejazi Arabic dialect is also spoken by Rashaida in Eritrea and Sudan. Hejazi Arabic is used for daily communications and has no official status, instead, Modern Standard Arabic is used for official purposes, especially in Eritrea where Arabic is not the lingua franca.

Classification

Hejazi 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 giving its history between the ancient urban cities of Medina and Mecca and the bedouin tribes that lived on the outskirts of these cities. the main phonological characteristic features that differentiate Hejazi from the neighbouring accent Najdi and other accents in the Arabian peninsula is the absence of vowel reduction, the distinction between the letters ض and ظ, and the pronunciation of the letters ذ, ث, and ظ.

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 and has therefore shed many Classical forms and features that are still present in many bedouin dialects. These include the internal passive form (which in Hejazi, is replaced by the pattern (أنفعل /anfaʕal/, ينفعل /jinfaʕil/), the marker for indefiniteness (tanwin), gender-number disagreement, and the feminine marker -n (see Varieties of Arabic).

Sedentary features

  1. The present progressive tense is marked by the prefix بـ /bi/ or قاعد /gaːʕid/ as in بيدرس /bijidrus/ or قاعد يدرس /gaːʕid jidrus/ ("he is studying").
  2. In contrast to bedouin dialects, the distinction between the emphatic sounds /dˤ/ ض and /zˤ/ ظ is generally preserved in a number of words.
  3. The final -n in present tense plural verb forms is no longer employed (e.g. يركبوا /jirkabu/ instead of يركبون /jarkəbuːn/)
  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 /beːtu/ ("his house"), عنده /ʕindu/ ("he has"), أعرفه /aʕrifu/ ("I know him").

Conservative features

  1. Hejazi Arabic does not employ double negation, nor does it append the negation particles -sh to negate verbs: Hejazi ما اعرف /maː aʕrif/ ("I don't know"), as opposed to Egyptian معرفش /maʕrafʃ/ and Palestinian بعرفش /baʕrafiʃ/.
  2. The prohibitive mood of Classical Arabic is preserved in the imperative: لا تروح /laː tiruːħ/ ("don't go").
  3. The possessive suffixes are generally preserved in their Classical forms. For example, بيتكم /beːtakum/ "your (pl) house".
  4. The plural first person pronoun is نحنا /niħna/ or إحنا /iħna/, as opposed to the bedouin حنّا /ħənna/ or إنّا /ənna/.
  5. When used to indicate location, the preposition في /fi/ is preferred to بـ /b/. In bedouin dialects, the preference differs by region.
  6. Less restriction on the distribution of /i/ and /u/.
  7. The glottal stop can be added to final syllables ending in a vowel as a way of emphasising.
  8. Compared to neighboring dialects, urban Hejazi retains more of the short vowels of Modern Standard Arabic, for example:
سمكة /samaka/ ("fish"), as opposed to bedouin /smika/.
ضربَته /dˤarabatu/ ("she hit him"), as opposed to bedouin /ðˤrabətah/.
أكتب /aktub/ ("write"), Imperative mood, as opposed to bedouin /iktib/.
عندَكُم /ʕindakum/ ("in your possession" pl.), as opposed to bedouin /ʕandkum/, Egyptian /ʕanduku/, and Levantine /ʕandkun/.

Phonology

Urban Hejazi Arabic has approximately 29 consonant phonemes of which 2 mainly occur in Classical Arabic words (/θ, ð/) and 8 vowel phonemes (/a, u, i, aː, uː, iː, oː, eː/).[5][6] Consonant length and Vowel length are both distinctive in Hejazi.

Consonants

This is a table of the consonant phonemes of Hejazi Arabic. The marginal phonemes /p/ ⟨پ⟩, /v/ ⟨ڤ⟩ and /t͡ʃ/ ⟨تش⟩ (not used by all speakers) are not considered as part of the phonemic inventory, as they exist only in loanwords and they can be pronounced as /b/, /f/ and /ʃ/ respectively depending on the speaker.

Hejazi Arabic consonant phonemes
Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar/
Uvular
Pharyngeal Glottal
 plain  emphatic
Nasal m n
Plosive/
Affricate
voiceless t k ʔ
voiced b d d͡ʒ ɡ
Fricative voiceless f (θ) s ʃ x ħ h
voiced (ð) z ɣ ʕ
Trill r
Approximant l (k) j w

Phonetic notes:

Vowels

Hejazi has eight vowel phonemes;[9][10] three short /a/, /u/, /i/ and five long /aː/, /uː/, /iː/, /oː/ and /eː/ with length as a distinctive feature, and two diphthongs حروف اللين /aw/ and /aj/. Unlike other Arabic dialects, Hejazi did not develop allophones for the vowels /a/ and /aː/, except in a few number of foreign words where the long /aː/ is optionally pronounced [ɑː], and retains most of the long and short vowels of Classical Arabic with no vowel reduction.The pronunciation of /u/ and /i/ depends on the nature of the surrounding consonants, whether the syllable is stressed or unstressed, and on the accent of the speaker. As a general rule, word initial and medial /u/ is pronounced [u] when unstressed and [o̞] when stressed, but strictly as an [u] before /w/ and at the end of the word, and /i/ is pronounced as an unstressed [i] and stressed [e̞], and strictly as an [i] before /j/ and at the end of the word, though this variation is not found in all of the accents of Hejazi. Most of the two diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/ from the classical period underwent monophthongization and are realised as the long vowels /eː/ and /oː/ respectively, but they still occur as diphthongs in a number of words as in حَيْوان /ħajwaːn/ ('animal') and even contrast with the long vowels as in دَوْري /dawri/ ('league') vs. دوري /dri/ ('my turn') vs. /dri/ ('turn around!'). All word-final long vowels /aː/, /uː/ and /iː/ are shortened except in two-letter words.

The vowel phonemes of Hejazi Arabic from Eman M. Abdoh (2010:84). short [o̞] and [e̞] only occur allophonically.
Hejazi Arabic vowel phonemes
Short Long
Front Back Front Back
Close i u
Mid
Open a

Phonetic notes:

Example words for vowel phonemes
Phoneme Phones Arabic Roman. Example
/a/ [ɡ] ـَ a فَم fam ['fam] 'mouth'
/u/ [u] ـُ u حُدود ħudūd [ħu'duːd] 'borders'
[] حُب ħub ['ħo̞b] 'love'
/i/ [i] ـِ i كِتاب kitāb [ki'taːb] 'book'
[] طِب ib ['tˤe̞b] 'medicine'
/aː/ [] ا ā فاز fāz ['faːz] 'he won'
/uː/ [] و ū فوز fūz ['fuːz] 'win!' (Imperative)
/oː/ [o̞ː] و ō فوز fōz ['fo̞ːz] 'victory'
/iː/ [] ي ī دين dīn ['diːn] 'religion'
/eː/ [e̞ː] ي ē دين dēn ['de̞ːn] 'debt'

Free variation

Free variation occurs depending on word stress, speed of speaking and speakers' hometown accent between the short phoneme /i/ and its allophones [i] and [] with speakers using the two sounds and other speakers using only one ([i]), the same occurs with the phoneme /u/ and its allophones [u] and [] with speakers using the two sounds and speakers using only ([u]), but that doesn't apply to the vowels /eː/ and /iː/ and the vowels /oː/ and /uː/ where the four phonemes are considered as separate phonemes by all the speakers.

Phonological Processes

the linking conjunction و ('and') pronounced [u] is often linked with the consonant (before it) or the vowel (before or after it) or for emphasis only left as it is  :-

Vocabulary

Hejazi vocabulary derives primarily from Classical 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 mainly of Turkish, Persian, Latin (French and Italian) and English origins, and due to the diverse origins of the inhabitants of Hejazi cities, some loanwords are only used by some families. Many loanwords are fading due to the influence of Modern Standard Arabic and their association with lower social class and education.[11] Most of the loanwords are names of objects (with a change of meaning sometimes) as in : جزمة /d͡ʒazma/ "shoe" from Turkish çizme /t͡ʃizme/ originally meaning "boot" or كُبري /kubri/ "overpass" from köprü /køpry/ originally meaning "bridge".

Certain distinctive particles and vocabulary in Hejazi are قد /ɡid/ or قيد /ɡiːd/ "already", دحين /daħiːn/ or /daħeːn/ "now", and لسه /lissa/ "not yet".

General Hejazi Expressions include بالتوفيق /bittawfiːg/ "good luck", لو سمحت /law samaħt/ "please/excuse me" to a male, شكرًا /ʃukran/ "thank you", عفوًا /ʕafwan/ "you are welcome (response)", إيوه /iːwa/ "yes", لأ /laʔ/ "no".

Portmanteau

Portmanteau, also called a blend in linguistics,is a combination of taking parts (but not all) of two (or more) words or their sounds (phones) and their meanings into a single new, it a common feature in Hejazi especially in making new Interrogative words examples include :

Numerals

The Cardinal number system in Hejazi is much more simplified than the Classical Arabic[12]

numbers 1-10 IPA 11-20 IPA 10s IPA 100s IPA
1 واحد [waːħe̞d] 11 احدعش [e̞ħdaʕaʃ] 10 عشرة [ʕaʃara] 100 مية [mijja]
2 اتنين [e̞tne̞ːn] 12 اطنعش [e̞tˤnaʕaʃ] 20 عشرين [ʕe̞ʃriːn] 200 ميتين [mijte̞ːn] or [mijjate̞ːn]
3 تلاتة [talaːta] 13 تلطّعش [talatːˤaʕaʃ] 30 تلاتين [talaːtiːn] 300 تلتمية [to̞ltumijja]
4 أربعة [arbaʕa] 14 أربعطعش [arbaʕtˤaʕaʃ] 40 أربعين [arbiʕiːn] 400 أربعمية [o̞rbuʕmijja]
5 خمسة [xamsa] 15 خمسطعش [xamastˤaʕaʃ] 50 خمسين [xamsiːn] 500 خمسمية [xo̞msumijja]
6 ستة [se̞tta] 16 سطّعش [se̞tːˤaʕaʃ] 60 ستين [se̞ttiːn] 600 ستمية [so̞ttumijja]
7 سبعة [sabʕa] 17 سبعطعش [sabaʕtˤaʕaʃ] 70 سبعين [sabʕiːn] 700 سبعمية [so̞bʕumijja]
8 تمنية [tamanja] 18 تمنطعش [tˤamantˤaʕaʃ] 80 تمانين [tamaːniːn] 800 تمنمية [to̞mnumijja]
9 تسعة [te̞sʕa] 19 تسعطعش [te̞saʕtˤaʕaʃ] 90 تسعين [te̞sʕiːn] 900 تسعمية [to̞sʕumijja]
10 عشرة [ʕaʃara] 20 عشرين [ʕe̞ʃriːn] 100 مية [mijja] 1000 ألف [alf]

A system similar to the German numbers system is used for other numbers between 20 and above : 21 is واحد و عشرين /waːħid u ʕiʃriːn/ which literally mean ('one and twenty') and 485 is أربعمية و خمسة و تمانين /urbuʕmijja u xamsa u tamaːniːn/ which literally mean ('four hundred and five and eighty').

Unlike Classical Arabic,the only رقم [rage̞m] ('number') that is gender specified in Hejazi and has two forms is number 1 which is واحد and وحدة as in كتاب واحد /kitaːb waːħid/ ('one book') or سيارة وحدة /sajjara waħda/ ('one car').

Grammar

Subject pronouns

In Hejazi Arabic, personal pronouns have 8 forms simplified from the original Classical Arabic 12 pronouns. In singular, the 2nd and 3rd persons differentiate gender, while the 1st person and plural do not.

Subject pronouns
Person Singular Plural
1st ana انا iħna احنا
2nd masculine inta َانت intu انتو
feminine inti ِانتي/انت
3rd masculine huwwa هو humma همَّ
feminine hiyya هي

Negative subject pronouns
Person Singular Plural
1st mani مني maħna محنا
2nd masculine manta َمنت mantu منتو
feminine manti ِمنتي/منت
3rd masculine mahu مهو mahum مهم
feminine mahi مهي

Verbs

Hejazi Arabic verbs (فعل fiʻl; pl. أفعال afʻāl), as the verbs in other Semitic languages, and as the entire vocabulary in those languages, are based on a set of three, four also five consonants (but mainly three consonants) called a root (triliteral or quadriliteral according to the number of consonants). 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 simplified the 3 Classical Arabic present verb moods (indicative رفع, subjunctive نصب, jussive جزم) into a single (indicative رفع) present mood by adopting the old (jussive جزم) forms with no (/-n/) ending, and has added a present progressive which is not part of the Classical Arabic grammar. And has simplified 3 grammatical number categories in verbs into 2 (Singular and Plural) instead of the Classical (Singular, Dual and Plural).

Regular verbs

the most common verbs in Hejazi have a given vowel pattern for past (a and i) to present (a or u or i). Combinations of each exist:

Vowel patterns Example
Past Present
a a raħam رحم he forgave - yirħam يرحم he forgives
a u ḍarab ضرب he hit - yiḍrub يضرب he hits
a i ġasal غسل he washed - yiġsil يغسل he washes
i a fihim فهم he understood - yifham يفهم he understands
i i ʕirif عرف he knew - yiʕrif يعرف he knows

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/aktub 'i wrote/i write' (which is a regular sound verb):

Tense/Mood Past "wrote" Present (Indicative) "write" Imperative "write!"
Person Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
1st كتبت (katab)-t كتبنا (katab)-na أكتب a-(ktub) نكتب ni-(ktub)
2nd masculine كتبت (katab)-t كتبتوا (katab)-tu تكتب ti-(ktub) تكتبوا ti-(ktub)-u أكتب [a]-(ktub) أكتبوا [a]-(ktub)-u
feminine كتبتي (katab)-ti تكتبي ti-(ktub)-i أكتبي [a]-(ktub)-i
3rd masculine كتب (katab) كتبوا (katab)-u يكتب yi-(ktub) يكتبوا yi-(ktub)-u
feminine كتبت (katab)-at تكتب ti-(ktub)

While present progressive and future are indicated by adding the prefix (b-) and (ħ-) respectively to the present (indicative) :

Tense/Mood Present Progressive "writing" Future "will write"
Person Singular Plural Singular Plural
1st بكتب ba-(ktub) بنكتب bi-ni-(ktub) حكتب ħa-(ktub) حنكتب ħa-ni-(ktub)
2nd masculine بتكتب bi-ti-(ktub) بتكتبوا bi-ti-(ktub)-u حتكتب ħa-ti-(ktub) حتكتبوا ħa-ti-(ktub)-u
feminine بتكتبي bi-ti-(ktub)-i حتكتبي ħa-ti-(ktub)-i
3rd masculine بيكتب bi-yi-(ktub) بيكتبوا bi-yi-(ktub)-u حيكتب ħa-yi-(ktub) حيكتبوا ħa-yi-(ktub)-u
feminine بتكتب bi-ti-(ktub) حتكتب ħa-ti-(ktub)

Example: katabt/aktub "write": non-finite forms

Number/Gender اسم الفاعل Active Participle اسم المفعول Passive Participle مصدر Verbal Noun
Masc. Sg. kātib كاتب maktūb مكتوب kitāba كتابة
Fem. Sg. kātb-a كاتبة maktūb-a مكتوبة
Pl. kātb-īn كاتبين maktūb-īn مكتوبين

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 (understanding; knowing).
  2. to describe what someone is doing right now (going, leaving) as in some verbs like رحت ("i went") the active participle رايح ("i'm going") 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 (having put something somewhere, having lived somewhere for a period of time).

Object pronouns

Enclitic forms of object pronouns are suffixes that (الضمائر المتصلة) are affixed to various parts of speech, with varying meanings:

Unlike Egyptian Arabic, in Hejazi no more than 1 pronoun can be suffixed to a word.

Possessive Pronouns (nominal)[13]
Person Singular Plural
1st -ī/(-ya/-yya)2 my ـي -nā our ـنا
2nd masculine m. -ak/(-k) your ـك -kum your ـكم
feminine f. -ik/(-ki) your ـك
3rd masculine m. -uʰ/( -[ː]ʰ 1) his ـه -hum their ـهم
feminine f. -hā her ـها

Direct Object Pronouns (verbal)
Person Singular Plural
1st -nī me ـني -nā us ـنا
2nd masculine m. -ak/(-k) you ـك -kum you ـكم
feminine f. -ik(-ki) you ـك
3rd masculine m. -uʰ/( -[ː]ʰ 1) him ـه -hum them ـهم
feminine f. -hā her ـها

Indirect Object Pronouns (verbal)
Person Singular Plural
1st -lī (for/to) me ـلي -lanā us ـلنا
2nd masculine m. -lak you ـلك -lakum you ـلكم
feminine f. -lik you ـلك
3rd masculine m. -luʰ him ـله -lahum them ـهم
feminine f. -lahā her ـلها

Modifications:-

  1. ^1 the colon between the (Parentheses) indicate that only the vowel is lengthened, since the word-final ـه [h] is silent in this position.
  2. ^2 if a noun ends with a vowel (other than the /-a/ of the feminine nouns) that is /u/ or /a/ then the suffix (-ya) is used as in أبو [abu] ('father') becomes ابويا [abuːja] ('my father') but if it ends with an /i/ then the suffix (-yya) is added as in [kursijja] ('my chair').
  3. it is uncommon for Hejazi nouns to end in a vowel other than the /-a/ of the feminine nouns.

Writing System

An Early Qur'anic Manuscript written in Hijazi script (8th century AD).

Hejazi is written using the Arabic alphabet, like other varieties of Arabic, Hejazi does not have a standard form of writing and mostly follows the Classical Arabic form of writing . in general people alternate between writing the words according to their etymology or the phoneme used while pronouncing them, which mainly affect the three classical letters ذ ,ث and ظ and their alternatives, and there is an alternation between writing some words that end in a vowel, whether to add a vowel at the end of the word or write its Classical Arabic form as in the word ('you' singular feminine) /inti/ which can be written as انتِ or انتي. The table below shows the Hejazi alphabet and each alternative letter and pronunciation for each phoneme :-

letter IPA example pronunciation
ا
/ʔ/ see Hamza سأل "he asked" [saʔal]
// (shortened to /ɡ/ word-final, except in two-letter words) باب "door"
انا "I am"
[baːb]
[ana]
ب
/b/ برق "lightning" [barg]
ت
/t/ توت "berry" [tuːt]
ث
/θ/ (Classical Arabic phoneme) مثال "example" [miθaːl] can be pronounced [misaːl]
/t/ can be written ت ثلاثة "three" can be written تلاتة [talaːta]
/s/ can be written س حادث "accident" can be written حادس [ħaːde̞s] can be pronounced [ħaːde̞θ]
ج
/d͡ʒ/ جرس "bell" [d͡ʒaras]
ح
/ħ/ حب "love" [ħo̞b]
خ
/x/ خس "lettus" [xas]
د
/d/ ديك "rooster" [diːk]
ذ
/ð/ (Classical Arabic phoneme) ذكر "male" [ðakar] can be pronounced [dakar]
/d/ can be written د ذيل "tail" can be written ديل [de̞ːl]
/z/ can be written ز ذوق "taste" can be written زوق [zo̞ːg]
ر
/r/ رمل "sand" [rame̞l]
ز
/z/ زبيب "Raisins" [zabiːb]
س
/s/ سمكة "fish" [samaka] (plural: samak)
ش
/ʃ/ شمس "sun" [ʃams]
ص
// صبّار "cactus" [sˤabbaːr]
ض
// ضلع "rib" [dˤe̞lʕ]
ط
// طب "medicine" [tˤe̞b]
ظ
// لحظة "moment" [laħzˤa]
// can be written ض ظل "shade" can be written ضل [dˤe̞l]
[ðˤ] (optional allophone) ظاهرة "phenomenon" [ðˤaːhra] can be pronounced [zˤaːhra]
ع
/ʕ/ عين "eye" [ʕe̞ːn]
غ
/ɣ/ غراب "crow" [ɣuraːb]
ف
/f/ فم "mouth" [fam]
ق
/g/ قلب "heart" [galb]
[q] only in few words and proper nouns. (allophone) قارّة "continent" [qaːrra]
ك
/k/ كتاب "book" [kitaːb]
ل
/l/ لحم "meat" [laħam]
/k/ only in the word الله and words derived from it الله "god" [aɫɫaːh]
م
/m/ مكتب "desk" [maktab]
ن
/n/ ناس "people" [naːs]
هـ
/h/ هوا "air" [hawa]
(silent) only word-final in 3rd person masculine singular pronouns and some loanwords. عليه "on him"
كتابُه "his book"
/ʕaleː(h)/[ʕale̞ː]
/kitaːbu(h)/[kitaːbu]
و
/w/ وردة "rose" [warda]
// موية "water" [mo̞ːja]
// (shortened to /u/ word-final, except in two-letter words) نور "light"
ربو "asthma"
[nuːr]
[rabu]
ي
/j/ يد "hand" [jad]
// كيف "how" [ke̞ːf]
// (shortened to /i/ word-final, except in two-letter words) فيل "elephant"
سعودي "saudi"
[fiːl]
[suʕuːdi]

Short vowels are written as diacritics  :-

  1. ـَ above the letter for /a/.
  2. ـُ above the letter for /u/.
  3. ـِ under the letter for /i/.

Bedouin Hejazi

The varieties of Arabic spoken by the bedouin tribes of 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 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. It is also worth noting that many large tribal confederations in Najd and eastern Arabia are recent migrants from the Hejaz, including the tribes of Otaibah, Mutayr, Harb, Hilal, Azd and Bani Khalid. In earlier times, many other Arab tribes also came from the Hejaz, including Kinanah, Juhayna, Sulaym, and Ghatafan. 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.

References

Bibliography

External links

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