Arabic-L:LING:Arabic Dialects Response

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Mon 12 Jun 2000
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1) Subject: Arabic Dialects Response

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1)
Date: 12 Jun 2000
From: Mutarjm at aol.com
Subject: Arabic Dialects Response

Greetings.

One classification for clusters of regional dialects that apparently evolved
(circa the 1980s) and seems to be taught in some universities in Saudi Arabia
and the UAE:


o  Mahgreb = don't know

o  Egypt

    = lower Egyptian (delta region, from vic Inshas al-Raml, Tanta, Bilbais
and northward)

    = Cairo

    = Upper Egyptian (aka Saidii, and some Nubian influences are apparent)

    = Sudanese (Khartoum)(perhaps also Chad, but you'd need to see Alan
Kaye's book on those two contiguous dialects for details)

o  Levantine = there seems to be a generic regional dialect called "Eastern
Arabic" (with apologies to Frank Rice), within which are Lebanese (Beiruti
and elsewhere in Lebanon, Syrian, Palestinian and urban
Jordanian/Palestinian). There are many local differences/subdialects within
each country.

o  Gulf Arabic

   = Iraqi (south, vic Basra/Kut)

   = Kuwaiti (almost the same as Basrawi)/ eastern Provicne of Saudi Arabia

   = Nejd and Nefud

   = Hijazi

   =  Tihama/western Yemeni coast

   = "lower Gulf region" dialects in Qatar, UAE and Oman

   = Yemeni

The basic and useful references on dialects of the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf
region are the works by Chaim Rabin, Tom Johnstone, Ted Prochazka, Joshua
Fishman, Charles Ferguson, Mohammed Bakalla, Mahmoud Ismail al-Sieny, and
Bruce Ingham (while some others are around, the works by these authors
apparently have been bedrocks of detailed research and classification).

In view of internal and regional migrations among Arab communities, the
notion of clusters of dialects may apply mostly to sedentary and non-mobile
segments of each country's native population (the subject of other and recent
research, especially in UAE)

Hope this helps.

Regards from Los Angeles,

Stephen H. Franke

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End of Arabic-L: 12 Jun 2000