Gulf Arabic

Gulf Arabic (خليجي Khalījī local pronunciation: or اللهجة الخليجية el-lahja el-Khalijiyya local pronunciation: ) is a variety of the Arabic language spoken in Eastern Arabia^[3] around the coasts of the Persian Gulf in Kuwait, Iraq,^[4] Bahrain, eastern Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iran^[5] and northern Oman. These dialects are mutually intelligible.^[6]

Gulf dialects differ in vocabulary, grammar and accent.^[7] There are many differences between Kuwaiti Arabic and the dialects of Qatar and UAE—especially in accent.^[7] Most Saudis do not speak Gulf Arabic because most Saudis do not live in Eastern Arabia.^[7] There are only 200,000 Gulf Arabic speakers in Saudi Arabia, mostly in the coastal eastern province.^[8][9] Gulf Arabic is distinct from Saudi Arabic.^[8][9] Most Saudis speak Hejazi Arabic, Najdi Arabic and Bareqi Arabic dialects.^[8][9]

Name

The dialect's full name el-lahja el-Khalijiyya (اللهجة الخليجية local pronunciation: ) can be translated as 'the dialect of the gulf'. However, it is most commonly referred to as Khaliji (خليجي Khalījī local pronunciation: ), in which the noun خليج (Arabic pronunciation: ; Khalīj) has been suffixed with the Nisba, literally meaning 'of the bay' or 'of the gulf'.^[10]

Phonology

Consonants

The differences in the phonology of the Arabic dialect group of the Persian Gulf, compared to Modern Standard Arabic, are following:

Vowels

Following vowel chart applies to the Gulf Arabic dialect continuum:^[16]

Qafisheh stipulates at least two qualities of /a/:

a has a low back quality in the environment of pharyngealized consonants and frequently before or after /q/. This sound is similar to the a sound in father but shorter and farther back. (...) Before or after the pharyngeals 9 [= ʿAyin] and H [= ḥ], or any other plain consonant, a is farther front than the a in father; its quality ranges between the e in pen and the a in pan.

— Hamdi A. Qafisheh, A Short Reference Grammar of Gulf Arabic, p. 16

He further explains that these qualities also apply to /aː/, so that [ɑ(ː)]~[ä(ː)]~[æ(ː)] can therefore be assumed.

Morphology

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Gulf Arabic has 10 personal pronouns.^[17] The conservative dialect has preserved the gender differentiation of the 2nd and 3rd person in the plural forms, whereas dual forms have not survived. The following table bears the generally most common pronouns:

Some pronouns, however, have other (less frequent, resp. local) forms:

• ānā (آنَا):

  anā (أَنَا)

  āni (آنِي) (especially Baḥrānī)

• inta (إِنْتَ):

  init (إِنِتْ)

• huwa (هُوَ):

  hū (هُوْ)

  huwwa (هُوَّ) (especially Qaṭarī)

  uhu (أُهُو)

• hiya (هِيَ):

  hī (هِيْ)

  hiyya (هِيَّ) (especially Qaṭarī)

  ihi (إِهِي)

• niḥin (نِحِنْ):

  niḥna (نِحْنَ)

  iḥna (إِحْنَا) (especially Baḥrānī and Qatarī)

• intum (إِنْتُمْ):

  intu (إنْتُ)^{[Note 1]}

• hum (هُمْ):

  humma (هُمَّ) (especially Qatarī)

  uhum (أُهُمْ)

References

See also

• Varieties of Arabic
• Arabic language