Bahrani Arabic
Baharna Arabic Bahrani Shīʿite Arabic
العربية البحرانية
Native to	Bahrain,Saudi Arabia[1]
Ethnicity	Baharna
Native speakers	730,000 (2019)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Peninsular Bahrani Arabic
Dialects	Qatifi
Writing system	Arabic alphabet,Arabic chat alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	abv
Glottolog	baha1259
[image reference needed]

Bahrani Arabic (also known asBahrani orBaharna Arabic) is avariety of Arabic spoken bythe Baharna inEastern Arabia andOman.^[2] InBahrain, the dialect is primarily spoken inShia villages and some parts ofManama. InSaudi Arabia, the dialect is spoken in the governorate ofQatif. InOman, it is spoken in the governorates ofAl Dhahirah andAl Batinah.

The Bahrani Arabic dialect has been significantly influenced by the ancientAramaic,Syriac, andAkkadian languages.^[3][4]

In Bahrain, Bahrani is more typical of the mostly-Shia and mostly-rural Baharna, who make up the older population group of Bahrain, and it exists alongsideGulf Arabic, which is mostly spoken bySunniArabs, who started arriving in the late 18th century. The Gulf Arabic of the Sunni Arabs, who are concentrated in the cities of Bahrain, and importantly include theroyal family, became theprestige language of the country, leading to Baharna Arabic becoming influenced by it.^[5]

ThePersian language has debatably had the most foreign linguistic influence on all Bahraini dialects.^[6] The differences between Bahrani Arabic and other Bahraini dialects suggest differing historical origins. The main differences between Bahrani and non-Bahrani dialects are evident in certain grammatical forms and pronunciation. Most of the vocabulary, however, is shared between dialects, or is distinctly Bahraini, arising from a shared modern history.^[5]

• bānka 'ceiling fan' fromHindi (पंखा) orPersian 'Pankeh' (پنکه).^{[7]: 137 [note 1]}
• sōmān 'equipment' fromUrdu.
• Jooti 'shoe' fromHindi orUrdu 'Joota' (جوتا).^[7]: 134
• lētar 'lighter' fromEnglish.
• wīl 'wheel' fromEnglish.
• tēm 'time' fromEnglish.
• dareesha 'window' fromPersian 'Darecheh' (دریچه).^{[8][9][note 2]}
• dowshag 'mattress' fromPersian 'Doshak' (دوشک).
• orradi 'already' fromEnglish.
• leitāt 'lights' fromEnglish.

Like Gulf Arabic, Bahrani Arabic has borrowed some vocabulary fromPersian,Urdu,Ottoman Turkish, and more recently fromEnglish.

Researcher Clive Holes divided the sedentary dialects of the Gulf to two types:

1. Type A, which includes the dialects of Sunni tribes that settled in Eastern Arabia between the 17th and 19th century, andthe Huwala. This group includes the standardGulf Arabic dialects of Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and UAE.
2. Type B, which includes the dialects of Omani Ibadis and Eastern Arabian Shia (the Baharna).

Bahrani Arabic (calledBaħrāni by its speakers) shares many features with surrounding Type A dialects (e.g. Kuwait, UAE, Qatar). Some general features:

• Classical Arabic /q/ becomes /g/, for examplegamar (moon).
• Classical Arabic /ð/ becomes /d/, for exampledanab (tail).
• /q/ and /ð/ is preserved for some Classical Arabic borrowings, for example [ðulqaʕdah] (Dhu Al-Qa'dah).
• Affrication of /k/ to /tʃ/ in many words, for example [tʃalb] (fox).
• /θ/ has the free variant /f/, and in some dialects /t/, for examplefalāfeh ortalāteh (three).
• /dʒ/ becomes /j/ in some rural dialects, for exampleyiħħe (watermelon).
• Usage of-sh suffix (/ʃ/) as a feminine second-person pronoun akin to masculine-k, for examplebabish (your door).
• Usage ofsentence-final particlee (pronounced [ɛː]) to indicate questions, for example 'inzaine (OK?).

• Varieties of Arabic
• Peninsular Arabic

• Mahdi Abdalla Al-Tajir. 1983.Language and Linguistic Origins in Bahrain: The Bahrani Dialect of Arabic.ISBN 0-7103-0024-7
• Clive Holes. 1983. "Bahraini Dialects: Sectarian Differences and the Sedentary/Nomadic Split,"Zeitschrift für arabische Linguistik 10:7-38.
• Clive Holes. 1987.Language Variation and Change in a Modernising Arab State: The Case of Bahrain.ISBN 0-7103-0244-4
• Clive Holes. 2001.Dialect, Culture, and Society in Eastern Arabia: Glossary.ISBN 90-04-10763-0
• Clive Holes, "Dialect and National Identity. The Cultural Politics of Self-Representation in BahrainiMusalsalat", in Paul Dresch and James Piscatori (eds),Monarchies and Nations: Globalisation and Identity in the Arab states of the Gulf, London: I.B. Tauris, 2005, p. 60.

Bahrani Arabic test ofWikipedia atWikimedia Incubator

• Baharna Arabic Travel Phrases
• Dialects of the Arabian Peninsula

• Languages of Saudi Arabia
• Languages of Bahrain
• Languages of Oman
• Mashriqi Arabic
• Peninsular Arabic

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