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| Palestinian Arabic | |
|---|---|
| اللهجة الفلسطينية | |
| Native to | Palestine,Israel |
| Region | Levant |
| Ethnicity | Palestinians |
Native speakers | 4.3 million (2021)[1] |
| Dialects |
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| Arabic alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | (covered by apc) |
| Glottolog | sout3123 |
| IETF | apc-PS |
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| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
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Palestinian Arabic or simplyPalestinian is adialect continuum of mutually-intelligible varieties ofLevantine Arabic spoken byPalestinians, indigenous to thePalestine region, which includes the states ofPalestine, andIsrael. It is also spoken by thePalestinian diaspora.[2][3]
The Arabic dialects spoken in the region of Palestine and Transjordan do not form a homogeneous linguistic unit; rather, they encompass a diverse range of dialects influenced by geographical, historical, and socioeconomic factors.[4] Comparative studies of Arabic dialects indicate that Palestinian Arabic is among the closest dialects toModern Standard Arabic,[5] particularly the dialect spoken in theGaza Strip.[6] Additional distinctions can be made within Palestinian Arabic, such as the dialects spoken in the northernWest Bank and theHebron area, which exhibit similarities to those spoken by descendants ofPalestinian refugees.
Palestinian Arabic dialects reflect a historical layering of languages previously spoken in the region, includingCanaanite,Ancient Hebrew (bothBiblical andMishnaic),Aramaic (especiallyWestern Aramaic),Persian,Greek, andLatin. Furthermore, during the early modern period, these dialects were influenced byTurkish and variousEuropean languages. Since the establishment of Israel in 1948, Palestinian Arabic has also been shaped byModern Hebrew influences.[7]
Prior to their adoption of the Arabic language from the seventh century onwards, most of theinhabitants of Palestine spoke varieties ofPalestinian Aramaic (Jewish,Christian,Samaritan) as a native language.Koine Greek was used among the Hellenized elite and aristocracy, andMishnaic Hebrew for liturgical purposes.
TheNegev desert was under the rule of theNabatean Kingdom for the greater part ofClassical antiquity, and included settlements such as Mahoza andEin-Gedi whereJudean andNabatean populations lived in alongside each other, as documented by theBabatha archive which dates to the second century. The earliestOld Arabic inscription most resembling ofClassical Arabic is found inAyn Avadat, being a poem dedicated to KingObodas I, known for defeating theHasmoneanAlexander Jannaeus. Its date is estimated between 79 and 120 CE, but no later than 150 CE at most.[8]
The Nabataeans tended to adopt Aramaic as a written language as shown in theNabataean language texts ofPetra,[9] as well as aLingua Franca.Nabatean andPalestinian Aramaic dialects would both have been thought of as “Aramaic”, and almost certainly have been mutually comprehensible. Additionally, occasional Arabicloanwords can be found in the Jewish Aramaic documents of theDead Sea Scrolls.[9]
Theadoption of Arabic among the local population occurred most probably in several waves. After theEarly Muslim Arabians took control of the area, so as to maintain their regular activity, the upper classes had to quickly become fluent in the language of the new rulers who most probably were only few. The prevalence of Northern Levantine features in the urban dialects until the early 20th century, as well as in the dialect ofSamaritans inNablus (with systematic imala of /a:/) tends to show that a first layer of Arabization of urban upper classes could have led to what is now urban Levantine. Then, the main phenomenon could have been the slow countryside shift of Aramaic-speaking villages to Arabic under the influence of Arabized elites, leading to the emergence of the rural Palestinian dialects[citation needed]. This scenario is consistent with several facts.
The dialects spoken Arabic-speakers in theEastern Mediterranean, form a group of dialects known asLevantine Arabic. Arabic manuals for the "Syrian dialect" were produced in the early 20th century,[10] and in 1909 a specific "Palestinian Arabic" manual was published in Jerusalem forWestern travelers.[11]
Palestinian Arabic is a variant of Levantine Arabic because its dialects display characteristic Levantine features:
The noticeable differences between southern and northern forms of Levantine Arabic, such asSyrian Arabic andLebanese Arabic, are stronger in non-urban dialects. The main differences between Palestinian and northern Levantine Arabic are as follows:
There are also typical Palestinian words that areshibboleths compared to otherLevantine Arabic dialects :
As is very common in Arabic-speaking countries, theArabic dialect spoken by a person depends on both the region of origin, and socio-economic class. Thehikaye, a form of women's oral literature inscribed to UNESCO's list ofIntangible Cultural Heritage of Palestine, is recited in both the urban and rural dialects of Palestinian Arabic.[12][13]
The Urban ('madani') dialects resemble closely northern Levantine Arabic dialects, that is, the colloquial variants of westernSyria andLebanon.[14] This fact, that makes the urban dialects of the Levant remarkably homogeneous, is probably due to the trading network among cities inOttoman Syria, or to an older Arabic dialect layer closer to theNorth Mesopotamian Arabic (the 'qeltu dialects").
Urban dialects are characterised by the [ʔ] (hamza) pronunciation ofقqaf, the simplification of interdentals as dentals plosives, i.e.ث as [t],ذ as [d] and bothض andظ as [dˤ]. In borrowings fromModern Standard Arabic, these interdental consonants are realised as dental sibilants, i.e.ث as [s],ذ as [z] and ظ as [zˤ] butض is kept as [dˤ]. The Druzes have a dialect that may be classified with the Urban ones,[dubious –discuss] with the difference that they keep the uvular pronunciation ofق qaf as [q]. The urban dialects also ignore the difference between masculine and feminine in the plural pronouns انتو ['ɪntu] is both 'you' (masc. plur.) and 'you' (fem. plur.), and ['hʊmme] is both 'they' (masc.) and 'they' (fem.)
AsSephardic Jews wereexpelled after the conclusion of theReconquista, they establishedcommunities in Ottoman Palestine in Jerusalem and Galilee under the invitation of SultanBayezid II. TheirMaghrebiJudeo-Arabic dialect mixed with Palestinian Arabic. It peaked at 10,000 speakers and thrived alongsideYiddish amongAshkenazis until the widespread adoption ofModern Hebrew among theYishuv following its revival in thelate 19th century.
Today it is nearly extinct, with only 5 speakers remaining in the Galilee.[15] It contained influence fromJudeo-Moroccan Arabic and influenceJudeo-Lebanese Arabic andJudeo-Syrian Arabic.[16]
Rural ('fallahi') variety is retaining the interdental consonants, and is closely related with rural dialects inSouthern Lebanon and the sedentary population east of theJordan river. They keep the distinction between masculine and feminine plural pronouns, e.g. انتو ['ɪntu] is 'you' (masc.) while انتن ['ɪntɪn] is 'you' (fem.), and همه ['hʊmme] is 'they' (masc.) while هنه ['hɪnne] is 'they' (fem.). The three rural groups in the region are the following:
The Bedouins of Southern Levant use two different ('badawi') dialects inGalilee and theNegev. The Negev desert Bedouins, who are also present inPalestine andGaza Strip use a dialect closely related to those spoken in the Hijaz, and in the Sinai. Unlike them, the Bedouins of Galilee speak a dialect related to those of theSyrian Desert andNajd, which indicates their arrival to the region is relatively recent.[citation needed] TheNegev Bedouins, who ended up around Hebron and Jerusalem after the1948 Palestine War have a specific vocabulary, where they maintain the interdental consonants, do not use the ش- [-ʃ] negative suffix, always realise ك /k/ as [k] and ق /q/ as [g], and distinguish plural masculine from plural feminine pronouns, but with different forms as the rural speakers.
On the urban dialects side, the current trend is to have urban dialects getting closer to their rural neighbours, thus introducing some variability among cities in the Levant. For instance, Jerusalem used to say as Damascus ['nɪħna] ("we") and ['hʊnne] ("they") at the beginning of the 20th century, and this has moved to the more rural ['ɪħna] and ['hʊmme] nowadays.[17] This trend was probably initiated by the partition of the Levant of several states in the course of the 20th century.
The Rural description given above is moving nowadays with two opposite trends. On the one hand, urbanisation gives a strong influence power to urban dialects. As a result, villagers may adopt them at least in part, and Beduin maintain a two-dialect practice. On the other hand, the individualisation that comes with urbanisation make people feel more free to choose the way they speak than before, and in the same way as some will use typical Egyptian or Lebanese features as [le:] for [le:ʃ], others may use typical rural features such as the rural realisation [kˤ] of ق as a pride reaction against the stigmatisation of this pronunciation.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | iiː | uuː | |
| Mid | eeː | ooː | |
| Open | aaː |
As Palestinian Arabic originated in the heartland of the Semitic languages, it has kept many regular Semitic words. For this reason, it is simple to speculate howModern Standard Arabic words map onto Palestinian Arabic Words. TheSwadesh list of basic words of Palestinian Arabic available on the Wiktionary (seeexternal links below) may be used for this. However, some words are not transparent mappings from MSA, and deserve a description. This is due either to meaning changes in Arabic along the centuries – while MSA keeps theClassical Arabic meanings – or to the adoption of non-Arabic words (see below). Note that this section focuses on Urban Palestinian unless otherwise specified.
The words used in Palestinian to express the basic verbs 'to want', 'to have', 'there is/are' are called prepositional pseudo verbs because they share all the features of verbs but are constructed with a preposition and a suffix pronoun.
| Person | To want | To have |
|---|---|---|
| I | بدي['bɪdd-i] | عندي ['ʕɪnd-i] |
| You (sing. masc.) | بدك['bɪdd-ak] | عندك ['ʕɪnd-ak] |
| You (sing. fem.) | بدك['bɪdd-ɪk] | عندك ['ʕɪnd-ɪk] |
| He | بده['bɪdd-o] | عنده ['ʕɪnd-o] |
| She | بدها['bɪdd-ha] | عندها ['ʕɪnd-ha] |
| We | بدنا['bɪdd-na] | عندنا ['ʕɪnd-na] |
| You (plur.) | بدكم['bɪdd-kʊm] | عندكم ['ʕɪnd-kʊm] |
| They | بدهم['bɪdd-hʊm] | عندهم ['ʕɪnd-hʊm] |
In the perfect, they are preceded by كان [kaːn], e.g.we wanted is كان بدنا [kaːn 'bɪddna].
Relative clause
As in most forms of colloquial Arabic, the relative clause markers ofClassical Arabic (الذي، التي، اللذان، اللتان، الذين and اللاتي) have been simplified to a single form إللي ['ʔɪlli].
Interrogatives pronouns
The main Palestinian interrogative pronouns (with their Modern Standard Arabic counterparts) are the following ones.
| Meaning | Palestinian Arabic | MSA |
|---|---|---|
| Why? | ليش [leːʃ] | لماذا [limaːðaː] |
| What? | ايش [ʔeːʃ] or شو [ʃu] | ماذا [maːðaː] |
| How? | كيف [kiːf] | كيف [kaɪfa] |
| When? | إيمتى [ʔeːmta] or وينتى [weːnta] | متى [mataː] |
| Where? | وين [weːn] | اين [ʔaɪna] |
| Who? | مين [miːn] | من [man] |
Note that it is tempting to consider the long [iː] in مين [miːn] 'who?' as an influence of ancient Hebrew מי [miː] on Classical Arabic من [man], but it could be as well an analogy with the long vowels of the other interrogatives.
Marking Indirect Object
In Classical Arabic, the indirect object was marked with the particle /li-/ ('for', 'to'). For instance 'I said to him' was قلت له ['qultu 'lahu] and 'I wrote to her' was كتبت لها [ka'tabtu la'ha:]. In Palestinian Arabic, the Indirect Object marker is still based on the consonant /l/, but with more complex rules, and two different vocal patterns. The basic form before pronouns is a clitic [ɪll-], that always bears the stress, and to which person pronouns are suffixed. The basic form before nouns is [la]. For instance
The most often cited example ofvowel harmony in Palestinian Arabic is in thepresent tenseconjugations of verbs. If the root vowel isrounded, then the roundness spreads to other high vowels in theprefix. Vowel harmony in PA is also found in thenominal verbal domain.Suffixes are immune to rounding harmony, and vowels left of the stressedsyllable do not have vowel harmony.[19]
Palestinian Arabic has a regressive vowel harmony for these present tense conjugations: if the verb stem's main vowel is /u/, then the vowel in the prefix is also /u/, else the vowel is /i/. This is compared withstandard Arabic (which can be seen as representative of other Arabic dialects), where the vowel in the prefix is consistently /a/.[20]
Examples:
TheAncient peoples of Palestine, as well as theirPalestinian successors, have either retained words from the original languages spoken inthe land, or borrowed them from other cultures and various imperial rulers they contacted or interacted with throughout history.
Most prominentlyplace names preserved by theinhabitants through the centuries. For instance there are mountains known as جبل الطور ['ʒabal ɪtˤ tˤuːɾ] where طور [tˤuːɾ] is just the Aramaic טור for 'mountain', as well as agricultural terms.[7]
From Hebrew, especially theArab citizens of Israel have adopted manyHebraisms, likeyeshיֵשׁ ("we did it!" – used as sports cheer) which has no real equivalent in Arabic. According to sociolinguist David Mendelson fromGivat Haviva's Jewish-Arab Center for Peace, there is an adoption of words from Hebrew in Arabic spoken in Israel where alternative native terms exist. According to linguist Mohammed Omara, ofBar-Ilan University some researchers call the Arabic spoken by Israeli ArabsArabrew (in Hebrew, ערברית"Aravrit"). The list of words adopted contain:
Palestinians in thePalestinian territories sometimes refer toIsraeli Arabs as "the b'seder Arabs"[citation needed] because of their adoption of the Hebrew word בְּסֵדֶר [beseder] for 'O.K.', (while Arabic is ماشي [ma:ʃi]). However words likeramzorרַמְזוֹר 'traffic light' andmaḥsomמַחְסוֹם 'roadblock' have become a part of the general Palestinian vernacular.
Interpretations of "Arabrew" are often colored by non-linguistic political and cultural factors,[21] but how contact with Hebrew is realized has been studied, and has been described in linguistic terms and in terms of how it varies. "Arabrew" as spoken by Palestinians and more generally Arab citizens of Israel has been described as classicalcodeswitching without much structural effect[22][21] While the codeswitching by the majority of Arab or Palestinian citizens of Israel who are Christian or Muslim from the North or the Triangle is described as limited, more intense codeswitching is seen among Arabs who live in Jewish-majority settlements as well as Bedouin (in the South) who serve in the army, although this variety can still be called codeswitching, and does not involve any significant structural change deviating from the non-Hebrew influenced norm.[22] For the most part among all Christian and Muslim Arabs in Israel, the impact of Hebrew contact on Palestinian Arabic is limited to borrowing of nouns, mostly for specialist vocabulary, plus a few discourse markers.[21] However, this does not apply to the Arabic spoken by the Israeli Druze, which has been documented as manifesting much more intense contact effects, including the mixture of Arabic and Hebrew words within syntactic clauses, such as the use of a Hebrew preposition for an Arabic element and vice versa, and the adherence to gender and number agreement between Arabic and Hebrew elements (i.e. a Hebrew possessive adjective must agree with the gender of the Arabic noun it describes).[22] While Hebrew definite articles can only be used for Hebrew nouns, Arabic definite articles are used for Hebrew nouns and are, in fact, the most common DP structure.[22]
TheGospel of Mark was published in Palestinian Arabic in 1940,[23] with theGospel of Matthew and theLetter of James published in 1946.[24]
Films which are ofPalestinian production often use Palestinian Arabic as the main language.
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