Egyptian Arabic is the language spoken by contemporary Egyptians.
It is more commonly known locally as the
Egyptian colloquial language ( elˈloɣæ l.mɑsˤˈɾejjɑ l.ʕæmˈmejjæ) or
Egyptian dialect ( elˈlæhɡæ l.mɑsˤˈɾejjɑ).
Egyptian Arabic is a
varietyIn sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
of the
Arabic languagesThe Arabic language family consists of*Classical Arabic and its descendants, including** Modern Standard Arabic and colloquial varieties of Arabic **The various Judeo-Arabic languages **Maltese...
of the
SemiticThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
branch of the Afroasiatic language family. It originated in the
Nile DeltaThe Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
in Lower Egypt around the capital
CairoCairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
. Descended from the spoken Arabic brought to
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
during the seventh-century AD
Muslim conquestAt the commencement of the Muslims conquest of Egypt, Egypt was part of the Byzantine Empire with its capital in Constantinople. However, it had been occupied just a decade before by the Persian Empire under Khosrau II...
, its development was influenced by the indigenous
CopticCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
of
pre-Islamic EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
, and later by other languages such as
TurkishTurkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
/
Ottoman TurkishThe Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...
,
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
,
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. The 80 million Egyptians speak a
continuum of dialectsA dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...
, among which Cairene is the most prominent. It is also understood across most of the
Arab WorldThe Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
due to the predominance of Egyptian media, making it the most widely spoken and one of the most widely studied
varieties of ArabicThe Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
.
The terms Egyptian Arabic and Masri are usually used synonymously with
"Cairene Arabic", the dialect of the Egyptian capital. The country's native name,
, is used locally to refer to the capital Cairo itself. Similar to the role played by Parisian
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Masri is by far the most dominant in all areas of national life. While it is essentially a spoken language, it is encountered in written form in novels, plays, poems (
vernacular literatureVernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular—the speech of the "common people".In the European tradition, this effectively means literature not written in Latin...
) as well as in comics, advertising, some newspapers and transcriptions of popular songs. In most other written media and in TV news reporting, a standard register of Classical Arabic is used. The Egyptian
vernacularA vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
is normally written in the
Arabic alphabetThe Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...
for local consumption, although it is commonly transcribed into Latin letters or in the
International Phonetic AlphabetThe International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
in linguistics text and textbooks aimed at teaching non-native learners. Also, it is written in ASCII Latin alphabet mainly online &
SMSSMS is a form of text messaging communication on phones and mobile phones. The terms SMS or sms may also refer to:- Computer hardware :...
s.
Geographic distribution
Egyptian Arabic is spoken natively by more than 52 million
EgyptiansEgyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
and as a second language by most of the remaining 24 million Egyptians in several regional dialects, as well as by immigrant Egyptian communities in the
Middle eastThe Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
,
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
,
North AmericaNorth America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and South East Asia. Among the spoken
varieties of ArabicThe Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
, standard Egyptian Arabic (based on the dialect of the Egyptian capital) is the only one to have become a
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
in other parts of the Arabic-speaking world for two main reasons: the proliferation and popularity of Egyptian films and other media in the region since the early 20th century; and the great number of Egyptian teachers and professors who were instrumental in setting up the education systems of various countries in the
Arabian PeninsulaThe Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
and who also taught there and in other countries such as
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
and
LibyaLibya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
. Also many Lebanese artists choose to sing in Egyptian as well as
LebaneseLebanese or Lebanese Arabic is a variety of Levantine Arabic, indigenous to and spoken primarily in Lebanon, with significant linguistic influences borrowed from other Middle Eastern and European languages, and is in some ways unique from other varieties of Arabic...
.
History
The
EgyptiansEgyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
slowly adopted the
Arabic languageArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
as a
written languageA written language is the representation of a language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will instinctively learn or create spoken or gestural languages....
following the Arab-Muslim conquest of
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
in the 7th century AD. Up until then, they were speaking
EgyptianEgyptian is the oldest known indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century AD in the...
in its
CopticCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
form. For more than three centuries, there existed a period of Coptic-Arabic bilingualism in Lower Egypt. This trend would last for many more centuries in the south. Arabic may have been already familiar to Egyptians through pre-Islamic trade with
BedouinThe Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
Arab tribes in the Sinai and the easternmost part of the
Nile DeltaThe Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
. Egyptian Arabic seems to have begun taking shape in Fustat, the first Islamic capital of Egypt, and now part of modern-day
CairoCairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
.
One of the earliest linguistic sketches of Egyptian Arabic is a 16th century document entitled
by . It contains key information on early Egyptian Arabic and the language situation in medieval Egypt. The main purpose of the document was to show that while the Egyptians' vernacular contained many critical "errors" vis-à-vis Classical Arabic, according to Maġribi, it was also related to Arabic in other respects. With the ongoing
IslamizationIslamization or Islamification has been used to describe the process of a society's conversion to the religion of Islam...
and
ArabizationArabization or Arabisation describes a growing cultural influence on a non-Arab area that gradually changes into one that speaks Arabic and/or incorporates Arab culture...
of the country, Egyptian Arabic slowly supplanted spoken
EgyptianEgyptian is the oldest known indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century AD in the...
. Local chroniclers mention the continued use of Coptic Egyptian as a spoken language until the 17th century AD by peasant women in Upper Egypt. Coptic is still the liturgical language of the Egyptian Coptic Church.
Official status
Egyptian Arabic has no official status, and to date it is not officially recognized. Standard Arabic, a modernized form of
Classical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
(Koranic Arabic), is the official language of Egypt (see
diglossiaIn linguistics, diglossia refers to a situation in which two dialects or languages are used by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety , a second, highly codified variety is used in certain situations such as literature, formal...
). Interest in the local
vernacularA vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
began in the 1800s as the Egyptian national movement for independence was taking shape. Questions about the reform and modernization of
ArabicArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
came to the fore, and for many decades to follow they were hotly debated in Egyptian intellectual circles. Proposals ranged from developing
neologisms to replace archaic terminology in Standard Arabic; to the simplification of syntactical and morphological rules and the introduction of
colloquialismA colloquialism is a word or phrase that is common in everyday, unconstrained conversation rather than in formal speech, academic writing, or paralinguistics. Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier...
s; to complete 'Egyptianization' (
) by abandoning the so-called Standard Arabic in favor of Masri or Egyptian Arabic.
Proponents of language reform in Egypt included
Qasim AminQasim Amin born on 1 December 1863 Alexandria died April 22, 1908 Cairo was an Egyptian jurist and one of the founders of the Egyptian national movement and Cairo University. Qasim Amin was considered by many as the Arab world’s “first feminist”...
, who also wrote the first Egyptian feminist treatise, former president of the
Egyptian UniversityCairo University is a public university located in Giza, Egypt.The university was founded on December 21, 1908, as the result of an effort to establish a national center for educational thought...
,
Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, and noted intellectual
Salama MoussaSalama Moussa Born into a wealthy, land owning Coptic family in the town of Zagazig located in the Nile delta. Salama Musa was a journalist, writer, advocator of secularism, and pioneer of Arab socialism. He wrote or translated 45 published books; his writings still influence Arab thought and he...
. They adopted a modernist, secular approach and disagreed with the assumption that Arabic was an immutable language because of its association with the
Qur'anThe Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
. For a while, Egyptian Arabic enjoyed a period of rich literary output until the movement was halted with the continuing rise of
IslamismIslamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
and
Arab nationalismArab nationalism is a nationalist ideology celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language and literature of the Arabs, calling for rejuvenation and political union in the Arab world...
in Egypt and the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, particularly with
Gamal Abdel NasserGamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...
's assumption of power in 1954. The first modern Egyptian novel to be written in the vernacular was
Muhammad Husayn HaykalMuhammad Hussein Haekal was an Egyptian writer, journalist, politician and Minister of Education in Egypt.- Life :...
's
ZaynabHusayn Haykal's Zaynab is the first modern Egyptian novel published in 1913. The book depicts life in the Egyptian countryside and delves into the relationships between men and women.-Plot introduction:...
in 1913. Other notable novelists such as
Ihsan Abdel QuddousIhsan Abdel Quddous was an Egyptian writer, novelist, and journalist and editor in the Al Akhbar and Al-Ahram newspapers. He is known to have written many novels that have been adapted in films....
and
Yusuf IdrisYusuf Idris, also Yusif Idris was an Egyptian writer of plays, short stories, and novels. Idris originally trained to be a doctor, studying at the University of Cairo...
, and poets such as Salah Jaheen, Abnudi and Fagoumi, helped solidify vernacular literature as a distinct literary genre.
Nasser undertook an Arabization campaign in Egypt's education system and government administration, which stoutly relegated Egyptian Arabic to secondary status. In the last fifty years, educated Egyptian as a result became heavily influenced by the official language - Standard Arabic. Following Nasser's death, interest in the Egyptian dialect was rekindled by vernacular authors.
As the status of Egyptian Arabic vis-à-vis
Classical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
can have such political and religious implications in Egypt, the question of whether Egyptian Arabic should be considered a "dialect" or "language" can be a source of debate. In
sociolinguisticsSociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...
, Egyptian Arabic can be seen as one of many distinct
varietiesIn sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
which, despite arguably being languages on
abstandThe Ausbausprache – Abstandsprache – Dachsprache framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists for analysing and categorising the status of language varieties along the cline between autonomous languages on the one hand and dialects on the other. The terms were coined by Heinz Kloss...
grounds, are united by a common
dachsprache in
Literary ArabicModern Standard Arabic , Standard Arabic, or Literary Arabic is the standard and literary variety of Arabic used in writing and in most formal speech....
(MSA).
Spoken varieties in Egypt
Sa'idi ArabicSa`idi Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken by Sa'idis south of Cairo, Egypt to the border of Sudan. It shares linguistic features both with Egyptian Arabic, as well as Sudanese Arabic. Dialects include Middle and Upper Egyptian Arabic...
(Upper Egyptian), it is a separate variety in
Ethnologue.com and
ISO 639-3 as well as in other sources. It carries little prestige nationally though it continues to be widely spoken (19,000,000 speakers) including in the north by rural migrants who have adapted partially to Egyptian Arabic. For example, the Sa'idi genitive exponent is usually replaced with Egyptian
, but the realization of /ʔ/ as [ɡ] is retained. Second and third-generation migrants are monolingual in the Cairene variety, but maintain cultural and familial ties to the south.
The traditional division between Lower and Upper Egypt and their respective differences go back to ancient times. Egyptians today commonly refer to the people of the north as
([bɑˈħɑɾˤwɑ]) and to those of the south as
([sˤɑˈʕɑjdɑ]). The differences throughout Egypt, however, are more wide ranging and do not neatly correspond to this simple division. There is a linguistic shift from the eastern to the western parts of the
deltaThe Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
, and the varieties spoken from Gizah to el Minya are further grouped into a Middle Egypt cluster. Despite these differences, there are features distinguishing all the Egyptian Arabic varieties of the Nile Valley from any other
Arabic varietyThe Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
. Such features include
reductionIn phonetics, vowel reduction is any of various changes in the acoustic quality of vowels, which are related to changes in stress, sonority, duration, loudness, articulation, or position in the word , and which are perceived as "weakening"...
of long vowels in open and unstressed syllables, the postposition of demonstratives and interrogatives, the modal meaning of the imperfect, and the integration of the participle.
The
Western Egyptian Bedawi ArabicLibyan Arabic is a collective term for the closely related varieties of Arabic spoken in Libya. It can be divided into two major dialect areas; the eastern centred in Benghazi and Bayda, and the western centred in Tripoli and Misrata...
variety of the western desert is different from all other Arabic varieties in Egypt as linguistically it forms part of the Maghrebi group of varieties. The same was formerly true of the Egyptian form of
Judaeo-ArabicThe Judeo-Arabic languages , are a continuum of Arabic dialects spoken by Jews living or formerly living in the Arab world; the term also refers more or less to Classical Arabic written in the Hebrew script, particularly in the Middle Ages. Just as with the rest of the Arab world, Arab Jews had...
.
Eastern Egyptian Bedawi ArabicBedawi Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken by Bedouins mostly in eastern Egypt, and also in Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Syria...
is also distinct from Egyptian Arabic.
Vowel phonemes
The Egyptian Arabic vocalic system has changed from the Classical system. The system of vowels is as follows:
Native vowels
|
Front A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...
|
Back A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
|
| long |
short |
final
unstressed |
long |
short |
final
unstressed |
| Close A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...
|
iː |
|
i |
uː |
|
o~ʊ~u |
| Near-close A near-close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a near-close vowel is that the tongue is positioned similarly to a close vowel, but slightly less constricted. Near-close vowels are sometimes described as lax variants of the fully close vowels...
|
|
e~ɪ |
|
o~ʊ |
| Close-mid A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel...
|
eː |
oː |
| Near-open A near-open vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a near-open vowel is that the tongue is positioned similarly to an open vowel, but slightly more constricted. Near-open vowels are sometimes described as lax variants of the fully open vowels...
|
æː |
æ |
|
| Open An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue...
|
|
ɑː |
ɑ |
| Short vowels |
| /a/ (/æ/, /ɑ/): æ, ɑ |
| /i/: e~ɪ; i at the end of a word |
| /u/: o~ʊ; o~ʊ~u at the end of a word |
| /I/ (epenthetic In phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis for the addition of a vowel....
, possibly non-phonemic): e |
| Long vowels (always stressed) |
| /aː/: æː, ɑː |
| /iː/: iː |
| /uː/: uː |
| /eː/: eː |
| /oː/: oː |
For some speakers, the higher vowels tend to be more centralized in emphatic environment:
| e~ɪ → ɘ~ɪ̈ |
| i → ɨ |
| o~ʊ → ɵ~ʊ̈ |
| o~ʊ~u → ɵ~ʊ̈~ʉ |
| iː → ɨː |
| uː → ʉː |
| eː → ɘ |
| oː → ɵː |
The
Classical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
phonemes /a/ and /aː/ are in the process of splitting into two phonemes each, resulting in the four Egyptian Arabic phonemes /æ æː ɑ ɑː/. The front and back variants alternate in verbal and nominal paradigms in ways that are largely predictable, but the back variants /ɑ ɑː/ occur unpredictably in some lexical stems, especially those of European-language origin. This is discussed more below.
eː and oː are derived from the
Classical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
diphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
s /aj/ and /aw/, respectively, when occurring in closed syllables (i.e. not followed by a vowel). Note that the diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/ also occur in the same environment, due to later deletion of unstressed vowels and resulting contraction, e.g. /mudawla/ [moˈdæwlæ] "consultation" < Classical */mudaːwala/. Minimal pairs such as /ʃajla/ [ˈʃæjlæ] "carrying (fem. sg.)" and /ʃeːla/ [ˈʃeːlæ] "burden" also occur. Both of these words are derived from */ʃaːjila/; /ʃeːla/ is the phonologically regular outcome, while /ʃajla/ is an analogical reformation based on the corresponding participial form /CaCCa/ of other verbs of the same class.
Egyptian Arabic maintains in all positions the early post-Classical distinctions between short /i/ and /u/. Contrast, for example, Levantine Arabic Dialects, which merge /i/ and /u/ into /ə/ in most positions, and
Moroccan ArabicMoroccan Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken in the Arabic-speaking areas of Morocco. For official communications, the government and other public bodies use Modern Standard Arabic, as is the case in most Arabic-speaking countries. A mixture of French and Moroccan Arabic is used in business...
, which merges /i/ and /a/ into /ǝ/ in all positions. In particular, note the different shapes and vowel distinctions between /kitaːb/ [keˈtæːb] "book", /gumaːl/ [ɡoˈmæːl] "beautiful (pl.)" vs.
{{Redirect|Masri}}
{{Contains Arabic text}}
Egyptian Arabic ({{lang|arz|اللغة المصرية الحديثة}}, elˈloɣæ l.mɑsˤˈɾejjɑ l.ħæˈdiːsæ{{ref|A|[note A]}} "The Modern Egyptian Language"; abbreviated: {{lang|arz|مصرى}} ˈmɑsˤɾi "Egyptian") is the language spoken by contemporary Egyptians.
It is more commonly known locally as the
Egyptian colloquial language ({{lang|arz|اللغة المصرية العامية}} elˈloɣæ l.mɑsˤˈɾejjɑ l.ʕæmˈmejjæ{{ref|B|[note B]}}) or
Egyptian dialect ({{lang|arz|اللهجة المصرية}} elˈlæhɡæ l.mɑsˤˈɾejjɑ{{ref|C|[note C]}}).
Egyptian Arabic is a
varietyIn sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
of the
Arabic languagesThe Arabic language family consists of*Classical Arabic and its descendants, including** Modern Standard Arabic and colloquial varieties of Arabic **The various Judeo-Arabic languages **Maltese...
of the
SemiticThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
branch of the Afroasiatic language family. It originated in the
Nile DeltaThe Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
in Lower Egypt around the capital
CairoCairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
. Descended from the spoken Arabic brought to
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
during the seventh-century AD
Muslim conquestAt the commencement of the Muslims conquest of Egypt, Egypt was part of the Byzantine Empire with its capital in Constantinople. However, it had been occupied just a decade before by the Persian Empire under Khosrau II...
, its development was influenced by the indigenous
CopticCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
of
pre-Islamic EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
, and later by other languages such as
TurkishTurkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
/
Ottoman TurkishThe Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...
,
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
,
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. The 80 million Egyptians speak a
continuum of dialectsA dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...
, among which Cairene is the most prominent. It is also understood across most of the
Arab WorldThe Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
due to the predominance of Egyptian media, making it the most widely spoken and one of the most widely studied
varieties of ArabicThe Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
. {{Citation needed|date=March 2011}}
The terms Egyptian Arabic and Masri are usually used synonymously with
"Cairene Arabic", the dialect of the Egyptian capital. The country's native name,
{{Unicode|Maṣr}}, is used locally to refer to the capital Cairo itself. Similar to the role played by Parisian
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Masri is by far the most dominant in all areas of national life. While it is essentially a spoken language, it is encountered in written form in novels, plays, poems (
vernacular literatureVernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular—the speech of the "common people".In the European tradition, this effectively means literature not written in Latin...
) as well as in comics, advertising, some newspapers and transcriptions of popular songs. In most other written media and in TV news reporting, a standard register of Classical Arabic is used. The Egyptian
vernacularA vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
is normally written in the
Arabic alphabetThe Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...
for local consumption, although it is commonly transcribed into Latin letters or in the
International Phonetic AlphabetThe International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
in linguistics text and textbooks aimed at teaching non-native learners. Also, it is written in ASCII Latin alphabet mainly online &
SMSSMS is a form of text messaging communication on phones and mobile phones. The terms SMS or sms may also refer to:- Computer hardware :...
s.
Geographic distribution
Egyptian Arabic is spoken natively by more than 52 million
EgyptiansEgyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
and as a second language by most of the remaining 24 million Egyptians in several regional dialects, as well as by immigrant Egyptian communities in the
Middle eastThe Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
,
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
,
North AmericaNorth America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and South East Asia. Among the spoken
varieties of ArabicThe Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
, standard Egyptian Arabic (based on the dialect of the Egyptian capital) is the only one to have become a
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
in other parts of the Arabic-speaking world for two main reasons: the proliferation and popularity of Egyptian films and other media in the region since the early 20th century; and the great number of Egyptian teachers and professors who were instrumental in setting up the education systems of various countries in the
Arabian PeninsulaThe Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
and who also taught there and in other countries such as
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
and
LibyaLibya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
. Also many Lebanese artists choose to sing in Egyptian as well as
LebaneseLebanese or Lebanese Arabic is a variety of Levantine Arabic, indigenous to and spoken primarily in Lebanon, with significant linguistic influences borrowed from other Middle Eastern and European languages, and is in some ways unique from other varieties of Arabic...
.
History
The
EgyptiansEgyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
slowly adopted the
Arabic languageArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
as a
written languageA written language is the representation of a language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will instinctively learn or create spoken or gestural languages....
following the Arab-Muslim conquest of
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
in the 7th century AD. Up until then, they were speaking
EgyptianEgyptian is the oldest known indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century AD in the...
in its
CopticCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
form. For more than three centuries, there existed a period of Coptic-Arabic bilingualism in Lower Egypt. This trend would last for many more centuries in the south. Arabic may have been already familiar to Egyptians through pre-Islamic trade with
BedouinThe Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
Arab tribes in the Sinai and the easternmost part of the
Nile DeltaThe Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
. Egyptian Arabic seems to have begun taking shape in Fustat, the first Islamic capital of Egypt, and now part of modern-day
CairoCairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
.
One of the earliest linguistic sketches of Egyptian Arabic is a 16th century document entitled
{{transl|ar|Daf` al-'iṣr `an kalām 'ahl Miṣr}} ({{lang|ar|دفع الإصر عن كلام أهل مصر}}, 'The Removal of the Burden from the Language of the People of Egypt') by {{transl|ar|Yūsuf al-Maġribi}} ({{lang|ar|يوسف المغربي}}). It contains key information on early Egyptian Arabic and the language situation in medieval Egypt. The main purpose of the document was to show that while the Egyptians' vernacular contained many critical "errors" vis-à-vis Classical Arabic, according to Maġribi, it was also related to Arabic in other respects. With the ongoing
IslamizationIslamization or Islamification has been used to describe the process of a society's conversion to the religion of Islam...
and
ArabizationArabization or Arabisation describes a growing cultural influence on a non-Arab area that gradually changes into one that speaks Arabic and/or incorporates Arab culture...
of the country, Egyptian Arabic slowly supplanted spoken
EgyptianEgyptian is the oldest known indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century AD in the...
. Local chroniclers mention the continued use of Coptic Egyptian as a spoken language until the 17th century AD by peasant women in Upper Egypt. Coptic is still the liturgical language of the Egyptian Coptic Church.
Official status
Egyptian Arabic has no official status, and to date it is not officially recognized. Standard Arabic, a modernized form of
Classical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
(Koranic Arabic), is the official language of Egypt (see
diglossiaIn linguistics, diglossia refers to a situation in which two dialects or languages are used by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety , a second, highly codified variety is used in certain situations such as literature, formal...
). Interest in the local
vernacularA vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
began in the 1800s as the Egyptian national movement for independence was taking shape. Questions about the reform and modernization of
ArabicArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
came to the fore, and for many decades to follow they were hotly debated in Egyptian intellectual circles. Proposals ranged from developing
neologisms to replace archaic terminology in Standard Arabic; to the simplification of syntactical and morphological rules and the introduction of
colloquialismA colloquialism is a word or phrase that is common in everyday, unconstrained conversation rather than in formal speech, academic writing, or paralinguistics. Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier...
s; to complete 'Egyptianization' (
{{unicode|tamṣīr}}) by abandoning the so-called Standard Arabic in favor of Masri or Egyptian Arabic.
Proponents of language reform in Egypt included
Qasim AminQasim Amin born on 1 December 1863 Alexandria died April 22, 1908 Cairo was an Egyptian jurist and one of the founders of the Egyptian national movement and Cairo University. Qasim Amin was considered by many as the Arab world’s “first feminist”...
, who also wrote the first Egyptian feminist treatise, former president of the
Egyptian UniversityCairo University is a public university located in Giza, Egypt.The university was founded on December 21, 1908, as the result of an effort to establish a national center for educational thought...
,
Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, and noted intellectual
Salama MoussaSalama Moussa Born into a wealthy, land owning Coptic family in the town of Zagazig located in the Nile delta. Salama Musa was a journalist, writer, advocator of secularism, and pioneer of Arab socialism. He wrote or translated 45 published books; his writings still influence Arab thought and he...
. They adopted a modernist, secular approach and disagreed with the assumption that Arabic was an immutable language because of its association with the
Qur'anThe Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
. For a while, Egyptian Arabic enjoyed a period of rich literary output until the movement was halted with the continuing rise of
IslamismIslamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
and
Arab nationalismArab nationalism is a nationalist ideology celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language and literature of the Arabs, calling for rejuvenation and political union in the Arab world...
in Egypt and the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, particularly with
Gamal Abdel NasserGamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...
's assumption of power in 1954. The first modern Egyptian novel to be written in the vernacular was
Muhammad Husayn HaykalMuhammad Hussein Haekal was an Egyptian writer, journalist, politician and Minister of Education in Egypt.- Life :...
's
ZaynabHusayn Haykal's Zaynab is the first modern Egyptian novel published in 1913. The book depicts life in the Egyptian countryside and delves into the relationships between men and women.-Plot introduction:...
in 1913. Other notable novelists such as
Ihsan Abdel QuddousIhsan Abdel Quddous was an Egyptian writer, novelist, and journalist and editor in the Al Akhbar and Al-Ahram newspapers. He is known to have written many novels that have been adapted in films....
and
Yusuf IdrisYusuf Idris, also Yusif Idris was an Egyptian writer of plays, short stories, and novels. Idris originally trained to be a doctor, studying at the University of Cairo...
, and poets such as Salah Jaheen, Abnudi and Fagoumi, helped solidify vernacular literature as a distinct literary genre.
Nasser undertook an Arabization campaign in Egypt's education system and government administration, which stoutly relegated Egyptian Arabic to secondary status. In the last fifty years, educated Egyptian as a result became heavily influenced by the official language - Standard Arabic. Following Nasser's death, interest in the Egyptian dialect was rekindled by vernacular authors.
As the status of Egyptian Arabic vis-à-vis
Classical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
can have such political and religious implications in Egypt, the question of whether Egyptian Arabic should be considered a "dialect" or "language" can be a source of debate. In
sociolinguisticsSociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...
, Egyptian Arabic can be seen as one of many distinct
varietiesIn sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
which, despite arguably being languages on
abstandThe Ausbausprache – Abstandsprache – Dachsprache framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists for analysing and categorising the status of language varieties along the cline between autonomous languages on the one hand and dialects on the other. The terms were coined by Heinz Kloss...
grounds, are united by a common
dachsprache in
Literary ArabicModern Standard Arabic , Standard Arabic, or Literary Arabic is the standard and literary variety of Arabic used in writing and in most formal speech....
(MSA).
Spoken varieties in Egypt
Sa'idi ArabicSa`idi Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken by Sa'idis south of Cairo, Egypt to the border of Sudan. It shares linguistic features both with Egyptian Arabic, as well as Sudanese Arabic. Dialects include Middle and Upper Egyptian Arabic...
(Upper Egyptian), it is a separate variety in
Ethnologue.com and
ISO 639-3 as well as in other sources. It carries little prestige nationally though it continues to be widely spoken (19,000,000 speakers) including in the north by rural migrants who have adapted partially to Egyptian Arabic. For example, the Sa'idi genitive exponent is usually replaced with Egyptian
{{unicode|bitāʿ}}, but the realization of /ʔ/ as [ɡ] is retained.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}} Second and third-generation migrants are monolingual in the Cairene variety, but maintain cultural and familial ties to the south.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}}
The traditional division between Lower and Upper Egypt and their respective differences go back to ancient times. Egyptians today commonly refer to the people of the north as
{{unicode|baḥarwa}} ([bɑˈħɑɾˤwɑ]) and to those of the south as
{{unicode|ṣaʻayda}} ([sˤɑˈʕɑjdɑ]). The differences throughout Egypt, however, are more wide ranging and do not neatly correspond to this simple division. There is a linguistic shift from the eastern to the western parts of the
deltaThe Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
, and the varieties spoken from Gizah to el Minya are further grouped into a Middle Egypt cluster. Despite these differences, there are features distinguishing all the Egyptian Arabic varieties of the Nile Valley from any other
Arabic varietyThe Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
. Such features include
reductionIn phonetics, vowel reduction is any of various changes in the acoustic quality of vowels, which are related to changes in stress, sonority, duration, loudness, articulation, or position in the word , and which are perceived as "weakening"...
of long vowels in open and unstressed syllables, the postposition of demonstratives and interrogatives, the modal meaning of the imperfect, and the integration of the participle.
The
Western Egyptian Bedawi ArabicLibyan Arabic is a collective term for the closely related varieties of Arabic spoken in Libya. It can be divided into two major dialect areas; the eastern centred in Benghazi and Bayda, and the western centred in Tripoli and Misrata...
variety of the western desert is different from all other Arabic varieties in Egypt as linguistically it forms part of the Maghrebi group of varieties. The same was formerly true of the Egyptian form of
Judaeo-ArabicThe Judeo-Arabic languages , are a continuum of Arabic dialects spoken by Jews living or formerly living in the Arab world; the term also refers more or less to Classical Arabic written in the Hebrew script, particularly in the Middle Ages. Just as with the rest of the Arab world, Arab Jews had...
.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}}
Eastern Egyptian Bedawi ArabicBedawi Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken by Bedouins mostly in eastern Egypt, and also in Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Syria...
is also distinct from Egyptian Arabic.
Vowel phonemes
The Egyptian Arabic vocalic system has changed from the Classical system. The system of vowels is as follows:
Native vowels
|
Front A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...
|
Back A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
|
| long |
short |
final
unstressed |
long |
short |
final
unstressed |
| Close A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...
|
iː |
|
i |
uː |
|
o~ʊ~u |
| Near-close A near-close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a near-close vowel is that the tongue is positioned similarly to a close vowel, but slightly less constricted. Near-close vowels are sometimes described as lax variants of the fully close vowels...
|
|
e~ɪ |
|
o~ʊ |
| Close-mid A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel...
|
eː |
oː |
| Near-open A near-open vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a near-open vowel is that the tongue is positioned similarly to an open vowel, but slightly more constricted. Near-open vowels are sometimes described as lax variants of the fully open vowels...
|
æː |
æ |
|
| Open An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue...
|
|
ɑː |
ɑ |
| Short vowels |
| /a/ (/æ/, /ɑ/): æ, ɑ |
| /i/: e~ɪ; i at the end of a word |
| /u/: o~ʊ; o~ʊ~u at the end of a word |
| /I/ (epenthetic In phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis for the addition of a vowel....
, possibly non-phonemic): e |
| Long vowels (always stressed) |
| /aː/: æː, ɑː |
| /iː/: iː |
| /uː/: uː |
| /eː/: eː |
| /oː/: oː |
For some speakers, the higher vowels tend to be more centralized in emphatic environment:
| e~ɪ → ɘ~ɪ̈ |
| i → ɨ |
| o~ʊ → ɵ~ʊ̈ |
| o~ʊ~u → ɵ~ʊ̈~ʉ |
| iː → ɨː |
| uː → ʉː |
| eː → ɘ |
| oː → ɵː |
The
Classical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
phonemes /a/ and /aː/ are in the process of splitting into two phonemes each, resulting in the four Egyptian Arabic phonemes /æ æː ɑ ɑː/. The front and back variants alternate in verbal and nominal paradigms in ways that are largely predictable, but the back variants /ɑ ɑː/ occur unpredictably in some lexical stems, especially those of European-language origin. This is discussed more below.
eː and oː are derived from the
Classical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
diphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
s /aj/ and /aw/, respectively, when occurring in closed syllables (i.e. not followed by a vowel). Note that the diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/ also occur in the same environment, due to later deletion of unstressed vowels and resulting contraction, e.g. /mudawla/ [moˈdæwlæ] "consultation" < Classical */mudaːwala/. Minimal pairs such as /ʃajla/ [ˈʃæjlæ] "carrying (fem. sg.)" and /ʃeːla/ [ˈʃeːlæ] "burden" also occur. Both of these words are derived from */ʃaːjila/; /ʃeːla/ is the phonologically regular outcome, while /ʃajla/ is an analogical reformation based on the corresponding participial form /CaCCa/ of other verbs of the same class.
Egyptian Arabic maintains in all positions the early post-Classical distinctions between short /i/ and /u/. Contrast, for example, Levantine Arabic Dialects, which merge /i/ and /u/ into /ə/ in most positions, and
Moroccan ArabicMoroccan Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken in the Arabic-speaking areas of Morocco. For official communications, the government and other public bodies use Modern Standard Arabic, as is the case in most Arabic-speaking countries. A mixture of French and Moroccan Arabic is used in business...
, which merges /i/ and /a/ into /ǝ/ in all positions. In particular, note the different shapes and vowel distinctions between /kitaːb/ [keˈtæːb] "book", /gumaːl/ [ɡoˈmæːl] "beautiful (pl.)" vs.
{{Redirect|Masri}}
{{Contains Arabic text}}
Egyptian Arabic ({{lang|arz|اللغة المصرية الحديثة}}, elˈloɣæ l.mɑsˤˈɾejjɑ l.ħæˈdiːsæ{{ref|A|[note A]}} "The Modern Egyptian Language"; abbreviated: {{lang|arz|مصرى}} ˈmɑsˤɾi "Egyptian") is the language spoken by contemporary Egyptians.
It is more commonly known locally as the
Egyptian colloquial language ({{lang|arz|اللغة المصرية العامية}} elˈloɣæ l.mɑsˤˈɾejjɑ l.ʕæmˈmejjæ{{ref|B|[note B]}}) or
Egyptian dialect ({{lang|arz|اللهجة المصرية}} elˈlæhɡæ l.mɑsˤˈɾejjɑ{{ref|C|[note C]}}).
Egyptian Arabic is a
varietyIn sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
of the
Arabic languagesThe Arabic language family consists of*Classical Arabic and its descendants, including** Modern Standard Arabic and colloquial varieties of Arabic **The various Judeo-Arabic languages **Maltese...
of the
SemiticThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
branch of the Afroasiatic language family. It originated in the
Nile DeltaThe Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
in Lower Egypt around the capital
CairoCairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
. Descended from the spoken Arabic brought to
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
during the seventh-century AD
Muslim conquestAt the commencement of the Muslims conquest of Egypt, Egypt was part of the Byzantine Empire with its capital in Constantinople. However, it had been occupied just a decade before by the Persian Empire under Khosrau II...
, its development was influenced by the indigenous
CopticCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
of
pre-Islamic EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
, and later by other languages such as
TurkishTurkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
/
Ottoman TurkishThe Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...
,
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
,
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. The 80 million Egyptians speak a
continuum of dialectsA dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...
, among which Cairene is the most prominent. It is also understood across most of the
Arab WorldThe Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
due to the predominance of Egyptian media, making it the most widely spoken and one of the most widely studied
varieties of ArabicThe Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
. {{Citation needed|date=March 2011}}
The terms Egyptian Arabic and Masri are usually used synonymously with
"Cairene Arabic", the dialect of the Egyptian capital. The country's native name,
{{Unicode|Maṣr}}, is used locally to refer to the capital Cairo itself. Similar to the role played by Parisian
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Masri is by far the most dominant in all areas of national life. While it is essentially a spoken language, it is encountered in written form in novels, plays, poems (
vernacular literatureVernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular—the speech of the "common people".In the European tradition, this effectively means literature not written in Latin...
) as well as in comics, advertising, some newspapers and transcriptions of popular songs. In most other written media and in TV news reporting, a standard register of Classical Arabic is used. The Egyptian
vernacularA vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
is normally written in the
Arabic alphabetThe Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...
for local consumption, although it is commonly transcribed into Latin letters or in the
International Phonetic AlphabetThe International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
in linguistics text and textbooks aimed at teaching non-native learners. Also, it is written in ASCII Latin alphabet mainly online &
SMSSMS is a form of text messaging communication on phones and mobile phones. The terms SMS or sms may also refer to:- Computer hardware :...
s.
Geographic distribution
Egyptian Arabic is spoken natively by more than 52 million
EgyptiansEgyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
and as a second language by most of the remaining 24 million Egyptians in several regional dialects, as well as by immigrant Egyptian communities in the
Middle eastThe Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
,
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
,
North AmericaNorth America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and South East Asia. Among the spoken
varieties of ArabicThe Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
, standard Egyptian Arabic (based on the dialect of the Egyptian capital) is the only one to have become a
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
in other parts of the Arabic-speaking world for two main reasons: the proliferation and popularity of Egyptian films and other media in the region since the early 20th century; and the great number of Egyptian teachers and professors who were instrumental in setting up the education systems of various countries in the
Arabian PeninsulaThe Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
and who also taught there and in other countries such as
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
and
LibyaLibya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
. Also many Lebanese artists choose to sing in Egyptian as well as
LebaneseLebanese or Lebanese Arabic is a variety of Levantine Arabic, indigenous to and spoken primarily in Lebanon, with significant linguistic influences borrowed from other Middle Eastern and European languages, and is in some ways unique from other varieties of Arabic...
.
History
The
EgyptiansEgyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
slowly adopted the
Arabic languageArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
as a
written languageA written language is the representation of a language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will instinctively learn or create spoken or gestural languages....
following the Arab-Muslim conquest of
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
in the 7th century AD. Up until then, they were speaking
EgyptianEgyptian is the oldest known indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century AD in the...
in its
CopticCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
form. For more than three centuries, there existed a period of Coptic-Arabic bilingualism in Lower Egypt. This trend would last for many more centuries in the south. Arabic may have been already familiar to Egyptians through pre-Islamic trade with
BedouinThe Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
Arab tribes in the Sinai and the easternmost part of the
Nile DeltaThe Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
. Egyptian Arabic seems to have begun taking shape in Fustat, the first Islamic capital of Egypt, and now part of modern-day
CairoCairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
.
One of the earliest linguistic sketches of Egyptian Arabic is a 16th century document entitled
{{transl|ar|Daf` al-'iṣr `an kalām 'ahl Miṣr}} ({{lang|ar|دفع الإصر عن كلام أهل مصر}}, 'The Removal of the Burden from the Language of the People of Egypt') by {{transl|ar|Yūsuf al-Maġribi}} ({{lang|ar|يوسف المغربي}}). It contains key information on early Egyptian Arabic and the language situation in medieval Egypt. The main purpose of the document was to show that while the Egyptians' vernacular contained many critical "errors" vis-à-vis Classical Arabic, according to Maġribi, it was also related to Arabic in other respects. With the ongoing
IslamizationIslamization or Islamification has been used to describe the process of a society's conversion to the religion of Islam...
and
ArabizationArabization or Arabisation describes a growing cultural influence on a non-Arab area that gradually changes into one that speaks Arabic and/or incorporates Arab culture...
of the country, Egyptian Arabic slowly supplanted spoken
EgyptianEgyptian is the oldest known indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century AD in the...
. Local chroniclers mention the continued use of Coptic Egyptian as a spoken language until the 17th century AD by peasant women in Upper Egypt. Coptic is still the liturgical language of the Egyptian Coptic Church.
Official status
Egyptian Arabic has no official status, and to date it is not officially recognized. Standard Arabic, a modernized form of
Classical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
(Koranic Arabic), is the official language of Egypt (see
diglossiaIn linguistics, diglossia refers to a situation in which two dialects or languages are used by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety , a second, highly codified variety is used in certain situations such as literature, formal...
). Interest in the local
vernacularA vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
began in the 1800s as the Egyptian national movement for independence was taking shape. Questions about the reform and modernization of
ArabicArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
came to the fore, and for many decades to follow they were hotly debated in Egyptian intellectual circles. Proposals ranged from developing
neologisms to replace archaic terminology in Standard Arabic; to the simplification of syntactical and morphological rules and the introduction of
colloquialismA colloquialism is a word or phrase that is common in everyday, unconstrained conversation rather than in formal speech, academic writing, or paralinguistics. Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier...
s; to complete 'Egyptianization' (
{{unicode|tamṣīr}}) by abandoning the so-called Standard Arabic in favor of Masri or Egyptian Arabic.
Proponents of language reform in Egypt included
Qasim AminQasim Amin born on 1 December 1863 Alexandria died April 22, 1908 Cairo was an Egyptian jurist and one of the founders of the Egyptian national movement and Cairo University. Qasim Amin was considered by many as the Arab world’s “first feminist”...
, who also wrote the first Egyptian feminist treatise, former president of the
Egyptian UniversityCairo University is a public university located in Giza, Egypt.The university was founded on December 21, 1908, as the result of an effort to establish a national center for educational thought...
,
Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, and noted intellectual
Salama MoussaSalama Moussa Born into a wealthy, land owning Coptic family in the town of Zagazig located in the Nile delta. Salama Musa was a journalist, writer, advocator of secularism, and pioneer of Arab socialism. He wrote or translated 45 published books; his writings still influence Arab thought and he...
. They adopted a modernist, secular approach and disagreed with the assumption that Arabic was an immutable language because of its association with the
Qur'anThe Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
. For a while, Egyptian Arabic enjoyed a period of rich literary output until the movement was halted with the continuing rise of
IslamismIslamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
and
Arab nationalismArab nationalism is a nationalist ideology celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language and literature of the Arabs, calling for rejuvenation and political union in the Arab world...
in Egypt and the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, particularly with
Gamal Abdel NasserGamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...
's assumption of power in 1954. The first modern Egyptian novel to be written in the vernacular was
Muhammad Husayn HaykalMuhammad Hussein Haekal was an Egyptian writer, journalist, politician and Minister of Education in Egypt.- Life :...
's
ZaynabHusayn Haykal's Zaynab is the first modern Egyptian novel published in 1913. The book depicts life in the Egyptian countryside and delves into the relationships between men and women.-Plot introduction:...
in 1913. Other notable novelists such as
Ihsan Abdel QuddousIhsan Abdel Quddous was an Egyptian writer, novelist, and journalist and editor in the Al Akhbar and Al-Ahram newspapers. He is known to have written many novels that have been adapted in films....
and
Yusuf IdrisYusuf Idris, also Yusif Idris was an Egyptian writer of plays, short stories, and novels. Idris originally trained to be a doctor, studying at the University of Cairo...
, and poets such as Salah Jaheen, Abnudi and Fagoumi, helped solidify vernacular literature as a distinct literary genre.
Nasser undertook an Arabization campaign in Egypt's education system and government administration, which stoutly relegated Egyptian Arabic to secondary status. In the last fifty years, educated Egyptian as a result became heavily influenced by the official language - Standard Arabic. Following Nasser's death, interest in the Egyptian dialect was rekindled by vernacular authors.
As the status of Egyptian Arabic vis-à-vis
Classical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
can have such political and religious implications in Egypt, the question of whether Egyptian Arabic should be considered a "dialect" or "language" can be a source of debate. In
sociolinguisticsSociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...
, Egyptian Arabic can be seen as one of many distinct
varietiesIn sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
which, despite arguably being languages on
abstandThe Ausbausprache – Abstandsprache – Dachsprache framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists for analysing and categorising the status of language varieties along the cline between autonomous languages on the one hand and dialects on the other. The terms were coined by Heinz Kloss...
grounds, are united by a common
dachsprache in
Literary ArabicModern Standard Arabic , Standard Arabic, or Literary Arabic is the standard and literary variety of Arabic used in writing and in most formal speech....
(MSA).
Spoken varieties in Egypt
Sa'idi ArabicSa`idi Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken by Sa'idis south of Cairo, Egypt to the border of Sudan. It shares linguistic features both with Egyptian Arabic, as well as Sudanese Arabic. Dialects include Middle and Upper Egyptian Arabic...
(Upper Egyptian), it is a separate variety in
Ethnologue.com and
ISO 639-3 as well as in other sources. It carries little prestige nationally though it continues to be widely spoken (19,000,000 speakers) including in the north by rural migrants who have adapted partially to Egyptian Arabic. For example, the Sa'idi genitive exponent is usually replaced with Egyptian
{{unicode|bitāʿ}}, but the realization of /ʔ/ as [ɡ] is retained.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}} Second and third-generation migrants are monolingual in the Cairene variety, but maintain cultural and familial ties to the south.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}}
The traditional division between Lower and Upper Egypt and their respective differences go back to ancient times. Egyptians today commonly refer to the people of the north as
{{unicode|baḥarwa}} ([bɑˈħɑɾˤwɑ]) and to those of the south as
{{unicode|ṣaʻayda}} ([sˤɑˈʕɑjdɑ]). The differences throughout Egypt, however, are more wide ranging and do not neatly correspond to this simple division. There is a linguistic shift from the eastern to the western parts of the
deltaThe Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
, and the varieties spoken from Gizah to el Minya are further grouped into a Middle Egypt cluster. Despite these differences, there are features distinguishing all the Egyptian Arabic varieties of the Nile Valley from any other
Arabic varietyThe Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
. Such features include
reductionIn phonetics, vowel reduction is any of various changes in the acoustic quality of vowels, which are related to changes in stress, sonority, duration, loudness, articulation, or position in the word , and which are perceived as "weakening"...
of long vowels in open and unstressed syllables, the postposition of demonstratives and interrogatives, the modal meaning of the imperfect, and the integration of the participle.
The
Western Egyptian Bedawi ArabicLibyan Arabic is a collective term for the closely related varieties of Arabic spoken in Libya. It can be divided into two major dialect areas; the eastern centred in Benghazi and Bayda, and the western centred in Tripoli and Misrata...
variety of the western desert is different from all other Arabic varieties in Egypt as linguistically it forms part of the Maghrebi group of varieties. The same was formerly true of the Egyptian form of
Judaeo-ArabicThe Judeo-Arabic languages , are a continuum of Arabic dialects spoken by Jews living or formerly living in the Arab world; the term also refers more or less to Classical Arabic written in the Hebrew script, particularly in the Middle Ages. Just as with the rest of the Arab world, Arab Jews had...
.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}}
Eastern Egyptian Bedawi ArabicBedawi Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken by Bedouins mostly in eastern Egypt, and also in Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Syria...
is also distinct from Egyptian Arabic.
Vowel phonemes
The Egyptian Arabic vocalic system has changed from the Classical system. The system of vowels is as follows:
Native vowels
|
Front A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...
|
Back A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
|
| long |
short |
final
unstressed |
long |
short |
final
unstressed |
| Close A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...
|
iː |
|
i |
uː |
|
o~ʊ~u |
| Near-close A near-close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a near-close vowel is that the tongue is positioned similarly to a close vowel, but slightly less constricted. Near-close vowels are sometimes described as lax variants of the fully close vowels...
|
|
e~ɪ |
|
o~ʊ |
| Close-mid A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel...
|
eː |
oː |
| Near-open A near-open vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a near-open vowel is that the tongue is positioned similarly to an open vowel, but slightly more constricted. Near-open vowels are sometimes described as lax variants of the fully open vowels...
|
æː |
æ |
|
| Open An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue...
|
|
ɑː |
ɑ |
| Short vowels |
| /a/ (/æ/, /ɑ/): æ, ɑ |
| /i/: e~ɪ; i at the end of a word |
| /u/: o~ʊ; o~ʊ~u at the end of a word |
| /I/ (epenthetic In phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis for the addition of a vowel....
, possibly non-phonemic): e |
| Long vowels (always stressed) |
| /aː/: æː, ɑː |
| /iː/: iː |
| /uː/: uː |
| /eː/: eː |
| /oː/: oː |
For some speakers, the higher vowels tend to be more centralized in emphatic environment:
| e~ɪ → ɘ~ɪ̈ |
| i → ɨ |
| o~ʊ → ɵ~ʊ̈ |
| o~ʊ~u → ɵ~ʊ̈~ʉ |
| iː → ɨː |
| uː → ʉː |
| eː → ɘ |
| oː → ɵː |
The
Classical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
phonemes /a/ and /aː/ are in the process of splitting into two phonemes each, resulting in the four Egyptian Arabic phonemes /æ æː ɑ ɑː/. The front and back variants alternate in verbal and nominal paradigms in ways that are largely predictable, but the back variants /ɑ ɑː/ occur unpredictably in some lexical stems, especially those of European-language origin. This is discussed more below.
eː and oː are derived from the
Classical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
diphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
s /aj/ and /aw/, respectively, when occurring in closed syllables (i.e. not followed by a vowel). Note that the diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/ also occur in the same environment, due to later deletion of unstressed vowels and resulting contraction, e.g. /mudawla/ [moˈdæwlæ] "consultation" < Classical */mudaːwala/. Minimal pairs such as /ʃajla/ [ˈʃæjlæ] "carrying (fem. sg.)" and /ʃeːla/ [ˈʃeːlæ] "burden" also occur. Both of these words are derived from */ʃaːjila/; /ʃeːla/ is the phonologically regular outcome, while /ʃajla/ is an analogical reformation based on the corresponding participial form /CaCCa/ of other verbs of the same class.
Egyptian Arabic maintains in all positions the early post-Classical distinctions between short /i/ and /u/. Contrast, for example, Levantine Arabic Dialects, which merge /i/ and /u/ into /ə/ in most positions, and
Moroccan ArabicMoroccan Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken in the Arabic-speaking areas of Morocco. For official communications, the government and other public bodies use Modern Standard Arabic, as is the case in most Arabic-speaking countries. A mixture of French and Moroccan Arabic is used in business...
, which merges /i/ and /a/ into /ǝ/ in all positions. In particular, note the different shapes and vowel distinctions between /kitaːb/ [keˈtæːb] "book", /gumaːl/ [ɡoˈmæːl] "beautiful (pl.)" vs. {{IPA "camels", /ixtaːrˤ/ [exˈtɑːɾˤ] "he chose"; in most other Levantine dialects, all the short vowels in these words are
elidedElision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce...
, leading to the identical shapes /ktaːb/, /ʒmaːl/, /xtaːr/.
The
epentheticIn phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis for the addition of a vowel....
vowel /I/ is automatically inserted after the second of three or more consonants in a cluster, to break up such clusters, because they are completely disallowed in Egyptian Arabic. The pronunciation of /I/ is e, as for /i/, but it remains e even when /i/ surfaces as i, leading to minimal pairs: [ˈbent-e-gæˈmiːlæ] "a beautiful girl" [ˈbent-i gæˈmiːlæ] "my girl is beautiful"
An alternative analysis is that the epenthetic vowel is simply /i/ but is proclitic onto the following word; hence, it never occurs at the end of a word, and thus is always pronounced as e. Such an analysis is as follows: [ˈbent e-gæˈmiːlæ] "a beautiful girl" [ˈbent-i gæˈmiːlæ] "my girl is beautiful"
We prefer to denote the epenthetic vowel as /I/ for clarity, to clarify the fact that it is epenthetic rather than an inherent part of any of the underlying words.
Emphasis spreading
Many spoken Arabic varieties have developed two allophones of the
Classical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
vowels /a/ and /aː/, with fronted allophones [æ æː] occurring in most circumstances, but backed allophones [ɑ ɑː] occurring in the vicinity of
emphatic consonantEmphatic consonant is a term widely used in Semitic linguistics to describe one of a series of obstruent consonants which originally contrasted with series of both voiced and voiceless obstruents. In specific Semitic languages, the members of this series may be realized as pharyngealized,...
s. This process is known as
emphasis spreading. The definition of both "vicinity" and "emphatic consonant" varies depending on the individual speech variety. In Egyptian Arabic, the occurrence of [ɑ ɑː] is no longer completely predictable, suggesting that these sounds have become
phonemicizedIn a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
; but see below for more discussion.
In Egyptian Arabic, the consonants that trigger emphasis spreading include the pharyngealized consonants /tˤ dˤ sˤ zˤ/, the {{lcons|uvular}} {{lcons|stop}} /q/, and some instances of /r/ (see below). On the other hand, the
pharyngeal consonantA pharyngeal consonant is a type of consonant which is articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx.-Pharyngeal consonants in the IPA:Pharyngeal consonants in the International Phonetic Alphabet :...
s /ħ ʕ/ do
not trigger emphasis spreading; in the standard Cairene dialect, the {{lcons|velar}} fricatives /x ɣ/ also do not, although this is different in many
Sa'idiSa`idi Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken by Sa'idis south of Cairo, Egypt to the border of Sudan. It shares linguistic features both with Egyptian Arabic, as well as Sudanese Arabic. Dialects include Middle and Upper Egyptian Arabic...
dialects in which they are {{lcons|uvular}} /χ ʁ/.
In general, when emphasis spreading is triggered, the back variants [ɑ ɑː] spread both forward and backward throughout the phonological word, including any morphological prefixes, suffixes and
cliticIn morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
s. Note that this is different from many other Arabic varieties. For example, in
Moroccan ArabicMoroccan Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken in the Arabic-speaking areas of Morocco. For official communications, the government and other public bodies use Modern Standard Arabic, as is the case in most Arabic-speaking countries. A mixture of French and Moroccan Arabic is used in business...
, emphasis spreading usually travels no farther than the first full vowel on either side of the triggering consonant, and in many varieties of
Levantine ArabicLevantine Arabic is a broad variety of Arabic spoken in the 100 to 200 km-wide Eastern Mediterranean coastal strip...
, emphasis spreading is of indefinite extent but is blocked by the phonemes /j ʃ/. Nevertheless, emphasis spreading is not completely "reliable", and there is some free variation, especially in the pronunciation of prefixes and suffixes at some distance from the triggering consonant.
Some instances of /r/ trigger emphasis spreading, while others do not. Originally, an /r/ adjacent to /i/ was considered non-emphatic, while others were "emphatic" and triggered emphasis spreading. Currently, however, this is no more than a rough guideline, as many exceptions have since developed. This situation has led many linguists to postulate the existence of two phonemes /r rˤ/, which both surface as [r~ɾ] but where only /rˤ/ triggers emphasis spreading. This analysis is not completely ideal in that these two resulting "phonemes" /r rˤ/ alternate to a large extent (often unpredictably) in related forms derived from the same root.
Currently, to the extent that the emphatic or non-emphatic variant of /r/ can be predicted, it works as follows: If /r/ is adjacent to a vowel /i(ː)/, emphasis-spreading is inhibited; otherwise, it occurs. The /r/ is able to "see across"
derivationalDerivational morphology changes the meaning of words by applying derivations. Derivation is the combination of a word stem with a morpheme, which forms a new word, which is often of a different class...
but not inflectional morphemes. As an example, /tiɡaːrˤa/ [teˈɡɑːɾˤɑ] "commerce" and /tikbarˤ/ [ˈtekbɑɾˤ] "you (masc.) grow" both have emphasis spreading, since /r/ occurs adjacent to low /a(ː)/ but not adjacent to any non-low vowel. On the other hand, of the derived forms /tiɡaːri/ [teˈɡæːɾi] "commercial" and /tikbarˤi/ [tekˈbɑɾˤi] "you (fem.) grow", only the latter has emphasis spreading. In this case, the derivational suffix /-i/ "related to" creates a new
lexical itemA Lexical item is a single word or chain of words that forms the basic elements of a language's lexicon . Examples are "cat", "traffic light", "take care of", "by-the-way", and "it's raining cats and dogs"...
in the language's vocabulary, and hence the stem is reevaluated for emphasis, with the non-low vowel /i/ triggering non-emphatic /r/; but the inflectional suffix /-i/ "feminine singular" does not create a new lexical item, and as a result the emphasis in the stem remains. (For these purposes, past and non-past forms of a verb are considered separate stems; hence alternations can occur like /istamarˤrˤ/ "he continued" vs. /jistamirr/ he continues".)
An emphasis-spreading /r/ is usually adjacent to a low vowel /a(ː)/ (which in turn is backed to /ɑ(ː)/), but that is not necessary, and /u(ː)/ also triggers emphasis-spreading: Examples
maʃhuuṛ [mɑʃˈhuːr] "famous",
maʃṛuuʕ [mɑʃˈruːʕ] "project",
ṛufayyaʕ [roˈfɑjjɑʕ] "thin".
The alternation between /æ(ː)/ and /ɑ(ː)/ is almost completely predictable in verbal and nominal paradigms, as well as in the large majority of words derived from Classical Arabic. It is also irrelevant for the operation of the numerous phonological adjustment rules (e.g. vowel lengthening, shortening and elision) in Egyptian Arabic. As a result, linguistic descriptions tend to subsume both under an archiphoneme /a(ː)/. On the other hand, there are a number of
lexical itemA Lexical item is a single word or chain of words that forms the basic elements of a language's lexicon . Examples are "cat", "traffic light", "take care of", "by-the-way", and "it's raining cats and dogs"...
s in which "autonomous" /ɑ ɑː/ tend to occur irrespective of the presence of emphatic consonants. A few are in Arabic-derived words, e.g. /mɑjjɑ/ "water", but the majority are in words of foreign origin — especially those derived from European languages — where /ɑ ɑː/ echo the vowel quality of /a/ in those languages.
Different authors have proposed differing phonemic analyses of this situation:
- Some go ahead and treat all occurrences of [æ(ː) ɑ(ː)] as separate phonemes, despite the additional complexity of the resulting morphological descriptions;
- Some treat only "autonomous" occurrences of [ɑ(ː)] as phonemes /ɑ(ː)/, with all the rest subsumed under /a(ː)/;
- Some have created new emphatic consonants (e.g. analyzing [ˈmɑjjɑ] as /mˤajja/, where underlying /mˤ/ surfaces as [m] but triggers the back allophone [ɑ]);
- Some have ignored the distinction entirely.
The approach followed here is to ignore the distinction in phonemic descriptions, subsuming [æ(ː) ɑ(ː)] under the archiphoneme /a(ː)/, but where necessary to also include a phonetic explication (i.e. detailed pronunciation) that indicates the exact quality of all vowels. Generally, these phonetic explications are given for the examples in the section on phonology, and elsewhere whenever autonomous /ɑ(ː)/ occurs.
Consonants
Egyptian Arabic consonant phonemes
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Labial Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals...
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AlveolarAlveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
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Palato-
alveolarIn phonetics, palato-alveolar consonants are postalveolar consonants, nearly always sibilants, that are weakly palatalized with a domed tongue...
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PalatalPalatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...
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VelarVelars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
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UvularUvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and...
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Pharyn-
gealA pharyngeal consonant is a type of consonant which is articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx.-Pharyngeal consonants in the IPA:Pharyngeal consonants in the International Phonetic Alphabet :...
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GlottalGlottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider...
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| plain |
emphatic |
plain |
emphatic {{ref>3|3}} |
| Nasal A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
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m |
(ˤ){{ref|4|4}} |
n |
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| Stop In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
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voiceless |
(p){{ref|1|1}} |
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t |
tˤ |
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k |
(q){{ref|5|5}} |
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ʔ |
| voiced |
b |
(ˤ){{ref|4|4}} |
d |
(dˤ){{ref|5|5}} |
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ɡ |
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| Fricative Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...
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voiceless |
f |
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s |
sˤ |
ʃ |
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x |
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ħ |
h |
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(v){{ref|1|1}} |
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z |
zˤ |
(ʒ){{ref|1|1}} {{ref|2|2}} |
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ɣ |
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ʕ |
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| Tap/trill In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular....
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ɾ~r |
ˤ~ˤ |
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l |
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j |
w |
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{{refbegin}}
Not all Egyptians can pronounce
[p, v, ʒ] which are mostly found in names or loanwords (not from
Literary ArabicModern Standard Arabic , Standard Arabic, or Literary Arabic is the standard and literary variety of Arabic used in writing and in most formal speech....
).
-
- ʒ (which can be a reduction of d͡ʒ) of loanwords tends to be Egyptianized & merge with ʃ; example: 'garage' {{lang|arz|جراش}} is only pronounced /ɡarˤaːʃ/ [ɡɑɾˤɑːʃ] even by educated speakers. Few rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
speakers away from CairoCairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
pronounce ʒ instead of ɡ. Pronouncing ʒ in Egyptianized words instead of ɡ is not considered prestigious. Some people lack some or all emphatic consonants. Watson argues that emphatic [bˤ, mˤ] are additional consonants in Egyptian Arabic with marginal status. If /dˤ, q/ are pronounced, it would be only in Literary Arabic.
- q may be Egyptianized to ʔ or if approximated to k in a word, the front vowel æ is backed to ɑ.
- In Literary Arabic words having /dˤ/, it's normally substituted with d with the front vowel æ in these words is backed to ɑ.
- Non-Egyptianized loanwords having interdental consonant
Interdental consonants are produced by placing the blade of the tongue against the upper incisors...
s (θ, ð) are always approximated to sibilantA sibilant is a manner of articulation of fricative and affricate consonants, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the sharp edge of the teeth, which are held close together. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words sip, zip, ship, chip,...
s s, z.
{{refend}}
Traditionally the
interdental consonantInterdental consonants are produced by placing the blade of the tongue against the upper incisors...
s /θ ð ðˤ/ corresponded to the /t d dˤ/. This is a feature common to some North African Arabic varieties, and is attested in
pre-modern words: (fox) from */θaʕlab/ {{lang|ar|ثعلب}} (and never /saʕlab/). Likewise: /talg/ (ice) from */θalɟ/ {{lang|ar|ثلج}}; /taman/ (price) from */θaman/ {{lang|ar|ثمن}}; /talaːta/ (three) from */θalaːθa/ {{lang|ar|ثلاثة}}; /nitaːja/ (female) from ??; /miħraːt/ (plough) from */miħraːθ/ {{lang|ar|محراث}}; /ʕatarˤ/ (tripped/found) from /*ʕaθar/ {{lang|ar|عثر}}. (tail) from */ðajl/ {{lang|ar|ذيل}} and never /zajl/. Likewise /dakarˤ/ (male) from */ðakar/ {{lang|ar|ذكر}}; /kidib/ (lied) from */kaðib/ {{lang|ar|كذب}}; /diːb/ (wolf) from */ðiʔb/ {{lang|ar|ذئب}} (nail) from */ðˤufr/ {{lang|ar|ظفر}} and never /zˤufr/. Likewise /dˤalma/ (darkness) from */ðˤulma/ {{lang|ar|ظلمة}}.
Unlike other North African varieties, Egyptian Arabic also shows another feature where interdentals /θ ð ðˤ/ correspond to
sibilant consonantA sibilant is a manner of articulation of fricative and affricate consonants, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the sharp edge of the teeth, which are held close together. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words sip, zip, ship, chip,...
s /s z zˤ/. This has been specially the result of modernisation and the increase of literacy, and the classicisation practice in official media, as well as a tendency to imperfectly imitate the pronunciation of the Levant and Arabia as it is commonly perceived more suitable for Islamic religious{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}} preaching, and as a trait of Egyptian diaspora. But also due to historical influence{{Citation needed|date=February 2009}} by Levantine dialects which constitute the eastern influx of
the continuumA dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...
.
(revolution) as opposed to /θawra/ {{lang|ar|ثورة}} (broadcasting) as opposed to /ʔiðaːʕa/ {{lang|ar|إذاعة}} (clitoris) as opposed to /baðˤr/ {{lang|ar|بظر}}
Classical Arabic reflex
{{transl|ar|DIN|ǧīm}} {{lang|ar|ج}} */ɡʲ~ɟ/ is realized
velarVelars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
in most of Egypt in the same way as it is in some southern Arabic dialects since antiquity and still present in Yemen and Oman. So that
{{transl|ar|DIN|ǧabal}} {{lang|ar|جبل}} (mountain) is pronounced, even in Literary Arabic as [ˈɡæbæl] rather than /d͡ʒabal/.
Other consonants are more marginal. In addition to appearing in native words, /rˤ/ also appears in loanwords from European languages, such as [bɑɾˤɑˈʃot] (parachute), and native words with guttural vowels, such as [ˈbɑʔɑɾˤi] (my cows) vs [ˈbæʔæɾi] (from cows/cowlike). Labial emphatics /bˤ/ and /mˤ/ also come from loanwords; minimal pairs include /bˤaːbˤa/ (pope/pontiff/patriarch) vs /baːba/ (
PaopiPaopi , also known as Baba, is the second month of the Coptic calendar. It lies between October 11 and November 9 of the Gregorian calendar...
). Classical Arabic q became ʔ in Cairo and the eastern Delta (a feature shared with
LebaneseLebanese or Lebanese Arabic is a variety of Levantine Arabic, indigenous to and spoken primarily in Lebanon, with significant linguistic influences borrowed from other Middle Eastern and European languages, and is in some ways unique from other varieties of Arabic...
and other forms of
Levantine ArabicLevantine Arabic is a broad variety of Arabic spoken in the 100 to 200 km-wide Eastern Mediterranean coastal strip...
), but q is retained natively in some dialects of the western Delta outside of
AlexandriaAlexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
, and has been reintroduced as a marginal phoneme from Standard Arabic in other dialects, particularly relating to certain words (e.g. words deriving from the root
{{transl-
{{translQoph or Qop is the nineteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Syriac, Hebrew and Arabic alphabet . Its sound value is an emphatic or . The OHED gives the letter Qoph a transliteration value of Q or a K and a final transliteration value as a ck...
-
{{translPe is the seventeenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Pei and Persian, Arabic ....
, relating to
cultureCulture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
) and in mildly careful speech to distinguish between words that would otherwise be identical (e.g. {{lang|ar|قانون}}: either [qɑˈnuːn], "law", or [ʔæˈnuːn], "
kanunThe Qanun is a string instrument found in the 10th century in Farab in Turkestan...
"; or {{lang|ar|قوى}}: either [ˈqɑwi], "powerful, strong, mighty" or [ˈʔæwi] "very", although [ˈʔæwi] could be used for both meanings). v, p, and ʒ also appear in loanwords, such as [ʒæˈkettæ, ˈʒæ(ː)ket] (jacket).
Assimilation
Voicing and devoicing
For some speakers, but not all speakers, there is a voicing and devoicing
assimilationAssimilation is a common phonological process by which the sound of the ending of one word blends into the sound of the beginning of the following word. This occurs when the parts of the mouth and vocal cords start to form the beginning sounds of the next word before the last sound has been...
for the following consonants:
- Voiced: t → d; s → z; sˤ → zˤ; k → ɡ; x → ɣ; ʃ → ʒ; f → v; tˤ → d.
- Devoiced: d → t; z → s; zˤ → sˤ; ɡ → k; ɣ → x; ʒ → ʃ; v → f.
- Examples on voicing assimilation: "confuse" /ˈlɑxbɑtˤ/ → [ˈlɑɣbɑtˤ]; "outrun" /ˈjesbæʔ/ → [ˈjezbæʔ]; "suspected" /mæʃ'ˈbuːh/ → [mæʒ'ˈbuːh]; "utter"(noun) /lɑfzˤ/ → [lɑvzˤ].
- Examples of devoicing assimilation: "society" /moɡ'ˈtæmæʕ/ → [mok'ˈtæmæʕ]; "ask forgiveness [of god
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
]" /jesˈtɑɣfɑɾˤ/ → [jesˈtɑxfɑɾˤ].
However, for some words, such as "annoyed" [me
t'ˈdæːjeʔ] and "took" [xæd
t], they are more commonly pronounced with assimilation, [med'ˈdæːjeʔ] and [xæ
t(t)], respectively.
AllophoneIn phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
s
- Pharyngeal consonant
A pharyngeal consonant is a type of consonant which is articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx.-Pharyngeal consonants in the IPA:Pharyngeal consonants in the International Phonetic Alphabet :...
s before h:
- The sequence /ħh/ is more commonly pronounced [ħħ]. In careful speech can be pronounced [ħh].
- Example: "opened+it(feminine)" /fæˈtæħhæ/ → [fæˈtæħħæ]
- The sequence /ʕh/ is more commonly pronounced [ʕ̞ħ] (or sometimes [ħħ]). In careful speech can be pronounced [ʕh].
- Example: "hers" /beˈtæʕhæ/ → [beˈtæʕ̞ħæ] or [beˈtæħħæ].
- Sibilant consonant
A sibilant is a manner of articulation of fricative and affricate consonants, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the sharp edge of the teeth, which are held close together. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words sip, zip, ship, chip,...
s before ʃ:
- The sequences /sʃ/ and /sˤʃ/ are more commonly pronounced [ss]. In careful speech can be pronounced [sʃ] and [sˤʃ], respectively.
- "didn't+kiss" /mæˈbæsʃ/ → [mæˈbæs(s)]
- The sequences /zʃ/ and /zˤʃ/ are more commonly pronounced [ss]. In careful speech can be pronounced [zʃ] and [zˤʃ], respectively.
- "didn't(+be)+corrupt" /mɑˈbɑzˤʃ/ → [mɑˈbɑs(s)].
- The sequence /ʒʃ/ is more commonly pronounced [ʃʃ]. In careful speech can be pronounced [ʒʃ].
- "didn't+montage(verb)" /mæmænˈteʒʃ/ → [mæmænˈteʃ(ʃ)].
Stress
The position of stress is essentially automatic. The basic rule is that, preceding from right to left in a word, the stress goes on the first encountered syllable of any of these types:
- (1a, 1b) a heavy syllable: i.e. a syllable closed with a long vowel (1a) (i.e. ...CV:...) or with two consonants (including a geminate) (1b) (i.e. ...CVCC...)
- (2a, 2b) a non-final light syllable that directly follows a heavy syllable
- (3) a non-final light syllable that directly follows two light syllables (i.e. ...CVCVC'VCV...)
- (4) the first syllable of the word.
Examples, followed by the number of the rule that applies: [ˈkætæb] (4) "he wrote" [kæˈtæbt] (1b) "I wrote" [ˈkæːteb] (1a) "writing (v.)" or "writer" [ˈkætbæ] (1b) "female writer" [keˈtæːb] (1a) "book" [ˈmæktæb] (1b) "desk" [mækˈtæbæ] (2b) "library" [ˈtekteb] (1b) "you (masc.) write" [tekˈtebi] (2b) "you (fem.) write" [tekteˈbiː] (1a) "you (fem.) write it" [ˈkætæbet] (4) "she wrote" [kætæˈbetu] or [kætæˈbeto] (3) "she wrote it"
Because the stress is almost completely predictable, it is not indicated in phonemic transcriptions (but
is given in the corresponding phonetic explication).
Vowel shortening, lengthening, deletion, insertion, elision, linking
Compared with most other Arabic varieties, Egyptian Arabic is particularly known for the complicated set of phonetic adjustments that occur to the surface pronunciation of words. Egyptian Arabic has a strong preference for syllables with a CVC or CVV shape (i.e. heavy syllables, rather than light or superheavy syllables), and these various phonetic adjustments all conspire to modify the surface pronunciation of connected speech towards the ideal of consisting entirely of heavy syllables. Examples:
- Shortening of long vowels to avoid superheavy syllables (CVVC.CV → CVC.CV)
- Lengthening of short vowels to avoid light stressed syllables (ˈCV.CV → ˈCVV.CV)
- Elision of short vowels to avoid sequences of light syllables (CV.CV.CV → CVC.CV)
- Insertion of short vowels to avoid three-consonant sequences, which would result in a superheavy syllable (CVCC.CV or CVC.CCV → CVC.CV.CV)
- Movement of syllable boundaries across word boundaries to avoid vowel-initial syllables (CVC VC VC → CV.C-V.C-VC)
- Insertion of a glottal stop when necessary to avoid vowel-initial syllables
/da illi ana ʕaːwiz-u/ → /da-ll-ana ʕawz-u/ "that's what I want"
| Operation | Result |
| Original |
/da illi ana ʕaːwiz-u/ |
Elision of /i/
next to a vowel |
/da-ll-ana ʕaːwiz-u/ |
Deletion of short
high vowel in VCVCV |
/da-ll-ana ʕaːwz-u/ |
Shortening before
two consonants |
/da-ll-ana ʕawz-u/ |
An example of these various processes together:
- Sentence, analyzed morphologically: /da illi ana ʕa:wiz+u/
- Literally:That – RELATIVE – I – wanting(masc.)+it
- Meaning: "That is what I want."
- Continuous pronunciation (phonemic): /da-ll-ana ʕawz-u/
- Continuous pronunciation (phonetic): [ˈdæ-ll-ˈænæ ˈʕæwz-u]
- Continuous, resyllabified pronunciation (phonetic): [ˈdæl.ˈlæ.næ.ˈʕæw.zu]
- Normal-form pronunciation: [ˈdælˈlænæ ˈʕæwzu]
Note: When a hyphen joins two words in the non-resyllabified pronunciation, this indicates either that a
cliticIn morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
(usually a pronoun) has been joined to another word, or that resyllabification will occur across the hyphen.
In the following and similar analyses, the normal-form pronunciation is given as the phonetic equivalent of the given phonemic form, although the intermediate steps may be given if necessary for clarity.
Another example:
- Sentence, analyzed morphologically: /ana ʕaːwiz aːkul/
- Literally:I – wanting(masc.) – I.eat
- Meaning: "I want to eat."
- Continuous pronunciation (phonemic): /ana ʕawz-aːkul/
- Normal-form pronunciation: [ænæ ˈʕæwˈzæːkol]
Another example:
- Sentence, analyzed morphologically: /ana ʕaːwiz aːkul-u/
- Literally:I – wanting(masc.) – I.eat+it
- Meaning: "I want to eat it."
- Continuous pronunciation (phonemic): /ana ʕawz-akl-u/
- Normal-form pronunciation: [ænæ ˈʕæwˈzæklu]
Another example:
- Sentence, analyzed morphologically: /humma ʕaːwiz+i:n jaːkul+u-ː/
- Literally:They – wanting(pl.) – they.eat+it
- Meaning: "They want to eat it."
- Continuous pronunciation (phonemic): /humma ʕawziːn jakluː/
- Normal-form pronunciation: [hommæ ʕæwˈziːn jækˈluː]
Vowel shortening
All long vowels are shortened when followed by two consonants (including geminated consonants), and also in unstressed syllables (but sometimes kept long in careful speech pronouncing loanwords, as in /qaːˈhira/ "Cairo" and a few other borrowings from Classical Arabic with similar shapes, e.g. /zˤaːˈhira/ "phenomenon"). Long vowel [iː, uː], when shortened collapse with [e, o] which are, as well, the shortened form of [eː, oː]; as a result, The following three words are only distinguished contextually:
- /ɡibna/ [ˈɡebnæ] "cheese"
- /ɡiːb+na/ (literally "brought+we") → /ɡibna/ [ˈɡebnæ] "we brought"
- /ɡeːb-na/ (literally "pocket+we") → /ɡeb-na/ [ˈɡebnæ] "our pocket"
Example: (literally "he.said – to.me") → /ʔal-li/ [ˈʔælli] "he said to me"
Vowel lengthening
Final short vowels are lengthened when the stress is brought forward onto them as a result of the addition of a suffix: "they wrote" + /-ha/ "it (fem.)" → /kataˈbuː-ha/ [kætæˈbuːhæ] "they wrote it (fem.)"
Vowel deletion (syncope)
Unstressed /i/ and /u/ are deleted (i.e. syncope) when occurring in the context /VC
VCV/, i.e. in an internal syllable with a single consonant on both sides. This also applies across word boundaries in cases of close syntactic connection, e.g.: "in" + /kitaːb/ "a book" → /fi-ktaːb/ [fekˈtæːb] "in a book"
Vowel insertion (epenthesisIn phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis for the addition of a vowel....
)
As mentioned above, three or more consonants are never allowed to appear together, including across a word boundary. When such a situation would occur, an epenthetic vowel /I/ (always pronounced e) is inserted between the second and third consonants:
"the" + /bint/
"girl" + /di/
"this" → /il bint-I-di/ [el ˈbenteˈdi] "this girl"
Vowel elision, linking
Unlike in most Arabic dialects, Egyptian Arabic has many words that logically begin with a vowel (e.g. /ana/ "I"), in addition to words that logically begin with a glottal stop (e.g. /ʔawi/ "very", from Classical /qawij(j)/ "strong"). When pronounced in isolation, both types of words will be sounded with an initial glottal stop. However, when following another word, words beginning with a vowel will often follow smoothly after the previous word, while words beginning with a glottal stop will always have the glottal stop sounded, e.g.: (lit. "the – boy – red.masc.sg.") → [el ˈwælæˈdɑħmɑɾˤ] or [el ˈwælæd ˈʔɑħmɑɾˤ] "the boy is red" (lit. "you.masc.sg – big.masc.sg – very") → /inta-kbiːr ʔawi/ [entækˈbiːɾ ˈʔæwi] "you (masc. sg.) are very big"
The phonetic pronunciations indicated above also demonstrate the phenomenon of
linking, a normal process in Egyptian Arabic where syllable boundaries are adjusted across word boundaries to ensure that every syllable begins with exactly one consonant.
ElisionElision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce...
of vowels often occurs across word boundaries when a word ending with a vowel is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, especially when the two vowels are the same, or when one is /i/.
More specifically, elision occurs in the following circumstances:
- When both vowels are the same, one will be elided.
- When final /i/ is followed by initial /a/, /i/ is elided.
- When any vowel is followed by initial /i/, /i/ is elided.
Examples of #1: → /int-aħmar/ [enˈtɑħmɑɾˤ] "you (masc. sg.) are red"
Examples of #2: → /b-aktib/ [ˈbækteb] "I write" → /naːw-aruːħ/ [ˈnæːw-ɑˈɾˤuːħ] "I intend to go" → /xalliː-ni arawwaħ/ → /xalliː-n-arawwaħ/ [xælˈliːn-ɑˈɾˤɑwwɑħ] "let me go home"
Examples of #3: (lit. "That – RELATIVE – I – wanting(masc.)+it") → /da-ll-ana ʕawz-u/ [ˈdælˈlænæ ˈʕæwzu] "that's what I want" (lit. "QUESTION.masc – you.masc.sg – big.masc.sg") → /huwwa-nta-kbiːr/ [howˈwæntækˈbiːɾ] "are you big (grown-up)?"
Multiple processes
/il bint kibiːra/ → /il bint-I-kbiːra/ "the girl is big (grown up)"
| Operation | Result |
| Original |
/il bint kibiːra/ |
Epenthesis in
CCC sequence |
/il bint-I-kibiːra/ |
Deletion of short
high vowel in VCVCV |
/il bint-I-kbiːra/ |
Multiple processes often apply simultaneously. Example of insertion and deletion together: → /il bint-I-kbiːra/ [el ˈbentekˈbiːɾæ] "the girl is big (i.e. grown up)"; compare /il walad kibiːr/ "the boy is big", where neither process applies.
Example of both syncope and long-vowel shortening: (lit. "friend+fem.") → /sˤaħba/ [ˈsˤɑħbɑ]; compare with Classical Arabic /sˤaːħiba/.
The operation of the various processes can often produce ambiguity: → /ana ʕawz-aːkul/ "I (masc.) want to eat" → /ana ʕawza aːkul/ → /ana ʕawz-aːkul/ "I (fem.) want to eat"
Hence, /ana ʕawz-aːkul/ [ænæ ˈʕawˈzæːkol] is ambiguously masculine or feminine.
Nouns
In contrast to CA and MSA, nouns are not inflected for case and lack
nunationIn some Semitic languages, notably Arabic, nunation is the addition of a final nun to a noun or adjective to indicate that it is fully declinable and syntactically unmarked for definiteness....
(with the exception of certain fixed phrases in the accusative case, such as {{lang|ar|شكراً}} [ˈʃokɾˤɑn], "thank you"). As all nouns take their pausal forms, singular words and
broken pluralIn linguistics, a broken plural is an irregular plural form of a noun or adjective found in the Semitic languages and other Afroasiatic languages such as Berber. Broken plurals are formed by changing the pattern of consonants and vowels inside the singular form...
s simply lose their case endings. In sound plurals and dual forms, where, in MSA, difference in case is present even in pausal forms, the genitive/accusative form is the one preserved. Fixed expressions in the construct state beginning in
abu, often geographic names, retain their
-u in all cases.
Plurals
Most common broken plural patterns
| Singular | Plural | Notes | Examples |
| CVCCVC(a) |
CaCaaCiC |
any four-character root with short second vowel |
maktab, makaatib "desk, office"; markib, maraakib "boat"; maṭbax, maṭaabix "kitchen"; masʔala, masaaʔil "matter"; maṭṛaḥ, maṭaaṛiḥ "place"; masṛaḥ, masaaṛiḥ "theater"; tazkaṛa, tazaakir "ticket"; ʔiswira, ʔasaawir "bracelet"; muʃkila, maʃaakil "problem"; muulid, mawaalid "(holy) birthday" |
| CVCCVVC(a) |
any four-character root with long second vowel |
CaCaCiiC |
fustaan, fasatiin "dress"; guṛnaal, gaṛaniil "newspaper"; muftaaḥ, mafatiiḥ "key"; fingaan, fanagiin "cup"; sikkiina, sakakiin "knife"; tamriin, tamariin "exercise"; siggaada, sagagiid "carpet"; magmuuʕ, magamiiʕ "total"; maṣruuf, maṣaṛiif "expense"; maskiin, masakiin "poor, pitiable" |
| CaC(i)C, CiCC, CeeC (< *CayC) |
very common for three-character roots |
CuCuuC |
dars, duruus "lesson"; daxl, duxuul "income"; daʔn, duʔuun "chin"; ḍeef, ḍuyuuf "guest"; ḍirṣ, ḍuruuṣ "molar tooth"; fann, funuun "art"; farʔ, furuuʔ "difference"; faṣl, fuṣuul "class, chapter"; geeb, guyuub "pocket"; geeʃ, guyuuʃ "army"; gild, guluud "leather"; ḥall, ḥuluul "solution"; ḥarb, ḥuruub "war"; ḥaʔʔ, ḥuʔuuʔ "right"; malik, muluuk "king" |
| CaC(a)C, CiCC, CuCC, CooC (< *CawC) |
very common for three-character roots |
ʔaCCaaC |
durg, ʔadṛaag "drawer"; duʃʃ, ʔadʃaaʃ "shower"; film, ʔaflaam "film"; miʃṭ, ʔamʃaaṭ "comb"; mitr, ʔamtaaṛ "meter"; gism, ʔagsaam; guzʔ, ʔagzaaʔ "part"; muxx, ʔamxaax "brain"; nahṛ, ʔanhaaṛ "river"; door, ʔadwaaṛ "(one's) turn, floor (of building)"; nooʕ, ʔanwaaʕ "kind, sort"; yoom, ʔayyaam "day"; nuṣṣ, ʔanṣaaṣ "half"; qism, ʔaqṣaam "division"; waʔt, ʔawʔaat "time"; faṛaḥ, ʔafṛaaḥ "joy, wedding"; gaṛas, ʔagṛaas "bell"; maṭaṛ, ʔamṭaaṛ "rain"; taman, ʔatmaan "price"; walad, ʔawlaad "boy" |
| CaaC, CuuC |
ʔaCwaaC |
variant of previous |
ḥaal, ʔaḥwaal "state, condition"; nuur, ʔanwaaṛ "light" |
| CaCCa, CooCa (< *CawCa) |
CiCaC, CuCaC |
CaCCa < Classical CaCCa (not CaaCiCa) |
gazma, gizam "shoe"; dawla, duwal "state, country"; ḥalla, ḥilal "pot"; ʃooka, ʃuwak "fork"; taxta, tuxat "blackboard" |
| CiCCa |
CiCaC |
|
ḥiṣṣa, ḥiṣaṣ "allotment"; ḥiṭṭa, ḥiṭaṭ "piece"; minḥa, minaḥ "scholarship"; nimra, nimar "number"; qiṣṣa, qiṣaṣ "story" |
| CuCCa |
CuCaC |
|
fuṛma, fuṛam "shape, form"; fuṛṣa, fuṛaṣ "chance"; fusḥa, fusaḥ "excursion"; fuuṭa, fuwaṭ "napkin"; nukta, nukat "joke"; ʔuṭṭa, ʔuṭaṭ "cat"; mudda, mudad "period (of time)" |
| CVCVVC(a) |
CaCaayiC |
three-character roots with long second vowel |
sigaaṛa, sagaayir "cigarette"; gariida, gaṛaayid "newspaper"; gimiil, gamaayil "favor"; ḥabiib, ḥabaayib "lover"; ḥariiʔa, ḥaraayiʔ "destructive fire"; ḥaʔiiʔa, ḥaʔaayiʔ "fact, truth"; natiiga, nataayig "result"; xaṛiiṭa, xaṛaayiṭ "map"; zibuun, zabaayin "customer" |
| CaaCiC, CaCCa |
CawaaCiC |
CaCCa < Classical CaaCiCa (not CaCCa) |
ḥaamil, ḥawaamil "pregnant"; haanim, hawaanim "lady"; gaamiʕ, gawaamiʕ "mosque"; maaniʕ, mawaaniʕ "obstacle"; fakha, fawaakih "fruit"; ḥadsa, ḥawaadis "accident"; fayda, fawaayid "benefit"; ʃaariʕ, ʃawaariʕ "street"; xaatim, xawaatim "ring" |
| CaaCiC |
CuCCaaC |
mostly occupational nouns |
kaatib, kuttaab "writer"; saakin, sukkaan "inhabitant"; saayiḥ, suwwaaḥ "tourist"; ṭaalib, ṭullaab "student" |
| CaCiiC |
CuCaCa |
adjectives and occupational nouns |
faʔiir, fuʔaṛa "poor"; nabiih, nubaha "intelligent"; naʃiiṭ, nuʃaṭa "active"; raʔiis, ruʔasa "president"; safiir, sufaṛa "ambassador"; waziir, wuzaṛa "minister"; xabiir, xubaṛa "expert" |
| CaCiiC/CiCiiC |
CuCaaC |
adjectives |
gamiil, gumaal "beautiful"; naʃiiṭ, nuʃaaṭ "active"; niḍiif, nuḍaaf "clean"; tixiin, tuxaan "fat" |
Secondary broken plural patterns
| Singular | Plural | Notes | Examples |
| CVCCVVC |
CaCaCCa |
occupational nouns |
tilmiiz, talamza "student"; ʔustaaz, ʔasatza "teacher"; simsaaṛ, samasṛa "broker"; duktoor, dakatra "doctor" |
| CaCVVC |
CawaaCiiC |
|
qamuus, qawamiis "dictionary"; maʕaad, mawaʕiid "appointment"; ṭabuuṛ, ṭawabiiṛ "line, queue" |
| CaCaC |
CiCaaC |
|
gamal, gimaal "camel"; gabal, gibaal "mountain, hill" |
| CaCC |
ʔaCCuC |
|
ʃahṛ, ʔaʃhur "month" |
| CiCaaC, CaCiiC(a) |
CuCuC |
|
kitaab, kutub "book"; madiina, mudun "city" |
| CaCC(a) |
CaCaaCi |
|
maʕna, maʕaani "meaning"; makwa, makaawi "iron"; ʔahwa, ʔahaawi "coffee"; ʔaṛḍ, ʔaṛaaḍi "ground, land" |
| CaaCa, CaaCi, CaCya |
CawaaCi |
|
ḥaaṛa, ḥawaaṛi "alley"; naadi, nawaadi "club"; naḥya, nawaaḥi "side" |
| CaCaC, CiCaaC |
ʔaCCiCa/ʔiCCiCa |
|
ḥizaam, ʔaḥzima "belt"; masal, ʔamsila "example"; sabat, ʔisbita "basket" |
| CiCiyya |
CaCaaya |
|
hidiyya, hadaaya "gift" |
| CaaC |
CiCaaC |
|
faaṛ, firaan "mouse"; gaaṛ, giraan "neighbor"; xaal, xilaan "maternal uncle" |
Color/defect nouns
Examples of "color and defect" nouns
| Meaning | (template) | green | blue | black | white | deaf | blind | one-eyed |
| Masculine |
ʔaCCaC |
ʔaxḍaṛ |
ʔazraʔ |
ʔiswid |
ʔabyaḍ |
ʔaṭṛaʃ |
ʔaʕma |
ʔaʕwaṛ |
| Feminine |
CaCCa |
xaḍṛa |
zarʔa |
sooda |
beeḍa |
ṭaṛʃa |
ʕamya |
ʕooṛa |
| Plural |
CuCC |
xuḍr |
zurʔ |
suud |
biiḍ |
ṭurʃ |
ʕumy |
ʕuur |
A common set of nouns referring to colors, as well as a number of nouns referring to physical defects of various sorts, take a special inflectional pattern, as shown in the table. Note that only a small number of common color inflect this way:
ʔaḥmaṛ "red";
ʔazraʔ "blue";
ʔaxḍaṛ "green";
ʔaṣfaṛ "yellow";
ʔabyaḍ "white";
ʔiswid "black";
ʔasmaṛ "brown-skinned, brunette";
ʔaʃʔaṛ "blond(e)". The remaining colors are invariable, and mostly so-called
nisba adjectives derived from colored objects:
beeʒ "beige";
banba "pink";
bunni "brown" (<
bunn "coffee powder");
ṛamaadi "gray" (<
ṛamaad "ashes");
banafsigi "purple" (<
banafsig "violet");
burtuʔaani "orange" (<
burtuʔaan "oranges");
zibiibi "maroon" (<
zibiib "raisins"); etc.
{{-}}
Pronouns
Forms of the independent and clitic pronouns
| Meaning | |Subject | |Direct object/Possessive | |Indirect object |
| After vowel | |After 1 cons. | |After 2 cons. |
After vowel | |After 1 cons. | |After 2 cons. |
| Normal | + ʃ | + l- | Normal | + ʃ | + l- | Normal | + ʃ | + l- |
Normal | + ʃ | Normal | + ʃ | Normal | + ʃ |
| "my" (nominal) |
— |
- ́ya |
-i |
— |
| "I/me" (verbal) |
ána |
- ́ni |
-íni |
- ́li |
-íli |
| "you(r) (masc.)" |
ínta |
- ́k |
-ak |
- ́lak |
-ílak |
| "you(r) (fem.)" |
ínti |
- ́ki |
-ik |
-ki |
-ik |
-iki |
- ́lik |
-lkí |
-lik |
-likí |
-ílik |
-ilkí |
| "he/him/his" |
huwwa |
- ́ |
-hu |
-u |
-hu |
-u |
-uhu |
- ́lu |
-ílu |
| "she/her" |
hiyya |
- ́ha |
-áha |
- ́lha |
-láha |
-ílha |
| "we/us/our" |
íḥna |
- ́na |
-ína |
- ́lna |
-lína |
-ílna |
| "you(r) (pl.)" |
íntu |
- ́ku |
-úku |
- ́lku |
-lúku |
-ílku |
| "they/them/their" |
humma |
- ́hum |
-úhum |
- ́lhum |
-lúhum |
-ílhum |
Examples of possessive constructs
| Base Word | béet
"house" | biyúut
"houses" | bánk
"bank" | sikkíina
"knife" | máṛa
"wife" | ʔább
"father" | ʔidéen
"hands" |
| Construct Base | béet- | biyúut- | bánk- | sikkíin(i)t- | maṛáa- | ʔabúu- | ʔidée- |
| "my ..." |
béet-i |
biyúut-i |
bánk-i |
sikkínt-i |
maṛáa-ya |
ʔabúu-ya |
ʔidáy-ya |
| "your (masc.) ..." |
béet-ak |
biyúut-ak |
bánk-ak |
sikkínt-ak |
maṛáa-k |
ʔabúu-k |
ʔidée-k |
| "your (fem.) ..." |
béet-ik |
biyúut-ik |
bánk-ik |
sikkínt-ik |
maṛáa-ki |
ʔabúu-ki |
ʔidée-ki |
| "his ..." |
béet-u |
biyúut-u |
bánk-u |
sikkínt-u |
maṛáa-(h) |
ʔabúu-(h) |
ʔidée-(h) |
| "her ..." |
bét-ha |
biyút-ha |
bank-áha |
sikkinít-ha |
maṛáa-ha |
ʔabúu-ha |
ʔidée-ha |
| "our ..." |
bét-na |
biyút-na |
bank-ína |
sikkinít-na |
maṛáa-na |
ʔabúu-na |
ʔidée-na |
| "your (pl.) ..." |
bét-ku |
biyút-ku |
bank-úku |
sikkinít-ku |
maṛáa-ku |
ʔabúu-ku |
idée-ku |
| "their ..." |
bét-hum |
biyút-hum |
bank-úhum |
sikkinít-hum |
maṛáa-hum |
ʔabúu-hum |
ʔidée-hum |
Suffixed prepositions
| Base Word | fi
"in" | bi
"by, in, with" | li
"to" | wayya
"with" | ʕala
"on" | ʕand
"in the
possession of,
to have" | min
"from" |
| "... me" |
fíy-ya |
bíy-ya |
líy-ya |
wayyáa-ya |
ʕaláy-ya |
ʕánd-i |
mínn-i |
| "... you (masc.)" |
fíi-k |
bíi-k |
líi-k, l-ak |
wayyáa-k |
ʕalée-k |
ʕánd-ak |
mínn-ak |
| "... you (fem.)" |
fíi-ki |
bíi-ki |
líi-ki, li-ki |
wayyáa-ki |
ʕalée-ki |
ʕánd-ik |
mínn-ik |
| "... him" |
fíi-(h) |
bíi-(h) |
líi-(h), l-u(h) |
wayyáa-(h) |
ʕalée-(h) |
ʕánd-u |
mínn-u |
| "... her" |
fíi-ha |
bíi-ha |
líi-ha, la-ha |
wayyáa-ha |
ʕalée-ha |
ʕand-áha |
minn-áha, mín-ha |
| "... us" |
fíi-na |
bíi-na |
líi-na, li-na |
wayyáa-na |
ʕalée-na |
ʕand-ína |
minn-ína |
| "... you (pl.)" |
fíi-ku |
bíi-ku |
líi-ku, li-ku |
wayyáa-ku |
ʕalée-ku |
ʕand-úku |
minn-úku, mín-ku |
| "... them" |
fíi-hum |
bíi-hum |
líi-hum, li-hum |
wayyáa-hum |
ʕalée-hum |
ʕand-úhum |
minn-úhum, mín-hum |
Egyptian Arabic object pronouns are
cliticIn morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
s, in that they attach to the end of a noun, verb or preposition, with the result forming a single phonological word rather than separate words. Clitics can be attached to the following types of words:
- A clitic pronoun attached to a noun indicates possession: béet "house", béet-i "my house"; sikkíina "knife", sikkínt-i "my knife"; máṛa "wife", maṛáa-ya "my wife"; ʔább "father", ʔabúu-ya "my father". Note that the form of a pronoun may vary depending on the phonological form of the word being attached to (ending with a vowel or with one or two consonants), and the noun being attached to may also have a separate "construct" form before possessive clitic suffixes.
- A clitic pronoun attached to a preposition indicates the object of the preposition: fill in examples
- A clitic pronoun attached to a verb indicates the object of the verb: ʃúft "I saw", ʃúft-u "I saw him", ʃuft-áha "I saw her".
With verbs, indirect object clitic pronouns can be formed using the preposition
li- plus a clitic. Both direct and indirect object clitic pronouns can be attached to a single verb:
agíib "I bring",
agíb-hu "I bring it",
agib-húu-lik "I bring it to you",
m-agib-hu-lkíi-ʃ "I do not bring it to you".
Verbs
Verbs in Arabic are based on a stem made up of three or four consonants. The set of consonants communicates the basic meaning of a verb. Changes to the vowels in between the consonants, along with prefixes and/or suffixes, specify grammatical functions such as tense, person and number, in addition to changes in the meaning of the verb that embody grammatical concepts such as
causativeIn linguistics, a causative is a form that indicates that a subject causes someone or something else to do or be something, or causes a change in state of a non-volitional event....
,
intensiveIn grammar, an intensive word form is one which denotes stronger or more forceful action relative to the root on which the intensive is built. Intensives are usually lexical formations, but there may be a regular process for forming intensives from a root...
,
passivePassive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...
or
reflexiveReflexive may refer to:In fiction:*MetafictionIn grammar:*Reflexive pronoun, a pronoun with a reflexive relationship with its self-identical antecedent*Reflexive verb, where a semantic agent and patient are the same...
.
Each particular lexical verb is specified by two stems, one used for the past tense and one used for non-past tenses along with as
subjunctiveIn grammar, the subjunctive mood is a verb mood typically used in subordinate clauses to express various states of irreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred....
and
imperativeThe imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
moods. To the former stem, suffixes are added to mark the verb for person, number and gender, while to the latter stem, a combination of prefixes and suffixes are added. (Very approximately, the prefixes specify the person and the suffixes indicate number and gender.) The third person masculine singular past tense form serves as the "dictionary form" used to identify a verb, similar to the
infinitiveIn grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
in English. (Arabic has no infinitive.) For example, the verb meaning "write" is often specified as
kátab, which actually means "he wrote". In the paradigms below, a verb will be specified as
kátab/yíktib (where
kátab means "he wrote" and
yíktib means "he writes"), indicating the past stem (
katab-) and non-past stem (
-ktib-, obtained by removing the prefix
yi-).
The verb classes in Arabic are formed along two axes. One axis (described as "form I", "form II", etc.) is used to specify grammatical concepts such as
causativeIn linguistics, a causative is a form that indicates that a subject causes someone or something else to do or be something, or causes a change in state of a non-volitional event....
,
intensiveIn grammar, an intensive word form is one which denotes stronger or more forceful action relative to the root on which the intensive is built. Intensives are usually lexical formations, but there may be a regular process for forming intensives from a root...
,
passivePassive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...
or
reflexiveReflexive may refer to:In fiction:*MetafictionIn grammar:*Reflexive pronoun, a pronoun with a reflexive relationship with its self-identical antecedent*Reflexive verb, where a semantic agent and patient are the same...
, and involves varying the stem form. For example, from the root K-T-B "write" is derived form I
kátab/yíktib "write", form II
káttib/yikáttib "cause to write", form III
ká:tib/yiká:tib "correspond", etc. The other axis is determined by the particular consonants making up the root. For example, defective verbs have a W or Y as the last root consonant, which is often reflected in paradigms with an extra final vowel in the stem (e.g.
ráma/yírmi "throw" from R-M-Y); meanwhile, hollow verbs have a W or Y as the middle root consonant, and the stems of such verbs appear to have only two consonants (e.g.
gá:b/yigí:b "bring" from G-Y-B).
Strong verbs
Strong verbs are those that have no "weakness" (e.g. W or Y) in the root consonants.
Each verb has a given vowel pattern for Past (a or i) and Present (a or i or u). Combinations of each exist.
Regular verbs, form I
Form I verbs have a given vowel pattern for past (
a or
i) and present (
a,
i or
u). Combinations of each exist:
| Vowel patterns |
Example |
| Past |
Present |
| a |
a |
ḍárab - yíḍrab to beat |
| a |
i |
kátab - yíktib to write |
| a |
u |
ṭálab - yíṭlub~yúṭlub to order, to demand |
| i |
a |
fíhim - yífham to understand |
| i |
i |
misik - yímsik to hold, to touch |
| i |
u |
sikit - yískut~yúskut to be silent, to shut up |
Regular verb, form I, fáʕal/yífʕil
Example:
kátab/yíktib "write"
| Tense/Mood |
Past |
Present Subjunctive |
Present Indicative |
Future |
Imperative |
| Person |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st |
katáb-t |
katáb-na |
á-ktib |
ní-ktib |
bá-ktib |
bi-ní-ktib |
ḥá-ktib |
ḥá-ní-ktib |
|
| 2nd |
masculine |
katáb-t |
katáb-tu |
tí-ktib |
ti-ktíb-u |
bi-tí-ktib |
bi-ti-ktíb-u |
ḥa-tí-ktib |
ḥa-ti-ktíb-u |
í-ktib |
i-ktíb-u |
| feminine |
katáb-ti |
ti-ktíb-i |
bi-ti-ktíb-i |
ḥa-ti-ktíb-i |
i-ktíb-i |
| 3rd |
masculine |
kátab |
kátab-u |
yí-ktib |
yi-ktíb-u |
bi-yí-ktib |
bi-yi-ktíb-u |
ḥa-yí-ktib |
ḥa-yi-ktíb-u |
|
| feminine |
kátab-it |
tí-ktib |
bi-tí-ktib |
ḥa-tí-ktib |
Note that, in general, the present indicative is formed from the subjunctive by the addition of
bi- (
bi-a- is elided to
ba-). Similarly, the future is formed from the subjunctive by the addition of
ḥa- (
ḥa-a- is elided to
ḥa-). The
i in
bi- or in the following prefix will be deleted according to the regular rules of vowel syncope:
- híyya b-tíktib "she writes" (híyya + bi- + tíktib)
- híyya bi-t-ʃú:f "she sees" (híyya + bi- + tiʃú:f)
- an-áktib "I write (subjunctive)" (ána + áktib)
Example:
kátab/yíktib "write": non-finite forms
| Number/Gender |
Active Participle |
Passive Participle |
Verbal Noun |
| Masc. Sg. |
ká:tib |
maktú:b |
kitá:ba |
| Fem. Sg. |
kátb-a |
maktú:b-a |
| Pl. |
katb-í:n |
maktub-í:n |
Regular verb, form I, fíʕil/yífʕal
Example:
fíhim/yífham "understand"
| Tense/Mood |
Past |
Present Subjunctive |
Present Indicative |
Future |
Imperative |
| Person |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st |
fihím-t |
fihím-na |
á-fham |
ní-fham |
bá-fham |
bi-ní-fham |
ḥá-fham |
ḥá-ní-fham |
|
| 2nd |
masculine |
fihím-t |
fihím-tu |
tí-fham |
ti-fhám-u |
bi-tí-fham |
bi-ti-fhám-u |
ḥa-tí-fham |
ḥa-ti-fhám-u |
í-fham |
i-fhám-u |
| feminine |
fihím-ti |
ti-fhám-i |
bi-ti-fhám-i |
ḥa-ti-fhám-i |
i-fhám-i |
| 3rd |
masculine |
fíhim |
fíhm-u |
yí-fham |
yi-fhám-u |
bi-yí-fham |
bi-yi-fhám-u |
ḥa-yí-fham |
ḥa-yi-fhám-u |
|
| feminine |
fíhm-it |
tí-fham |
bi-tí-fham |
ḥa-tí-fham |
Boldfaced forms fíhm-it and fíhm-u differ from the corresponding forms of
katab (kátab-it and kátab-u due to vowel syncope). Note also the syncope in
ána fhím-t "I understood".
Regular verb, form II, fáʕʕil/yifáʕʕil
Example:
dárris/yidárris "teach"
| Tense/Mood |
Past |
Present Subjunctive |
Present Indicative |
Future |
Imperative |
| Person |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st |
darrís-t |
darrís-na |
a-dárris |
ni-dárris |
ba-dárris |
bi-n-dárris |
ḥa-dárris |
ḥa-n-dárris |
|
| 2nd |
masculine |
darrís-t |
darrís-tu |
ti-dárris |
ti-darrís-u |
bi-t-dárris |
bi-t-darrís-u |
ḥa-t-dárris |
ḥa-t-darrís-u |
dárris |
darrís-u |
| feminine |
darrís-ti |
ti-darrís-i |
bi-t-darrís-i |
ḥa-t-darrís-i |
darrís-i |
| 3rd |
masculine |
dárris |
darrís-u |
yi-dárris |
yi-darrís-u |
bi-y-dárris |
bi-y-darrís-u |
ḥa-y-dárris |
ḥa-y-darrís-u |
|
| feminine |
darrís-it |
ti-dárris |
bi-t-dárris |
ḥa-t-dárris |
Boldfaced forms indicate the primary differences from the corresponding forms of
katab:
- The prefixes ti-, yi-, ni- have elision of i following bi- or ḥa- (all verbs whose stem begins with a single consonant behave this way).
- The imperative prefix i- is missing (again, all verbs whose stem begins with a single consonant behave this way).
- Due to the regular operation of the stress rules, the stress in the past tense forms darrís-it and darrís-u differs from kátab-it and kátab-u.
Regular verb, form III, fá:ʕil/yifá:ʕil
Example:
sá:fir/yisá:fir "travel"
| Tense/Mood |
Past |
Present Subjunctive |
Present Indicative |
Future |
Imperative |
| Person |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st |
safír-t |
safír-na |
a-sá:fir |
ni-sá:fir |
ba-sá:fir |
bi-n-sá:fir |
ḥa-sá:fir |
ḥa-n-sá:fir |
|
| 2nd |
masculine |
safír-t |
safír-tu |
ti-sá:fir |
ti-sáfr-u |
bi-t-sá:fir |
bi-t-sáfr-u |
ḥa-t-sá:fir |
ḥa-t-sáfr-u |
sá:fir |
sáfr-u |
| feminine |
safír-ti |
ti-sáfr-i |
bi-t-sáfr-i |
ḥa-t-sáfr-i |
sáfr-i |
| 3rd |
masculine |
sá:fir |
sáfr-u |
yi-sá:fir |
yi-sáfr-u |
bi-y-sá:fir |
bi-y-sáfr-u |
ḥa-y-sá:fir |
ḥa-y-sáfr-u |
|
| feminine |
sáfr-it |
ti-sá:fir |
bi-t-sá:fir |
ḥa-t-sá:fir |
The primary differences from the corresponding forms of darris
(shown in boldface) are:
- The long vowel a: becomes a when unstressed.
- The i in the stem sa:fir is elided when a suffix beginning with a vowel follows.
Defective verb, form I, fáʕa/yífʕi
Example: ráma/yírmi
"throw"
| Tense/Mood |
Past |
Present Subjunctive |
Present Indicative |
Future |
Imperative |
| Person |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st |
ramé:-t |
ramé:-na |
á-rmi |
ní-rmi |
bá-rmi |
bi-ní-rmi |
ḥá-rmi |
ḥa-ní-rmi |
|
| 2nd |
masculine |
ramé:-t |
ramé:-tu |
tí-rmi |
tí-rm-u |
bi-tí-rmi |
bi-tí-rm-u |
ḥa-tí-rmi |
ḥa-tí-rm-u |
í-rmi |
í-rm-u |
| feminine |
ramé:-ti |
tí-rm-i |
bi-tí-rm-i |
ḥa-tí-rm-i |
í-rm-i |
| 3rd |
masculine |
ráma |
rám-u |
yí-rmi |
yí-rm-u |
bi-yí-rmi |
bi-yí-rm-u |
ḥa-yí-rmi |
ḥa-yí-rm-u |
|
| feminine |
rám-it |
tí-rmi |
bi-tí-rmi |
ḥa-tí-rmi |
The primary differences from the corresponding forms of katab (shown in boldface) are:
- In the past, there are three stems: ráma with no suffix, ramé:- with a consonant-initial suffix, rám- with a vowel initial suffix.
- In the non-past, the stem rmi becomes rm- before a (vowel initial) suffix, and the stress remains on the prefix, since the stem vowel has been elided.
- Note also the accidental homonymy between masculine tí-rmi, í-rmi and feminine tí-rm-i, í-rm-i.
Defective verb, form I, fíʕi/yífʕa
Example: nísi/yínsa "forget"
| Tense/Mood |
Past |
Present Subjunctive |
Present Indicative |
Future |
Imperative |
| Person |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st |
nisí:-t |
nisí:-na |
á-nsa |
ní-nsa |
bá-nsa |
bi-ní-nsa |
ḥá-nsa |
ḥa-ní-nsa |
|
| 2nd |
masculine |
nisí:-t |
nisí:-tu |
tí-nsa |
tí-ns-u |
bi-tí-nsa |
bi-tí-ns-u |
ḥa-tí-nsa |
ḥa-tí-ns-u |
í-nsa |
í-ns-u |
| feminine |
nisí:-ti |
tí-ns-i |
bi-tí-ns-i |
ḥa-tí-ns-i |
í-ns-i |
| 3rd |
masculine |
nísi |
nísy-u |
yí-nsa |
yí-ns-u |
bi-yí-nsa |
bi-yí-ns-u |
ḥa-yí-nsa |
ḥa-yí-ns-u |
|
| feminine |
nísy-it |
tí-nsa |
bi-tí-nsa |
ḥa-tí-nsa |
This verb type is quite similar to the defective verb type ráma/yírmi. The primary differences are:
- The occurrence of i and a in the stems are reversed: i in the past, a in the non-past.
- In the past, instead of the stems ramé:- and rám-, the verb has nisí:- (with a consonant-initial suffix) and nísy- (with a vowel initial suffix). Note in particular the |y| in nísyit and nísyu as opposed to rámit and rámu.
- Elision of i in nisí:- can occur, e.g. ána nsí:t "I forgot".
- In the non-past, because the stem has a instead of i, there is no homonymy between masculine tí-nsa, í-nsa and feminine tí-ns-i, í-ns-i.
Note that some other verbs have different stem variations, e.g. míʃi/yímʃi "walk" (with i in both stems) and báʔa/yíbʔa "become, remain" (with a in both stems). The verb láʔa/yilá:ʔi "find" is unusual in having a mixture of a form I past and form III present (note also the variations líʔi/yílʔa and láʔa/yílʔa).
Verbs other than form I have consistent stem vowels. All such verbs have a in the past (hence form stems with -é:-, not -í:-). Forms V, VI, X and IIq have a in the present (indicated by boldface below); others have i; forms VII, VIIt, and VIII have i in both vowels of the stem (indicated by italics below); form IX verbs, including "defective" verbs, behave as regular doubled verbs:
- Form II: wádda/yiwáddi "take away"; ʔáwwa/yiʔáwwi "strengthen"
- Form III: ná:da/yiná:di "call"; dá:wa/yidá:wi "treat, cure"
- Form IV (rare, classicized): ʔárḍa/yírḍi "please, satisfy"
-
Form V
: itʔáwwa/yitʔáwwa
"become strong"
Form VI
: itdá:wa/yitdá:wa
"be treated, be cured"
Form VII (rare in the Cairene dialect): inḥáka/yinḥíki
"be told"
Form VIIt: itnása/yitnísi
"be forgotten"
Form VIII: iʃtára/yiʃtíri
"buy"
Form IX
(very rare): iḥláww/yiḥláww
"be/become sweet"
Form X
: istákfa/yistákfa
"have enough"
Form Iq: need example
Form IIq
: need example
Hollow verbs
Hollow have a W or Y as the middle root consonant. Note that for some forms (e.g. form II and form III), hollow verbs are conjugated as strong verbs (e.g. form II ʕáyyin/yiʕáyyin "appoint" from ʕ-Y-N, form III gá:wib/yigá:wib "answer" from G-W-B).
Hollow verb, form I, fá:l/yifí:l
Example: gá:b/yigí:b
"bring"
| Tense/mood |
Past |
Present subjunctive |
Present indicative |
Future |
Imperative |
| Person |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st |
gíb-t |
gíb-na |
a-gí:b |
ni-gí:b |
ba-gí:b |
bi-n-gí:b |
ḥa-gí:b |
ḥa-n-gí:b |
|
| 2nd |
masculine |
gíb-t |
gíb-tu |
ti-gí:b |
ti-gí:b-u |
bi-t-gí:b |
bi-t-gí:b-u |
ḥa-t-gí:b |
ḥa-t-gí:b-u |
gí:b |
gí:b-u |
| feminine |
gíb-ti |
ti-gí:b-i |
bi-t-gí:b-i |
ḥa-t-gí:b-i |
gí:b-i |
| 3rd |
masculine |
gá:b |
gá:b-u |
yi-gí:b |
yi-gí:b-u |
bi-y-gí:b |
bi-y-gí:b-u |
ḥa-y-gí:b |
ḥa-y-gí:b-u |
|
| feminine |
gá:b-it |
ti-gí:b |
bi-t-gí:b |
ḥa-t-gí:b |
This verb works much like dárris/yidárris "teach". Like all verbs whose stem begins with a single consonant, the prefixes differ in the following way from those of regular and defective form I verbs:
- The prefixes ti-, yi-, ni- have elision of i following bi- or ḥa-.
- The imperative prefix i- is missing.
In addition, the past tense has two stems: gíb- before consonant-initial suffixes (first and second person) and gá:b- elsewhere (third person).
Hollow verb, form I, fá:l/yifú:l
Example: ʃá:f/yiʃú:f "see"
| Tense/Mood |
Past |
Present Subjunctive |
Present Indicative |
Future |
Imperative |
| Person |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st |
ʃúf-t |
ʃúf-na |
a-ʃú:f |
ni-ʃú:f |
ba-ʃú:f |
bi-n-ʃú:f |
ḥa-ʃú:f |
ḥa-n-ʃú:f |
|
| 2nd |
masculine |
ʃúf-t |
ʃúf-tu |
ti-ʃú:f |
ti-ʃú:f-u |
bi-t-ʃú:f |
bi-t-ʃú:f-u |
ḥa-t-ʃú:f |
ḥa-t-ʃú:f-u |
ʃú:f |
ʃú:f-u |
| feminine |
ʃúf-ti |
ti-ʃú:f-i |
bi-t-ʃú:f-i |
ḥa-t-ʃú:f-i |
ʃú:f-i |
| 3rd |
masculine |
ʃá:f |
ʃá:f-u |
yi-ʃú:f |
yi-ʃú:f-u |
bi-y-ʃú:f |
bi-y-ʃú:f-u |
ḥa-y-ʃú:f |
ḥa-y-ʃú:f-u |
|
| feminine |
ʃá:f-it |
ti-ʃú:f |
bi-t-ʃú:f |
ḥa-t-ʃú:f |
This verb class is identical to verbs such as gá:b/yigí:b except in having stem vowel u in place of i.
Doubled verbs
Doubled verbs have the same consonant as middle and last root consonant, e.g. ḥább/yiḥíbb "love" from Ḥ-B-B.
Doubled verb, form I, fáʕʕ/yifíʕʕ
Example: ḥább/yiḥíbb "love"
| Tense/Mood |
Past |
Present Subjunctive |
Present Indicative |
Future |
Imperative |
| Person |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st |
ḥabbé:-t |
ḥabbé:-na |
a-ḥíbb |
ni-ḥíbb |
ba-ḥíbb |
bi-n-ḥíbb |
ḥa-ḥíbb |
ḥa-n-ḥíbb |
|
| 2nd |
masculine |
ḥabbé:-t |
ḥabbé:-tu |
ti-ḥíbb |
ti-ḥíbb-u |
bi-t-ḥíbb |
bi-t-ḥíbb-u |
ḥa-t-ḥíbb |
ḥa-t-ḥíbb-u |
ḥíbb |
ḥíbb-u |
| feminine |
ḥabbé:-ti |
ti-ḥíbb-i |
bi-t-ḥíbb-i |
ḥa-t-ḥíbb-i |
ḥíbb-i |
| 3rd |
masculine |
ḥább |
ḥább-u |
yi-ḥíbb |
yi-ḥíbb-u |
bi-y-ḥíbb |
bi-y-ḥíbb-u |
ḥa-y-ḥíbb |
ḥa-y-ḥíbb-u |
|
| feminine |
ḥább-it |
ti-ḥíbb |
bi-t-ḥíbb |
ḥa-t-ḥíbb |
This verb works much like gá:b/yigí:b "bring". Like that class, it has two stems in the past, which are ḥabbé:- before consonant-initial suffixes (first and second person) and ḥább- elsewhere (third person). Note that é:- was borrowed from the defective verbs; the Classical Arabic equivalent form would be *ḥabáb-, e.g. *ḥabáb-t.
Other verbs have u or a in the present stem: baṣṣ/yibúṣṣ "to look", ṣaḥḥ/yiṣáḥḥ "be right, be proper".
As for the other forms:
- Form II, V doubled verbs are strong: ḥáddid/yiḥáddid "limit, fix (appointment)"
- Form III, IV, VI, VIII doubled verbs seem non-existent
- Form VII and VIIt doubled verbs (same stem vowel
a in both stems): inbáll/yinbáll "be wetted", itʕádd/yitʕádd
Form VIII doubled verbs (same stem vowel a in both stems): ihtámm/yihtámm "be interested (in)"
Form IX verbs (automatically behave as "doubled" verbs, same stem vowel a in both stems): iḥmárr/yiḥmárr "be red, blush", iḥláww/yiḥláww "be sweet"
Form X verbs (stem vowel either a or i in non-past): istaḥáʔʔ/yistaḥáʔʔ "deserve" vs. istaʕádd/yistaʕídd "be ready", istamárr/yistamírr "continue".
Assimilated verbs
Assimilated verbs have W or Y as the first root consonant. Most of these verbs have been regularized in Egyptian Arabic, e.g. wázan/yíwzin "to weigh" or wíṣíl/yíwṣal "to arrive". Only a couple of irregular verbs remain, e.g. wíʔif/yúʔaf "stop" and wíʔiʕ/yúʔaʕ "fall" (see below).
Doubly weak verbs
"Doubly weak" verbs have more than one "weakness", typically a W or Y as both the second and third consonants. This term is in fact a misnomer, as such verbs actually behave as normal defective verbs (e.g. káwa/yíkwi "iron (clothes)" from K-W-Y, ʔáwwa/yiʔáwwi "strengthen" from ʔ-W-Y, dá:wa/yidá:wi "treat, cure" from D-W-Y).
Irregular verbs
The irregular verbs are as follows:
- ídda/yíddi "give" (endings like a normal defective verb)
- wíʔif/yúʔaf "stop" and wíʔiʕ/yúʔaʕ "fall" (áʔaf, báʔaf, ḥáʔaf "I (will) stop"; úʔaf "stop!")
- kal/yá:kul "eat" and xad/yá:xud "take" (kalt, kal, kálit, kálu "I/he/she/they ate", also regular ákal, etc. "he/etc. ate"; á:kul, bá:kul, ḥá:kul "I (will) eat", yáklu "they eat"; kúl, kúli, kúlu "eat!"; wá:kil "eating"; mittá:kil "eaten")
- gé/yí:gi "come". This verb is extremely irregular (with particularly unusual forms in boldface):
| Tense/Mood |
Past |
Present Subjunctive |
Imperative |
| Person |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st |
gé:-t or gí:-t |
gé:-na or gí:-na |
á:-gi |
ní:-gi |
|
| 2nd |
masculine |
gé:-t or gí:-t |
gé:-tu or gí:-tu |
tí:-gi |
tí:-g-u |
taʕá:l |
taʕá:l-u |
| feminine |
gé:-ti or gí:-ti |
tí:-g-i |
taʕá:l-i |
| 3rd |
masculine |
gé or gá (also ʔíga)
gá:-ni (or -li)
"he came to me"
but not *gé:-ni |
gum
but gú:-ni (or -li)
"they came to me" and
magú:-ʃ "they didn't come" |
yí:-gi |
yí:-g-u |
|
| feminine |
gat (also ʔígat) |
tí:-gi |
Example: gé/yí:gi "come": non-finite forms
| Number/Gender |
Active Participle |
Verbal Noun |
| Masc. Sg. |
gayy |
migíyy |
| Fem. Sg. |
gáyy-a |
| Pl. |
gayy-í:n |
Table of verb forms
In this section all verb classes and their corresponding stems are listed, excluding the small number of irregular verbs described above. Verb roots are indicated schematically using capital letters to stand for consonants in the root:
- F = first consonant of root
- M = middle consonant of three-consonant root
- S = second consonant of four-consonant root
- T = third consonant of four-consonant root
- L = last consonant of root
Hence, the root F-M-L stands for all three-consonant roots, and F-S-T-L stands for all four-consonant roots. (Traditional Arabic grammar uses F-ʕ-L and F-ʕ-L-L, respectively, but the system used here appears in a number of grammars of spoken Arabic dialects and is probably less confusing for English speakers, since the forms are easier to pronounce than those involving ʕ.)
The following table lists the prefixes and suffixes to be added to mark tense, person, number and gender, and the stem form to which they are added. The forms involving a vowel-initial suffix, and corresponding stem PAv or NPv, are highlighted in silver. The forms involving a consonant-initial suffix, and corresponding stem PAc, are highlighted in gold. The forms involving a no suffix, and corresponding stem PA0 or NP0, are unhighlighted.
| Tense/Mood |
Past |
Non-Past |
| Person |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st |
PAc-t |
PAc-na |
a-NP0 |
ni-NP0 |
| 2nd |
masculine |
PAc-t |
PAc-tu |
ti-NP0 |
ti-NPv-u |
| feminine |
PAc-ti |
ti-NPv-i |
| 3rd |
masculine |
PA0 |
PAv-u |
yi-NP0 |
yi-NPv-u |
| feminine |
PAv-it |
ti-NP0 |
The following table lists the verb classes along with the form of the past and non-past stems, active and passive participles, and verbal noun, in addition to an example verb for each class.
Notes:
- Italicized forms are those that follow automatically from the regular rules of vowel shortening and deletion.
- Multisyllabic forms without a stress mark have variable stress, depending on the nature of the suffix added, following the regular rules of stress assignment.
- Many participles and verbal nouns have acquired an extended sense. In fact, participles and verbal nouns are the major sources for lexical items based on verbs, especially derived (i.e. non-Form-I) verbs.
- Some verb classes do not have a regular verbal noun form; rather, the verbal noun varies from verb to verb. Even in verb classes that do have a regular verbal noun form, there are exceptions. In addition, some verbs share a verbal noun with a related verb from another class (in particular, many passive verbs use the corresponding active verb's verbal noun, which can be interpreted in either an active or passive sense). Some verbs appear to lack a verbal noun entirely. (In such a case, a paraphrase would be used involving a clause beginning with inn.)
- Outside of Form I, passive participles as such are usually non-existent; instead, the active participle of the corresponding passive verb class (e.g. Forms V, VI, VIIt/VIIn for Forms II, III, I respectively) is used. The exception is certain verbs in Forms VIII and X that contain a "classicized" passive participle that is formed in imitation of the corresponding participle in Classical Arabic
Classical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
, e.g. mistáʕmil "using", mustáʕmal "used".
- Not all forms have a separate verb class for hollow or doubled roots. When no such class is listed below, roots of that shape appear as strong verbs in the corresponding form, e.g. Form II strong verb ḍáyyaʕ/yiḍáyyaʕ "waste, lose" related to Form I hollow verb ḍá:ʕ/yiḍí:ʕ "be lost", both from root Ḍ-Y-ʕ.
| Form |
Root Type |
Stem |
Participle |
Verbal Noun |
Example |
|
Past |
Non-Past |
Active |
Passive |
| Person of Suffix |
1st/2nd |
3rd |
| Suffix Type |
Cons-Initial |
None |
Vowel-Initial |
None |
Vowel-Initial |
| Suffix Name |
PAc |
PA0 |
PAv |
NP0 |
NPv |
| I |
Strong |
|
FaMaL |
FMaL |
Fá:MiL |
maFMú:L |
(varies, e.g.
FaML, FiML) |
fátaḥ/yíftaḥ "open" |
| FMiL |
kátab/yíktib "write" |
| FMuL |
dáxal/yúdxul "enter" |
| FiMiL |
FiML |
FMaL |
fíhim/yífham "understand" |
| FMiL |
mísik/yímsik "hold, catch" |
| FMuL |
síkin/yúskun "reside" |
| I |
Defective |
|
FaMé: |
FáMa |
FaM |
FMa |
FM |
Fá:Mi |
máFMi |
(varies, e.g.
FaMy, máFMa) |
báʔa/yíbʔa "remain" |
| FMi |
FM |
ráma/yírmi "throw" |
| FiMí: |
FíMi |
FíMy |
FMa |
FM |
nísi/yínsa "forget" |
| FMi |
FM |
míʃi/yímʃi "walk" |
| I |
Hollow |
|
FíL |
Fá:L |
Fí:L |
Fá:yiL |
(mitFá:L, properly
Form VIIt) |
(varies, e.g.
Fe:L, Fo:L) |
ga:b/yigí:b "bring" |
| FúL |
Fú:L |
ʃa:f/yiʃú:f "see" |
| FíL |
Fá:L |
na:m/yiná:m "sleep" |
| FúL |
xa:f/yixá:f "fear" |
| I |
Doubled |
|
FaMMé: |
FáMM |
FíMM |
Fá:MiM |
maFMú:M |
(varies, e.g.
FaMM, FuMM) |
ḥabb/yiḥíbb "love" |
| FúMM |
ḥaṭṭ/yiḥúṭṭ "put" |
| II |
Strong |
|
FaMMaL |
miFáMMaL |
|
taFMí:L |
ɣáyyaṛ/yiɣáyyaṛ "change" |
| FaMMiL |
miFáMMiL |
dárris/yidárris "teach" |
| II |
Defective |
|
FaMMé: |
FáMMa |
FáMM |
FáMMi |
FáMM |
miFáMMi |
|
taFMíya |
wárra/yiwárri "show" |
| III |
Strong |
|
FaMíL |
Fá:MiL |
FáML |
Fá:MiL |
FáML |
miFá:MiL |
|
miFáMLa |
zá:kir/yizá:kir "study" |
| III |
Defective |
|
FaMé: |
Fá:Ma |
Fá:M |
Fá:Mi |
Fá:M |
miFá:Mi |
|
miFáMya |
ná:da/yiná:di "call" |
| IV |
Strong |
|
ʔáFMaL |
FMiL |
míFMiL |
|
iFMá:L |
ʔáḍṛab/yíḍrib "go on strike" |
| IV |
Defective |
|
ʔaFMé: |
ʔáFMa |
ʔáFM |
FMi |
FM |
míFMi |
|
(uncommon) |
ʔáṛḍa/yíṛḍi "please" |
| IV |
Hollow |
|
ʔaFáL |
ʔaFá:L |
Fí:L |
miFí:L |
|
ʔiFá:La |
ʔafá:d/yifí:d "inform" |
| IV |
Doubled |
|
ʔaFaMMé: |
ʔaFáMM |
FíMM |
miFíMM |
|
iFMá:M |
??? |
| V |
Strong |
|
itFaMMaL |
tFaMMaL |
mitFáMMaL |
|
taFáMMuL (or Form II) |
itmáṛṛan/yitmáṛṛan "practice" |
| itFaMMiL |
tFaMMiL |
mitFáMMiL |
itkállim/yitkállim "speak" |
| V |
Defective |
|
itFaMMé: |
itFáMMa |
itFáMM |
tFáMMa |
tFáMM |
mitFáMMi |
|
(use Form II) |
itʔáwwa/yitʔáwwa "become strong" |
| VI |
Strong |
|
itFaMíL |
itFá:MiL |
itFáML |
tFá:MiL |
tFáML |
mitFá:MiL |
|
taFá:MuL (or Form III) |
itʕá:win/yitʕá:win "cooperate" |
| VI |
Defective |
|
itFaMé: |
itFá:Ma |
itFá:M |
tFá:Ma |
tFá:M |
mitFá:Mi |
|
(use Form III) |
iddá:wa/yiddá:wa "be treated, be cured" |
| VIIn |
Strong |
|
inFáMaL |
nFíMiL |
nFíML |
minFíMiL |
|
inFiMá:L (or Form I) |
inbáṣaṭ/yinbíṣiṭ "enjoy oneself" |
| VIIn |
Defective |
|
inFaMé: |
inFáMa |
inFáM |
nFíMi |
nFíM |
minFíMi |
|
(use Form I) |
inḥáka/yinḥíki "be told" |
| VIIn |
Hollow |
|
inFáL |
inFá:L |
nFá:L |
minFá:L |
|
inFiyá:L (or Form I) |
inbá:ʕ/yinbá:ʕ "be sold" |
| VIIn |
Doubled |
|
inFaMMé: |
inFáMM |
nFáMM |
minFáMM |
|
inFiMá:M (or Form I) |
inbáll/yinbáll "be wetted" |
| VIIt |
Strong |
|
itFáMaL |
tFíMiL |
tFíML |
mitFíMiL |
|
itFiMá:L (or Form I) |
itwágad/yitwígid "be found" |
| VIIt |
Defective |
|
itFaMé: |
itFáMa |
itFáM |
tFíMi |
tFíM |
mitFíMi |
|
(use Form I) |
itnása/yitnísi "be forgotten" |
| VIIt |
Hollow |
|
itFáL |
itFá:L |
tFá:L |
mitFá:L |
|
itFiyá:L (or Form I) |
itbá:ʕ/yitbá:ʕ "be sold" |
| VIIt |
Doubled |
|
itFaMMé: |
itFáMM |
tFáMM |
mitFáMM |
|
itFiMá:M (or Form I) |
itʕádd/yitʕádd "be counted" |
| VIII |
Strong |
|
iFtáMaL |
FtíMiL |
FtíML |
miFtíMiL, muFtáMiL (classicized) |
muFtáMaL (classicized) |
iFtiMá:L (or Form I) |
istálam/yistílim "receive" |
| VIII |
Defective |
|
iFtaMé: |
iFtáMa |
iFtáM |
FtíMi |
FtíM |
miFtíMi, muFtáMi (classicized) |
|
(use Form I) |
iʃtára/yiʃtíri "buy" |
| VIII |
Hollow |
|
iFtáL |
iFtá:L |
Ftá:L |
miFtá:L, muFtá:L (classicized) |
|
iFtiyá:L (or Form I) |
ixtá:ṛ/yixtá:ṛ "choose" |
| VIII |
Doubled |
|
iFtaMMé: |
iFtáMM |
FtáMM |
miFtáMM, muFtáMM (classicized) |
|
iFtiMá:M (or Form I) |
ihtámm/yihtámm "be interested (in)" |
| IX |
Strong |
|
iFMaLLé: |
iFMáLL |
FMáLL |
miFMíLL |
|
iFMiLá:L |
iḥmáṛṛ/yiḥmáṛṛ "be red, blush" |
| X |
Strong |
|
istáFMaL |
stáFMaL |
mistáFMaL, mustáFMaL (classicized) |
|
istiFMá:L |
istáɣṛab/yistáɣṛab "be surprised" |
| istáFMiL |
stáFMiL |
mistáFMiL, mustáFMiL (classicized) |
mustáFMaL (classicized) |
istáʕmil/yistáʕmil "use" |
| X |
Defective |
|
istaFMé: |
istáFMa |
istáFM |
stáFMa |
stáFM |
mistáFMi, mustáFMi (classicized) |
|
(uncommon) |
istákfa/yistákfa "be enough" |
| X |
Hollow |
|
istaFáL |
istaFá:L |
staFí:L |
mistaFí:L, mistaFí:L (classicized) |
|
istiFá:L a |
istaʔá:l/yistaʔí:l "resign" |
| X |
Doubled |
|
istaFaMMé: |
istaFáMM |
staFáMM |
mistaFáMM, mustaFáMM (classicized) |
|
istiFMá:M |
istaḥáʔʔ/yistaḥáʔʔ "deserve" |
| staFíMM |
mistaFíMM, mustaFíMM (classicized) |
istamáṛṛ/yistamírr "continue" |
| Iq |
Strong |
|
FaSTaL |
miFáSTaL |
|
FaSTáLa |
láxbaṭ/yiláxbaṭ "confuse" |
| FaSTiL |
miFáSTiL |
xárbiʃ/yixárbiʃ "scratch" |
| Iq |
Defective |
|
FaSTé: |
FáSTa |
FáST |
FáSTi |
FáST |
miFáSTi |
|
(uncommon) |
??? |
| IIq |
Strong |
|
itFaSTaL |
tFaSTaL |
mitFáSTaL |
|
itFaSTáLa |
itláxbaṭ/yitláxbaṭ "be confused" |
| itFaSTiL |
tFaSTiL |
mitFáSTiL |
itʃáʕlil/yitʃáʕlil "flare up" |
| IIq |
Defective |
|
itFaSTé: |
itFáSTa |
itFáST |
tFáSTa |
tFáST |
mitFáSTi |
|
(uncommon) |
??? |
Negation
One characteristic of Egyptian syntax which it shares with other North African varieties as well as some southern Levantine dialect areas is in the two-part negative verbal circumfix /ma-...-ʃ(i)/
- Past: /ˈkatab/ "he wrote" /ma-katab-ʃ(i)/ "he didn't write" ماكتبشِ
- Present: /ˈjik-tib/ "he writes" /ma-bjik-tib-ʃ(i)/ "he doesn't write" مابيكتبشِ
/ma-/ comes from the Classical Arabic negator /maː/. /-ʃ(i)/ is a development of Classical /ʃajʔ/ "thing". The development of a circumfixA circumfix is an affix, a morpheme that is placed around another morpheme. Circumfixes contrast with prefixes, attached to the beginnings of words; suffixes, that are attached at the end; and infixes, inserted in the middle. See also epenthesis...
is similar to the FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
circumfix ne ... pas, where ne comes from Latin non "not" and pas comes from Latin passus "step". (Originally, pas would have been used specifically with motion verbs, as in "I didn't walk a step", and then was generalized to other verbs.)
The structure can end in a consonant /ʃ/ or in a vowel /i/, varying according to the individual or region. The fuller ending /ʃi/ is considered rural, and nowadays CaireneCairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
speakers usually use the shorter /ʃ/. However, /ʃi/ was more common in the past, as attested in old filmsThe following is an incomplete list of Egyptian films of the 1940s. For an A-Z list of films currently on Wikipedia, see :Category:Egyptian films.-1940s:-External links:* at the Internet Movie Database...
.
The negative circumfix often surrounds the entire verbal composite including direct and indirect object pronouns: "he didn't write them to me"
However, verbs in the future tense typically instead use the prefix /miʃ/: (or /ma-ħa-jikˈtibʃ/ "he won't write"
Interrogative sentences can be formed by adding the negation cliticIn morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
"({{unicode|miʃ}})" before the verb:
- Past: /ˈkatab/ "he wrote"; /miʃ-ˈkatab/ "didn't he write?"
- Present: /ˈjiktib/ "he writes"; /miʃ-bi-ˈjiktib/ "doesn't he write?"
- Future: /ħa-ˈjiktib/ "he will write"; /miʃ-ħa-ˈjiktib/ "won't he write?"
Addition of the circumfix can cause complex changes to the verbal cluster, due to the application of the rules of vowel syncope, shortening, lengthening, insertion and elision described above:
- The addition of /ma-/ may trigger elision or syncope:
- A vowel following /ma-/ is elided: ({{unicode|ixtáːr}}) "he chose" -> (maxtárʃ).
- A short vowel /i/ or /u/ in the first syllable may be deleted by syncope: ({{unicode|kíbir}}) "he grew" -> ({{unicode|makbírʃ}}).
- The addition of /-ʃ/ may result in vowel shortening or epenthesis:
- A final long vowel preceding a single consonant shortens: ({{unicode|ixtáːr}}) "he chose" -> ({{unicode|maxtárʃ}}).
- An unstressed epenthetic /i/ is inserted when the verbal complex ends in two consonants: /kunt/ "I was" -> ({{unicode|makúntiʃ}}).
- In addition, the addition of /-ʃ/ triggers a stress shift, which may in turn result in vowel shortening or lengthening:
- The stress shifts to the syllable preceding /ʃ/: ({{unicode|kátab}}) "he wrote" -> ({{unicode|makatábʃ}}).
- A long vowel in the previously stressed syllable shortens: ({{unicode|ʃáːfit}}) "she saw" -> ({{unicode|maʃafítʃ}}); ({{unicode|ʃá:fu}}) "they saw" or "he saw it" -> ({{unicode|maʃafú:ʃ}}).
- A final short vowel directly preceding /ʃ/ lengthens: ({{unicode|ʃáːfu}}) "they saw" or "he saw it" -> ({{unicode|maʃafú:ʃ}}).
In addition, certain other morphological changes occur:
- ({{unicode|ʃafúː}}) "they saw him" -> ({{unicode|maʃafuhúːʃ}}) (to avoid a clash with ({{unicode|maʃafúːʃ}}) "they didn't see/he didn't see him").
- ({{unicode|ʃáːfik}}) "He saw you (fem. sg.)" -> ({{unicode|maʃafkíːʃ}}).
- ({{unicode|ʃúftik}}) "I saw you (fem. sg.)" -> ({{unicode|maʃuftikíːʃ}}).
Syntax
In contrast with Classical Arabic, but much like the other varieties of ArabicThe Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
, Egyptian Arabic prefers subject–verb–object (SVO) word orderIn linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
; CA and to a lesser extent MSA prefer verb–subject–object (VSO). For example, in MSA "Adel read the book" would be {{lang|ar|قرأَ عادل الكتاب}} {{transl|ar|DIN|Qaraʾa ʿĀdil ul-kitāb}} ˈqɑrˤɑʔɑ ˈʕæːdel ol keˈtæːb whereas EA would say {{lang|arz|عادل قرا الكتاب}} {{transl|arz|ʕādil ʔara l-kitāb}} ˈʕæːdel ˈʔɑɾˤɑ lkeˈtæːb.
Also in common with other Arabic varieties is the loss of unique agreementIn languages, agreement or concord is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. Agreement happens when a word changes form depending on the other words to which it relates....
in the dual form: while the dual remains productive to some degree in nouns, dual nouns are analyzed as plural for the purpose of agreement with verbs, demonstratives, and adjectives. Thus "These two Syrian professors are walking to the university" in MSA (in an SVO sentence for ease of comparison) would be "{{lang|ar|هذان الأستاذان السوريان يمشيان إلى الجامعة}}" {{transl|ar|DIN|Haḏān al-ʾustāḏān as-Sūriyyān yamšiyān ʾilā l-ǧāmiʿah}} hæːˈzæːn æl ʔostæːˈzæːn as suːrejˈjæːn jæmʃeˈjæːn ˈʔelæ lɡæːˈmeʕæ, which becomes in EA "{{lang|arz|الأستاذين السوريين دول بيمشو للجامعة}}" {{transl|arz|il-ʔustazēn il-Suriyyīn dōl biyimʃu lil-gamʕa}}, el ʔostæˈzeːn el soɾejˈjiːn ˈdoːl beˈjemʃo lelˈɡæmʕæ.
Unlike most other forms of Arabic, however, Egyptian prefers final placement of question words in interrogative sentences. This is a feature characteristic of the Coptic substratum of Egyptian Arabic.
Coptic substratum
Egyptian Arabic appears to have retained a significant CopticCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
substratum in its lexiconIn linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
, phonologyPhonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
, and syntaxIn linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
. Coptic was the latest stage of the indigenous Egyptian languageEgyptian is the oldest known indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century AD in the...
spoken until the mid-17th century when it was finally completely supplanted by Egyptian Arabic. Some features that Egyptian Arabic shares with the original ancient Egyptian language include certain prefix and suffix verbal conjugations, certain emphatic and glottalized consonants, as well as a large number of biliteral and triliteral lexical correspondences.
Two syntactic features that are particular{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}} to Egyptian Arabic inherited from Coptic are:
- postposed demonstratives "this" and "that" are placed after the noun.
- Examples: /ir-rˤaːɡil da/ "this man" (lit. "the man this"; in Literary Arabic /haːðaː r-raɡul/) and /il-bint I-di/ "this girl" (lit. "the girl this"; in Literary Arabic /haːðihi l-bint/).
- Wh words
In linguistics, an interrogative word is a function word used for the item interrupted in an information statement. Interrogative words are sometimes called wh-words because most of English interrogative words start with wh-...
(i.e. "who", "when", "why" remain in their "logical" positions in a sentence rather than being preposed, or moved to the front of the sentence, as in Literary Arabic or English).
- Examples:
- /rˤaːħ masˤrI ʔimta/ ({{lang|arz|راح مصر إمتا؟}}) "When (/ʔimta/) did he go to Egypt/Cairo?" (lit. "He went to Egypt/Cairo when?")
- /rˤaːħ masˤrI leːh/ ({{lang|arz|راح مصر ليه؟}}) "Why (/leːh/) did he go to Egypt/Cairo? (lit. "He went to Egypt/Cairo why?")
- /miːn rˤaːħ masˤr/ or /miːn illi rˤaːħ masˤr/ ({{lang|arz|مين [اللى] راح مصر؟}}) "Who (/miːn/) went to Egypt/Cairo? (literally - same order)
- The same sentences in Literary Arabic
Modern Standard Arabic , Standard Arabic, or Literary Arabic is the standard and literary variety of Arabic used in writing and in most formal speech....
(with all the question words (wh-words) in the beginning of the sentence) would be:
- {{lang|ar|متى ذهب إلى مصر؟}} /mataː ðahaba ʔilaː misˤr/
- {{lang|ar|لِمَ ذهب إلى مصر؟}} /lima ðahaba ʔilaː misˤr/
- {{lang|ar|من ذهب إلى مصر؟}} /man ðahaba ʔilaː misˤr/
Also since Coptic, like other North African languages, lacked interdental consonantInterdental consonants are produced by placing the blade of the tongue against the upper incisors...
s it could possibly have influenced the manifestation of their occurrences in Classical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
θ ð ðˤ as their dental counterparts t d and the emphatic dental dˤ respectively. (see consonants)
Sociolinguistic features
Egyptian Arabic is used in most social situations, with Modern Standard and Classical Arabic generally only being used in writing and in highly religious and/or formal situations. However, within Egyptian Arabic, there is a wide range of variation. El-Said Badawi identifies three distinct levels of Egyptian Arabic based on chiefly on the quantity of non-Arabic lexical items in the vocabulary: `Āmmiyyat al-Musaqqafīn (Cultured Colloquial or Formal Spoken Arabic), `Āmmiyyat al-Mutanawwirīn (Enlightened Colloquial), and `Āmmiyyat al-'Ummiyīn (Illiterate Colloquial). Cultured Colloquial/Formal Spoken Arabic is characteristic of the educated classes and is the language of discussion of high-level subjects, but it is nevertheless Egyptian Arabic; it is characterized by use of technical terms imported from foreign languages and MSA, as well as closer attention to the pronunciation of certain letters (particularly qāf). It is relatively standardized and, being closer to the standard, is understood fairly well across the Arab world. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Illiterate Colloquial, common to rural areas and to working-class neighborhoods in the cities, has an almost exclusively Arabic vocabulary; loanwords are generally either very old borrowings (e.g. {{lang|arz|جمبرى}} {{transl|arz|gambari}}, [ɡæmˈbæɾi] "shrimpShrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...
," from ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
gambari, "shrimp" (pl.)) or refer to technological items that find no or poor equivalents in Arabic (e.g. {{lang|arz|تلفزيون}} {{transl|arz|til(i)vizyōn/til(i)fezyōn}} [tel(e)vezˈjoːn, tel(e)fezˈjoːn], televisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
). Enlightened Colloquial (`Āmmiyyat al-Mutanawwirīn) is the language of those who have had some schooling and are relatively affluent; loanwords tend to refer to pop-cultural items, consumer products, and fashions. It is also understood widely in the Arab world, as it is the lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
of Egyptian filmThe cinema of Egypt refers to the flourishing Egyptian Arabic-language film industry based in Cairo, the capital of Egypt. Since 1976, Cairo has held the annual Cairo International Film Festival, which has been accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations. There is also...
and television.
In contrast to MSA and most other varieties of Arabic, Egyptian Arabic has a form of the T-V distinctionIn sociolinguistics, a T–V distinction is a contrast, within one language, between second-person pronouns that are specialized for varying levels of politeness, social distance, courtesy, familiarity, or insult toward the addressee....
. In the singular, {{lang|arz|انت}} inta/inti is acceptable in most situations, but when addressing clear social superiors (e.g. persons older than oneself, superiors at work, certain government officials), the form {{lang|arz|حضرتك}} {{transl|arz|ḥaḍritak/ḥaḍritik}}, meaning "Your GraceHis Grace or Her Grace is a style used for various high ranking personages. It was the style used to address the King or Queen of Scotland up to the Act of Union of 1707, which merged the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, and to address monarchs of England prior to Henry VIII...
" is preferred (c.f. SpanishSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
usted).
This use of {{transl|arz|ḥaḍritak/ḥaḍritik}} is linked to the system of honorifics in daily Egyptian speech. The honorific taken by a given person is determined by their relationship to the speaker and their occupation.
Examples of Egyptian honorifics
| Honorific |
IPA |
Origin/meaning |
Usage and notes |
| {{transl|arz|siyadtak}} |
[seˈjættæk,
se'jædtæk] |
Standard Arabic {{transl|ar|siyādatuka}}, "Your Lordship" |
Persons with a far higher social standing than the speaker, particularly at work. Also applied to high government officials, including the President The President of the Arab Republic of Egypt is the head of state of Egypt.Under the Constitution of Egypt, the president is also the supreme commander of the armed forces and head of the executive branch of the Egyptian government....
. Equivalent in practical terms to "Your ExcellencyExcellency is an honorific style given to certain members of an organization or state.Usually, people styled "Excellency" are heads of state, heads of government, governors, ambassadors, certain ecclesiastics, royalty, aristocracy, and military, and others holding equivalent rank .It is...
" or "The Most Honourable." |
| {{transl|arz|sa`adtak}} |
[sæˈʕættæk,
sæˈʕædtæk] |
Standard Arabic {{transl|ar|sa`ādatuka}}, "Your Happiness" |
Government officials and others with significantly higher social standing. Equivalent in governmental contexts "Your Excellency Excellency is an honorific style given to certain members of an organization or state.Usually, people styled "Excellency" are heads of state, heads of government, governors, ambassadors, certain ecclesiastics, royalty, aristocracy, and military, and others holding equivalent rank .It is...
," or "Your Honor" when addressing a judge. |
| {{transl|arz|ma`alīk}} |
[mæʕæˈliːk] |
Standard Arabic {{transl|ar|ma`ālīka}}, "Your Highness" |
Government ministers The Cabinet of Egypt is the chief executive body of the Arabic Republic of Egypt. It consists of the Prime Minister and the cabinet ministers....
. Equivalent in practical terms to "Your ExcellencyExcellency is an honorific style given to certain members of an organization or state.Usually, people styled "Excellency" are heads of state, heads of government, governors, ambassadors, certain ecclesiastics, royalty, aristocracy, and military, and others holding equivalent rank .It is...
" or "The Right Honourable." |
| {{transl|arz|ḥagg}}/{{transl|arz|ḥagga}} |
[ˈħæɡ(ɡ)]/[ˈħæɡɡæ] |
Standard Arabic {{transl Hajji or El-Hajj, is an honorific title given to a Muslim person who has successfully completed the Hajj to Mecca, and is often used to refer to an elder, since it can take time to accumulate the wealth to fund the travel. The title is placed before a person's name...
|
Traditionally, any Muslim who has made the Hajj The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
, or any Christian who has made pilgrimageA pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
to Jerusalem. Currently also used as a general term of respect for all elderly. |
| {{transl|arz|bāsha}} |
[ˈbæːʃæ] |
Ottoman Turkish The Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...
pashaPasha or pascha, formerly bashaw, was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire political system, typically granted to governors, generals and dignitaries. As an honorary title, Pasha, in one of its various ranks, is equivalent to the British title of Lord, and was also one of the highest titles in...
|
Informal address to a male of equal or lesser social status. Roughly equivalent to "man" or "dude" in informal English speech. |
| {{transl|arz|bēh}} |
[beː] |
Ottoman Turkish bey Bey is a title for chieftain, traditionally applied to the leaders of small tribal groups. Accoding to some sources, the word "Bey" is of Turkish language In historical accounts, many Turkish, other Turkic and Persian leaders are titled Bey, Beg, Bek, Bay, Baig or Beigh. They are all the same word...
|
Informal address to a male of equal or lesser social status. Essentially equivalent to but less current than {{transl|arz|bāsha}}. |
| {{transl|arz|afandi}} |
[æˈfændi] |
Ottoman Turkish efendi Effendi, Effendy or Efendi is a title of nobility meaning a lord or master.It is a title of respect or courtesy, equivalent to the English Sir, which was used in Ottoman Empire...
|
(Archaic); address to a male of a less social standard than '{{transl|arz|bēh}} and {{transl|arz|bāsha}}. |
| {{transl|arz|hānim}} |
[ˈhæːnem] |
Ottoman Turkish hanım/khanum, "Lady" |
Address to a woman of high social standing, or esteemed as such by the speaker. Somewhat archaic. |
| {{transl|arz|sitt}} |
[ˈset(t)] |
Standard Arabic sayyida(t) "mistress" and/or Ancient Egyptian set "woman" |
The usual word for "woman." When used as a term of address, it conveys a modicum of respect. |
| {{transl|arz|madām}} |
[mæˈdæːm] |
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
madame |
Respectful term of address for an older or married woman. |
| {{transl|arz|'ānisa}} |
[ʔæˈnesæ] |
Standard Arabic {{transl|ar|'ānisah}}, "young lady" |
Semi-formal address to an unmarried young woman. |
| {{transl|arz|'ustāz}} |
[ʔosˈtæːz] |
Standard Arabic {{transl|ar|ustādh}}, "professor", "gentleman" |
Besides actual university professorA professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
s and schoolteachers, used for experts in certain fields. May also be used as a generic informal reference, as {{transl|arz|bēh}} or {{transl|arz|bāsha}}. |
| {{transl|arz|usṭa}}/{{transl|arz|asṭa}} |
[ˈostˤɑ]/[ˈɑstˤɑ] |
Standard Arabic {{transl|ar|ustādh}}, "professor", "gentleman" |
DriversDriving is the controlled operation and movement of a land vehicle, such as a car, truck or bus.Although direct operation of a bicycle and a mounted animal are commonly referred to as riding, such operators are legally considered drivers and are required to obey the rules of the road...
and also skilled laborers. |
| {{transl|arz|rayyis}} |
[ˈɾˤɑjjes] |
Standard Arabic {{transl|ar|ra`īs}}, "chief" |
Skilled laborers. The term predates the use of the same word to mean "president", and traditionally referred to the chief of a village. |
| {{transl|arz|bash muhandis}} |
[bæʃmoˈhændes] |
Ottoman Turkish baş mühendis, "chief engineerAn engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
" |
Certain types of highly-skilled laborers (e.g. electricianAn electrician is a tradesman specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, stationary machines and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenance and repair of existing electrical infrastructure. Electricians may also...
s). |
| {{transl|arz|mi`allim}} |
[meˈʕællem] |
Standard Arabic {{transl|ar|mu`allim}}, "teacher" |
Most working classWorking class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
men, particularly semi-skilled and unskilled laborers. |
| {{transl|arz|`amm}} |
[ˈʕæm(m)] |
Standard Arabic {{transl|ar|`amm}}, "paternal uncle" |
Older male servants or social subordinates with whom the speaker has a close relationship. It can also be used as a familiar term of address, much like basha. The use of the word in its original meaning is also current, for third-person reference. The second-person term of address to a paternal uncle is {{transl|arz|`ammo}} [ˈʕæmmo]; {{transl|arz|onkel}} [ˈʔonkel], from French oncle, may also be used, particularly for uncles unrelated by blood. |
| {{transl|arz|dāda}} |
[ˈdæːdæ] |
From Coptic languageCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
|
Older female servants or social subordinates with whom the speaker has a close relationship. |
| {{transl|arz|abē}} |
[ʔæˈbeː] |
French abbé Abbé is the French word for abbot. It is the title for lower-ranking Catholic clergymen in France....
|
Male relatives older than the speaker by about 10–15 years. Upper-class, and somewhat archaic. |
| {{transl|arz|abla}} |
[ˈʔɑblɑ] |
|
Female relatives older than the speaker by about 10–15 years. |
Other honorifics also exist.
In usage, honorifics are used in the second and third person.
{{Expand section|date=April 2011}}
Regional variation
Egyptian Arabic varies regionally across its sprachraum, with certain characteristics being noted as typical of the speech of certain regions.
Alexandria
AlexandriaAlexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
's dialect is noted for certain shibbolethA shibboleth is a custom, principle, or belief distinguishing a particular class or group of people, especially a long-standing one regarded as outmoded or no longer important...
s separating its speech from that of Cairo. The ones most frequently commented on in popular discourse are the use of the word falafelFalafel is a deep-fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas and/or fava beans. Falafel is usually served in a pita, which acts as a pocket, or wrapped in a flatbread known as lafa. The falafel balls are topped with salads, pickled vegetables, hot sauce, and drizzled with tahini-based sauces...
as opposed to ṭa`meyya for the fava-bean fritters common across the country, and the pronunciation of the word for the Egyptian poundThe Egyptian Pound is the currency of Egypt. It is divided into 100 Qirsh , or 1,000 Milliemes ....
as ˈɡeni, rather than the Cairene ɡeˈneː (closer to the pronunciation of the origin of the term, the British guineaThe guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
). The speech of the older Alexandrian families is also noted for use of the plural in the first person even when speaking in the singular.
Port Said
Port SaidPort Said is a city that lies in north east Egypt extending about 30 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal, with an approximate population of 603,787...
's dialect is noted for a "heavier," more guttural sound than other regions of the country.
Studying Egyptian Arabic
Egyptian Arabic has been a subject of study by scholars and laypersons in the past and the present for many reasons, including personal interest, egyptomaniaEgyptomania was the renewed interest of Europeans in ancient Egypt during the nineteenth century as a result of Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign and, in particular, as a result of the extensive scientific study of ancient Egyptian remains and culture inspired by this campaign...
, business, news reporting, and diplomatic and political interactions. Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA) is now a field of study in both graduate and undergraduate levels in many higher education institutions and universities in the world. When added to academic instruction, Arabic language schools and university programs provide Egyptian Arabic courses in a classroom fashion, while others facilitate classes for online study.
Text example
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human RightsThe Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
Egyptian/Masri (Arabic script; spelling isn't unified):
{{lang|arz|البنى ادمين كلهم مولودين احرار و متساويين فى الكرامه و الحقوق. اتوهبلهم العقل و الضمير, و المفروض يعاملو بعضيهم بروح الاخويه.}}
IPA Phonemic transcription (for a general demonstration of Egyptian phonology):
[ezˈzæjjæk] ("How are you [m.]") [ezˈzæjjek] ("How are you [f.]") [ezzæjˈjoko] ("How are you [pl.]") [ˈʔeː ˈdæ] ("What's all this?", "What's the point", "What's this?" - expression of annoyance)