Libyan Arabic

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Libyan Arabic

Libyan Arabic (Libi ????; also known as Sulaimitian Arabic) is a collective term for the closely related varieties of Arabic

Varieties of Arabic

The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many Variety that diverge widely from one another?both from country to country and within a single country....
spoken in Libya

Libya

Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
. It can be divided into two major dialect areas; the eastern centred in Benghazi

Benghazi

Benghazi or Bengasi is the second largest city in Libya and the main city of the Cyrenaica region . It is also a Districts of Libya of Libya of the wider city area....
, and the western centred in Tripoli

Tripoli

Tripoli is the largest and Capital city of Libya.Tripoli has a population of 1.69 million. The city is located in the northwest of the country on the edge of the desert, on a point of rocky land projecting into the Mediterranean Sea and forming a bay....
. The eastern variety extends beyond the borders to the east into western Egypt

Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
.

transcription

Transcription

Transcription may refer to:*Transcription , the conversion of spoken words into written language. Also the conversion of handwriting, or a photograph of text into pure text...
of Libyan Arabic into Latin Alphabet

Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumae alphabet, and was initially developed by the Ancient Romes to write the Latin....
poses a few problems. First, there is not one standard transcription in use even for Standard Arabic.

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Encyclopedia

Libyan Arabic (Libi ????; also known as Sulaimitian Arabic) is a collective term for the closely related varieties of Arabic

Varieties of Arabic

The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many Variety that diverge widely from one another?both from country to country and within a single country....
spoken in Libya

Libya

Benghazi

Tripoli

Egypt

Note on transcription notation

The transcription

Transcription

Latin alphabet

International Phonetic Alphabet

The 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....
alone is not sufficient as it obscures some points that can be better understood if several different allophone

Allophone

In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar speech sounds that belong to the same phoneme. A phoneme is an abstract unit of speech sound that can distinguish words: That is, changing a phoneme in a word can produce another word....
s in Libyan Arabic are transcribed using the same symbol. On the other hand, Standard Arabic transcription schemes, while providing good support for representing Arabic sounds that are not normally represented by the Latin alphabet, do not list symbols for other sounds found in Libyan Arabic. Therefore, to make this article more legible, DIN 31635

DIN 31635

DIN 31635 is a DIN standard for the transliteration of the Arabic alphabet adopted in 1982. It is based on the rules of the Deutsche Morgenl?ndische Gesellschaft as modified by the International Orientalist Congress 1936 in Rome....
is used with a few additions to render phoneme

Phoneme

In human language, a phoneme is the smallest posited linguistically distinctive unit of sound. Phonemes carry no semantic content themselves. In theoretical terms, phonemes are not the physical segment s themselves, but cognitive abstractions or categorizations of them....
s particular to Libyan Arabic. These additions are as follow:

IPA	Extended DIN
g	g
o?	o
e?	e
?	?
z?	z
	j

History

Two major historical events have shaped the Libyan dialect; the Hilalian

Banu Hilal

The Banu Hilal were a confederation of Arab tribes that migrated from Arabia into North Africa in the 11th century, having been sent by the Fatimids to punish the Zirids for abandoning Shiism....
-Sulaimi

Beni Sulaym

An Arab tribe that lived in Hejaz and Nejd in the rise of Islam, it will settle North Africa along with Banu Hilal in the 11th century....
migration, and the migration of Arabs from Muslim Spain to North Africa following the reconquista

Reconquista

The Reconquista was a period of 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula succeeded in retaking the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims....
. Libyan Arabic has also been influenced by Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
, and to a lesser extent by Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe....
. A Berber

Berber languages

The Berber languages are a group of closely related languages spoken in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, as well as by Berber people communities in parts of Niger and Mali....
substratum

Substratum

In linguistics, a stratum or strate refers to a language that influences, or is influenced by another through language contact. A substratum is a language which is influenced by another, while a superstratum is the language that exerts the influence....
also exists.

Domains of Use

The Libyan dialect is used predominantly in spoken communication in Libya

Libya

Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
. It is also used in Libyan folk poetry, TV dramas and comedies, songs, as well as in cartoons. Libyan Arabic is also used by non-Arab Libyans whose mother tongue is not Arabic as a lingua franca

Lingua franca

A lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues....
. Libyan Arabic is not normally written, as the written register

In linguistics, a register is a subset of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, an English language speaker may adhere more closely to prescription and description, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal and refrain from using the word "ain't" when speaking in a formal setting, bu...
is normally Modern Standard Arabic, but Libyan Arabic is the main language for cartoonists, and the only suitable language for writing Libyan folk poetry. It is also written in internet forums, emails and in instant messaging applications.

Phonology

As is the case with all Bedouin

Bedouin

Voiceless uvular plosive

The voiceless uvular plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication languages. It is pronounced like [k], except that the tongue makes contact not on the soft palate but on the uvula....
sound of Standard Arabic is realized as a g

Voiced velar plosive

The voiced velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is g....
, except in words recently borrowed from Standard Arabic.

The following table shows the consonants used in Libyan Arabic. Note: some sounds occur in certain regional varieties

Dialect

A dialect is a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class....
while being completely absent in others.

**Libyan Arabic consonant phonemes**
		Inter- dental Interdental consonant Interdental consonants are produced by placing the blade of the tongue against the upper incisors. This differs from a dental consonant in that the tip of the tongue is placed between the upper and lower front teeth, and therefore may Manner of articulation with both the upper and lower incisors, while a dental consonant is articulated wi...		Dental Dental consonant In linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as , , , and in some languages....
		plain	emphatic	plain	emphatic
Stop Stop consonant A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. The terms plosive and stop are usually used interchangeably, but they are not perfect synonyms....	voiceless
	voiced
Fricative	voiceless
Fricative	voiced
Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is produced with a lowered soft palate in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound, but the air does not escape through the mouth as it is blocked by the tongue....
Lateral Lateral consonant Laterals are "L"-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue....
Tap					r?
Approximant

In western dialects, the interdental fricatives have merged with the corresponding dental stops . Eastern dialects generally still distinguish the two sets, but there is a tendency to replace with .

The e and o vowels exist only in long form. This can be explained by the fact that these vowels were originally diphthong

Diphthong

In phonetics, a diphthong, or , is a contour vowel?that is, a unitary vowel that changes vowel quality during its pronunciation, or "glides", with a glissando of the tongue from one articulation to another, as in the English words eye, boy, and cow. This contrasts with "pure" vowels, or monophthongs, where the tongue is held s...
s in Classical Arabic with /e:/ replacing /ai/ and /o:/ replacing /au/. In some eastern varieties, however, the classical /ai/ has changed to /ei/ and /au/ to /ou/.

Libyan Arabic has at least three clicks

Click consonant

Clicks are speech sounds such as English tsk! tsk! used to express disapproval, or the tchick! used to spur on a horse. In many languages of southern Africa, and in three languages of East Africa, they are ordinary consonants, found for example in the name of the language Xhosa language....
, which are used interjection

Interjection

An interjection is a part of speech that usually has no grammatical connection with the rest of the Sentence and simply expresses emotion on the part of the speaker, although most interjections have clear definitions....
ally, a trait shared with the Bedouin

Bedouin

The Bedouin, , are predominantly Muslim, desert-dwelling Arab nomadic pastoralist, or previously nomadic group, found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert , Sinai Peninsula, and Negev to the Arabian Desert....
dialects of central Arabia. The first is used for affirmative responses and is generally considered very casual and sometimes associated with low social status. The second is a dental click

Dental click

The dental clicks are a family of click consonants found, as constituents of words, only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia....
and used for negative responses and is similar to the English 'tut'. The third is a palatal click

Palatal click

The palato-alveolar clicks are a family of click consonants found only in Africa. They are commonly called palatal clicks.The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the forward articulation of these sounds is ....
used exclusively by women having a meaning close to that of the English word 'alas'.

Syllable structure

Although Western Libyan Arabic allows for the following syllable structure to occur.

syllable: C₁(C₂)V₁(V₂)(C₃)(C₄)

An anaptyctic

Epenthesis

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 and anaptyxis ....
is inserted between C₃ and C₄ to ease pronunciation, changing the structure above into the following.

C₁(C₂)V₁(V₂)(C₃)?(C₄).

On the other hand Eastern Libyan always has an anaptyctic

Epenthesis

C₁?(C₂)V₁(V₂)(C₃)(C₄).

Vocabulary

Most of the vocabulary in Libyan Arabic is of Classical Arabic origin, usually with a modified interconsonantal vowel structure. Many Italian loanwords also exist, in addition to Turkish

Turkish language

Berber languages

The Berber languages are a group of closely related languages spoken in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, as well as by Berber people communities in parts of Niger and Mali....
and English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
words.

Relation to Classical Arabic vocabulary

The bulk of vocabulary in Libyan Arabic has the same meaning as in Classical Arabic. However, many words have different but related meanings to those of Classical Arabic

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 Caliphate and Abbasid Caliphate times ....
. The following table serves to illustrate this relation. The past tense

Past tense

The past tense is a verb grammatical tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past of the current moment , or prior to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future ....
is used in the case of verbs as it is more distinctive and has been traditionally used in Arabic lexicon

Lexicon

In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes....
s. Canonically, these verbs are pronounced with the final 'a' (marker of the past tense in Classical Arabic). This notation is preserved the table below. However, the relation between Libyan and Classical Arabic verbs can be better understood if the final 'a' is dropped, in accordance with the elision

Elision

Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce. Sometimes, sounds may be elided for euphony effect....
rule of pre-pause vowels of Classical Arabic.

Comparison of Meanings Between Libyan Arabic Words and Classical Arabic Words
Libyan Arabic Meaning			Classical Arabic
Word1	IPA¹	Meaning	Word	IPA	Closest Meaning
šba?	?bah	(3rd m.) saw (perceived with the eyes)	šaba?	?abaha
dwe	dwe	(3rd m.) spoke	dawa	dawa?
lo?	lo?h	wood	law?	lauh
wa??r	w????r	difficult	wa?r	wa?r
ša????	?ah??t?	(3rd m. trans.) stretched	ša?i?	?ahit??

1. Western Libyan pronunciation is used in the above table.

Italian loanwords

Italian loanwords exist mainly, but not exclusively, as a technical jargon. For example machinary parts, workshop tools, electrical supplies, names of fish species, etc.

Italian Loanwords
Libyan Arabic			Italian Italian language Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
Word	IPA	Meaning	Word	Meaning
		slope	salita
kinšellu		metallic gate	cancello
anguli	anguli	corner	angolo
		truck	ottanta	(a model of a truck of Italian make)
testa	te?sta	a head butt	testa

Turkish loanwords

Turkish

Turkish language

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
era of Libya. Words of Turkish origin are not as common as Italian ones.

Turkish Loanwords
Libyan Arabic			Turkish Turkish language Turkish is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe....
Word	IPA	Meaning	Word	Meaning
kašik	ka??i?k	spoon	kasik
šiša	?i??a	bottle	sise
kag??	k????t?	paper	kagit
šog	?o?g	plenty of	çok

Berber loanwords

Before the mass Arabization

Arabization

Arabization describes a growing cultural influence on a non-Arab area that gradually changes into one that speaks Arabic language and/or incorporates Arab culture....
of what corresponds to modern-day Libya, Berber

Berber languages

The Berber languages are a group of closely related languages spoken in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, as well as by Berber people communities in parts of Niger and Mali....
was the native language for most people. This led to the borrowing of a number of Berber words in Libyan Arabic. Many Berber

Berber languages

The Berber languages are a group of closely related languages spoken in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, as well as by Berber people communities in parts of Niger and Mali....
-speaking people continue to live in Libya today but it is not clear to what extent Berber language continues to influence Libyan Arabic.

Grammar

Libyan Arabic shares the feature of the first person

Grammatical person

Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deixis reference to a participant in an event, such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns....
singular

Grammatical number

In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
initial n- with the rest of the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum

Dialect continuum

A dialect continuum is a range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater....
to which it belongs. Similar to other Arabic dialects, Libyan does not mark grammatical case

Grammatical case

In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun indicates its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject , of direct object, or of possession ....
s by declension

Declension

In linguistics, declension is the occurrence of inflection in nouns, pronouns and adjectives, indicating such features as grammatical number , grammatical case , and grammatical gender....
. However, it has a rich verb

Verb

In syntax, a verb is a word that usually denotes an action , an occurrence , or a state of being . Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical mood and grammatical voice....
al conjugation

Grammatical conjugation

In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb, noun or adjective from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by grammatical person, grammatical number, grammatical gender, grammatical tense, Grammatical aspect, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, or other grammatical category....
structure.

Nouns

Nouns in Libyan Arabic are marked for two genders

Grammatical gender

In linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
(masculine and feminine) and three numbers

Grammatical number

In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
(singular, dual, and plural). Paucal number also exists for some nouns. The Diminutive

Diminutive

In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form, is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment....
is also still widely used productively

Productivity (linguistics)

In linguistics, productivity is the degree to which native speakers use a particular grammatical process, especially in word formation. Since use to produce novel structures is the clearest proof of usage of a grammatical process, the evidence most often appealed to as establishing productivity is the appearance of novel forms of the type th...
(especially by women) to add an endearing or an empathetic connotation to the original noun. As in Classical Arabic, rules for the dimunitive formation are based on vowel apophony

Apophony

In linguistics, apophony is the alternation of sounds within a word that indicates grammar ....
.

Indefinite

Indefinite

The word indefinite has these meanings:-*In mathematics:-**When talking about positive or negative indefinite forms in multilinear algebra, see definite bilinear form....
ness is not marked. Definite nouns are marked using the same Classical Arabic definite article al
Al-

is the definite article in the Arabic language; a grammatical particle whose function is to render the noun on which it is Prefix definite....
, but with somewhat different rules of pronuciation:

For nouns beginning with Qamari letters, the definite article is pronounced either l -for words with an initial single consonant onset
Onset

Onset may refer to:*The Onset, the Liverpool Indie Rock Group formed by Mike Badger of the La's*Onset , the beginning of a musical note or sound...
- or l? -for words with a double consonant onset. Except for the letter j /IPA:/, Qamari letters in Libyan Arabic are the same as in Classical Arabic, even for those letters that have become different phonemes such as q changing to g. The letter j /IPA:/, which corresponds to the Classical Arabic phoneme has changed from being a Qamari letter to a Shamsi letter.
For nouns beginning with Shamsi letters, which in Libyan Arabic include the The letter j
J

J or j is a consonant in Esperanto orthography, representing a voiced postalveolar fricative , and is equivalent to the voiced postalveolar fricative, , or the voiced retroflex fricative, ....
/IPA:/, the definite article is pronounced ? with the first consonant geminated
Gemination

In phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant.Consonant length is distinctive in some languages, for instance Arabic language, Estonian language, Finnish language, Russian language, Hebrew language, Hungarian language, Italian language, Japanese language, L...
.

Dual

While marking verbs for the dual number has been lost completely in Libyan Arabic -and all Arabic dialects for that matter, nouns have a specialized dual number form. However, in Eastern Libyan it tends to be more widespread.

Demonstratives

Various sets of demonstratives exist in Libyan Arabic. Following is a list of some of these. Please note that the grouping in columns does not necessarily reflect grouping in reality:

Category	Demonstr.	IPA	Demonstr.	IPA	Demonstr.	IPA	Demonstr.	IPA	Demonstr.	IPA
this (Masc. sg.)	hada	ha?da	hadaya	ha?daja	hida	h?da	ha?a	h?ð??	ha?ayehi	h?ð??j?e?hi
this (fem. sg.)	hadi	ha?di	hadiya	ha?dija	hidi	h?di	ha?i	h?ð?i	ha?iyehi	h?ð?ij?e?hi
that (masc. sg.)	hadaka	ha?da?ka	ha?akaya	ha?d?a?kaja	ha?ak	had?a?k	ha?akki	h?ð?akki
that (fem. sg.)	hadika	ha?di?ka	hadikaya	ha?di?kaja	hadik	hadi?k

Verbs

Similar to Classical Arabic stem formation is an important morphological aspect of Libyan Arabic. However, stems III and X are unproductive, whereas stems IV and IX do not exist. The following table shows Classical Arabic stems and their Libyan Arabic counterparts.

Verbal Stem Formation in Libyan Arabic¹
	Classical Arabic	Libyan Arabic	Status
	Past (3rd sg. masc.)	Past (3rd sg. masc.)	Status
I			Productive
II			Productive
III			Unproductive
IV		Does not Exist
V			Productive
VI			Fairly productive. (usually in verbs that allow for reciprocity Reciprocal (grammar) A reciprocal is a Linguistics structure that marks a particular kind of relationship between two noun phrases. In a reciprocal construction, each of the thematic role occupies both the role of agent and patient with respect to each other.... of action)
VII			Productive
VIII			sonorant Sonorant In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract. Essentially this means a sound that's "squeezed out" or "spat out" is not a sonorant.... s e.g. l,n,m,r. If stem VII were used with the sonorants mentioned above, the n in the stem would assimilate into the sonorant.
IX		Does not Exist
X			Unproductive (Rare)

Tripoli dialect is used in the table above

Conjugation

Similar to Classical Arabic and other Arabic dialects, Libyan Arabic distinguishes between two main categories of roots; strong roots (those that do not have vowels or hamza

Hamza

Hamza is a letter in the Arabic alphabet, representing the glottal stop . Hamza is not one of the 28 "full" letters, and owes its existence to historical orthographical inconsistencies in early Islamic times....
) and weak roots

Arabic grammar

Arabic is a Semitic languages language. See Arabic language for more information on the language in general. This article describes the grammar of Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic - the Arabic grammar ....
.

Conjugation of strong roots

Strong roots follow more predictable rules of conjugation and they can be classified into three categories for Stem I

Arabic grammar

i-verbs (e.g k-t-b to write) follow an interconsonantal vowel structure that is predominated by an i (normally pronounced [?])
a-verbs (e.g r-k-b to mount, to ascend) follow an interconsonantal vowel structure that is predominated by an a
u-verbs (e.g r-g-? to dance) follow an interconsonantal vowel structure that is predominated by an u

Please note that this classification is not always strictly followed. For example the 3rd f. past of the root r-g-d, which is a u-verb, is usually pronounced r?gd?t instead of rugd?t. Note also that a-verbs and u-verbs follow the same rules in the past conjugation.

Libyan Arabic Triliteral
Triliteral

The **root** of verbs and most nouns in the **Semitic languages** are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "radicals" . Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the derivation of actual words by adding the vowels and non-root consonants which go with a particular morphological category around the root consonants, in an appropriate...
i-Verb^1,2 Morphology for the Root k-t-b (to write) Stem I
Arabic grammar

**Arabic** is a Semitic languages language. See Arabic language for more information on the language in general. This article describes the grammar of Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic - the Arabic grammar ....

Tripoli Dialect
Person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deixis reference to a participant in an event, such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns....	Past Past tense The past tense is a verb grammatical tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past of the current moment , or prior to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future ....	Present Present tense The present tense is the Grammatical tense that may be used to express:* action at the present* a state of being;* a habitual action;* an occurrence in the near future; or...	Imperative Imperative mood The imperative mood is a grammatical mood that expresses direct commands or requests. It is also used to signal a prohibition, permission or any other kind of exhortation....
Singular
3rd (m.)			Not Applicable
3rd (f.)			Not Applicable
2nd (m.)
2nd (f.)
1st			Not Applicable
Plural
3rd (m and f)			Not Applicable
2nd (m and f)
1st (m and f)			Not Applicable

1. The i in an i-verb is usually pronounced as .
2. In roots with initial uvular, pharyngeal

Pharyngeal

The word pharyngeal, meaning to do with the pharynx or throat, may refer to:* Pharynx, for pharyngeal anatomy* Pharyngeal muscles**Superior pharyngeal constrictor muscle...
and glottal

Glottal consonant

Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricatives, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider them to be consonants at all....
phonemes (namely , but not ), i in the present and imperative is pronounced as . For example, the root (to overcome) is conjugated as , , etc.

Libyan Arabic Triliteral
Triliteral

The **root** of verbs and most nouns in the **Semitic languages** are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "radicals" . Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the derivation of actual words by adding the vowels and non-root consonants which go with a particular morphological category around the root consonants, in an appropriate...
a-Verb¹ Morphology for the Root (to mount, to ascend) Stem I
Arabic grammar

**Arabic** is a Semitic languages language. See Arabic language for more information on the language in general. This article describes the grammar of Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic - the Arabic grammar ....

Tripoli Dialect
Person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deixis reference to a participant in an event, such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns....	Past Past tense The past tense is a verb grammatical tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past of the current moment , or prior to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future ....	Present Present tense The present tense is the Grammatical tense that may be used to express:* action at the present* a state of being;* a habitual action;* an occurrence in the near future; or...	Imperative Imperative mood The imperative mood is a grammatical mood that expresses direct commands or requests. It is also used to signal a prohibition, permission or any other kind of exhortation....
Singular
3rd (m.)			Not Applicable
3rd (f.)			Not Applicable
2nd (m.)
2nd (f.)
1st			Not Applicable
Plural
3rd (m and f)			Not Applicable
2nd (m and f)
1st (m and f)			Not Applicable

1.Realized variously as a and ? depending on the consonat structure of the word.

Libyan Arabic Triliteral
Triliteral

The **root** of verbs and most nouns in the **Semitic languages** are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "radicals" . Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the derivation of actual words by adding the vowels and non-root consonants which go with a particular morphological category around the root consonants, in an appropriate...
u-Verb¹ Morphology for the Root (to dance) Stem I
Arabic grammar

**Arabic** is a Semitic languages language. See Arabic language for more information on the language in general. This article describes the grammar of Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic - the Arabic grammar ....

Tripoli Dialect
Person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deixis reference to a participant in an event, such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns....	Past Past tense The past tense is a verb grammatical tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past of the current moment , or prior to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future ....	Present Present tense The present tense is the Grammatical tense that may be used to express:* action at the present* a state of being;* a habitual action;* an occurrence in the near future; or...	Imperative Imperative mood The imperative mood is a grammatical mood that expresses direct commands or requests. It is also used to signal a prohibition, permission or any other kind of exhortation....
Singular
3rd (m.)			Not Applicable
3rd (f.)			Not Applicable
2nd (m.)
2nd (f.)
1st			Not Applicable
Plural
3rd (m and f)			Not Applicable
2nd (m and f)
1st (m and f)			Not Applicable

1. In roots with initial uvular, pharyngeal

Pharyngeal

The word pharyngeal, meaning to do with the pharynx or throat, may refer to:* Pharynx, for pharyngeal anatomy* Pharyngeal muscles**Superior pharyngeal constrictor muscle...
and glottal

Glottal consonant

Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricatives, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider them to be consonants at all....
phonemes (namely , but not ) , u in the present and imperative is realised by . For example, the root (to scoop up) is conjugated as , , etc.\\ It also should be noted that conjugation in the Eastern Libyan Arabic is more fine grained, yielding a richer structure.

Future tense

Future in Libyan Arabic is formed by prefixing an initial - usually contracted to - to the present tense conjugation. Thus, 'tikt?b' (she writes) becomes 'btikt?b' (she will write). This should not be confused with the indicative marker common in some Eastern Arabic varieties.

Intelligibility with other varieties of Arabic

Libyan Arabic is highly intelligible to Tunisians and to a good extent to eastern Algerians. However for most eastern Arabic speakers, including Egyptians, it can be difficult to understand and requires some adaptation.

Libyans usually have to substitute some Libyan Arabic words to make themselves understood to other Arabic speakers, especially Middle East

Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
erners. Substitute words are usually borrowed from Modern Standard or Egyptian Arabic

Egyptian Arabic

Egyptian Arabic is a Varieties of Arabic of the Arabic language of the Semitic languages branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages. It originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt around the capital Cairo....
. The following table shows some of the commonly replaced words.

Libyan Arabic	IPA	Meaning
halba		Plenty
dar		(he) did
dwe		(he) spoke
ga?miz		(he) sat
ngaz		(he) jumped
?nab		(he) stole

Generally, all Italian and to some extent Turkish loanwords are substituted. It should be noted, however, that if a word is replaced it does not mean that it is exclusively Libyan. This situation sometimes arises because the speaker, mistakenly, guesses that the word does not exist in the hearer's dialect. For example the word zarda (feast, picnic) has close variants in other Maghrebi dialects but is usually substituted in Maghrebi contexts because most speakers do not know that such variants exist.

Pidgin Libyan Arabic

Pidgin

A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common, in situations such as trade....
Libyan exists in Libya as a contact language used by non-Arabs, mostly Saharan and sub-Saharan Africans living in Libya

Libya

Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
. Similar to all pidgins, it has a simplified structure and limited expressive power.

Bibliography

Roger Chambard, Proverbes libyens recueillis par R. Ch., ed. by Gilda Nataf & Barbara Graille, Paris, GELLAS-Karthala, 2002 [pp. 465-580: index arabe-français/français-arabe]- ISBN 2-84586-289-X
Eugenio Griffini, L'arabo parlato della Libia - Cenni grammaticali e repertorio di oltre 10.000 vocaboli, frasi e modi di dire raccolti in Tripolitania, Milano : Hoepli, 1913 (reprint Milano : Cisalpino-Goliardica, 1985)
Abdulgialil M. Harrama. 1993. "Libyan Arabic morphology: Al-Jabal dialect," University of Arizona PhD dissertation
Jonathan Owens, "Libyan Arabic Dialects", Orbis 32.1-2 (1983) [actually 1987], p. 97-117
Jonathan Owens, A Short Reference Grammar of Eastern Libyan Arabic, Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 1984 - ISBN 3-447-02466-6
Ester Panetta, "Vocabolario e fraseologia dell’arabo parlato a Bengasi" - (Letter A): Annali Lateranensi 22 (1958) 318-369; Annali Lateranensi 26 (1962) 257-290 - (B) in: A Francesco Gabrieli. Studi orientalistici offerti nel sessantesimo compleanno dai suoi colleghi e discepoli, Roma 1964, 195-216 - (C) : AION n.s. 13.1 (1964), 27-91 - (D) : AION n.s. 14.1 (1964), 389-413 - (E) : Oriente Moderno 60.1-6 (1980), 197-213

Links

Varieties of Arabic
Varieties of Arabic

The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many Variety that diverge widely from one another?both from country to country and within a single country....
Maghrebi Arabic
Tunisian Arabic
Tunisian Arabic

Tunisian Arabic is a Maghrebi Arabic dialect of the Arabic language, spoken by some 11 million people. It is usually known by its own speakers as Darija, to distinguish it from Standard Arabic, or as Tunsi, which means Tunisian....
Algerian Arabic
Algerian Arabic

Algerian Arabic is the Varieties of Arabic or varieties of Arabic language spoken in Algeria. In Algeria, as elsewhere, spoken Arabic differs from written Arabic; Algerian Arabic has an essentially Berber phonetic , a vocabulary with many new words and some loanwords from Berber, Turkish language, Spanish language, and French language, and li...
Moroccan Arabic
Moroccan Arabic

Moroccan Arabic is the Varieties of Arabic spoken in the Arabic language-speaking areas of Morocco, as opposed to the official communications of government and other public bodies which use Modern Standard Arabic, as is the case in most Arabic-speaking countries, while a mixture of French language and Moroccan Arabic is used in Business....