Lebanese Arabic
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| Lebanese Arabic | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Lebanon | |
| Total speakers: | — | |
| Language family: | Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic South-Central Semitic Arabic Lebanese Arabic |
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| Writing system: | Arabic alphabet | |
| Official status | ||
| Official language in: | none | |
| Regulated by: | none | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | – | |
| ISO 639-3: | apc | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Lebanese or Lebanese Arabic is the colloquial form of Arabic spoken in Lebanon.
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[edit] Classification
Lebanese Arabic is one of the Levantine varieties of Arabic. Most of Maronites consider Lebanese Arabic a separate language, as do the radical right-wing Guardians of the Cedars group. However, if Lebanese Arabic is considered a language in its own right, then other dialects such as Egyptian Arabic, Palestinian Arabic and Iraqi Arabic, and especially Moroccan Arabic must also be considered separate languages. In fact, all Arabic dialects differ quite significantly from Standard Arabic and many are mutually unintelligible.
[edit] Changes from Classical Arabic
Lebanese Arabic shares many featural similarities with other modern dialects of Arabic. Syntax has become simpler, losing both mood and case markings. Also, verbal agreement regarding number and gender is required for all subjects, whether already mentioned or not. Also, plural inanimate nouns are treated as feminine. Classical Arabic on the other hand requires the singular for newly introduced subjects. For example, the expression "the mites have eaten me" is rendered akalatni al-barağītu ("it-ate-me the-mites") in literary Arabic, and aklūnē l-breğīt ("the-mites they-ate-me") in Lebanese. French also had a great influence on Lebanese Arabic, as the educated class tend to mix French during conversation as with most former French colonies.
Lebanese Arabic vocabulary and phonology (as in other modern-day dialects) differ from Classical Arabic.
Examples:
- In Arabic, "look inside" is translated as /ʊnðˤʊr fɪdːaːχɪl/, or in the feminine, /ʊnðˤʊri fɪdːaːχɪl/. However In Lebanese Arabic, as in Syrian and Palestinian, it becomes /ʃuːf ʒʊwːɛ/, or in the female command form, /ʃuːfi ʒʊwːɛ/.
- The following example demonstrates two differences between Standard Arabic and Spoken Lebanese: Coffee (قهوة), pronounced /qahwa/ in Standard Arabic, is pronounced /ʔahwe/ in Lebanese Arabic. The letter Qaaf is not pronounced, and the letter taa marbuta becomes a softer /e/ sound.
- As a general rule of thumb, the Qaaf is dropped from the words in which it appears, and is replaced instead with the hamza or glottal stop: e.g. /daqiːqa/ (minute) becomes /daʔiːʔa/. This is a feature shared with most dialects of Egyptian Arabic.
- The Exception for this general rule is the Druze of Lebanon who like the Druze of Syria and Israel have retained the letter Qaaf in the centre of direct neighbours who have substituted the Qaaf for the Aaf (example: "Heart" is /qalb/ in Arabic, becomes /ʔaleb/ in Syrian, Lebanese, and Palestinian.
- Unlike most other Arabic dialects, Lebanese has retained the classical diphthongs /aɪ/ and /aʊ/, which were monophthongised into /e/ and /o/ elsewhere. This has changed over time, and today the /e/ has replaced the /ai/, /a/ and /i/ in everyday conversation, and the /o/ has replaced the /au/ and /u/. In singing, the /au/ and /ai/ are maintained for artistic values.
The divergence of vocabulary has been driven by small borrowings from other languages, such as Aramaic, Greek, French, and Turkish.
[edit] Spelling reform
Lebanese Arabic is rarely written, except in novels where a dialect is implied or in some types of poetry that do not use classical Arabic at all.[1] Formal publications in Lebanon, such as newspapers, are typically written in standard classical Arabic. Like Chinese, Arabic uses a single literary language (Fuṣ′ḥá) for writing. While Arabic script is usually employed, informal usage such as online chat may mix-and-match Latin letter transliterations. Saïd Akl proposed the use of the Latin alphabet but this did not gain wide acceptance. Whereas some works, such as Romeo and Juliet and Plato's Dialogues have been transliterated using such systems, they have not gained widespread acceptance.
[edit] References
- Spoken Lebanese. Maksoud N. Feghali, Appalachian State University. Parkway Publishers, 1999 (ISBN 1-887905-14-6)
- Michel T. Feghali, Syntaxe des parlers arabes actuels du Liban, Geuthner, Paris, 1928.
- Elie Kallas, 'Atabi Lebnaaniyyi. Un livello soglia per l'apprendimento del neoarabo libanese, Cafoscarina, Venice, 1995.
- Angela Daiana Langone, Btesem ente lebneni. Commedia in dialetto libanese di Yahya Jaber, Università degli Studi La Sapienza, Rome, 2004.
- Jérome Lentin, "Classification et typologie des dialectes du Bilad al-Sham", in Matériaux Arabes et Sudarabiques n. 6, 1994, 11-43.
[edit] External links
- Lebanese Language Audio CDs
- Online Material for Learning Lebanese Arabic
- North Levantine Spoken Arabic at Ethnologue
- Lessons of Lebanese Language
- Learn Lebanese
- Lebanese alphabet by Omniglot
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