Northwest Arabian Arabic

Northwest Arabian Arabic (also called Levantine Bedawi Arabic or Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic) is a proposed^[2] subfamily of Arabic encompassing the traditional Bedouin dialects of the Sinai Peninsula, the Negev, Gaza Strip, southern Jordan, and the northwestern corner of Saudi Arabia.^[2]

The dialect of the Maʿāzah in the Egyptian Eastern Desert borders the dialect of the ʿAbābdah, who speak a dialect more closely related to Sudanese Arabic.^[3] Research is needed to establish whether the Maʿāzah dialect is the southwestern extremity of Northwest Arabian on the Egyptian mainland.^[3]

In Saudi Arabia, the dialects of the eastern coast of the Gulf of Aqaba, the Hisma, and the Harrat al-Riha belong to the Northwest Arabian type, but the dialect of the Bili to the south is not closely related.^[4]

The Northwest Arabian Arabic dialects display several innovations from Proto-Arabic:^[2]

1. The voiced reflex of *q ([g])
2. The gaháwah syndrome: insertion of /a/ after X in (C)aXC(V) sequences where X is /h/, /ʿ/, /ḥ/, /ġ/, or /ḫ/, e.g. gahwa(h) > gaháwa(h) "coffee", baġl > baġal "mule".
3. The definite article al- and the relative pronoun alli are stressable as an integral part of the word, e.g. álwalad, áljabal. The initial /a/ is stable enough to be preserved after -ī (-iy), which is dropped: f-albēt, rāʿ-álġanam.
4. A number of typical Bedouin lexical items (gōṭar "to go", sōlaf "to tell, narrate", ṭabb "to arrive", nišad ~ nišád "to ask").
5. Absence of tanwīn and its residues.
6. Absence of final /n/ in the imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular, 2nd person masculine plural, and 3rd person masculine plural.
7. The pronominal suffix of the 2nd person masculine plural is -ku (-kuw).
8. Stressed variants -ī and -nī of the pronominal suffix in the 1st person singular.
9. Plural comm. forms haḏalla, haḏallāk, etc.
10. Initial /a/ in Forms VII, VIII, and X in the perfect, and stressed when in stressable position.
11. Initial /a/ in a number of irregular nouns (amm, aḫt, aḫwan, adēn, afám).

Northwest Arabian Arabic can be divided into a western branch spoken in Sinai and the Negev, and an eastern branch spoken to the east of the Wadi Araba.^[2] Several dialects of the eastern branch, such as that of the Zalabiah and Zawaidih of Wadi Ramm,^[5] and that of the Bdul,^[6] have been argued to be closely related to the western branch.

• Phonemes in parentheses occur either marginally or across different dialects

• [ʒ] can be heard as an allophone of /d͡ʒ/.

• /rˤ/ is mostly heard in the Hindiy and Ṭuwara dialects

Vowels occur in both long and short positions:^[7]

Vowels are recognized as allophones in the following positions:^[8]

Some varieties of Negev Arabic are characterized by word-internal imala of *-ā- to /ē/ in patterns where /i/ historically occurred in an adjacent syllable. It does not occur when one of the adjacent consonants is emphatic or a back consonant. Some of the patterns where it is found include the following:^[9]

• Reflexes of *CāCiC: šēyib “elder, old man”, ḥēmiy “hot”, gēyil “having said”, bēkir “morning”, wēḥid “one”, ṯēniy “second”
• Reflexes of *CiCāC(ah): srēǧ “oil lamp”, ktēbih “writing”
• Reflexes of *miCCāC(ah): miftēḥ “key”, miknēsih “broom”
• Broken plurals *CaCāCiC: gibēyil “tribes”, šinētiy “bags”
• Imperfect *yuCāCiC: ysēwiy “it equals”, yǧēwib “he replies”

Similar raising is found in the Bdul dialect of Jordan: minǣsif “mansaf (pl.)”, hǣḏi “this (f.)”, ḏ̣aygǣt “narrow (pl.)”, iblǣdna “our land”.^[6]

Some of the western dialects of Northwest Arabian Arabic (Central Sinai and Negev in particular) are characterized by an Imala of Old Arabic word-final *-ā(ʾ) to /iy/ in certain patterns of nouns and adjectives. Emphatics seem to block the shift. The following examples are from Negev Arabic:^[10]

• Reflexes of *CiCāʾ, *CuCāʾ: štiy “rainy season”, ḥḏiy “footwear”, dʿiy “cursing”, ndiy “call”, zniy “adultery”, ġniy “song”, ʿšiy “evening prayer”, dliy “pails (pl.)”, mliy “full (pl.)”, rwiy “well-watered (pl.)”, miy “water”
• Reflexes of *CiCā, *CuCā: lḥiy “beards”, griy “hospitality”, hdiy “right guidance”, hniy “here”
• Reflexes of *CiCCā(ʾ), *CuCCā(ʾ): yimniy “right side”, yisriy “left side”, sifliy “nether millstone”, ʿilyiy “upper millstone”, miʿziy “goats”, ḥimmiy “fever”, ḥinniy “henna”, juwwiy “inside”, ḥiffiy “barefoot (pl.)”, mūsiy “Moses”, ʿīsiy “Jesus”
• Feminine adjective *CaCCāʾ: sawdíy “black”, ṭaršíy “deaf”, tarjíy “sloping downwards (ground)”, šahabíy “grey, light blue”, ḥawwíy “salt-and-pepper, black with white spots (animal)”, zargíy “blue”, ʿawjíy “crooked”, šadfíy “left-handed, left”, ḥawlíy “cross-eyed”, safʿíy “black-eared (goat)”
• Broken plural *CaCCā:^[9] nōmiy “asleep (pl.)”, mōtiy ~ máwtiy “dead (pl.)”

In the dialects of southern Sinai, word-final imala typically results in /iʾ/. Some examples are íštiʾ “winter”, ǧiʾ “he came”, ḏiʾ “this, these”, tižibhiʾ “you get it”, ifṭarniʾ “we had breakfast”. In some, but not all groups, /a/ in a previous syllable blocks this imala. Like the dialects of central Sinai and Negev, the imala of feminine adjectives of color and defect on the pattern CaCCāʾ results in stressed /íy/: sōdíy “black; bad”.^[3]

The following are some archaic features retained from Proto-Arabic:^[2]

1. Gender distinction in the 2nd and 3rd person plural pronouns, pronominal suffixes, and finite verbal forms.
2. Productivity of Form IV (aC₁C₂aC₃, yiC₁C₂iC₃).
3. The initial /a/ in the definite article al- and the relative pronoun alli.
4. Frequent and productive use of diminutives (glayyil "a little", ḫbayz "bread").
5. Absence of affricated variants of /g/ (< */q/) and /k/.
6. The use of the locative preposition fi (fiy).
7. The invariable pronominal suffix -ki of the 2nd person feminine singular.

• Varieties of Arabic
• Peninsular Arabic

• Gordon, Raymond G.. Jr., ed. (2005), "Bedawi Arabic", Ethnologue: Languages of the World (15th ed.), Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics
• Blanc, Haim (1970). "The Arabic Dialect of the Negev Bedouins". Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. 4 (7): 112–150. OCLC 963504406.
• Piamenta, Moshe (1996). "More on the Arabic Dialect of the Negev Bedouins". Quaderni di Studi Arabi. 14: 123–136. JSTOR 25802794.
• De Jong, Rudolf Erik (2000). A Grammar of the Bedouin Dialects of the Northern Sinai Littoral. doi:10.1163/9789004491229. ISBN 978-90-04-49122-9.
• de Jong, Rudolf (2011). A Grammar of the Bedouin Dialects of Central and Southern Sinai. doi:10.1163/ej.9789004201019.i-440. ISBN 978-90-04-20101-9.
• Judith Rosenhouse. 1984. The Bedouin Arabic Dialects: General Problems and Close Analysis of North Israel Bedouin Dialects. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.