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Bahraini Gulf Arabic (Arabic: لهجة بحرينية, romanized: Lahjat Baḥraynīyah) is a Gulf Arabic dialect spoken in Bahrain. It is spoken by Bahraini Sunnis (Arabs and Ajams) and is a dialect which is most similar to the dialect spoken in Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE.

An sociolinguistic feature of Bahrain is the existence of three distinct dialects: Bahrani Arabic (a dialect primarily spoken by Baharna in Shia villages and some parts of Manama), Sunni and Ajami Arabic.

In Bahrain, the Sunni muslims form a minority of the population, but the ruling family is Sunni. Therefore, the Arabic dialect represented on TV is almost invariably that of the Sunni population. Therefore, power, prestige and financial control are associated with the Sunni Arabs. This is having a major effect on the direction of language change in Bahrain.

As with all Bahraini dialects, it is heavily influenced by Indo-European languages, including Iranian Languages such as the Achomi Language, an example of this is "Dolagh" (دولاغ) instead of "Jorab" (جوراب) for socks, which is used more commonly in modern Persian and Arabic; the former having been influenced by the latter, in addition to Persian, and Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindi and Urdu an example of this is that Bahrainis do not use the formal Arabic Heza'a (حذاء) to describe a "shoe" but they rather say "Jooti" (single) or "Jawati" (plural). English (itself an Indo-European language), has also had an influenced on Bahraini Arabic, for example Bahrainis say "Ambaloos" (عمبلوص) for Ambulance, and "esweech" (سویچ) for electronic keys, It is also influenced by Turkish.

References

1. Arabic, Gulf Spoken at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. Bassiouney, Reem (2009). "5". Arabic Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 105–107.
3. Holes, C. (1984). Bahraini dialects: sectarian differences exemplified through texts.' Zeitschrift fur arabische Linguistik 10. pp.433–457.
4. Stokes, Corinne (2023-12-01). "Performing Khaleejiness on Instagram: Authenticity, hybridity, and belonging". Arabian Humanities. Revue internationale d'archéologie et de sciences sociales sur la péninsule Arabique/International Journal of Archaeology and Social Sciences in the Arabian Peninsula. 18 (18). doi:10.4000/cy.11297. ISSN 2308-6122.
5. "دولاغ - معنی در دیکشنری آبادیس". abadis.ir. Retrieved 2024-09-18.
6. "دلاغ". Mo3jam معجم (in Arabic). 2019-12-23. Retrieved 2024-09-18.
7. "The Bahraini Dialect". Archived from the original on 2024-04-20. Retrieved 2024-09-07.
8. "What Languages Are Spoken in Bahrain?". WorldAtlas. 2019-09-05. Archived from the original on 2024-06-09. Retrieved 2024-09-07.
9. Bahador Alast (2020-07-29). Similarities Between Persian and Bahraini Dialect of Arabic. Retrieved 2024-09-07 – via YouTube.
10. ADMIN (2016-07-19). "Persian (Larestani/Khodmooni) Sunnis – A shaping force in Bahrain". Archived from the original on 2024-06-25. Retrieved 2024-09-07.
11. Dialect, Culture, and Society in Eastern Arabia: Glossary. Clive Holes. 2001. Page XXX. ISBN 90-04-10763-0
12. ^ Al-Tajer, Mahdi Abdulla (1982). Language & Linguistic Origins In Bahrain. Taylor & Francis. pp. 134, 135. ISBN 9780710300249.
13. "اللهجات الشعبية في البحرين وجذورها التاريخية". جريدة البلاد (in Arabic). Retrieved 2024-09-18.

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