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Omani Arabic
اللهجة العمانية
Native to	Oman, United Arab Emirates
Region	Hajar mountains and a few coastal towns
Ethnicity	Omanis
Speakers	3.2 million (2020)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Peninsular Omani Arabic
Writing system	Arabic alphabet, Arabic chat alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	acx
Glottolog	oman1239
Areas where Omani Arabic is spoken (in dark blue those areas where it is more widely spoken).

Omani Arabic (Arabic: اللهجة العمانية, romanized: al-Lahjah al-ʻUmānīyah; also known as Omani Hadari Arabic) is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Al Hajar Mountains of Oman and in a few neighboring coastal regions. It is the easternmost traditional Arabic dialect. It was formerly spoken by colonists in Kenya and Tanzania, but these days, it mainly remains spoken on the island of Zanzibar.

Phonology

Consonants

• Velar fricatives /x, ɣ/ can be heard as uvular sounds , in the Muscat dialect.
• /k, ɡ/ can also be heard as palatalized sounds among the Muscat dialect.
• can be heard as an allophone of /l/, but is rarely phonemic.
• As for most dialects, Standard Arabic is replaced with the velar stop /g/ ⟨ج⟩, while is available in some Omani dialects, mainly Bedouin.
• The speakers of Muscat, Salalah and some Batina varieties (e.g. the center of Sohar city), as well as other sedentary dialect speakers, pronounce /q/ ⟨ق⟩ as , while the Bedouin dialect speakers pronounce /q/ as . and this variable /q/ has been a hallmark for distinguishing Bedouin and Hadari (urban) Arabs for centuries.

Vowels

• /a/ can be heard as when preceding /j/ or any non-emphatic consonant. It is heard as back after emphatic sounds, and can then be heard as when shortened. Its long equivalent /aː/, is heard as after emphatic sounds.
• /i/ can be heard as in medial position and as in shortened positions.
• Sounds /u, uː/ are often realized as near-close back sounds . /u/ can sometimes be heard as or after emphatics.

See also

• Varieties of Arabic
• Peninsular Arabic

References

1. Omani Arabic at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
2. Glover, Bonnie C. (1988). The morphophonology of Muscat Arabic. University of California at Los Angeles.
3. Al-Balushi, Rashid (2017). "Omani Arabic: More than a Dialect" (PDF). Omani Arabic: More than a Dialect: 89–90.
4. Al-Balushi, Rashid (2017). "Omani Arabic: More than a Dialect" (PDF). Omani Arabic: More than a Dialect: 89.
5. Al Nabhani, H (2011). "Language and Identity in Oman through the Voice of Local Radio Broadcasters" (PDF). Language and Identity in Oman through the Voice of Local Radio Broadcasters. The University of Edinburgh.
6. Grünbichler, Elisabeth (2015). Grammatik und Lexik des arabischen Dialekts von Buraimi (Oman). Universität Wien.

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