Misplaced Pages

Western Egyptian Bedawi Arabic, also known as Sahil Maryut Bedouin Arabic, is a group of Bedouin Arabic dialects spoken in Western Egypt along the Mediterranean coast, west to the Egypt–Libya border. Ethnologue and Glottolog classify Western Egyptian Bedawi Arabic as a Libyan Arabic dialect.

This variety is spoken by the Awlad Ali tribe, who settled in the edges of Lake Maryut and west of Bihera beginning in the 17th century from the region of Jebel Akhdar (Libya). It is also spoken in Wadi El Natrun. Their dialect is phonologically, morphophonemically and morphologically closer to the Peninsular Bedouin dialects than to the adjacent Egyptian dialects. Egyptian Arabic speakers from other parts of Egypt do not understand the Awlad Ali dialect.

Western Bedouin dialects influenced the dialects of southern Upper Egypt between Asyut and Idfu, and those of the Bahariyya Oasis and Bihera.

Classification

The dialects spoken in Matruh province as well as in eastern Libya have been traditionally classified as belonging to the Sulaymi Bedouin dialects, characterized by a /g/ reflex of Qāf, the gahawa-syndrome, and feminine plural conjugations and pronouns. However, the classification of North African Bedouin dialects into Hilalian, Sulaimitian, and Ma’qilian groups is not uncontroversial, and is based primarily on socio-historical and geographical considerations. While the dialects of Tripolitania represent a continuation of Tunisian dialects, the dialects of Cyrenaica show affinities with Eastern Bedouin dialects, especially with regards to the gahawa-syndrome and syllable structure.

Phonology

Notes:

• /ṭ/ is glottalized as in Upper Egyptian Arabic:

Grammar

Pronouns

Contrary to MSA, Western Egyptian Bedawi uses the plural pronouns for dual pronouns:

The following direct object pronominal suffixes are attached to verbs:

The following demonstrative pronouns are used. The form hāḏ̣ayīəhi is also used with the suffix -yīəhi:

The following interrogative pronouns are used:

Verbs

Perfect

There are two types of strong perfect stems, CiCáC (a-type) and CCiC (i-type). Examples of a-type perfects are misák, nizál, ṭiláʿ, fihám. Examples of i-type perfects are šrib, rkib, zʿil, smiʿ, ʿrif, gdir, kbir, kṯir, tʿib, lbis, ybis.

Some perfect conjugations are shown below:

Imperfect

There are three types of strong imperfect stems, CCiC (i-type), CCəC (ə-type), and CCaC (a-type). The vowel of the conjugation prefix harmonizes with the vowel of the stem: yiktib, yərgəd, yašṛab. The conjugation of the 1st person follows the niktib-níkitbu paradigm.

Influence

Bihera

The pronunciation for ǧīm occurs in the west of the Bihera, were Awlad Ali settled. Metathesized forms such as mašzid “mosque” may be a result of the influence of their dialect.

References

1. Western Egyptian Bedawi Arabic at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
2. ^ Arabic, Libyan Spoken at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
3. Maṭar 1967.
4. Maṭar 1981.
5. Ennaji 1998, p. 7.
6. "Glottolog 4.7 - Western Egyptian Bedawi Arabic". glottolog.org. Retrieved 2023-01-01.
7. Al‐Wer & Jong 2017, p. 529.
8. Hüsken 2019, p. 39.
9. ^ Behnstedt & Woidich 1987, p. 244-251.
10. Wilmsen & Woidich 2011, p. 2.
11. Behnstedt & Woidich 2005, p. 39.
12. Hüsken 2019, p. 54.
13. Souag, Lameen (2009). "Siwa and its significance for Arabic dialectology". Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik (51): 51–75. ISSN 0170-026X. JSTOR 43525858.
14. ^ Taine-Cheikh, Catherine (2017). "La classification des parlers bédouins du Maghreb : revisiter le classement traditionnel". Tunisian and Libyan Arabic Dialects: Common Trends - Recent Developments - Diachronic Aspects (in French).
15. Benkato, Adam (2019-12-13). "From Medieval Tribes to Modern Dialects: on the Afterlives of Colonial Knowledge in Arabic Dialectology". Philological Encounters. 4 (1–2): 2–25. doi:10.1163/24519197-12340061. ISSN 2451-9197. S2CID 213987414.
16. Holes 2018, p. 80.

Bibliography

• Al‐Wer, Enam; Jong, Rudolf (2017). "Dialects of Arabic". In Boberg, Charles; Nerbonne, John; Watt, Dominic (eds.). The Handbook of Dialectology. Wiley. pp. 523–534. doi:10.1002/9781118827628.ch32. ISBN 978-1-118-82755-0. OCLC 989950951.
• Behnstedt, Peter; Woidich, Manfred (1987). Die ägyptisch-arabischen Dialekte: Texte. Delta-Dialekte (in German). Vol. 3. Reichert. ISBN 978-3-88226-415-9. OCLC 158521055.
• Behnstedt, Peter; Woidich, Manfred (2005). Arabische Dialektgeographie : eine Einführung (in German). Boston: Brill. ISBN 90-04-14130-8. OCLC 182530188.
• Ennaji, Moha (1998). Arabic varieties in North Africa. Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society. Florida Hills: Vivlia. ISBN 1-919799-12-5. OCLC 42746547.
• Holes, Clive, ed. (2018). Arabic Historical Dialectology: Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Approaches. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-870137-8. OCLC 1059441655.
• Hüsken, Thomas (2019). "People, Places and a Brief History". Tribal Politics in the Borderland of Egypt and Libya. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp. 31–59. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-92342-0_3. ISBN 978-3-319-92342-0. OCLC 1059513981. S2CID 165534196.
• Maṭar, ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz (1967). لهجة البدو في اقليم ساحل مريوط: دراسة لغوية [The Bedouin Dialect in Mariut Coast: A Linguistic Study] (in Arabic). دار الكاتب العربي،. OCLC 784347217.
• Maṭar, ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz (1981). لهجة البدو في الساحل الشمالي لجمهورية مصر العربية : دراسة لغوية [Bedouin dialect in the northern coast of the Arab Republic of Egypt: A linguistic study] (in Arabic). Dār al-Maʻārif, . ISBN 9789777334730. OCLC 60506275.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Wilmsen, David; Woidich, Manfred (2011). "Egypt". In Edzard, Lutz; de Jong, Rudolf (eds.). Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Brill. doi:10.1163/1570-6699_eall_EALL_COM_vol2_0001.

Further reading

• Behnstedt, Peter (1998). "La frontière orientale des parlers maghrébins en Égypte". In Aguadé, Jorge; Cressier, Patrice; Vicente, Ángeles (eds.). Peuplement et arabisation au Maghreb occidental : Dialectologie et histoire (in French). Madrid: Casa de Velázquez. pp. 85–96. ISBN 84-86839-85-8. OCLC 40820286.
• Owens, Jonathan (2003). "Arabic Dialect History and Historical Linguistic Mythology". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 123 (4): 715–740. doi:10.2307/3589965. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 3589965.
• Behnstedt, Peter; Woidich, Manfred (2018-10-18). "Map 3.1: The Egyptian Arabic dialect area today". The formation of the Egyptian Arabic dialect area. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198701378.003.0003.

• Bedouin Arabic
• Libyan Arabic