The Arabic language is a Semitic language. It has many varieties. This entry looks at spoken varieties of Arabic, distinguishing them from Standard Arabic and from each other. It deals with the varieties that Arab speakers learn at home, rather than at school: Arabic is a diglossic language. Varieties of Arabic - Overview. In pre-Islamic times, Arabic had noticeable dialect distinctions - in particular between Qahtanite, Adnan, and Himyar. In modern times, the spoken languages or dialects of people througho ...

Including:

• Varieties of Arabic - Overview
• Varieties of Arabic - General varieties
• Varieties of Arabic - Pre-Islamic or pre-Arab Expansion
• Varieties of Arabic - Post-Islamic or post-Arab Expansion
• Varieties of Arabic - Sedentary vs. Bedouin
• Varieties of Arabic - Morphological and syntactic variation
• Varieties of Arabic - Phonetic variation

Read more here: » Varieties of Arabic: Encyclopedia - Varieties of Arabic

All dialects, sedentary and Bedouin, share the following innovations from Classical Arabic (CA): The dominant order is subject-verb rather than verb-subject. Verbal agreement between subject and object is always complete. In CA, there was no number agreement between subject and verb when the subject was third-person and the subject followed the verb. Loss of case distinctions. Loss of original mood distinctions other than the indicative and imperativ ...

See also:

Varieties of Arabic, Varieties of Arabic - Overview, Varieties of Arabic - General varieties, Varieties of Arabic - Pre-Islamic or pre-Arab Expansion, Varieties of Arabic - Post-Islamic or post-Arab Expansion, Varieties of Arabic - Sedentary vs. Bedouin, Varieties of Arabic - Morphological and syntactic variation, Varieties of Arabic - Phonetic variation

Read more here: » Varieties of Arabic: Encyclopedia II - Varieties of Arabic - Morphological and syntactic variation

A basic dialectal distinction that cuts across the entire geography of the Arabic-speaking world is between sedentary and Bedouin varieties. Across the Levant and North Africa (i.e. the areas of post-Islamic settlement), this is mostly reflected as an urban (sedentary) vs. rural (Bedouin) split, but the situation is more complicated in Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula. The distinction stems from the settlement patterns in the wake of the Arab conquests. As regions were conquered, army camps were set up that eventually grew into cities, and settlement ...

See also:

Varieties of Arabic, Varieties of Arabic - Overview, Varieties of Arabic - General varieties, Varieties of Arabic - Pre-Islamic or pre-Arab Expansion, Varieties of Arabic - Post-Islamic or post-Arab Expansion, Varieties of Arabic - Sedentary vs. Bedouin, Varieties of Arabic - Morphological and syntactic variation, Varieties of Arabic - Phonetic variation

Read more here: » Varieties of Arabic: Encyclopedia II - Varieties of Arabic - Sedentary vs. Bedouin

Western varieties: Maghreb Arabic Koines: Moroccan Arabic (ISO 639-3:ary) Algerian Arabic (ISO 639-3:arq , saharan: aao) Tunisian Arabic (ISO 639-3:aeb) Fully pre-Hilalian: Jebli Arabic Jijel Arabic Siculo-Arabic (extinct) Maltese language (ISO 639-3:mlt) Bedouin: Saharan Arabic Libyan Arabic (ISO 639-3:ayl) Hassaniya Arabic (ISO 6 ...

See also:

Varieties of Arabic, Varieties of Arabic - Overview, Varieties of Arabic - General varieties, Varieties of Arabic - Pre-Islamic or pre-Arab Expansion, Varieties of Arabic - Post-Islamic or post-Arab Expansion, Varieties of Arabic - Sedentary vs. Bedouin, Varieties of Arabic - Morphological and syntactic variation, Varieties of Arabic - Phonetic variation

Read more here: » Varieties of Arabic: Encyclopedia II - Varieties of Arabic - Post-Islamic or post-Arab Expansion

The main division is between the Maghreb (North Africa) varieties (characterized by a first person singular in n-) and those of the Middle East, followed by that between sedentary varieties and the much more conservative Bedouin varieties. "Peripheral" varieties located in countries where Arabic is not a dominant language (e.g., Turkey, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Chad, and Nigeria) are particularly divergent in some respects, especially vocabulary, being less influenced by classical Arabic; however, historically they fall within the same di ...

See also:

Varieties of Arabic, Varieties of Arabic - Overview, Varieties of Arabic - General varieties, Varieties of Arabic - Pre-Islamic or pre-Arab Expansion, Varieties of Arabic - Post-Islamic or post-Arab Expansion, Varieties of Arabic - Sedentary vs. Bedouin, Varieties of Arabic - Morphological and syntactic variation, Varieties of Arabic - Phonetic variation

Read more here: » Varieties of Arabic: Encyclopedia II - Varieties of Arabic - General varieties