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Egyptian Arabic - are there sub-dialects? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5030 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu | Message 1 of 7 24 December 2013 at 7:17pm | IP Logged |
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I've just started to wake up my dormant Arabic - I can still read but slowly.
Initially I am concentrating on MSA and will then move on to Egyptian Arabic because a) there are more films in that dialect than almost all the others put together b) most of my travelling in the Middle East has been to Egypt or Morocco but I can't find materials for Moroccan Arabic - I've also heard that Moroccan Arabic is not that well understood by other Arabic speakers. My question is whether there are sub-dialects of the Egyptian dialect - eg out in the Sinai, down in Luxor etc? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4700 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 2 of 7 24 December 2013 at 8:37pm | IP Logged |
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I don't know if it's considered an Egyptian dialect, but a lot of people in the Sinai
are ethnic Bedouin, and their Arabic was closer to what I head in Jordan (and thus, for me, they were much easier to understand than anyone in the Nile Valley). Friends in Cairo say that they have a hard time understanding people from the western oases, and in particular Siwa. They say they sound more "Libyan." The culture in the far south, near Aswan, was a blend of Nubian and mainstream Egyptian. My Arabic wasn't good enough to tell if the dialect was different also. I don't know if any of this would affect your studies, though. The main choices for Arabic seem to be MSA, Egyptian, Levantine, or Gulf. Maghrebi and the other dialects don't seem to 'cross over' as well. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5030 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu | Message 3 of 7 25 December 2013 at 12:43am | IP Logged |
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That's useful - I'd heard that Siwa was substantially different AND your thought that Jordanian Arabic was closer.
Let's hope that in 6 months I can tell the difference! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4449 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 4 of 7 27 December 2013 at 2:16am | IP Logged |
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Yes, there are indeed sub-dialects, and that goes for almost every Arab country, for that matter.
The Cairene dialect is what is featured in most Egyptian Arabic courses. Saidi Arabic, which is usually used to refer to the Arabic spoken in the Nile Delta region (such as Alexandria) is a little different; for example, the letter "jeem" is pronounced more emphatically like in "jam," rather, than Cairene's "g" as in "game." As kanewai stated, western Egyptian Arabic is closer to Libyan than it is to some Egyptian dialects, and the dialects in Luxor and southern Egypt are also somewhat different. However, most Egyptian dialects are largely mutually intelligible (though at first it may require some close listening, depending on which sub-dialect you encounter). Sudanese Arabic is largely intelligible with Egyptian Arabic as well. Something that is rather interesting is that sometimes urban dialects from different countries (such as those of Cairo vs. Amman, etc.) may be more mutually intelligible at first than urban vs. rural dialects in the same country. In all, however, Mashriqi dialects are quite mutually intelligible. The only outliers I can think of (in some cases) are Yemeni and Iraqi Arabic. Maghrebi Arabic is divergent compared to most other dialects, but this is mainly due to the distinct pronunciation (its phonology and speech rhythm seems closer to Berber than to the relatively-vowel-rich Mashriqi dialects), rather than grammar. Vocabulary also plays a factor, since Berber loan words are generally unique to Moroccan and Algerian; also, there is a greater prominence of French loan words. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| IDRIS Triglot Newbie Sudan Joined 3800 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: Arabic (classical)*, English, German Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Malay, Russian | Message 5 of 7 28 December 2013 at 11:17pm | IP Logged |
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Yes, there are sub-dialects, regional as well as social. The most pronounced difference is between Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt.. But there are minor differences between dialects within the same region. For example, the dialects of Cairo and Alexandria are very similar, but there are still some features that distinguish the Alexandrian dialect from that of Cairo. There are also some differences between rural and urban areas..
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| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5643 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 6 of 7 29 December 2013 at 1:29am | IP Logged |
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Could you give us some examples of the differences between the Cairo and Alexandria dialects, IDRIS?
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| IDRIS Triglot Newbie Sudan Joined 3800 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: Arabic (classical)*, English, German Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Malay, Russian | Message 7 of 7 29 December 2013 at 1:12pm | IP Logged |
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There is the traditional Alexandrian dialect which has its own unique features, but I think not everyone in Alexandria speaks it as the city is now home to many people who moved to it from other parts of the country. However, one feature that is quite clear is how verbs are pronounced. For example, ‘You’ve grown up’ in Cairo is ‘Kibert’, while in Alexandria it’s ‘Kabart’. If you want to listen to the traditional Alexandrian dialect, go to Youtube and watch one or two episodes of an Egyptian drama series called ‘زيزينيا’.
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