Varieties of Arabic

For the historical family of dialects, see Arabic languages.
Different Arabic dialects in the Arab world

There are many varieties of Arabic (dialects or otherwise) in existence. Arabic is a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. Some varieties of Arabic in North Africa, for example, are incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker from the Levant or the Persian Gulf. Within these broad regions further and considerable geographic distinctions exist, within countries, across country borders, even between cities and villages.

Another major distinction is to be made between the widely diverging colloquial spoken varieties, used for nearly all everyday speaking situations, and the formal standardized language, found mostly in writing or in prepared speech. The regionally prevalent variety is learned as the speaker's first language while the formal language is subsequently learned in school. The formal language itself varies between its modern iteration, Modern Standard Arabic (often called or MSA in English) and the Classical Arabic that serves as its basis, though Arabic speakers typically do not make this distinction.

Further substantial differences exist between Bedouin and sedentary speech, the countryside and major cities, ethnicities, religious groups, social classes, men and women, and the young and the old. These differences are to some degree bridgeable. Often, Arabic speakers can adjust their speech in a variety of ways according to the context and to their intentions—for example, to speak with people from different regions, to demonstrate their level of education or to draw on the authority of the spoken language.

Language mixing and change

Arabic is characterized by a wide number of varieties; however, Arabic speakers are often able to manipulate the way they speak based on the circumstances. There can be a number of motivations for changing one's speech: the formality of a situation, the need to communicate with people with different dialects, to get social approval, to differentiate oneself from the listener, when citing a written text, to differentiate between personal and professional or general matters, to clarify a point, and to shift to a new topic.[1]

An important factor in the mixing or changing of Arabic is the concept of a prestige dialect. This refers to the level of respect accorded to a language or dialect within a speech community. The formal Arabic language carries a considerable prestige in most Arabic-speaking communities, depending on the context. This is not the only source of prestige, though.[2] Many studies have shown that for most speakers, there is a prestige variety of vernacular Arabic. In Egypt, for non-Cairenes, the prestige dialect is Cairo Arabic. For Jordanian women from Bedouin or rural background, it may be the urban dialects of the big cities.[3] Moreover, in certain contexts, a dialect relatively different from formal Arabic may carry more prestige than a dialect closer to the formal language—this is the case in Bahrain, for example.[4]

Language mixes and changes in different ways. Arabic speakers often use more than one variety of Arabic within a conversation or even a sentence. This process is referred to as code-switching. For example, a woman on a TV program could appeal to the authority of the formal language by using elements of it in her speech in order to prevent other speakers from cutting her off. Another process at work is 'leveling', the "elimination of very localised dialectical features in favour of more regionally general ones." This can affect all linguistic levels—semantic, syntactic, phonological, etc.[5] The change can be temporary, as when a group of speakers with substantially different Arabics communicate, or it can be permanent, as often happens when people from the countryside move to the city and adopt the more prestigious urban dialect, possibly over a couple of generations.

This process of accommodation sometimes appeals to the formal language, but often does not. For example, villagers in central Palestine may try to use the dialect of Jerusalem rather than their own when speaking with people with substantially different dialects, particularly since they may have a very weak grasp of the formal language.[6] In another example, groups of educated speakers from different regions will often use dialectical forms that represent a middle ground between their dialects rather than trying to use the formal language, to make communication easier and more comprehensible. For example, to express the existential 'there is' (as in, 'there is a place where...'), Arabic speakers have access to many different words:

In this case, /fiː/ is most likely to be used as it is not associated with a particular region and is the closest to a dialectical middle ground for this group of speakers. Moreover, given the prevalence of movies and TV shows in Egyptian Arabic, the speakers are all likely to be familiar with it.[7]

Sometimes a certain dialect may be associated with backwardness and does not carry mainstream prestige—yet it will continue to be used as it carries a kind of covert prestige and serves to differentiate one group from another when necessary.

Regional varieties

The greatest variations between kinds of Arabic are those between regional language groups. These can be divided many ways, but the following typology is usually used:

Moroccan Arabic (الدارجة - Darija)
Tunisian Arabic (تونسي - Tūnsī)
Algerian Arabic
Libyan Arabic ( ليبي - Liːbi)
Hassaniya Arabic
Saharan Arabic
Sudanese Arabic
Chadic Arabic
Juba Arabic
Egyptian Arabic (مصري - Masri)
Sa'idi Arabic
Mesopotamian Arabic
North Mesopotamian Arabic (Moslawi/Qeltu)
Levantine Arabic
Syrian Arabic
North Syrian Arabic
Cypriot Arabic
Lebanese Arabic (اللبنانية)
Jordanian Arabic
Palestinian Arabic
Bedawi Arabic
Included various dialects throughout the Iberian peninsula (extinct in Iberia, surviving among Andalusi communities in North Africa)

These large regional groups do not correspond to borders of modern states. In the western parts of the Arab world, varieties are referred to as الدارجة ad-dārija, and in the eastern parts, as العامية al-`āmmiyya. The varieties of Arabic are mostly mutually intelligible. In case some varieties are not, this is due to wide distances over time that created divergences in phonologies. Varieties west of Egypt are particularly disparate, with Egyptian Arabic speakers claiming difficulty in understanding North African Arabic speakers, while North African Arabic speakers understanding other Arabic speakers mostly due to the widespread popularity of Egyptian Standard and to a lesser extent, the Lebanese popular media (this phenomena is called asymmetric intelligibility. One factor in the differentiation of the varieties is the influence from other languages previously spoken in the regions, such as Coptic in Egypt, Berber, Punic or Phoenician in North Africa, and Aramaic in the Levant. Even in cases when two varieties are mutually unintelligible, eventual hinders can be solved by diglossia or multiglossia.

Modern languages have also typically provided a significant number of new words, and have sometimes also influenced pronunciation or word order. Examples are Turkish and English in Egypt, French in North Africa and Syria, English and French in Lebanon, and English and Hebrew in Israel. However, a much more significant factor for all five dialect groups is, as Latin among Romance languages, retention (or change of meaning) of the classical language form of Fus'ha Arabic used in the Qu'ran.

Examples of major regional differences

The following example will illustrate similarities and differences between the literary, standardized language, and certain major urban dialects:

True pronunciations differ; transliterations used approach an approximate demonstration. Also, Literary Arabic pronunciation differs regionally.

Variety I love reading a lot. When I went to the library, I only found this old book. I wanted to read a book about the history of women in France.
Literary Arabic ʾanā ʾuḥibbu l-qirāʾata kaṯīran ʿindamā ḏahabtu ʾila l-maktabati lam ʾaǧid siwā hāḏā l-kitābi l-qadīm kuntu ʾurīdu an ʾaqraʾa kitāban ʿan tārīḫi l-marʾah fī-farānsā
Tunisian āna nħəbb năqṛa baṛʃa wăqtəlli raħt l-əl-măktba ma-lqīt kān ha-l-ktāb lə-qdīm kŭnt nbɣīt năqṛa ktāb ʕla tārīx lə-mṛa fi fṛānsa
Algerian āna nħəbb nəqṛa bəzzāf wăqtəlli raħt l-əl-măktba ma-lqīt ɣīr hād lə-ktāb lə-qdīm kŭnt nbɣīt nəqṛa ktāb ʕla tārīx lə-mṛa fi fṛānsa
Moroccan ana ʕzīz ʕlīja bəzzāf nəqṛa məlli raħt l-maktaba ma-lqīt-ʃ mən-ɣīr hād lə-ktāb lə-qdīm kŭnt bāɣi nəqṛa ktāb ʕla tārīx lə-mṛa fə-fṛansa
Egyptian ana baħebb el-ʔerāya ʔawi lamma roħt el-maktaba ma-lʔet-ʃ ella l-ketāb el-ʔadīm da ana kont ʕāyez aʔra ketāb ʕan tarīx es-settāt fe faransa
Lebanese ktīr bħibb il-ʔirēye lamma reħit ʕal-maktebe ma lʔēt illa hal-i-ktēb li-ʔdīm kēn beddi ʔra ktēb ʕan tērīx l-mara b-frēnse
Mesopotamian (Baghdadi) āni aħibb el-qrāya kulliʃ min reħit il-maktaba ma ligēt ħaʃa hāða l-iktāb el-ʔāskī redet aqra ktāb ʕan tarīx l-imrayyāt eb-fransa
Kuwaiti ʔāna wāyed aħibb aqrā kulliʃ lamman reħt el-maktaba ma ligēt illa hal ketāb al-qadīm kent abī aqra ketāb ʕan tarīx el-ħarīm eb-fransa
Hejazi ana marra aħubb al-girāya lamma ruħt al-maktaba ma ligīt ɣēr hāda al-kitāb al-gadīm kunt abɣa aɡra kitāb ʕan tārīx al-ħarīm fi faransa
Sanaani Arabic ˈʔana bajn aˈħibb el-geˈrāje ˈgawi ˈħīn ˈsert saˈlā el-ˈmaktabe ma leˈgēt-ʃ ˈðajje al-keˈtāb el-gaˈdīm kont ˈaʃti ˈʔagra keˈtāb ʕan taˈrīx al-ˈmare wastˤ faˈrānsa}
Maltese jien inħobb naqra ħafna meta mort il-librerija kull ma sibt hu dan il-ktieb qadim jien ridt naqra ktieb dwar l-istorja tan-nisa fi Franza.

For the sake of comparison, consider the same sentence in German and Dutch:

  1. German: Ich lese sehr gerne. Als ich zur Bibliothek ging, fand ich nur dieses alte Buch, obwohl ich ein Buch über die Geschichte der Frauen in Frankreich lesen wollte.
  2. Dutch: Ik lees zeer graag. Toen ik naar de bibliotheek ging, vond ik slechts dit oude boek, hoewel ik een boek over de geschiedenis van de vrouwen in Frankrijk had willen lezen.

Or in Spanish and Portuguese:

  1. Spanish: Me gusta mucho la lectura. Cuando fui a la biblioteca, encontré solamente este libro viejo. Quería leer un libro sobre la historia de las mujeres en Francia.
  2. Portuguese: Gosto muito da leitura. Quando fui à biblioteca, encontrei somente este livro velho. Queria ler um livro sobre a história das mulheres em França.

Some linguists do argue that the varieties of Arabic are different enough to qualify as separate languages in the way that Spanish and Portuguese or German and Dutch do. However, as Reem Bassiouney points out, perhaps the difference between 'language' and 'variety' is to some degree political rather than linguistic.[8]

Other regional differences

"Peripheral" varieties of Arabic – that is, varieties spoken in countries where Arabic is not a dominant language (e.g., Turkey, Iran, Cyprus, Chad, and Nigeria) – are particularly divergent in some respects, especially in their vocabularies, since they are less influenced by classical Arabic. However, historically they fall within the same dialect classifications as the varieties that are spoken in countries where Arabic is the dominant language.

Probably the most divergent of non-creole Arabic varieties is Cypriot Maronite Arabic, a nearly extinct variety that has been heavily influenced by Greek.

Maltese is a Semitic language descended from Siculo-Arabic. Its vocabulary has acquired a large number of loanwords from Sicilian and Italian, and it uses only a Latin-based alphabet. It is the only Semitic language among the official languages of the European Union.

Arabic-based pidgins (which have a limited vocabulary consisting mostly of Arabic words, but lack most Arabic morphological features) are in widespread use along the southern edge of the Sahara, and have been for a long time. The medieval geographer al-Bakri, in the eleventh century, records a text in an Arabic-based pidgin, probably one that was spoken in the region corresponding to modern Mauritania. In some regions, particularly around the southern Sudan, the pidgins have creolized (see the list below).

Even within countries where the official language is Arabic, different varieties of Arabic are spoken. For example, within Syria, the Arabic spoken in Homs is recognized as different from the Arabic spoken in Damascus, but both are considered to be varieties of 'Levantine' Arabic. And within Morocco, the Arabic of the city of Fes is considered different from the Arabic spoken elsewhere in the country.

Formal vs. vernacular speech

Another way that varieties of Arabic differ is that some are formal and others are colloquial (that is, vernacular). There are two formal varieties, or اللغة الفصحى al-lugha(t) al-fuṣḥā, One of these, known in English as Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), is used in contexts such as writing, broadcasting, interviewing, and speechmaking. The other, Classical Arabic, is the language of the Qur'an. It is rarely used except in reciting the Qur'an or quoting older classical texts.[9] (Arabic speakers typically do not make an explicit distinction between MSA and Classical Arabic.) Modern Standard Arabic was deliberately developed in the early part of the 19th century as a modernized version of Classical Arabic.

People often use a mixture of both colloquial and formal Arabic. For example, interviewers or speechmakers generally use MSA in asking prepared questions or making prepared remarks, then switch to a colloquial variety to add a spontaneous comment or respond to a question. The ratio of MSA to colloquial varieties depends on the speaker, the topic, and the situation – amongst other factors. Today even the least educated citizens are exposed to MSA through public education and exposure to mass media, and so tend to use elements of it in speaking to others.[10] (This an example of what linguistics researchers call "diglossia").

The Egyptian linguist Al-Said Badawi proposed the following distinctions between the different 'levels of speech' involved when speakers of Egyptian Arabic switch between vernacular and formal Arabic varieties:

Almost everyone in Egypt is able to use more than one of these levels of speech, and people often switch between them, sometimes within the same sentence. This is generally true in other Arabic-speaking countries as well.[11]

The spoken varieties of Arabic have occasionally been written, usually in the Arabic alphabet. Vernacular Arabic was first recognized as a written language distinct from Classical Arabic in 17th century Ottoman Egypt, when the Cairo elite began to trend towards colloquial writing. A record of the Cairo vernacular of the time is found in the dictionary compiled by Yusuf al-Maghribi. More recently, many plays and poems, as well as a few other works (even translations of Plato) exist in Lebanese Arabic and Egyptian Arabic; books of poetry, at least, exist for most varieties. In Algeria, colloquial Maghrebi Arabic was taught as a separate subject under French colonization, and some textbooks exist. Mizrahi Jews throughout the Arab world who spoke Judeo-Arabic dialects rendered newspapers, letters, accounts, stories, and translations of some parts of their liturgy in the Hebrew alphabet, adding diacritics and other conventions for letters that exist in Judeo-Arabic but not Hebrew. The Latin alphabet was advocated for Lebanese Arabic by Said Aql, whose supporters published several books in his transcription. In 1944, Abdelaziz Pasha Fahmi, a member of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Egypt proposed the replacement of the Arabic alphabet with the Latin alphabet. His proposal was discussed in two sessions in the communion but was rejected, and faced strong opposition in cultural circles.[12]

Sociolinguistic variables

Sociolinguistics is the study of how language usage is affected by societal factors, e.g., cultural norms and contexts (see also Pragmatics). The following sections examine some of the ways that modern Arab societies have an impact on how Arabic is spoken.

Religion

The religion of an Arabic speaker is sometimes involved in shaping how he speaks Arabic. Of course, as is the case with other variables, religion cannot be seen in isolation. It is generally connected with the political systems in the different countries. Unlike that which is often the case in the West, religion in the Arab world is not usually seen as an individual choice. Rather, it is matter of group affiliation: one is born a Muslim, Christian, Jew, Sunni or Shiite, and this becomes a bit like one's ethnicity. Religion as a sociolinguistic variable should be understood in this context.[13]

Bahrain provides an excellent illustration. A major distinction can be made between the Shiite Bahraini, who are the oldest population of Bahrain, and the Sunni population that began to immigrate to Bahrain in the eighteenth century. The Sunni form a minority of the population. The ruling family of Bahrain is Sunni. The colloquial language 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 impact on the direction of language change in Bahrain.[14]

The case of Iraq also illustrates how there can be significant differences in how Arabic is spoken on the basis of religion. (Note that the study referred to here was conducted before the American occupation of the country.) In Baghdad, there are significant linguistic differences between Arabic Christian and Muslim inhabitants of the city. The Christians of Baghdad are a well-established community, and their dialect has evolved from the sedentary vernacular of urban medieval Iraq. The typical Muslim dialect of Baghdad is a more recent arrival in the city and comes from Bedouin speech instead. In Baghdad, as elsewhere in the Arab world, the various communities share MSA as a prestige dialect, but the Muslim colloquial dialect is associated with power and money, given that that community is the more dominant. Therefore, the Christian population of the city learns to use the Muslim dialect in more formal situations, for example, when a Christian school teacher is trying to call students in the class to order.[15]

Classification

Pre-Islamic varieties

Modern varieties

Northern varieties

Northern varieties are influenced by the Aramaic language.

Central varieties

Central varieties are influenced by the Coptic language and spoken in Nubia.

Western varieties

Western varieties are influenced by the Berber languages, Punic or Phoenician and by Romance languages.

Southern varieties

Peninsular Arabic

Peripheries

Jewish varieties

Jewish varieties are influenced by the Hebrew and Aramaic languages.

Creoles

Pidgins

Varieties identified with countries

Diglossic variety

Sedentary vs. Nomadic

A basic distinction that cuts across the entire geography of the Arabic-speaking world is between sedentary and nomadic varieties (often misleadingly called Bedouin). 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 of the rural areas by Nomadic Arabs gradually followed thereafter. In some areas, sedentary dialects are divided further into urban and rural variants.

The most obvious phonetic difference between the two groups is the pronunciation of the letter ق qaaf, which is voiced in the Bedouin varieties (usually /ɡ/, but sometimes a palatalized variation /d͡ʒ/ or /ʒ/), but voiceless in the sedentary varieties (/q/ or /ʔ/) (the former realisation being mostly associated with the countryside, the latter being considered typically urban). The other major phonetic difference is that the rural varieties preserve the Classical Arabic (CA) interdentals /θ/ ث and /ð/ ذ, and merge the CA emphatic sounds /dˤ/ ض and /ðˤ/ ظ into /ðˤ/ rather than sedentary /dˤ/.

The most significant differences between rural Arabic and non-rural Arabic are in syntax. The sedentary varieties in particular share a number of common innovations from CA. This has led to the suggestion, first articulated by Charles Ferguson, that a simplified koiné language developed in the army staging camps in Iraq, from whence the remaining parts of the modern Arab world were conquered.

In general the rural varieties are more conservative than the sedentary varieties and the rural varieties within the Arabian peninsula are even more conservative than those elsewhere. Within the sedentary varieties, the western varieties (particularly, Moroccan Arabic) are less conservative than the eastern varieties.

A number of cities in the Arabic world speak a 'Bedouin' variety, which acquires prestige in that context.

Variation

Morphology and syntax

All varieties, sedentary and nomadic, differ in the following ways from Classical Arabic (CA)
All dialects except some Bedouin dialects of the Arabian peninsula share the following innovations from CA
All sedentary dialects share the following additional innovations
The following innovations are characteristic of many or most sedentary dialects
The following innovations are characteristic of Maghrebi Arabic (in North Africa, west of Egypt)
The following innovations are characteristic of Egyptian Arabic

Phonetics

Reflexes of Classical q
Place Reflex qalb baqara waqt qaal qamar qahwa quddaam
"heart" "cow" "time" "said" "moon" "coffee" "in front of"
Medina, Hejazi Arabic g, occ. q galb bagara wagt gaal gamar gahwa guddaam
Uzbeki Arabic (Jugari) q, occ. g qalb baqara waqt, (waḥt) qaal qamar — giddaam
Muslim Baghdad Arabic g, occ. j gaḷuḅ baqara wakət gaal gumar gahwa geddaam, jiddaam
Jewish Baghdadi Arabic q, occ. j qalb — — qaal qamaɣ — jeddaam
Mosul, Iraq q qʌləb bʌgʌɣa wʌqət qaal qʌmʌɣ qʌhwi qəddaam
Anah, Iraq q, g qaalb (bagra) waqet qaal — gahwa —
Rural Lower Iraqi Arabic g, occ. j galub bgura, bagra wakit gaal gumar ghawa, gahwa jiddaam
Judeo-Iraqi Arabic, Iraqi Kurdistan q qalb baqaṛa waqt, waxt qaal qamaṛ qahwe qǝddaam
Mardin, Anatolia q qalb baqaṛa waqt, waxt qaal qamaṛ qaḥwe qǝddaam
Sheep nomads, Mesopotamia, NE Arabian Peninsula g, occ. j galb, galub bgara wagt, wakit gaal gumar ghawa jeddaam
Camel nomads, Mesopotamia, NE Arabian Peninsula g, occ. dᶻ galb, galub bgara wagt, wakit gaal gumar ghawa dᶻöddaam
Aleppo, Syria ʾ ʾalb baʾara waʾt ʾaal ʾamar ʾahwe ʾǝddaam
Damascus, Syria ʾ ʾalb baʾara waʾt ʾaal ʾamar ʾahwe ʾǝddaam
Beirut, Lebanon ʾ ʾalb baʾra waʾt ʾaal ʾamar ʾahwe ʾǝddeem
Jordan g gaḷib bagara wagǝt gaal gamar gahwah giddaam
Rural Jordan g galib – gaḷub bagara wagt gaal gamar gahwe – gahweh giddaam
Druze q qalb baqara — qaal qamar qahwe —
Nazareth, Israel ʾ (or k) ʾalb (or kalb) baʾara (or bakara) waʾt (or wakt) ʾaal (or kaal) ʾamar (or kamar) ʾahwe (or kahwe) ʾuddaam (or kuddaam)
Jerusalem (urban Palestinian Arabic) ʾ ʾalb baʾara waʾt ʾaal ʾamar ʾahwe ʾuddaam
Bir Zeit, West Bank k kalb bakara wakt kaal kamar kahwe kuddaam
Sana, Yemen g galb bagara wagt gaal gamar gahweh guddaam
Cairo, Egypt ʾ ʾalb baʾara waʾt ʾaal ʾamar ʾahwa ʾuddaam
Upper Egypt, Sa'idi Arabic g galb bagara wagt gaal gamar gahwa guddaam
Sudan g galib bagara wagt gaal gamra gahwa, gahawa giddaam
Ouadai, Chad g, occ. q — beger waqt gaal gamra gahwa —
Benghazi, E. Libya g gaḷǝb ǝbgǝ́ṛa wagǝt gaaḷ gǝmaṛ gahawa giddaam
Tunis, Tunisia q, occ. g qalb bagra waqt qal gamra, qamra qahwa qoddem
El Hamma de Gabes, Tunisia g galab bagra wagt gal gamra gahwa geddem
Marazig, Tunisia g, occ. q galab bagra wagt gal gamra gahwa, qahwa qoddem, geddem
Jewish Algiers (Judeo-Arabic) ʾ ʾǝlb — wǝʾt — ʾǝmr — ʾǝddam
Bou Saada, Algeria g — bigar — — gimar — —
Jijel Arabic (Algeria) q qǝlb — wǝqt — qmǝr — qǝddam
Rabat, Morocco q qǝlb bǝqar waqt qal qamar qahǝwa qǝddam
Casablanca, Morocco q, occ. g qǝlb bqar, bgar waqt — qǝmr, qamar — qoddam
North Taza, Morocco q or g? — — waqt, (wax) — gǝmra — —
Khouribga, Morocco g or q galb bgar waqt gal gamǝra qahǝwa guddam
Fez, Morocco ʾ ʾǝlb – wǝʾt ʾal ʾǝmr ʾǝhwa ʾoddam
Jewish Moroccans (Judeo-Arabic) q qǝlb bqar wǝqt qal qmǝr qǝhwa qǝddam
Maltese ʾ Maltese language
uses q for [ʔ] 		qalb baqra waqt qal qamar — quddiem
Cypriot Maronite Arabic k occ. x kalp pakar oxt kal kamar — kintám
Andalusian Arabic (low register) k kalb bakar wakt — kamar — kuddím

See also

Notes

    References

    1. ↑ Bassiouney, 2009, p. 29.
    2. ↑ Abdel-Jawad, 1986, p. 58.
    3. ↑ Bassiouney, 2009, p. 19.
    4. ↑ Holes, 1983, p. 448.
    5. ↑ Holes 1995: 39, p. 118.
    6. ↑ Blanc, 1960, p. 62.
    7. ↑ Holes, 1995, p. 294.
    8. ↑ Bassiouney, 2009, p. 26.
    9. ↑ Bassiouney, 2009, p. 11.
    10. ↑ http://www.arabacademy.com/faq/arabic_language Questions from Prospective Students on the varieties of Arabic Language – online Arab Academy
    11. ↑ Badawi, 1973.
    12. ↑ Al-Sawi, 2004, p. 7
    13. ↑ Bassiouney, 2009, p.105.
    14. ↑ Holes, 1984, p.433-457.
    15. ↑ Abu-Haidar, 1991.
    16. ↑ Macdonald, M. C. A. (2000). "Reflections on the linguistic map of pre-Islamic Arabia". Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
    17. ↑ Macdonald, M. C. A. (2004). "Ancient North Arabian". In Woodard, Roger D. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Languages. Cambridge University Press. pp. 488–533. ISBN 0-521-56256-2.

    Bibliography

    Further reading

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