Peninsular Arabic

Peninsular Arabic
Southern Arabic
Geographic
distribution:
Arabian Peninsula
Linguistic classification:

Afro-Asiatic

Glottolog: arab1393[1]

Peninsular Arabic, or Southern Arabic, is the varieties of Arabic spoken throughout the Arabian Peninsula. This includes the countries of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq and the tribal people of Jordan (the native Jordanians).

As this area is the homeland of the Arabic language, the language spoken there is closer to Classical Arabic than elsewhere. Some of the local dialects have retained many archaic features lost in other dialects, such as the conservation of nunation for indeterminate noand. They retain most Classical syntax and vocabulary but still have some differences from Classical Arabic like the other dialects.

Varieties

An overview of the different Arabic varieties

The following varieties are usually noted:

Footnotes

  1. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Arabian Peninsula Arabic". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
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