Palestinian Arabic
Palestinian Arabic is a variety of colloquial or spoken Arabic that is native to the Palestinians in the State of Palestine or the Palestinian Territories, which today comprises the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It is also spoken by the Arab community of Israel (that is, Palestinians who have remained in the parts of Palestine that came to be under control of the State of Israel in 1948 and then in 1967) and by members of the Palestinian Diaspora in the Middle East and around the world. Today, approximately 8.5 million people worldwide speak Palestinian Arabic as their native language.
Historically, Palestinian Arabic was influenced by many ancient and modern Middle Eastern languages (Syriac-Aramaic, Canaanite, Turkish, Hebrew) and European languages (Greek, Latin, French, English). As a result, its vocabulary includes lots of loan words from these languages.
Palestinian Arabic belongs to the Levantine Arabic dialect group along with the Arabic varieties spoken in Jordan, Lebanon and most of Syria. Levantine Arabic is part of the eastern (mashriqi) dialects within the Arabic-speaking world. Other eastern dialects include Iraqi, Gulf, Hijazi, Najdi, Yemeni, Egyptian and so on. Speakers of these dialects call their spoken language ᶜammiya, which means 'colloquial' or 'vernacular'. In general, differences between the mashriqi dialects are small enough to enable speakers of the Arab world's eastern region (that is, the Middle East) to understand each other very well.
Palestinian Arabic is categorized socio-linguistically into three varieties: urban (madani), rural (fallahi), and Bedouin (badawi). Each variety is recognized by its own lexical, phonological, and morphological features. The urban variety is considered to be more prestigious and speakers of other varieties especially young generations tend to switch to this variety.
Thanks to Palestine's central geographic location in the Middle East and the widespread distribution of the Palestinian Diaspora in the neighboring countries, not to mention the dialect's linguistic proximity to Standard Arabic, Palestinian Arabic is not only well understood by speakers of the eastern dialects but also by speakers of the more distant western (maghribi) dialects such as Libyan, Algerian, Tunisian, Moroccan, etc. In contrast, however, the North African dialects are more unique in structure, vocabulary and pronunciation, hence they can be a real challenge to understand to Arabic speakers of the Middle East.
Source: PalestinianArabic.com
Historically, Palestinian Arabic was influenced by many ancient and modern Middle Eastern languages (Syriac-Aramaic, Canaanite, Turkish, Hebrew) and European languages (Greek, Latin, French, English). As a result, its vocabulary includes lots of loan words from these languages.
Palestinian Arabic belongs to the Levantine Arabic dialect group along with the Arabic varieties spoken in Jordan, Lebanon and most of Syria. Levantine Arabic is part of the eastern (mashriqi) dialects within the Arabic-speaking world. Other eastern dialects include Iraqi, Gulf, Hijazi, Najdi, Yemeni, Egyptian and so on. Speakers of these dialects call their spoken language ᶜammiya, which means 'colloquial' or 'vernacular'. In general, differences between the mashriqi dialects are small enough to enable speakers of the Arab world's eastern region (that is, the Middle East) to understand each other very well.
Palestinian Arabic is categorized socio-linguistically into three varieties: urban (madani), rural (fallahi), and Bedouin (badawi). Each variety is recognized by its own lexical, phonological, and morphological features. The urban variety is considered to be more prestigious and speakers of other varieties especially young generations tend to switch to this variety.
Thanks to Palestine's central geographic location in the Middle East and the widespread distribution of the Palestinian Diaspora in the neighboring countries, not to mention the dialect's linguistic proximity to Standard Arabic, Palestinian Arabic is not only well understood by speakers of the eastern dialects but also by speakers of the more distant western (maghribi) dialects such as Libyan, Algerian, Tunisian, Moroccan, etc. In contrast, however, the North African dialects are more unique in structure, vocabulary and pronunciation, hence they can be a real challenge to understand to Arabic speakers of the Middle East.
Source: PalestinianArabic.com
