Hejazi Arabic
Hejazi Arabic or Hijazi Arabic, also known as West Arabian Arabic, is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia. Strictly speaking, there are two main groups of dialects spoken in the Hejaz region, one by the urban population, originally spoken mainly in the cities of Jeddah, Mecca, Medina and partially in Ta'if and another dialect by the urbanized rural and bedouin populations. However, the term most often applies to the urban variety which is discussed in this article.
In antiquity, the Hejaz was home to the Old Hejazi dialect of Arabic recorded in the consonantal text of the Qur'an. Old Hejazi is distinct from modern Hejazi Arabic, and represents an older linguistic layer wiped out by centuries of migration, but which happens to share the imperative prefix vowel /a-/ with the modern dialect.
Classification
Also referred to as the sedentary Hejazi dialect, this is the form most commonly associated with the term "Hejazi Arabic", and is spoken in the urban centers of the region, such as Jeddah, Mecca, and Medina. With respect to the axis of bedouin versus sedentary dialects of the Arabic language, this dialect group exhibits features of both. Like other sedentary dialects, the urban Hejazi dialect is less conservative than the bedouin varieties in some aspects and has therefore shed some Classical forms and features that are still present in bedouin dialects, these include gender-number disagreement, and the feminine marker -n. But in contrast to bedouin dialects, the constant use of full vowels and the absence of vowel reduction plus the distinction between the emphatic letters and is generally retained.Innovative features
- The present progressive tense is marked by the prefix بـ or قاعد or جالس as in بيدرس or قاعد يدرس or جالس يدرس .
- The future tense is marked by the prefix حـ as in حيدرس .
- the internal passive form, which in Hejazi, is replaced by the pattern or.
- Loss of the final sound in the 3rd person masculine singular pronoun ـه. For example, بيته, أعرفه, قالوه, عليه and شفناه vs. شفنا .
- loss of gender-specificity in numbers except for the number "one" which is واحد m. and وحدة f..
- The pronunciation of the interdental letters,, and.
- loss of gender-specificity in plural verb forms, e.g. يركبوا instead of masculine يركبون and feminine يركبن.
- loss of gender-specificity in plural adjectives, e.g. طفشانين "bored" can be used to describe both feminine and masculine plural nouns.
- The verb forms V, VI and IIQ have an additional initial, e.g. اتْكَسّر "it shattered", اتْعامَلَت "she worked" and اتْفَلْسَفوا "they babbled".
Conservative features
- Hejazi Arabic does not employ double negation, nor does it append the negation particles -sh to negate verbs: Hejazi ما أَعْرِف, as opposed to Egyptian معرفش and Palestinian بعرفش.
- The habitual present tense is not marked by any prefixes as in يِدْرُس and أحبك, as opposed to Egyptian بيدرس and بحبك.
- The prohibitive mood of Classical Arabic is preserved in the imperative: لا تروح .
- The possessive suffixes are generally preserved in their Classical forms. For example, بيتكم "your house".
- The plural first person pronoun is نِحْنَ or إحنا, as opposed to حنّا or إنّا.
- When indicating a location, the preposition في is preferred to بـ as in في المدينة or فالمدينة .
- The standard pronunciation of the is as in Modern Standard Arabic e.g. الرياض is pronounced not.
- The hamzated verbs like أخذ and أكل keep their classical form as opposed to خذا and كلى.
- The use of in form I-verbs is retained as in قُلْت, شُفْت and نُطْق as opposed to, and in Najdi and Gulf dialects.
- The glottal stop can be added to final syllables ending in a vowel as a way of emphasising.
- the definite article الـ is always pronounced as opposed to Egyptian or Kuwaiti and the final ـة is always pronounced.
- Compared to neighboring dialects, urban Hejazi retains most of the short vowels of Classical Arabic with no vowel reduction or ghawa syndrome, for example:
History
The Arabic of today is derived principally from the old dialects of Central and North Arabia which were divided by the classical Arab grammarians into three groups: Hejaz, Najd, and the language of the tribes in adjoining areas. Though the modern Hejazi dialects has developed markedly since the development of Classical Arabic, and Modern Standard Arabic is quite distinct from the modern dialect of Hejaz. Standard Arabic now differs considerably from modern Hejazi Arabic in terms of its phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon, such diglossia in Arabic began to emerge at the latest in the sixth century CE when oral poets recited their poetry in a proto-Classical Arabic based on archaic dialects which differed greatly from their own.Urban Hejazi Arabic belongs to the western Peninsular Arabic branch of the Arabic language, which itself is a Semitic language. It includes features of both urban and bedouin dialects given its development in the historical cities of Jeddah, Medina and Mecca in proximity to the bedouin tribes that lived on the outskirts of these cities, in addition to a minimal influence in vocabulary from other urban Arabic dialects and Modern Standard Arabic, and more recently the influence of the other dialects of Saudi Arabia, all of which made Urban Hejazi a dialect that is distinctly unique but close to peninsular dialects on one hand and urban Arabic dialects on the other.
Historically, it is not well known in which stage of Arabic the shift from the Proto-Semitic pair qāf and gīm came to be Hejazi gāf and jīm, although it has been attested as early as the eighth century CE, and it can be explained by a chain shift * → → that occurred in one of two ways:
- Drag Chain: Proto-Semitic gīm palatalized to Hejazi jīm first, opening up a space at the position of, which qāf * then moved to fill the empty space resulting in Hejazi gāf, restoring structural symmetrical relationships present in the pre-Arabic system.
- Push Chain: Proto-Semitic qāf * changed to Hejazi gāf first, which resulted in pushing the original gīm forward in articulation to become Hejazi jīm, but since most modern qāf dialects as well as standard Arabic also have jīm, then the push-chain of qāf to gāf first can be discredited, although there are good grounds for believing that old Arabic qāf had both voiced and voiceless as allophones; and later on the gīm was fronted to jīm, possibly as a result of pressure from the allophones.
Phonology
In general, Hejazi native phonemic inventory consists of 26 to 28 consonant phonemes depending on the speaker's preference, in addition to the marginal phoneme. Furthermore, it has an eight-vowel system, consisting of three short and five long vowels. Consonant length and Vowel length are both distinctive and being an Arabic dialect the four emphatic consonants are treated as separate phonemes from their plain counterparts.The main phonological feature that differentiates urban Hejazi from other peninsular dialects in regards to consonants is the pronunciation of the letters,, and and the standard pronunciation of as in Standard Arabic. Another differential feature is the lack of palatalization for the letters ك, ق and ج, unlike in other peninsular dialects where they can be palatalized in certain positions e.g. Hejazi جديد 'new' vs. Gulf Arabic and Hejazi عندك 'with you' vs. traditional Najdi.
The marginal /ɫ/ is only used in the word الله 'God' /aɫːaːh/ and in words derived from it. It contrasts with /l/ in والله 'I swear' /waɫːa/ vs. ولَّا 'or' /walːa/. Unlike other neighboring dialects; is not velarized in certain positions, as in عقل 'brain' pronounced with a light lām in Hejazi and velarized one in other peninsular Arabic dialects. Two additional foreign sounds ⟨پ⟩ and ⟨ڤ⟩ are used by a number of speakers while many substitute them with ⟨ب⟩ and ⟨ف⟩ respectively, in general is more integrated and used by more speakers than.
A conservative feature that Hejazi holds is the constant use of full vowels and the absence of vowel reduction, for example قلنا لهم 'we told them', is pronounced in Hejazi with full vowels but pronounced with the reduced vowel as in Najdi and Gulf Arabic, in addition to that, the absence of initial consonant cluster as in بَقَرة 'cow', قَهْوة 'coffee', نِعْرِف 'we know' and سِمْعَت 'she heard' which are pronounced,, and respectively in Hejazi but,, and in other peninsular dialects.
Consonants
Phonetic notes:- the affricate is realised as a fricative and the trill is realised a tap by a number of speakers or in a number of words.
- the phonemes and can be realised as uvular fricatives and respectively in a few instances.
- the phoneme is used as an alternative phoneme, while many speakers merge it with or depending on the word.
- the phoneme is used as an alternative phoneme, while many speakers merge it with or depending on the word.
- can be analyzed as an alternative phoneme for, while many speakers pronounce it distinctly as or merge it with depending on the word.
- and merge into for a number of speakers due to the influence of neighboring dialects.
- has the velar allophone, which occurs before stop velars as in انكب and مِنقَل and is an allophone before as in قُرُنْفُل which is pronounced.
- due to the influence of Modern Standard Arabic, has been introduced as an allophone of in some words and phrases especially in the scientific and religious fields as in اقتصاد which is phonemically but can be pronounced as or depending on the speaker, although older speakers prefer in all positions.
- Word-Initial clusters like, or occur only in loanwords and they are not considered to be a single phoneme but a cluster of two sounds, e.g. ⟨ت⟩ and ⟨ش⟩ as in تْشِيلي, this cluster has merged with in earlier loanwords that are more integrated e.g. شَيَّك from English check. Clusters can occur phonetically in native words affected by syncope when connected, e.g. لا تِشِيلِي pronounced or.
Vowels
Phonetic notes:- and are pronounced either as an open front vowel or an open central vowel depending on the speaker, even when adjacent to emphatic consonants, except in some words such as ألمانيا, يابان and بابا where they are pronounced with the back vowel.
- and are pronounced as true mid vowels and respectively.
- short is pronounced allophonically as or less likely in word initial or medial syllables e.g. أخت and مشط and strictly as at the end of words e.g. شافوا or before as in هُوَّ or when isolate.
- short is pronounced allophonically as or less likely in word initial or medial syllables e.g. إسلام and قسم and strictly as at the end of words e.g. عندي or before as in هِيَّ or when isolate.
- the close vowels can be distinguished by tenseness with and being more tense in articulation than their short counterparts and, except at the end of words where they are all tense even in loanwords, e.g. شِكاقو which is less likely to be pronounced.
- The diphthongs:,, e.g. يِوْقَف and e.g. بيقول are not considered as separate phonemes.
Monophthongization
Most of the occurrences of the two diphthongs and in the Classical Arabic period underwent monophthongization in Hejazi, and are realized as the long vowels and respectively, but they are still preserved as diphthongs in a number of words which created a contrast with the long vowels,, and.| Example | Meaning | Hejazi Arabic | Modern Standard Arabic |
| دوري | league | ||
| دوري | my turn | ||
| دوري | turn around! | ||
| دوري | search! |
Not all instances of mid vowels are a result of monophthongization, some are from grammatical processes قالوا 'they said' → قالوا لها 'they said to her', and some occur in modern Portmanteau words e.g. ليش 'why?'.
Vocabulary
Hejazi vocabulary derives primarily from Arabic Semitic roots. The urban Hejazi vocabulary differs in some respect from that of other dialects in the Arabian Peninsula. For example, there are fewer specialized terms related to desert life, and more terms related to seafaring and fishing. Loanwords are uncommon and they are mainly of French, Italian, Persian, Turkish and most recently of English origins, and due to the diverse origins of the inhabitants of Hejazi cities, some loanwords are used by only some families. Some old loanwords are fading or became obsolete due to the influence of Modern Standard Arabic and their association with lower social class and education, e.g. كنديشن "air conditioner" was replaced by Standard Arabic مكيّف.Words that are distinctly of Hejazi origin include دحين or "now", إيوه "yes", إيش "what?", أبغى "I want", ديس "breast", فهيقة "hiccup", and قد or قيد "already", Other general vocabulary includes ندر "to leave" with its synonyms خرج and طلع, زهم "to call over" with its synonym نادى and بالتوفيق "good luck".
Most of the loanwords tend to be nouns e.g. "bicycle", "lime", "shrimp" and "shoe", and sometimes with a change of meaning as in: "overpass" from Turkish "köprü" originally meaning "bridge" and وَايْت "water tanker truck" from English "white", loaned verbs are rare and they follow the same grammatical rules, e.g. "to hack" from English "hack" and "to agitate" from French "nerveux" or English "nervous".
Portmanteau
A common feature in Hejazi vocabulary is portmanteau words ; in which parts of multiple words or their phones are combined into a new word, it is especially innovative in making interrogative words, examples include:- إيوه : from إي and و and الله.
- معليش : from ما and عليه and شيء.
- إيش : from أي and شيء.
- ليش : from لأي and شيء.
- فين : from في and أين.
- إلين : from إلى and أن.
- دحين : from ذا and الحين.
- بعدين : from بعد and أَيْن.
- علشان or عشان : from على and شأن.
- كمان : from كما and أن.
- يلّا : from يا and الله.
- لسّة or لسّا or لِسَّع : from للساعة also used as in لِسّاعه صغير
Numerals
The Cardinal number system in Hejazi is much more simplified than the Classical Arabic| numbers 1–10 | IPA | 11-20 | IPA | 10s | IPA | 100s | IPA |
| 1 واحد | 11 احدعش | 10 عشرة | 100 مية | ||||
| 2 اتنين | or | 12 اتطنعش | or | 20 عشرين | 200 ميتين | or | |
| 3 تلاتة | or | 13 تلتطعش | or | 30 تلاتين | or | 300 تلتميَّة | or |
| 4 أربعة | 14 أربعطعش | 40 أربعين | 400 أربعميَّة | ||||
| 5 خمسة | 15 خمسطعش | or | 50 خمسين | 500 خمسميَّة | |||
| 6 ستة | 16 ستطعش | 60 ستين | 600 ستميَّة | ||||
| 7 سبعة | 17 سبعطعش | 70 سبعين | 700 سبعميَّة | ||||
| 8 تمنية | or | 18 تمنطعش | or | 80 تمانين | or | 800 تمنميَّة | or |
| 9 تسعة | 19 تسعطعش | 90 تسعين | 900 تسعميَّة | ||||
| 10 عشرة | 20 عشرين | 100 ميَّة | 1000 ألف |
A system similar to the German numbers system is used for other numbers between 20 and above: 21 is واحد و عشرين which literally mean and 485 is أربعمية و خمسة و ثمانين which literally mean.
Unlike Classical Arabic, the only number that is gender specific in Hejazi is "one" which has two forms واحد m. and وحدة f. as in كتاب واحد or سيارة وحدة, with كتاب being a masculine noun and سيّارة a feminine noun.
- for 2 as in 'two cars' 'two years' 'two houses' etc. the dual form is used instead of the number, with the suffix ēn or tēn as in كتابين or سيّارتين, for emphasis they can be said as كتابين اثنين or سيّارتين اثنين.
- for numbers 3 to 10 the noun following the number is in plural form as in أربعة كتب or عشرة سيّارات .
- for numbers 11 and above the noun following the number is in singular form as in:-
- * from 11 to 19 an ـر is added to the end of the numbers as in أربعطعشر كتاب or احدعشر سيّارة .
- * for 100s a is added to the end of the numbers before the counted nouns as in ثلثميّة سيّارة .
- * other numbers are simply added to the singular form of the noun واحد و عشرين كتاب .
Grammar
Subject pronouns
In Hejazi Arabic, personal pronouns have eight forms. In singular, the 2nd and 3rd persons differentiate gender, while the 1st person and plural do not. The negative articles include لا as in لا تكتب, ما as in ما بيتكلم and مو as in مو كذاVerbs
Hejazi Arabic verbs, as with the verbs in other Semitic languages, and the entire vocabulary in those languages, are based on a set of three, four, or even five consonants called a root. The root communicates the basic meaning of the verb, e.g. ' 'to write', ' 'to eat'. Changes to the vowels in between the consonants, along with prefixes or suffixes, specify grammatical functions such as :- Two tenses, future is indicated by the prefix )
- Two voices
- Two genders
- Three persons
- Two numbers
Regular verbs
The most common verbs in Hejazi have a given vowel pattern for past to present. Combinations of each exist:According to Arab grammarians, verbs are divided into three categories; Past ماضي, Present مضارع and Imperative أمر. An example from the root ' the verb katabt'/ʼaktub 'i wrote/i write' :
While present progressive and future are indicated by adding the prefix and respectively to the present :
- * The verbs highlighted in silver sometimes come in irregular forms e.g. حبيت -t "i loved", حبينا -na "we loved" but ّحب "he loved" and حبُّوا -u "they loved".
- * additional final ا to ـوا in all plural verbs is silent.
- The Active Participles قاعد, قاعدة and قاعدين can be used instead of the prefix بـ as in قاعد اكتب instead of بأكتب or بكتب without any change in the meaning. The active participles جالس, جالسة and جالسين are used in the same way.
- The past tenses of the verbs قعد or جلس can be used before present verbs to express a past continuous tense which is similar to the English usage of
| Number/Gender | اسم الفاعل Active Participle | اسم المفعول Passive Participle | مصدر Verbal Noun |
| Masc. Sg. | kātib كاتب | maktūb مكتوب | kitāba كتابة |
| Fem. Sg. | kātb-a كاتبة | maktūb-a مكتوبة | kitāba كتابة |
| Pl. | kātb-īn كاتبين | maktūb-īn مكتوبين | kitāba'' كتابة |
Active participles act as adjectives, and so they must agree with their subject. An active participle can be used in several ways:
- to describe a state of being.
- to describe what someone is doing right now as in some verbs like رحت the active participle رايح is used instead of present continuous form to give the same meaning of an ongoing action.
- to indicate that someone/something is in a state of having done something.
Passive Voice
The passive voice is expressed through two patterns; or, while most verbs can take either pattern as in أتكتب or أنكتب "it was written" and يتكتب or ينكتب "it is being written", other verbs can only have one of the two patterns as in اتوقف "he was stopped" and يتوقف "he is being stopped".Adjectives
In Hejazi, adjectives, demonstratives and verbs fully agree in gender and number, e.g. ولد كبير "big boy" and بنت كبيرة "big girl". But there are two exceptions; First, there is no agreement in dual number; e.g. بنتين "two girls" takes the plural adjective as in بنتين كبار "two big girls". Second, and more importantly, gender agreement is syncretic in the plural, in which inanimate plural nouns take a feminine singular adjective e.g. سيارات كبيرة "big cars" instead of the plural adjective, while animate plural nouns take the plural adjective as in بنات كبار "big girls". The plural feminine adjective كبيرات can be used as well but it is rather archaic.| Number/Gender | Adjective | Usage notes |
| Masc. Sg. | kabīr كبير | with singular masculine nouns |
| Fem. Sg. | kabīra كبيرة | with singular feminine and inanimate plural nouns |
| Common Pl. | kubār كبار or kabīrīn كبيرين | with dual and animate plural nouns |
Pronouns
Enclitic pronouns
Enclitic forms of personal pronouns are suffixes that are affixed to various parts of speech, with varying meanings:- To the construct state of nouns, where they have the meaning of possessive demonstratives, e.g. "my, your, his".
- To verbs, where they have the meaning of direct object pronouns, e.g. "me, you, him".
- To verbs, where they have the meaning of indirect object pronouns, e.g. " me, you, him".
- To prepositions.
- if a noun ends with a vowel that is or then the suffix is used as in أبو becomes أبويَ but if it ends with an then the suffix is added as in كُرْسِيَّ from كُرْسِي .
- the colon between the parentheses - indicates that the final vowel of a word is lengthened as in كرسي → كرسيه, since the word-final ـه is silent in this position. although in general it is uncommon for Hejazi nouns to end in a vowel other than the of the feminine nouns.
- The indirect object pronouns are written separately from the verbs as per Classical Arabic convention, but they are pronounced as if they are fused with the verbs. They are still written separately by many writers as in كتبت له but they can be written intact كتبتله since Hejazi does not have a written standard.
- When a noun ends in a feminine vowel as in مدرسة : a is added before the suffixes as in → مدرستي, مدرسته, مدرستها and so on.
- After a word ends in a vowel, the vowel is lengthened, and the pronouns in are used instead of their original counterparts :-
- * as in the noun كرسي → كرسيه, كرسينا, كرسيكي and the verb لاحقنا → لاحقناه, لاحقناكي .
- * the indirect object pronouns رحنا → رحنا له .
- After a word that ends in two consonants, or which has a long vowel in the last syllable, is inserted before the 5 suffixes which begin with a consonant,,,,.
- * as in the noun كتاب → كتابها, كتابهم, كتابكم, كتابنا or the verb عرفت → عرفتني, عرفتنا, عرفتها, عرفتهم .
- * When a verb ends in two consonants as in رحت : an is added before the Indirect object pronoun suffixes → رحت له or in كتبت becomes كتبت له, كتبت لهم .
- the 3rd person past plural suffix -/u/ turns into -/oː/ before pronouns, as in عرفوا → عرفوني, راحوا → راحوا له or كتبوا → كتبوا لي
Hollow Verbs vowel shortening
Medial vowel shortening occurs in Hollow verbs when added to Indirect object pronouns:- when a verb has a long vowel in the last syllable as in أروح, يروح or نروح ; the vowel is shortened before the suffixes as in أرُح له, يرح له and نرُح له with the verbs resembling the Jussive (مجزوم majzūm) mood conjugation in Classical Arabic, original forms as in أرُوح له or يروح له can be used depending on the writer but the vowels are still shortened in pronunciation.
- This does effect past verbs as well but the form of the word does not change, as in راح rāḥ which is pronounced راح له after adding a pronoun.
- Other hollow verbs include أعيد or قول which become أعِيد لك / أعِد لك and قُول لها / قُل لها
Writing system
Hejazi does not have a standardized form of writing and mostly follows Classical Arabic rules of writing. The main difference between classical Arabic and Hejazi are the alternations of the Hamza, some verb forms and the final long vowels, this alternation happened since most word-final short vowels from the classical period have been omitted and most word-final unstressed long vowel have been shortened in Hejazi. Another alternation is writing the words according to the phoneme used while pronouncing them, rather than their etymology which mainly has an effect on the three letters and, for example writing تخين "thick, fat" instead of ثخين or ديل "tail" instead of ذيل although this alternation in writing is not considered acceptable by many or most Hejazi speakers. The alphabet still uses the same set of letters as Classical Arabic in addition to two option letters ⟨پ⟩ and ⟨ڤ⟩ which are only used in writing loanwords and they can be substituted by and respectively depending on the writer, in addition to that the vowels and which were not part of the CA phonemic inventory are represented by the letters and respectively.Differences Between Classical and Hejazi writing
- Hamza :
- * Initial hamza holds little phonemic value in Hejazi but it can be used as per Classical Arabic convention, e.g. أزرق "blue" or أخذ "he took" can be written as ازرق or اخذ but long initial is more important to indicate, e.g. آسف "sorry" to differentiate it from اَسَف / أَسَف "regret".
- * Medial hamza is merged with the semi-vowels and as in رايِح "going" from رائِح and لولو "pearl" from لؤلؤ, or it can be completely elided as in جات "she came" from جاءت or جوا "they came" from جاؤوا, but other words keep the medial hamza as in مسؤول "responsible" and مسائل "issues".
- * Final hamza is omitted in most Hejazi words as in غدا "lunch" from غداء, خضرا "green" from خضراء, but some words keep the final hamza as in مُبْتَدئ "beginner" and بطء "slowness".
- Added medial long vowels :
- * some words have elongated medial vowels in Hejazi as in معاك "with you" from مَعَكَ, ليك "to you, for you" which could be from the classical َلَك or إِلَيْك, and مين "who" from مَن.
- * 2nd person masculine singular imperative in hollow verbs keep their long vowels as روح "go!" as opposed to classical رُح and شوف "see!" as opposed to classical شُف.
- Final added appears in:
- * Masculine singular imperative in final-weak verbs, as in امشي "go!, walk!" as opposed to classical امشِ. The classical pair امشي and امش merged into امشي used as a masculine and feminine singular imperative verb in Hejazi.
- * 2nd person feminine singular past verbs, as in نسيتي "you forgot" as opposed to classical نَسِيتِ. The classical pair نَسِيتِ and نَسِيتَ became نسيتي and نسيت .
- * Feminine possessive and object pronoun ـكي which occurs after a long vowel, as in يعطيكي "he gives you" as opposed to classical يُعْطِيكِ. The classical pair يُعْطِيكِ and يُعْطِيكَ became يعطيكي and يِعْطيك .
- * Feminine pronouns, as in إنتي "you", as opposed to classical أَنْتِ. The classical pair أنْتِ and أنْتَ became إنتي and إنت, but the classical form can still be used in Hejazi.
- Innovative forms:
- * Some verb forms are innovative and differ from their classical equivalents as in the common plural verb شفتوا "you saw" pl. as opposed to classical شُفْتُم and شُفْتُنَّ, or the final-weak verbs as in جِرْيوا "they ran" as opposed to classical جَرَوْا and the doubled verbs حبّيت "I loved" opposed to classical حَبَبْتُ.
- * The verb forms V, VI and IIQ have an additional initial before, so that Hejazi forms اتْفَعَّل, اتْفَاعَل and اتْفَعْلَق correspond to classical forms تَفَعَّل, تَفَاعَل and تَفَعْلَق, e.g. اَتْكَلَّم "he spoke", اتْعامَلَت "she worked" and اتْفَلْسَفوا "they babbled".
- *Portmanteau words have the most alternatives in their spelling since they did not occur in Classical Arabic, so the word for "still" can be written لِسَّا لِسَّة or لِسَّه depending on the writer, all of these forms stemming from the classical للساعة.
- * Loanwords can have multiple spellings as well, which is the case for the word "also" which can be written as بَرْضُه or بَرْضو.
- Final silent :
- * Writing instead of final pronoun as in كتابه "his book" which is mistakenly written كتابو.
- * Mixing final and as in فتحة "opening" and فتحه "he opened it".
- * Missing the final masculine pronoun which often indicates a final long vowel as عَوَّرتي "you hurt" vs. عَوَّرتيه "you hurt him", this can cause an ambiguity for the reader as in the homophones جا "he came" and جاه "he came to him" if both were written mistakenly as جا.
- Final :
- * Mixing final and as in the word ترى "by the way" which is mistakenly written ترا.
- * Mixing final and as in the word مَرَّة "time, once" which is mistakenly written مرا.
- * Adding a final to final 1st person singular possessive pronoun as in عَلَيَّ "on me" written mistakenly written as عَلَيَّا even though Classical Arabic have the same form and pronunciation as in عَلَيَّ, other examples include مَعَايَ "with me", لِيَّ "to me", أبويَ "my father" and فِيَّ "in me".
- * Missing final silent in plural verbs as in رَميتوا "you threw" or عَلَّقوا "they hanged" even though this practice is no longer needed but it follows the Classical Arabic form.
Notes:
- The interdental consonants:
- * represents as in ثوب & ثواب or as in ثابت, but the phoneme is still used depending on the speaker's preference.
- * represents as in ذيل & ذكر or as in ذكي, but the phoneme is still used depending on the speaker's preference.
- * represents as in ظفر & ظل or as in ظرف, but the phoneme is still used depending on the speaker's preference.
- words with word-medial long vowels that are pronounced short include words before the indirect object pronouns e.g. لي, لها, له etc. as in عاد "he repeated" becomes عاد لهم "he repeated to them" and رايحين له "going to him" becomes with a shortened or rarely, outside of this rule only few words have vowel-shortening, e.g. جاي "I'm coming" pronounced /d͡ʒaj/ or less likely /d͡ʒaːj/ which stems from classical جاءٍ.
- is silent in word-final in 3rd person masculine singular pronouns and some words, as in شفناه "we saw him" and عِنْدُه "he has" or the heteronym ليه pronounced 'why?' or 'for him, but it is still maintained in most other nouns as in فَواكِه "fruits", كُرْه "hate" and أَبْلَه "idiot" where it is differentiated from أبلة "f. teacher". In writing the final silent indicates a word-final long vowel when preceded by a mater lectionis, and. It helps in distinguishing minimal pairs as in تبغي 'you want f. vs. تبغيه 'you want him f. or سيبوا 'leave! pl. vs. سيبوه 'leave him! pl., سيبوا is also a homophone of سيبه 'leave him! m..
- is only used at the end of words and mainly to mark feminine gender for nouns and adjectives with few exceptions. phonemically it is silent indicating final /-a/, except when in construct state it is a /t/, which leads to the word-final /-at/. e.g. رسالة 'message' → رسالة أحمد 'Ahmad's message'.
- and are sometimes used to transcribe in foreign words. is especially used in city/state names as in بلغراد "Belgrade" pronounced or, this ambiguity arose due to Standard Arabic not having a letter that transcribes distinctively, which created doublets like كتلوق vs. كتلوج "catalog" and قالون vs. جالون "gallon". newer terms are more likely to be transcribed using the native as in إنستقرام "Instagram" and قروب "group chat".
- is pronounced only in few words from the two trilateral roots and, as in ضبط pronounced and not.