Shawi Arabic
Shawi or Šāwi Arabic is the Arabic dialect of the sheep-rearing Bedouins of Syro-Mesopotamia. The term Šāwi typically refers to the tribes living between the Tigris and the Euphrates, but many tribes are also found elsewhere, such as northern Jordan, Palestine, western Syria, and Lebanon. The dialect of the Arabs of Urfa also belongs to the Šāwi-Bedouin group.
Classification
Cantineau was the first classification the dialects of the sheep breeders of northern Arabia. He was the first to coin the terminology ‘petit-nomades’ and ‘grand-nomades’. The Shawi dialects typically represent the ‘petit-nomades’ type.The hallmark of Shawi dialects is the affrication of Old Arabic * and * in front environments into and , respectively, as opposed to the north Arabian camel-breeder varieties, which exhibit and . This feature is shared with Gulf Arabic dialects.
History
Shawi tribes constitute the first recognized Bedouin migration wave from northern Arabia. Local traditions and some studies date their arrival to one millennium ago, although older migrations are likely for some clans.Phonology
Consonants
Historical * has become. Historical * has become before front vowels and in the 2fs suffix, as in 'your father'; cf. 'your father'. In some dialects * > has become in the same environment. In many dialects has an allophone before a vowel, as in 'cloud'.Vowels
The dialect of Urfa is typical of Shawi Arabic. A contrast between short and is 'very rare', and phonetic vs may be conditioned by the consonant, but in most words they correspond to Classical Arabic and minimal pairs are attested, such as nigra 'we read' vs nugra 'pit'. In Antioch, short only occurs in the vicinity of labial consonants and consonants from velar on back. Diphthongs *, * are not preserved in any position.| Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | |||
| Mid | |||
| Open |
In some dialects the short vowels may be reduced to two, with various realizations of the non-low vowel such as.