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Bahrani Arabic

Bahrani Arabic
Baharna Arabic Bahrani Shīʿite Arabic
العربية البحرانية
Native to	Bahrain, Saudi Arabia[1]
Ethnicity	Baharna
Native speakers	730,000 (2019)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Peninsular Bahrani Arabic
Dialects	Qatifi
Writing system	Arabic alphabet, Arabic chat alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	abv
Glottolog	baha1259
[image reference needed]

Bahrani Arabic (also known as BahraniorBaharna Arabic) is a variety of Arabic spoken by the BaharnainEastern Arabia and Oman.^[2]InBahrain, the dialect is primarily spoken in Shia villages and some parts of Manama. In Saudi Arabia, the dialect is spoken in the governorate of Qatif. In Oman, it is spoken in the governorates of Al Dhahirah and Al Batinah.

The Bahrani Arabic dialect has been significantly influenced by the ancient Aramaic, Syriac, and Akkadian languages.^[3][4]

An interesting sociolinguistic feature of Bahrain is the existence of two main dialects: Bahrani and Sunni Arabic.^[5] Sunni Bahrainis speak a dialect which is most similar to urban dialect spoken in Qatar.

The Persian language has debatably the most foreign linguistic influence on all the Bahraini dialects.^[6] The differences between Bahrani Arabic and other Bahraini dialects suggest differing historical origins. The main differences between Bahrani and non-Bahrani dialects are evident in certain grammatical forms and pronunciation. Most of the vocabulary, however, is shared between dialects, or is distinctly Bahraini, arising from a shared modern history. Many Bahrani words have also been borrowed from Urdu, Ottoman Turkish, or English.

• bānka 'ceiling fan' from Persian
• sōmān 'equipment' from Urdu.
• lētar 'lighter' from English.
• wīl 'wheel' from English
• tēm 'time' from English
• dareesha 'window' from Ottoman Turkish
• dowshag 'mattress' from Persian
• orradi 'already' from English
• leitāt 'lights' from English

Bahrani dialect has borrowed some vocabulary from Persian, Urdu, Ottoman Turkish, and more recently from English.

Holes divides the sedentary dialects of the Gulf to two types:

1. Type A, which includes the dialects of Sunni tribes that settled in Eastern Arabia between the 17th and 19th century, and the Huwala. This group includes the standard Gulf Arabic dialects of Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and UAE.
2. Type B, which includes the dialects of Omani Ibadis and Eastern Arabian Shia (the Baharna).

Bahrani Arabic (called Baħrāni by its speakers) shares many features with surrounding Type A dialects (e.g. Kuwait, UAE, Qatar). Some general features:

• Classical Arabic /q/ becomes /g/, for example gamar (moon).
• Classical Arabic /ð/ becomes /d/, for example danab (tail).
• /q/ and /ð/ is preserved for some Classical Arabic borrowings, for example [ðulqaʕdah] (Dhu Al-Qa'dah).
• Affrication of /k/ to /tʃ/ in many words, for example [tʃalb] (dog).
• /θ/ has the free variant /f/, and in some dialects /t/, for example falāfehortalāteh (three).
• /dʒ/ becomes /j/ in some rural dialects, for example yiħħe (watermelon).
• Usage of -sh suffix (/ʃ/) as a feminine second-person pronoun akin to masculine -k, for example babish (your door).
• Usage of sentence-final particle e (pronounced [ɛː]) to indicate questions, for example 'inzaine (OK?).

• Varieties of Arabic
• Peninsular Arabic

• Mahdi Abdalla Al-Tajir. 1983. Language and Linguistic Origins in Bahrain: The Bahrani Dialect of Arabic. ISBN 0-7103-0024-7
• Clive Holes. 1983. "Bahraini Dialects: Sectarian Differences and the Sedentary/Nomadic Split," Zeitschrift für arabische Linguistik 10:7-38.
• Clive Holes. 1987. Language Variation and Change in a Modernising Arab State: The Case of Bahrain. ISBN 0-7103-0244-4
• Clive Holes. 2001. Dialect, Culture, and Society in Eastern Arabia: Glossary. ISBN 90-04-10763-0
• Clive Holes, "Dialect and National Identity. The Cultural Politics of Self-Representation in Bahraini Musalsalat", in Paul Dresch and James Piscatori (eds), Monarchies and Nations: Globalisation and Identity in the Arab states of the Gulf, London: I.B. Tauris, 2005, p. 60.

Bahrani Arabic testofWikipediaatWikimedia Incubator

• Baharna Arabic Travel Phrases
• Dialects of the Arabian Peninsula