South Mesopotamian Arabic

South Mesopotamian Arabic
South Mesopotamian Arabic
South Iraqi Arabic; Marsh Arabic
Native to	Iraq
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Mesopotamian Gilit South Mesopotamian Arabic; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Basrawi;
Writing system	Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

South Mesopotamian Arabic (Arabic: اللهجة العراقية الجنوبية, romanized: al-lahja l-ʿirāqiyya l-janūbiyya) or Marsh Arabic or commonly known as Basrawai is a variety of Mesopotamian Arabic spoken by Southern Iraqis in Basra, Maysan, Dhi Qar, Wasit and Muthanna.^[1]^[2] This dialect differs distinctly from other dialects of Iraq and features a strong Aramaic and Sumerian influence.^[3] One of the most noticeable features of South Mesopotamian Arabic is the existence of the sounds [ɡ] (< */q/), [tʃ] (< */k/), [ʒ] (< */dʒ/) and /p/.^[4]

Phonology

The following describes the sounds of the Baṣra dialect:^[5]

Consonants

		Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
		plain	emph.	plain	emph.	plain	emph.	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal		m	mˤ			n
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	(p)	(pˤ)			t	tˤ	t͡ʃ	k	(q)		ʔ
Stop/ Affricate	voiced	b	bˤ			d		d͡ʒ	ɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	fˤ	θ		s	sˤ	ʃ	x		ħ	h
Fricative	voiced			ð	ðˤ	z	zˤ	(ʒ)	ɣ		ʕ
Flap						ɾ	ɾˤ
Approximant						l	lˤ	j	w

Sounds /p, pˤ/ are only heard from loanwords.
[ɡ] is more commonly heard as the reflex of /q/ in the Baṣra dialect, whereas /q/ more commonly is heard in cultural words or names.
/d͡ʒ/ may also be heard as a fricative [ʒ] in rural areas.^[6]

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i iː	u uː
Mid	eː	o oː
Open	a aː

/i/ can be heard as [ɪ] in word-final positions. It may be pronounced as [ɨ̞] when in positions of pharyngeal consonants
/u/ can be heard as [ʊ] in word-final positions. It may be pronounced as [o] when after pharyngealized consonants.
/a, aː/ is typically heard as [æ, æː] when in palatal consonant environments. It is heard as [ɒ, ɒː] when in pharyngealized environments.

References

^ "In Iraq's marshlands, researchers are racing to document a disappearing dialect - Equal Times". 2022-01-19. Archived from the original on 19 January 2022. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
^ UCL (2021-09-28). "Dictionary of Marsh Arab dialects". The Nahrein Network. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
^ Müller-Kessler, Christa (2003). "Aramaic ?k?, lyk? and Iraqi Arabic ?aku, maku: The Mesopotamian Particles of Existence". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 123 (3): 641–646. doi:10.2307/3217756. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 3217756.
^ "الجيم العراقية: حقائق وأوهام" (in Arabic). 2022-02-08. Archived from the original on 8 February 2022. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
^ Mahdi, Qasim R. (1985). The Spoken Arabic of Baṣra, Iraq. Exeter: University of Exeter.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
^ Alsiraih, Wasan (2021). Speech Variation in the Dialect of Basrah. University of Basrah.

This article incorporates text by Saja Albuarabi available under the CC BY 4.0 license.

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[1] "In Iraq's marshlands, researchers are racing to document a disappearing dialect - Equal Times". 2022-01-19. Archived from the original on 19 January 2022. Retrieved 2022-02-09.

[2] UCL (2021-09-28). "Dictionary of Marsh Arab dialects". The Nahrein Network. Retrieved 2022-02-09.

[3] Müller-Kessler, Christa (2003). "Aramaic ?k?, lyk? and Iraqi Arabic ?aku, maku: The Mesopotamian Particles of Existence". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 123 (3): 641–646. doi:10.2307/3217756. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 3217756.

[4] "الجيم العراقية: حقائق وأوهام" (in Arabic). 2022-02-08. Archived from the original on 8 February 2022. Retrieved 2022-02-09.

[5] Mahdi, Qasim R. (1985). The Spoken Arabic of Baṣra, Iraq. Exeter: University of Exeter.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)

[6] Alsiraih, Wasan (2021). Speech Variation in the Dialect of Basrah. University of Basrah.

[1]

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

See also

References