Sudanese Arabic
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| Sudanese Arabic | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Sudan | |
| Region: | northern | |
| Total speakers: | 18,986,000 | |
| Language family: | Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic South Central Semitic Arabic Sudanese Arabic |
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| Writing system: | Arabic alphabet | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | – | |
| ISO 639-3: | apd | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Sudanese Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken throughout northern Sudan. It has much borrowed vocabulary from the local languages (El Rutana). This has resulted in a variety of Arabic that is unique to Sudan, reflecting the way in which the country has been influenced by both African and Arabian cultures. Some of the tribes in the eastern part of Sudan still have similar accents to the ones in Saudi Arabia.
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[edit] Sudanese versus Egyptian Arabic
In contrast to northern Egyptian Arabic, the letter (ج) (ǧīm) in Sudanese Arabic (and as in standard Arabic) is pronounced similar to the English letter "j" and not like "g". Hence the Sudanese Arabic "jellabiyya" (the traditional garb worn by men in Egypt and Sudan) is used as opposed to "gellabiyya" in Egypt. The word is ultimately derived from Egyptian galba. Similarly, the common Egyptian word for camel (gamal), in Sudanese Arabic is pronounced jamal. Sudanese Arabic tends to pronounce the 'jim' somewhat further back in the mouth than English 'J' and does not pronounce it as a diconsonantal affricate.
Sudanese Arabic pronounces the qaf as "G" (voiced uvular) while Egyptian renders it as ʔ
Additionally, the vowel pair u/ū has a characteristic sound in Sudan; it is usually transliterated as o/ō for this reason.
In addition to differences in pronunciation, Sudanese Arabic also uses different words when compared to Egyptian Arabic. For example, the interrogative pronoun "what" in Sudan is shino rather than "ay" or "aysh" as in Egyptian Arabic.
[edit] The influence of Nubian languages
In northern and central parts of Sudan, Sudanese colloquial Arabic has been influenced by the Nubian language, which in ancient times was the dominant language in Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan. Many of the agricultural and farming terms in Sudanese Arabic were adopted from Nubian.
- Sudanese Arabic: angareb < Nobiin: àngàréé "wooden bed"
- Sudanese Arabic: kadēsa < Nobiin: kàdíís "cat". The Arabic word for cat is qitt.
[edit] Regional variation
Because of the varying influence of local languages in different parts of Sudan, there is considerable regional variation in Arabic spoken throughout the country. Sudanese Arabic typically refers to Arabic spoken mostly in northern parts of Sudan. The other most commonly mentioned derviate of Arabic in Sudan is Juba Arabic, a pidgin of Arabic, which is much more heavily influenced by other local languages.
[edit] Greetings in Sudanese Arabic
In northern Sudan, greetings are typically extended, and involve multiple questions about the other persons health, their family etc. When greeting someone you know, it is common to begin with the word o, followed by the person's first name: Ō, Babiker or Ō, kēf ya Babiker.
Formal greetings often begin with the universal As-salām ˤalaykom and the reply, "Wa ˤalaykom as-salām, an exchange common to Muslims everywhere. However, other greetings typical to Sudan include Izzēyak (to men) or Izzēyik" (to women) "How are you", Inta shadīd? Inti shadīda? "Are you well? (to a male and a female, respectively)", the response to which is usually al-Hamdo lillāh "Praise God" assuming you are indeed feeling well, ma batal "not bad" or nosnos "half-half)" if feeling only okay or taˤban showayya "a little tired" if not so well.
Other everyday greetings include kwayyis(a) "Good", Kēf al-usra? "how is the family?" or kēf al awlād? "how are the children" (though it generally refers to one's spouse and children). For friends, the question Kēf? can also be formed using the person's first name, prefixed by ya, for example; kēf ya Yōsof? "How are you, Joseph?". Another standard response in addition to al-hamdo lillāh is Allāh barik fik "God's blessing upon you". Additional greetings are appropriate for particular times and are standard in most varieties of Arabic, such as Sabāh al-khēr? / Sabāh an-Nōr.
Sudanese that know each other well will often use many of these greetings together, sometimes repeating themselves. It is also common to shake hands on first meeting, sometimes simultaneously slapping or tapping each other on the left shoulder before the handshake (particularly for good friends). Handshakes in Sudan can often last as long as greetings.
[edit] Assenting - saying yes
The Sudanese Arabic word for yes is typically Aye, pronounced similarly to the Scots-English word meaning the same thing, though Aiwa or Na'am are also sometimes used. Some people (often those from southern Sudan) will also click their tongue when assenting (sometimes more than once) to something rather than using a particular word. Clicking, depending on the tone, can also be used when expressing sympathy with some (usually minor) problem a person has.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
In English
- Victoria Bernal, 1991, Cultivating Workers, Peasants and Capitalism in a Sudanese Village, New York: Colombia University Press, see glossary of Sudanese Arabic words pp 203-206.
- James Dickins. 2007a. Sudanese Arabic: Phonematics and Syllable Structure. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
- James Dickins. 2007b. Khartoum Arabic. In The Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics (Vol. 2) (K. Versteegh et al. eds.). Leiden: Brill. Pp. 559-571, available at http://www.languages.salford.ac.uk/staff/KhartoumArabicArticleDickins.pdf
- James Dickins. 2006. The Verb Base in Central Urban Sudanese Arabic. In Grammar as a Window onto Arabic Humanism: A Collection of Articles in Honour of Michael G. Carter (L. Edzard and Janet Watson, eds.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Pp. 155-195.
- Abdel-Hadi Mohammed Omer, 1984, Arabic in the Sudanese setting: A Sociolinguistic study (Language Planning, Diglossia, Standardisation), Unpublished dissertation, Indiana University (available on Proquest).
- Andrew and Janet Persson with Ahmad Hussein, 1979, Sudanese Colloquial Arabic for beginners, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Horsleys Green, High Wycombe, United Kingdom: This book is a good introduction to Sudanese colloquial Arabic as spoken in Khartoum. Text is in both Arabic and Latin scripts, making it accessible to those that do not read Arabic but want basic conversational skills.
- Alan S. Kaye, 1976, Chadian and Sudanese Arabic in the light of comparative Arabic dialectology, Mouton: The Hague, ISBN 90-279-3324-3.
- El Rashid Abubakr, 1970, The noun phrase in the spoken Arabic of Sudan, Unpublished dissertation, University of London, UK.
- J. Spenser Trimmingham, 1946, Sudan Colloquial Arabic, London, Oxford University Press, G. Cumberlege.
- Vincent Llewllyn Grifiths & Abdel Rahman Ali Taha, 1936, Sudan courtesy customs; a foreigner's guide to polite phrases in common use among sophisticated Arabic speaking population of Northern Sudan, Khartoum, published by the Sudan Government.
- S. Hillelson, 1935, Sudan Arabic texts, Cambridge, UK: The University Press.
In French
- Michel Baumer, 1968, Les noms vernaculaires soudanais utiles a l'ecologiste, Unpublished dissertation, Universite de Montpelier, France.
In English and French
- Arlette Roth, 1969-1972, Lexique des parlers arabes tchado-soudanais. An Arabic-English-French lexicon of dialects spoken in the Chad-Sudan area compiled by Arlette Roth-Laly, Paris: Editions du Centre Nationale de la recherche scientifique.
In German
- Randolph Galla, 1997, Kauderwelsch, Sudanesisch-Arabisch Wort für Wort, Reise Know How Verlag, Bielefeld, 1. Auflage, 1997, ISBN 3-89416-302-X
- Stefan Reichmuth, 1983, Der arabische Dialekt der Sukriyya in Ostsudan, Hildsheim, New York: G. Olms (originally authors thesis Freie Universitat, Berlin), ISBN 3-487-07457-5.
[edit] Links
- Aramati – Sudanese Arabic
- An online dictionary of Sudanese Arabic, plus a c. 6,000-word description of the language
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