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Palestinian Arabic
Special Characteristics

 Palestinian Arabic, like other Levantine dialects, display the following characteristic Levantine features:
  • A conservative stress pattern that is closer to Classical Arabic than anywhere else in the Arab world.
  • The indicative imperfect with a b- prefix.
  • A very frequent imāla (i.e. the change of a long aa to an ee like sound) of the feminine ending in front consonant context (names in -eh).
  • A [ʔ] realization of /q/ in the cities, and a [q] realization of /q/ by some Druzes, and more variants (including [k]) in the countryside.

The noticeable differences between Palestinian and northern forms of Levantine Arabic, such as Syrian Arabic and Lebanese Arabic, are stronger in non-urban dialects. The main differences between Palestinian and northern Levantine Arabic are as follows:
  • Phonetically, Palestinian dialects differ from Lebanese regarding the classical diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/, which have simplified to [eː] and [o:] in Palestinian dialects as in Western Syrian, while in Lebanese they have retained a diphthongal pronunciation: [eɪ] and [oʊ].
  • Palestinian dialects differ from Western Syrian as far as short stressed /i/ and /u/ are concerned: in Palestinian they keep a more or less open [ɪ] and [ʊ] pronunciation, and are not neutralised to [ə] as in Syrian.
  • The Lebanese and Syrian dialects are more prone to imāla of /a:/ than the Palestinian dialects are. For instance شتا 'winter' is ['ʃɪta] in Palestinian but ['ʃəte] in Lebanese and Western Syrian. Some Palestinian dialects ignore imala totally (e.g. Gaza).
  • In morphology, the plural personal pronouns are إحنا['ɪħna] 'we', همه['hʊmme] 'they', كم-[-kʊm] 'you', هم- [-hʊm] 'them' in Palestinian, while they are in Syria/Lebanon نحنا['nɪħna] 'we', هنه['hʊnne] 'they', كن-[-kʊn] 'you', هن- [-hʊn] 'them'. The variants كو [-kʊ] 'you', ـهن [-hen] 'them', and هنه [hinne] 'they' are used in Northern Palestinian.
  • The conjugation of the imperfect 1st and 3rd person masculine has different prefix vowels. Palestinians say بَكتب['baktʊb] 'I write' بَشوف[baʃuːf] 'I see' where Lebanese and Syrians say بِكتب['bəktʊb] and بْشوف[bʃuːf]. In the 3rd person masculine, Palestinians say بِكتب['bɪktʊb] 'He writes' where Lebanese and Western Syrians say بيَكتب['bjəktʊb].
  • Hamza-initial verbs commonly have an [o:] prefix sound in the imperfect in Palestinian. For example, Classical Arabic has اكل /akala/ 'to eat' in the perfect tense, and آكل /aːkulu/ with [a:] sound in the first person singular imperfect. The common equivalent in Palestinian Arabic is اكل /akal/ in the perfect, with imperfect 1st person singular بوكل /boːkel/ (with the indicative b- prefix.) Thus, in the Galilee and Northern West Bank, the colloquial for the verbal expression, "I am eating" or "I eat" is commonly ['bo:kel] / ['bo:tʃel], rather than ['ba:kʊl] used in the Western Syrian dialect. Note however that ['ba:kel] or even ['ba:kʊl] are used in the South of Palestine.
  • The conjugation of the imperative is different too. 'Write!' is اكتب ['ʊktʊb] in Palestinian, but كتوب [ktoːb], with different stress and vowel and length, in Lebanese and Western Syrian.
  • For the negation of verbs and prepositional pseudo-verbs, Palestinian, like Egyptian, typically suffixes ش [ʃ] on top of using the preverb negation /ma/, e.g. 'I don't write' is مابكتبش [ma bak'tʊbʃ] in Palestinian, but مابكتب [ma 'bəktʊb] in Northern Levantine (although some areas in southern Lebanon utilise the ش [ʃ] suffix). However, unlike Egyptian, Palestinian allows for ش [ʃ] without the preverb negation /ma/ in the present tense, e.g. بكتبش [bak'tubɪʃ].
  • In vocabulary, Palestinian is closer to Lebanese than to Western Syrian, e.g. 'is not' is مش [məʃ] in both Lebanese and Palestinian (although in a few villages مهوش [mahuʃ] and مهيش [mahiʃ], which are found in Maltese and North African dialects, are used) while it is مو [mu] in Syrian; 'How?' is كيف [kiːf] in Lebanese and Palestinian while it is شلون [ʃloːn] in Syrian as in Iraqi (though كيف is also used) . However, Palestinian also shares items with Egyptian Arabic, e.g. 'like' (prep.) is زي [zejj] in Palestinian in addition to مثل [mɪtl], as found in Syrian and Lebanese Arabic.
  • A frequent Palestinian إشي ['ɪʃi] 'thing, something', as opposed to شي [ʃi] in Lebanon and Syria.
  • Besides common Levantine هلق ['hallaʔ] 'now', Central Rural dialects around Jerusalem and Ramallah use هالقيت [halke:t] (although [halʔe:t] is used in some cities such as Tulkarm, Hebron, and Nablus alongside هلق[hallaʔ] (both from هالوقت /halwaqt/ ) and northern Palestinians use إسا['ɪssɑ], إساع ['ɪssɑʕ], and هسة [hassɑ](from الساعة/ɪs:ɑ:ʕɑ/).

Source: Wikipedia
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  • Home
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