Classification of Arabic languages

This article is about the historical language group. For the modern general language (macrolanguage), see Arabic. For the separate South Semitic language group, see Modern South Arabian languages.

North Arabian
South Central Semitic Arabic
Geographic distribution:	North Africa, Middle East, Malta
Linguistic classification:	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic North Arabian
Proto-language:	Proto-Arabic
Glottolog:	arab1394

The Arabic language family is divided into several categories which are: Old Arabic, the literary varieties, and the modern vernaculars.

The genealogical position of Arabic within the group of the Semitic languages has long been a problem.

Views on Arabic classification

Semitic languages were confined in a relatively small geographic area (Greater Syria, Mesopotamia and the Arabian desert) and often spoken in contiguous regions. Permanent contacts between the speakers of these languages facilitated borrowing between them. Borrowing disrupts historical processes of change and makes it difficult to reconstruct the genealogy of languages.

In the traditional classification of the Semitic languages, Arabic was in the Southwest Semitic group, based on some affinities with Modern South Arabian and Geʽez.

Traditional classification of the Semitic languages

Most scholars reject the Southwest Semitic subgrouping because it is not supported by any innovations and because shared features with South Arabian and Ethiopic were only due to areal diffusion.

In 1976, linguist Robert Hetzron classified Arabic languages as a Central Semitic language:

The genealogy of the Semitic languages (Hetzron 1974, 1976)

John Huehnergard, Aaron D. Rubin, and other scholars suggested subsequent modifications to Hetzron's model:

Huehnergard & Pat-El's classification of Semitic languages

However, several scholars, such as Giovanni Garbini, consider that the historical–genetic interpretation is not a satisfactory way of representing the development of the Semitic languages (contrary to Indo-European languages, which spread over a wide area and were usually isolated from each other). Edward Ullendorff even thinks it is impossible to establish any genetic hierarchy between Semitic languages. These scholars prefer a purely typological–geographical approach without any claim to a historical derivation.

For instance, in Garbini's view, the Syrian Desert was the core area of the Semitic languages where innovations came from. This region had contacts between sedentary settlements—on the desert fringe—and nomads from the desert. Some nomads joined settlements, while some settlers became isolated nomads ("Bedouinisation"). According to Garbini, this constant alternation explains how innovations spread from Syria into other areas. Isolated nomads progressively spread southwards and reached South Arabia, where the South Arabian language was spoken. They established linguistic contacts back and forth between Syria and South Arabia and their languages. That is why Garbini considers that Arabic does not belong exclusively to either the Northwest Semitic languages (Aramaic, Phoenician, Hebrew, etc.) or the South Semitic languages (Modern South Arabian, Geʽez, etc.) but that it was affected by innovations in both groups.

There is still no consensus regarding the exact position of Arabic within Semitic languages. The only consensus among scholars is that Arabic varieties exhibit common features with both the South (South Arabian, Ethiopic) and the North (Canaanite, Aramaic) Semitic languages, and that it also contains unique innovations.

There is no consensus among scholars whether Arabic diglossia (between Classical Arabic, also called "Old Arabic" and Arabic vernaculars, also called "New Arabic" or "Neo-Arabic") was the result of the Islamic conquests and due to the influence of non-Arabic languages or whether it was already the natural state in 7th-century Arabia (which means that both types coexisted in the pre-Islamic period).

Modern spoken Arabic varieties

According to Dutch linguist Kees Versteegh, modern vernaculars (also called dialects, colloquial varieties or spoken Arabic varieties) are classified as follows:

• Arabic
  • Peninsular
    • North-east Arabian:
      • ʿAnazī: including Kuwaiti Arabic, Bahrain Sunnī Arabic and Gulf Arabic
      • Šammar: including some Bedouin dialects in Iraq
      • Syro-Mesopotamian Bedouin: including the Bedouin dialects of North Israel and Jordan, and the Dawāġrah dialect
    • South(-west) Arabian: Yemeni Arabic (including Sanʽani Arabic, Hadhrami Arabic and Taʽizzi-Adeni Arabic), Shiʿite Baḥārna and Omani Arabic
    • Ḥijāzī (West Arabian): Bedouin dialects of the Hejaz and the Tihamah. Includes Mecca and Medina.
    • Northwest Arabian: Negev, Sinai, southern Jordan, eastern coast of the Gulf of Aqaba and "some regions in north-western Saudi Arabia"
  • Syro-Lebanese
    • Lebanese/Central Syrian: including all Lebanese dialects, Damascus Arabic, Druze Arabic, and Çukurova Arabic. Versteegh notes that Cypriot Arabic is usually included in this group although it also has North Mesopotamian Arabic (qeltu) features.
    • North Syrian: including Aleppo Arabic
    • Palestinian/Jordanian:
    • Palestinian urban (madani)
    • Central Palestinian rural (fellahi)
      • South Palestinian rural and Jordanian, including the Hauran
  • Greater Mesopotamian
    • North Mesopotamian Arabic (Mesopotamian Qǝltu Arabic)
      • Tigris
        • Jewish Baghdadi and Christian Baghdadi
      • Euphrates
      • Anatolian
      • Central Asian Arabic
        • Uzbekistan Arabic
    • Gilit Mesopotamian Arabic
      • Muslim Baghdadi
      • Urban Khuzestani
  • Egyptian–Sudanese
    • Chad-Sudan
      • Chadian Arabic
        • Bagirmi: Nigeria, Cameroon, and part of Chad
      • Urban dialects of Chad, including N’Djamena and Abbéché
      • Sudanese Arabic
        • Juba Arabic
        • Nubi Arabic
    • Egyptian proper
      • Nile Delta
        • Eastern Delta (Šarqiyya)
        • Western Delta
      • Cairene Arabic
      • Middle Egypt: Giza to Asyut
      • Upper Egyptian
        • Between Asyut and Nag Hammadi
        • Between Nag Hammadi and Qena
        • Between Qena and Luxor
        • Between Luxor and Esna
  • Maghrebi
    • Pre-Hilālī: all urban
      • Eastern pre-Hilālī: Libya, Tunisia (including Judeo-Tunisian), eastern Algeria
      • Western pre-Hilālī: western Algeria and Morocco
      • Maltese
      • Andalusian Arabic (extinct)
    • Hilālī: Bedouin dialects of North Africa
      • Sulaym: Libyan Arabic and southern Tunisia
      • Eastern Hilāl: central Tunisia and eastern Algeria
      • Central Hilāl: south and central Algeria, especially areas bordering the Sahara
      • Western Hilali: Hilali Chaoui confederations in Casablanca-Settat
      • Maʿqil: western Algeria and Moroccan plains
        • Hassaniya

See also

• Arab (disambiguation)
• Etymology of Arab
• Varieties of Arabic

Sources

• Cantineau, Jean (1955). "La dialectologie arabe", Orbis 4:149–169.
• Kaye, Alan S., & Judith Rosenhouse (1997). "Arabic Dialects and Maltese", The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. New York: Routledge. Pages 263–311.
• Scagliarini, F., (1999). "The Dedanitic inscriptions from Jabal 'Ikma in north-western Hejaz" Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 29, 143–150 ISBN 2-503-50829-4