Gulf Arabic

For other Arabic dialects, see varieties of Arabic.

Gulf Arabic
Native to	Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Iran, UAE, Oman
Native speakers	unknown (5 million cited 1995–2014)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Peninsular Gulf Arabic
Writing system	Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	afb
Glottolog	gulf1241

Gulf Arabic (خليجي Khalījī local pronunciation: [χɐˈliːdʒi] or اللهجة الخليجية el-lahja el-Khalijiyya local pronunciation: [elˈlɑhdʒɐ lχɐˈliːdʒɪj.jɐ]) is a variety of the Arabic language spoken in Eastern Arabia around the coasts of the Persian Gulf in Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, eastern Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iran and northern Oman. These dialects are mutually intelligible.

Gulf dialects differ in vocabulary, grammar and accent. There are many differences between Kuwaiti Arabic and the dialects of Qatar and UAE—especially in accent. Most Saudis do not speak Gulf Arabic because most Saudis do not live in Eastern Arabia. There are only 200,000 Gulf Arabic speakers in Saudi Arabia, mostly in the coastal eastern province. Gulf Arabic is distinct from Saudi Arabic. Most Saudis speak Hejazi Arabic, Najdi Arabic and Bareqi Arabic dialects.

Name

The dialect's full name el-lahja el-Khalijiyya (اللهجة الخليجية local pronunciation: [elˈlɑhdʒɐ lχɐˈliːdʒɪj.jɐ]) can be translated as 'the dialect of the gulf'. However, it is most commonly referred to as Khaliji (خليجي Khalījī local pronunciation: [χɐˈliːdʒi]), in which the noun خليج (Arabic pronunciation: [χɐˈliːdʒ]; Khalīj) has been suffixed with the Nisba, literally meaning 'of the bay' or 'of the gulf'.

Phonology

Consonants

Gulf Arabic consonants

		Bilabial		Labiodental	Interdental		Dental	Alveolar		Palato- alveolar	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
		plain	pharyngealised		plain	pharyngealised		plain	pharyngealised
Stops	voiced	b	(bˤ)				d̪				g
	voiceless	(p)					t̪		tˤ		k		ʔ
Fricatives	voiced				ð	ðˤ	z̪				ʁ		ʕ
	voiceless			f	θ		s̪		sˤ	ʃ	x~χ		ħ	h
Affricates	voiced									d͡ʒ~ʒ
	voiceless									t͡ʃ
Nasals	voiced	m	(mˤ)					n
Laterals	voiced						l		ɫ
Flaps	voiced							ɾ~r	ɾˤ
Approximants	voiced									j	w

• ^1 The non-native Arabic letter Pāʼ (پ), or its native counterpart Bāʼ (ب), is used to denote that sound which occurs only in loanwords, e.g.: piyāḷah (پيالة or بيالة [pijɑːɫɑh], 'small glass'), from Hindi
• ^2 Ḍad (ض) has merged to Ẓāʼ (ظ). For further information, see below.
• ^3 The difference is not orthographically shown.

The differences in the phonology of the Arabic dialect group of the Persian Gulf, compared to Modern Standard Arabic, are following:

Letter	MSA pronunciation	Khaliji varieties	Examples	Notes
ج	/d͡ʒ/	[j] or [d͡ʒ~ʒ]	mōy or mōj (موج [moːj] or [moːd͡ʒ], 'wave'); masīd, masyid or masjid (مسجد [mɐˈsiːd], [ˈmɑsjɪd] or [ˈmɐsd͡ʒɪd], "mosque")	Changes are optional, although jim (ج) never changes to [j] in loanwords.
ق	/q/	[ɡ], optionally [d͡ʒ~ʒ] when followed by front vowels ([ɐ], [e], [ɪ] or [i]) or following a consonant preceded by a front vowel	jiddām or geddām (قدام [d͡ʒɪdˈdɑːm] or [ɡedˈdɑːm], "in front of"); sharji or shargi (شرقي [ˈʃɑɾd͡ʒi] or [ˈʃɑɾɡi], "eastern")	By Persian influence, sometimes the qaf (ق) changes to ghayn (غ) [ʁ].
غ	/ʁ/	[q]	qannā (غنى [ˈqɑnnɑ], "to sing")
ك	/k/	[t͡ʃ] if preceded or followed by a front vowel or if 2nd person feminine singular suffixed/object pronoun	ubūch (أبوك [ʔʊˈbuːt͡ʃ]; 'your (f.sg.) father')	This change is optional, but encountered with more often when the kaf (ك) is used to denote the 2nd person feminine singular suffixed/object pronoun.
ض	/dˤ/	[ðˤ]	ẓāʼ (ضاع [ðˤɑːʕ], 'to lose')	Ẓāʼ (ظ) and Ḍad (ض) cannot be distinguished by pronunciation as the Gulf dialects lack the pharyngealised [d].

Vowels

Following vowel chart applies to the Gulf Arabic dialect continuum:

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː			u	uː
Close-mid		eː			o	oː
Near-open	æ	æː
Open			ä	äː	ɑ	ɑː

Qafisheh stipulates at least two qualities of /a/:

a has a low back quality in the environment of pharyngealized consonants and frequently before or after /q/. This sound is similar to the a sound in father but shorter and farther back. (...) Before or after the pharyngeals 9 [= ʿAyin] and H [= ḥ], or any other plain consonant, a is farther front than the a in father; its quality ranges between the e in pen and the a in pan.

— Hamdi A. Qafisheh, A Short Reference Grammar of Gulf Arabic, p. 16

He further explains that these qualities also apply to /aː/, so that [ɑ(ː)]~[ä(ː)]~[æ(ː)] can therefore be assumed.

Morphology

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Gulf Arabic has 10 personal pronouns. The conservative dialect has preserved the gender differentiation of the 2nd and 3rd person in the plural forms, whereas dual forms have not survived. The following table bears the generally most common pronouns:

Person		Singular	Plural
1st		ānā (آنَا)	niḥin (نِحِنْ)
2nd	masculine	inta (إِنْتَ)	intum (إِنْتُمْ)
	feminine	inti (إِنْتِ)	intin (إِنْتِنْ)
3rd	masculine	huwa (هُوَ)	hum (هُمْ)
	feminine	hiya (هِيَ)	hin (هِنْ)

• ^1 Many speakers do not distinguish between masculine and feminine forms in the second person plural, replacing intum and intin with intu (إنْتُ).
• ^2 Speakers that do not distinguish between masculine and feminine forms in the third person plural will also use hum (هُمْ) for both genders in the third person plural, respectively.

Some pronouns, however, have other (less frequent, resp. local) forms:

• ānā (آنَا):

  anā (أَنَا)

  āni (آنِي) (especially Baḥrānī)

• inta (إِنْتَ):

  init (إِنِتْ)

• huwa (هُوَ):

  hū (هُوْ)

  huwwa (هُوَّ) (especially Qaṭarī)

  uhu (أُهُو)

• hiya (هِيَ):

  hī (هِيْ)

  hiyya (هِيَّ) (especially Qaṭarī)

  ihi (إِهِي)

• niḥin (نِحِنْ):

  niḥna (نِحْنَ)

  iḥna (إِحْنَا) (especially Baḥrānī and Qatarī)

• intum (إِنْتُمْ):

  intu (إنْتُ)

• hum (هُمْ):

  humma (هُمَّ) (especially Qatarī)

  uhum (أُهُمْ)

See also

• Varieties of Arabic
• Arabic language