Sanʽani Arabic

Sanʽani Arabic
Native to	Yemen
Native speakers	13 million (2020)e27
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Peninsular Yemeni Sanʽani Arabic
Writing system	Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ayn
Glottolog	sana1295
220px Distribution of Sanʽani Arabic according to Ethnologue

Sanʽani Arabic is an Arabic dialect spoken in north of Yemen in the city of Sana'a.

Phonology

The Sanaani dialect is distinguished among Yemeni dialects by its use of the [ɡ] sound in the place of the /q/ (qāf ق) used in Modern Standard Arabic.

Consonants

		Labial	Interdental		Dental/Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Pharyngeal	Glottal
			plain	emph.	plain	emph.
Nasal		m			n
Stop	voiceless				t	tˤ		k		ʔ
	voiced	b			d		d͡ʒ	ɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	θ		s	sˤ	ʃ	x	ħ	h
	voiced		ð	ðˤ	z			ɣ	ʕ
Tap					ɾ
Approximant					l		j	w

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i iː	u uː
Open	a aː

• The short vowels /a i u/ can have lax allophones of [æ~ɛ, ʊ, ɪ].
• /aː/ within emphatic environments can be heard as back [ɑː].

Sanʽani dialect personal pronouns

Person	Number	Case
		Subject	Object
First	Singular	Anǝ	-nǝ; -nee
	Plural	Eħnǝ	-na; Eħnǝ
Second	Singular	ant (m.); Anti (f.)	ant, anti; -ak (m.); -eʃ (f.)
	Plural	Anto	Anto; -ʊ
Third	Singular	Huː (m.), Hiː (f.)	Ho/-uː (m.), Hiː/ -iː (f.)
	Plural	Hom/Om(m.) ; Hen/en(f.)	Hom/Om (m.) ; Hen/en (f.)

Grammar

Along with these phonological similarities to other dialects, Sanʽani Arabic also has several unique features. It uses the classical mā in the meaning of "what", as well as in negations. Unlike the classical usage, this mā is used without distinction in verbal and nominal sentences alike. Sanʽani Arabic represents the future aspect with a complex array of prefixes, depending on the person of the verb. For first-person verbs the prefix (ša-) or (‘ad) is used. The derivation of (ša-) is apparently related to the classical (sa-), and (‘ad) is likely an abbreviation of (ba‘d), meaning "after". For all other persons in Sanʽa proper the simple prefix (‘a-) is used, although many of the villages around Sanʽa extend the use of (ša-) for all persons.

Syntax

Sanʽani syntax differs from other Arabic dialects in a number of ways. It is one of few remaining Arabic dialects to retain the mā af‘al exclamatory sentence type with the meaning "how (adjective)". For instance, mā ajmal, is used to mean "how beautiful", from the adjective jamīl, meaning "beautiful"; a construction it shares with Libyan Arabic and Levantine Arabic.

Vocabulary

The Sanʽani vocabulary is also very distinct and conservative. The classical verb sāra, yasīr is retained with the meaning of "to go" (similar to Moroccan). Shalla, yashill is used to mean "to take/get".

As an example of its distinctiveness, during an appearance of the would-be parliament speaker of Yemen, Abdullah Alahmar, on Al-Jazeera TV some years ago, viewers and the TV host needed a translation of his Yemeni dialect into Standard Arabic in order to understand what he said.

Loanwords

Ṣanʿānī Arabic	Translation	Etymology	Modern Standard Arabic equivalent
demmeh	domestic cat	Tigrinya: ድሙ? dəmmu Amharic: ድመት? dəmät	قِطَّة qiṭṭa
bardag; galaṣ	glass (cup)	Turkish: bardak; English	كَأْس kaʾs
edarapp	to drop	English	سَقَطَ saqata
dappeh	bottle	Hindi: डिब्बा ḍibbā 'container'	قَارُورَة qārūra
eskeh	Allow me (informal)	እስኪ əskī 'please'	إِسْمَح لِي ismaḥ lī
nahi	OK	Arabic: نهى‎‎ 'done'	حسناً ḥasanan
dēmeh	kitchen	ديمة 'cottage'	مَطْبَخ maṭbaḵ
saykal	bicycle	Hindi: साइकिल sāikil	دَرَّاجَة darrāja

See also

• Varieties of Arabic
• Yemeni Arabic