Emirati Dialect

The Emirati dialect is a dialectal variety of the Arabic language that is spoken in the United Arab Emirates, and is a branch of the regional Gulf dialects family. It refers to a range of different levels of dialects: local, national, cultured and formal.

Arabic language

There are different forms of Arabic:

  • Classical Arabic, the language of the Quran and of all the literature of the first centuries of Hegira (from 622 AD)[1]
  • Modern Standard Arabic (the fuṣḥah,[2] in Arabic: فصحى), the contemporary standard language taught in schools and used in journalistic prose, in written administrative texts, in mass media and in universities.
  • Dialectal Arabic, the set of dialects used in everyday communication, outside the written and formal situations that varies not only from one Arabic country to another but also from one region to another within the individual states.

Diglossia and dialectal variety

Due to the coexistence of the Modern Standard Arabic (high language) and the dialect (low language), we can speak about diglossia of the Arabic language.

The United Arab Emirates, extending over a total area of about 83,000 km² and hosting more than 200 different nationalities,[3] represent one of the nations with the largest aggregation of ethnic groups in the world. Archaeological excavations have shown that in this area several Semitic races were established. It follows that the spoken language, the emirate dialect, includes some different dialectal shades. It represents the communication tool used by the overwhelming majority of the population, although people of good cultural level are able to express themselves in official Arabic. Notwithstanding the recent filling up of urban areas to the detriment of rural ones has led to a growing decrease in local dialectal variations, we can still identify three main areas of different shades of the Emirate dialect: Abu Dhabi (including Al-'Ayn, the western region and islands), the Northern Emirates (including Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Quwain and part of Ras al-Khaimah) and the East Coast (including Fujairah, Khawr Fakkan, and the remainder of Ras al-Khaimah). To give a practical example, the "mob" negation should be mentioned with its variations: "mesh" in Abu Dhabi, "mob" in the Northern Emirates and "ma" in the East Coast.[4]

Furthermore, the unification of the United Arab Emirates has contributed to making changes to the locally spoken dialect. The Emirates have in fact become residence for expats (not just Arabs) who often make up the majority of "operating" workers. Therefore, it has been necessary to identify a more standard method of communication. As a result, the Emirate dialect has received influences from other Arabic dialects and foreign languages. For example, words from the technical language have often an English origin and have arrived in the Gulf through interchanges with the Indian population, and then have been adapted to an Arabic pronunciation. For example, "draywel" is the local declination of the English word "driver" and "motar" derives from the English word "motor" and means "car".

Moreover, in the spoken emiratate language it is common to substitute some letters with others of similar sound: the "j" can become "y"; the "k" can become "ch"; the "q" can become "g" or "j".[5]

English Standard Modern Arabic Emirate dialect
Chicken da-jaaj di-yaay
Fish sa-mak si-mach
Coffee qah-wa gah-wa
Near qa-rib jirib

There is also a guide book for the Arabic dialect of the Emirates, Spoken Emirati, and an Italian version, Dialetto Emiratino, edited by Nico de Corato together with Hanan Al Fardan and Abdulla Al Kaabi, authors of the original English version.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Quale arabo? Arabo moderno standard e dialetti". Quaderno di arabo (in Italian). 2016-08-13. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  2. ↑ "Fuṣḥah". Wikipedia (in Italian). 2016-10-31.
  3. ↑ "United Arab Emirates". Wikipedia. 2017-12-25.
  4. ↑ "United Arab Emirates". Wikipedia. 2017-12-25.
  5. ↑ al-Hashemi, Isleem, Ayesha, Nasser (2015). Ramsah: An Introduction to Learning Emirati Dialect and Culture. Kuttab Publishing. ISBN 9789948186632.
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