| Revision as of 10:49, 20 April 2006 edit128.235.249.80 (talk)No edit summary← Previous edit | Revision as of 15:31, 20 April 2006 edit undoDr amr (talk | contribs)49 edits language vs dialect, and correction of info about popularity of "Masr El Um"Next edit → | ||
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| |iso2=arz|iso3=arz}} | |iso2=arz|iso3=arz}} | ||
| '''Egyptian Arabic''' ('''Ma{{unicode|ṣ}}rī''', '''مصري''') is a ] language of the ] family, derived primarily from a medieval dialect of ]. It originated in the ] region (Lower Egypt) around its urban centers, ] and ]. Today, it is the ] of ] and the ] of more than 78 million people. It also serves as a ] in many countries across the ] | '''Egyptian Arabic''' ('''Ma{{unicode|ṣ}}rī''', '''مصري''') is a ] language ( or Dialect, refer to the ] ) of the ] family, derived primarily from a medieval dialect of ]. It originated in the ] region (Lower Egypt) around its urban centers, ] and ]. Today, it is the ] of ] and the ] of more than 78 million people. It also serves as a ] in many countries across the ] | ||
| While Egyptian Arabic is mainly spoken, it is written occasionally in novels, plays, poems (]) as well as in comics, advertising, some newspapers, and transcriptions of popular songs. In most other written media and in TV news reporting, ] is used. Like other Arabic languages, with the exception of ], the Egyptian ] is written in the ]. | While Egyptian Arabic is mainly spoken, it is written occasionally in novels, plays, poems (]) as well as in comics, advertising, some newspapers, and transcriptions of popular songs. In most other written media and in TV news reporting, ] is used. Like other Arabic languages, with the exception of ], the Egyptian ] is written in the ]. | ||
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| Two of the main proponents of Egyptian linguistic reform were ], who also wrote the first Egyptian feminist treatise, and former president of the ], ]. They adopted a modernist, ] approach and disagreed with the Islamic assumption that Arabic was an immutable language because of its association with the ]. For a while, Egyptian Arabic enjoyed a period of rich literary output until the movement was halted with the continuing rise of ] and ] in Egypt and the ], particularly with ]'s assumption of power in 1954. The first modern Egyptian novel to be written in the vernacular was ]'s ''''']''''' in 1913. Other notable novelists such as Ihsan Abdel Quddous and ], and poets such as ] and Ahmed Fu'ad Negm (Fagumi), helped solidify vernacular literature as a distinct literary genre. | Two of the main proponents of Egyptian linguistic reform were ], who also wrote the first Egyptian feminist treatise, and former president of the ], ]. They adopted a modernist, ] approach and disagreed with the Islamic assumption that Arabic was an immutable language because of its association with the ]. For a while, Egyptian Arabic enjoyed a period of rich literary output until the movement was halted with the continuing rise of ] and ] in Egypt and the ], particularly with ]'s assumption of power in 1954. The first modern Egyptian novel to be written in the vernacular was ]'s ''''']''''' in 1913. Other notable novelists such as Ihsan Abdel Quddous and ], and poets such as ] and Ahmed Fu'ad Negm (Fagumi), helped solidify vernacular literature as a distinct literary genre. | ||
| Nasser undertook an Arabization campaign in Egypt's education system and government administration, which stoutly relegated Egyptian Arabic. In the last fifty years, educated Egyptian as a result became heavily |
Nasser undertook an Arabization campaign in Egypt's education system and government administration, which stoutly relegated Egyptian Arabic. In the last fifty years, educated Egyptian as a result became heavily attached to Standard Arabic. Following Nasser's death, interest in the Egyptian dialect came into view again and calls for making Egyptian Arabic an official language and the language of education, and for the translation of the Qur'an into Egyptian Arabic, once again reappeared. In the ], a movement called ] was established by a group of secular activists promoting political reform in ], and calling for the official recognition of both Egyptian Arabic and indigenous ] ('the languages of Egypt'), yet this party to date doesn't have any members in the Egyptian ] and many Egyptians consider reverting back to ],] and translating ] to Egyptian Arabic to be out of question. | ||
| ===Language vs. Dialect=== | |||
| While many foreigners who try to learn Arabic language find Egyptian Arabic to be different enough to be an independent language, on the other hand this is not the same for Egyptians, Most Egyptians consider Egyptian Arabic to be a dialect of ], and even some Egyptians claim that Egyptian Arabic is the closest dialect to ], but this claim doesn't seem to have a reasonable evidence. | |||
| the reasons why foreigners find Egyptian Arabic to be an independent language are briefly : | |||
| 1- Foreigners rarely learn both ] and Egyptian Arabic , usually they choose only one, so they don't have a proper chance to identify the relationships and routes of development of Standard Arabic terms into Egyptian Arabic. | |||
| 2- The diversity and abundance of ] terms and methods sometimes lead to localization of some terms in certain localities, while people would think that these terms are specific to their local dialect, in http://en.wikipedia.org/Help:Edit_summary | |||
| Edit summaryfact it's originally proper ]. | |||
| for example the english word "super market", in ] it's usually called المحل (al-maħall), in ] they call it السوق (al-suuq), while in other areas of the arabian gulf they call it المتجر (al-matjar), all those words are actually Standard ] and they refer to the same meaning. | |||
| 3- Sometimes Egyptians themselves are not aware of the ] origin of their ] terms. Many ] wrote about that, among them ]. | |||
| ==Geographic distribution== | ==Geographic distribution== | ||
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| The same sentences in ] (with all wh words in the beginning of the sentence) would be: | The same sentences in ] (with all wh words in the beginning of the sentence) would be: | ||
| *''matā |
*''matā rāħa mi{{unicode|ṣ}}r ?'' متي راح مصر ؟ | ||
| *''limāðā |
*''limāðā rāħa mi{{unicode|ṣ}}r ?'' لماذا راح مصر ؟ | ||
| *''man |
*''man rāħa mi{{unicode|ṣ}}r ?'' من راح مصر ؟ | ||
| ==Text example== | ==Text example== | ||
| {{IPA|ʔ}}il-madda {{IPA|ʔ}}il-{{IPA|ʔ}}awwalaniyya | {{IPA|ʔ}}il-madda {{IPA|ʔ}}il-{{IPA|ʔ}}awwalaniyya | ||
| {{IPA|ʔ}}il-bani{{IPA|ʔ}}admiin kulluhum mawluudiin |
{{IPA|ʔ}}il-bani{{IPA|ʔ}}admiin kulluhum mawluudiin {{IPA|ʔ}}ħraar wi mitsawwyiin fil-k{{IPA|ɑ}}r{{IPA|ɑ}}{{IPA|ɑ}}m{{IPA|ɑ}} wil-ħu{{IPA|ʔ}}uu{{IPA|ʔ}}. {{IPA|ʔ}}itwahab-luhum {{IPA|ʔ}}il-{{IPA|ʕ}}{{IPA|ɑ}}{{IPA|ʔ}}l wi{{unicode|ḍ}}-{{unicode|ḍ}}{{IPA|ɑ}}miir wil-m{{IPA|ɑ}}fruu{{unicode|ḍ}} yi{{IPA|ʕ}}amlu | ||
| b{{IPA|ɑ}}{{IPA|ʕ}}{{unicode|ḍ}} bi-ruuħ {{IPA|ʔ}}il-{{IPA|ʔ}}uxuwwa. | b{{IPA|ɑ}}{{IPA|ʕ}}{{unicode|ḍ}} bi-ruuħ {{IPA|ʔ}}il-{{IPA|ʔ}}uxuwwa. | ||
| Arabic script: <br> | |||
| المادة الأولانية | |||
| البني آدمين كلهم مولودين أحرار ومتساويين في الكرامة والحقوق , إتوهب لهم العقل والضمير , والمفروض يعاملوا بعض بروح الأخوة | |||
| Standard Arabic Origin : <br> | |||
| المادة الأولي | |||
| كل بني آدم مولودين أحرار ومتساويين في الكرامة والحقوق , وهب لهم العقل والضمير , ومن المفترض أن يعاملوا بعضهم البعض بروح الأخوة | |||
| Translation: <br> | Translation: <br> | ||
Revision as of 15:31, 20 April 2006
| Egyptian Arabic | |
|---|---|
| مصري Maṣrī | |
| Pronunciation | |
| Native to | Egypt and a few other countries |
| Native speakers | 78,000,000 + |
| Language family | Afro-Asiatic
|
| Writing system | Arabic alphabet |
| Official status | |
| Official language in | none |
| Regulated by | none |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | arz |
| ISO 639-3 | arz |
Egyptian Arabic (Maṣrī, مصري) is a Semitic language ( or Dialect, refer to the Language vs Dialect Section ) of the Afro-Asiatic family, derived primarily from a medieval dialect of Arabic. It originated in the Nile Delta region (Lower Egypt) around its urban centers, Cairo and Alexandria. Today, it is the national language of Egypt and the mother tongue of more than 78 million people. It also serves as a second language in many countries across the Middle East
While Egyptian Arabic is mainly spoken, it is written occasionally in novels, plays, poems (vernacular literature) as well as in comics, advertising, some newspapers, and transcriptions of popular songs. In most other written media and in TV news reporting, Standard Arabic is used. Like other Arabic languages, with the exception of Maltese, the Egyptian dialect is written in the Arabic alphabet.
History
The Egyptians slowly adopted the Arabic language following the Arab-Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century AD. Up till then, they were speaking Egyptian in its Coptic form. For more than three centuries, there existed a period of Coptic-Arabic bilingualism in Lower Egypt. This trend would last for many more centuries in the south. Arabic may have been already familiar to Egyptians through pre-Islamic trade with Bedouin Arab tribes in the Sinai and the easternmost part of the Nile Delta. Egyptian Arabic seems to have begun taking shape in Fustat, the first Islamic capital of Egypt, and now part of modern-day Cairo. The variety of Arabic spoken by the Muslim military troops stationed in Fustat was already different from Classical Arabic, which in part accounts for some of the unique characteristics of the Egyptian dialect.
One of the earliest linguistic sketches of Egyptian Arabic is a 16th century document entitled Dafʻ al-ʼiṣr ʻan kalām ʼahl Miṣr ('The Removal of the Burden from the Language of the People of Egypt') by Yūsuf al-Maġribi. It contains key information on early Egyptian Arabic and the language situation in medieval Egypt. The main purpose of the document was to show that while the Egyptians' vernacular contained many critical "errors" vis-à-vis Classical Arabic, according to Maġribi, it was also related to Arabic in other respects. With the ongoing Islamization and Arabization of the country, Egyptian Arabic slowly supplanted spoken Egyptian. Local chroniclers mention the continued use of Coptic Egyptian as a spoken language until the 17th century AD by peasant women in Upper Egypt. Coptic is still the liturgical language of the Egyptian Coptic Church.
Official status
In the 20th century, Egyptian Arabic was regarded as the national language of Egypt, though to date it is not officially recognized. Standard Arabic, a modernized form of Classical Arabic, is the official language of Egypt (see diglossia.) Interest in the local vernacular began in the 19th century as the Egyptian national movement for independence was taking shape. Questions about the reform and modernization of Arabic came to fore, and for many decades to follow they were hotly debated in Egyptian intellectual circles. Proposals ranged from developing neologisms to replace archaic terminology in Standard Arabic; to the simplification of syntactical and morphological rules and the introduction of colloquialisms; to complete 'Egyptianization' (tamṣīr) by abandoning Arabic in favor of Masri or Egyptian Arabic.
Two of the main proponents of Egyptian linguistic reform were Qasim Amin, who also wrote the first Egyptian feminist treatise, and former president of the Egyptian University, Ahmad Lutfy es-Sayyed. They adopted a modernist, secular approach and disagreed with the Islamic assumption that Arabic was an immutable language because of its association with the Qur'an. For a while, Egyptian Arabic enjoyed a period of rich literary output until the movement was halted with the continuing rise of Islamism and Arab nationalism in Egypt and the Middle East, particularly with Nasser's assumption of power in 1954. The first modern Egyptian novel to be written in the vernacular was Muhammad Husayn Haykal's Zaynab in 1913. Other notable novelists such as Ihsan Abdel Quddous and Yusuf Idris, and poets such as Abnudi and Ahmed Fu'ad Negm (Fagumi), helped solidify vernacular literature as a distinct literary genre.
Nasser undertook an Arabization campaign in Egypt's education system and government administration, which stoutly relegated Egyptian Arabic. In the last fifty years, educated Egyptian as a result became heavily attached to Standard Arabic. Following Nasser's death, interest in the Egyptian dialect came into view again and calls for making Egyptian Arabic an official language and the language of education, and for the translation of the Qur'an into Egyptian Arabic, once again reappeared. In the 21st century, a movement called Masr el Um was established by a group of secular activists promoting political reform in Egypt, and calling for the official recognition of both Egyptian Arabic and indigenous Egyptian ('the languages of Egypt'), yet this party to date doesn't have any members in the Egyptian Parliament and many Egyptians consider reverting back to Ancient Egyptian,Hieroglyph and translating Quran to Egyptian Arabic to be out of question.
Language vs. Dialect
While many foreigners who try to learn Arabic language find Egyptian Arabic to be different enough to be an independent language, on the other hand this is not the same for Egyptians, Most Egyptians consider Egyptian Arabic to be a dialect of Arabic, and even some Egyptians claim that Egyptian Arabic is the closest dialect to Arabic, but this claim doesn't seem to have a reasonable evidence.
the reasons why foreigners find Egyptian Arabic to be an independent language are briefly :
1- Foreigners rarely learn both Arabic and Egyptian Arabic , usually they choose only one, so they don't have a proper chance to identify the relationships and routes of development of Standard Arabic terms into Egyptian Arabic.
2- The diversity and abundance of Arabic terms and methods sometimes lead to localization of some terms in certain localities, while people would think that these terms are specific to their local dialect, in http://en.wikipedia.org/Help:Edit_summary Edit summaryfact it's originally proper Arabic. for example the english word "super market", in Egypt it's usually called المحل (al-maħall), in Saudi Arabia they call it السوق (al-suuq), while in other areas of the arabian gulf they call it المتجر (al-matjar), all those words are actually Standard Arabic and they refer to the same meaning.
3- Sometimes Egyptians themselves are not aware of the Arabic origin of their Colloquial terms. Many Egyptian thinkers wrote about that, among them Anis Mansour.
Geographic distribution
Egyptian Arabic is spoken by more than 77 million Egyptians in Egypt as well as by immigrant Egyptian communities in the Middle East, Europe and North America. Among the spoken varieties of Arabic, Egyptian is the only one to have become a lingua franca in the Arabic-speaking world. It is considered by many as one of the most widely understood vernaculars throughout the Middle East for two main reasons: the proliferation and popularity of Egyptian films and other media in the region since the early 20th century; and the great number of Egyptian teachers and professors who were instrumental in setting up the education systems of various Arabian countries, and who also taught there.
In Yemen, for example, non-Yemenite Arabic speakers are often automatically seen as "Egyptians" and many Yemenites have adapted their everyday speech to Egyptian Arabic by borrowing Egyptian words (such as kida 'like this'; kuwayyis 'well, good') and occasionally Egyptian morphology. The same is true to varying degrees in Sudan, the Levant (particularly Palestine) and in Libya. This trend may now be shifting with the recent ascendancy of Lebanese media in the region, though many Lebanese artists sing in Egyptian Arabic.
Dialects
The Egyptian variants spoken in central and southern Egypt, referred to collectively as Sa'idi (Upper Egyptian), are mainly descended from the northern Egyptian dialect but are distinct from the Cairene sociolect in their phonology due to early contacts with Bedouin Arab dialects. They carry little prestige nationally though continue to be widely spoken, including in the north by rural migrants who have adapted partially to Lower Egyptian dialect. For example, the Sa'idi genitive exponent is usually replaced with Lower Egyptian bitāʕ, but the realization of /q/ as /g/ is retained. Second and third-generation southern Egyptian migrants are monolingual in Cairene Arabic, but maintain cultural and familial ties to the south.
The traditional division between Lower and Upper Egypt and their respective dialectal differences go back to ancient times. Egyptians today commonly refer to the people of the north as baḥarwa and to those of the south as ṣaʻayda. The dialectal differences throughout Egypt, however, are more wide ranging and do not neatly correspond to this simple division. There is a linguistic shift from the eastern to the western parts of the delta, and the dialects spoken from Gizah to el Minya are further grouped into a Middle Egyptian cluster. Despite these differences, there are features distinguishing all Egyptian Arabic dialects from any other Arabic language, including the postposition of demonstratives and interrogatives, the modal meaning of the imperfect, and the integration of the participle.
Sounds
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between , / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.The Egyptian dialect's distinctive phonology appears in part from its peculiar realization of certain Classical Arabic consonants:
- The letter jīm ج is pronounced as a (hard) in most Egyptian local dialects, apart from those of Upper Egypt (the Sa'id), e.g. for (mountain), for (beautiful), and so forth. This pronunciation is considered "typically" Egyptian Arabic. It is attested in ancient Egyptian but may have also been the original Semitic pronunciation of the sound - corresponding to the letter gimel in Hebrew and Aramaic. The sound therefore may be a direct retention from ancient Egyptian, or Semitic, or it may be a secondary development from a palatal or palatalized g ( or ).
- The letter qāf ق is pronounced as a glottal stop in Cairo and the eastern delta, a vocalized /q/ in the western delta, and as a /g/ in Upper Egypt (the Sa'id).
- Classical θāʔ ث /θ/ becomes either /t/ in ordinary words (e.g. tāni "second") or /s/ in classicisms (e.g. sanawiyya "secondary (school)")
- Classical ðāl ذ /ð/ becomes /d/ in ordinary words (e.g. danab "tail") or /z/ in classicisms (e.g. ʔizāʕa "broadcasting")
- Classical ð̣āʔ ظ /ð̣/ emphatic /ð/, becomes /ḍ/ in ordinary words (e.g. ḍuhr "noon" ) or /ẓ/ in classicisms (e.g. ẓāhira "phenomenon")
- Egyptian Arabic is unusual among Arabic languages and dialects in maintaining in all positions the early post-Classical distinctions between short /i/ and /u/, distinguishing kitāb "book", gumāl "beautiful" (pl.), and ʔixtār "he chose" -- which become ktāb, jmāl, and xtār in most other dialects.
Substratum
Egyptian Arabic has retained a significant Coptic substratum in its lexicon, phonology, and syntax. Some features that Egyptian Arabic shares with ancient Egyptian include certain prefix and suffix verbal conjugations, certain emphatic and glottalized consonants, as well as a large number of biliteral and triliteral lexical correspondences.
Two syntactic features that are particular to Egyptian Arabic (inherited from Coptic) are postposed demonstratives (i.e. "this" and "that" are placed after the noun) and in-situ wh words (i.e. "who", "when", "why" remain in their "logical" positions in a sentence rather than being preposed, or moved to the front of the sentence, as in Standard Arabic and English). Examples of the former: ʔir-rāgil da "this man" (Standard Arabic hāðā-r-rajul) and ʔil-bint di "this girl" (Standard Arabic hāðihi-l-bint).
Examples of in-situ wh words:
- rāħ maṣr ʔimta ? (راح مصر إمتى؟) "When (ʔimta) did he go to Egypt/Cairo?" (lit. "He went to Egypt/Cairo when?")
- rāħ maṣr lēh ? (راح مصر ليه؟) "Why (lēh) did he go to Egypt/Cairo? (lit. "He went to Egypt/Cairo why?")
- mīn rāħ maṣr ? (مين راح مصر؟) "Who (mīn) went to Egypt/Cairo? (literally - same order)
The same sentences in Standard Arabic (with all wh words in the beginning of the sentence) would be:
- matā rāħa miṣr ? متي راح مصر ؟
- limāðā rāħa miṣr ? لماذا راح مصر ؟
- man rāħa miṣr ? من راح مصر ؟
Text example
ʔil-madda ʔil-ʔawwalaniyya
ʔil-baniʔadmiin kulluhum mawluudiin ʔħraar wi mitsawwyiin fil-kɑrɑɑmɑ wil-ħuʔuuʔ. ʔitwahab-luhum ʔil-ʕɑʔl wiḍ-ḍɑmiir wil-mɑfruuḍ yiʕamlu bɑʕḍ bi-ruuħ ʔil-ʔuxuwwa.
Arabic script:
المادة الأولانية
البني آدمين كلهم مولودين أحرار ومتساويين في الكرامة والحقوق , إتوهب لهم العقل والضمير , والمفروض يعاملوا بعض بروح الأخوة
Standard Arabic Origin :
المادة الأولي
كل بني آدم مولودين أحرار ومتساويين في الكرامة والحقوق , وهب لهم العقل والضمير , ومن المفترض أن يعاملوا بعضهم البعض بروح الأخوة
Translation:
Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in the spirit of brotherhood.
See also
- Arabic language
- Varieties of Arabic
- Egyptian language
- Coptic language
- Egypt
- Futuh or early Muslim military expansions
- Egyptian Arabic Swadesh list
References
- Abdel-Massih, Ernest T. (1978). Comprehensive Study of Egyptian Arabic: Conversation Texts, Folk Literature, Cultural Ethnological and Socio Linguistic Notes. Ann Arbor: Univ of Michigan. ISBN 0932098118.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Haeri, Niloofar (2003). Sacred Language, Ordinary People: Dilemmas of Culture and Politics in Egypt. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0312238975.
- Hinds, Martin (1987). A Dictionary of Egyptian Arabic. French & European Pubns. ISBN 0828804346.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Presse, Karl G. (2000). 5 Egyptian-Arabic One Act Plays: A First Reader (Bilingual edition ed.). Museum Tusculanum. ISBN 8772896124.
{{cite book}}:|edition=has extra text (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Youssef, Ahmad Abdel-Hamid (2003). From Pharaoh's Lips: Ancient Egyptian Language in the Arabic of Today. American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 9774247086.
External links
- Coptic Words in Egyptian Arabic
- Description of Egyptian Arabic from UCLA's Language Materials Project
- Ethnologue Report on Egyptian Arabic
- Masr el Um
- Newspaper article in partial Egyptian Arabic