Egyptian vernacular

Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt. The ca. 100 million Egyptians speak a continuum of dialects, among which Cairene is the most prominent. It is also understood across most of the Arabic-speaking countries due to broad Egyptian influence in the region, including through Egyptian cinema and Egyptian music. These factors help to make it the most widely spoken and by far the most widely studied variety of Arabic.

While it is primarily a spoken language, the written form is used in novels, plays and poems (vernacular literature), as well as in comics, advertising, some newspapers and transcriptions of popular songs. In most other written media and in radio and television news reporting, literary Arabic is used. Literary Arabic is a standardized language based on the language of the Qur'an, i.e. Classical Arabic. The Egyptian vernacular is almost universally written in the Arabic alphabet for local consumption, although it is commonly transcribed into Latin letters or in the International Phonetic Alphabet in linguistics text and textbooks aimed at teaching non-native learners. The dialect's phonetics, grammatical structure, and vocabulary are influenced by the Coptic language; its rich vocabulary is also influenced by European languages such as French, Italian, Greek, and English.

Naming

Egyptians generally call their vernacular "Arabic" ( , ) when juxtaposed with non-Arabic languages; "Colloquial Egyptian" (, ) or simply "''Aamiyya''" (, ''colloquial'') when juxtaposed with Standard Arabic and the Egyptian dialect (, ) or simply ''Masri'' (, , ''Egyptian'') when juxtaposed with other vernacular Arabic dialects.Islam online on Mahmoud Timor
Sometimes it is also called Modern Egyptian languagePresent Culture in Egypt
and (PDF) by Bayoumi Andil. (, ).

The term Egyptian Arabic is usually used synonymously with "''Cairene Arabic''", which is technically a dialect of Egyptian Arabic. The country's native name, , is often used locally to refer to Cairo itself. As is the case with Parisian French, Cairene Arabic is by far the most prevalent dialect in the country.

Geographic distribution

Among the spoken varieties of Arabic, Standard Egyptian Arabic (based on the dialect of the Egyptian capital) is the only one to have become a lingua franca in other parts of the Arabic-speaking world primarily for two reasons: The proliferation and popularity of Egyptian films and other media in the region since the early 20th century as well as the great number of Egyptian teachers and professors who were instrumental in setting up the education systems of various countries in the Arabian Peninsula and also taught there and in other countries such as Algeria and Libya. Also, many Lebanese artists choose to sing in Egyptian.

Standard Egyptian Arabic, when used in documents, broadcast media, prepared speeches and sometimes in liturgical purpose, is heavily influenced by Cairene Arabic with loanwords of Modern Standard Arabic origin or code-switching between Cairene Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic.

History

Arabic was spoken in parts of Egypt such as the Eastern Desert and Sinai before Islam. However, Nile Valley Egyptians slowly adopted Arabic as a written language following the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the seventh century. Until then, they had spoken either Koine Greek or Egyptian in its Coptic form. A period of Coptic-Arabic bilingualism in Lower Egypt lasted for more than three centuries. The period would last much longer in the south. Arabic had been already familiar to Valley Egyptians since Arabic had been spoken throughout the Eastern Desert and Sinai. Arabic was also a minority language of some residents of the Nile Valley such as Qift in Upper Egypt through pre-Islamic trade with Nabateans in the Sinai Peninsula and the easternmost part of the Nile Delta. Egyptian Arabic seems to have begun taking shape in Fustat, the first Islamic capital of Egypt, now part of Cairo.

One of the earliest linguistic sketches of Cairene Arabic is a 16th-century document entitled ' (, "The Removal of the Burden from the Language of the People of Cairo") by Yusuf al-Maghribi (). With Misr here meaning Cairo. It contains key information on early Cairene Arabic and the language situation in Egypt in the Middle Ages. The main purpose of the document was to show that while the Cairenes' vernacular contained many critical "errors" vis-à-vis Classical Arabic, according to al-Maghribi, it was also related to Arabic in other respects. With few waves of immigration from the Arabian peninsula such as the Banu Hilal exodus, who later left Egypt and were settled in Morocco and Tunisia, together with the ongoing Islamization and Arabization of the country, multiple Arabic varieties, one of which is Egyptian Arabic, slowly supplanted spoken Coptic. Local chroniclers mention the continued use of Coptic as a spoken language until the 17th century by peasant women in Upper Egypt. Coptic is still the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.

Status

Egyptian Arabic has no official status and is not officially recognized as a language (even though it has its own ISO language code). Standard Arabic is the official language of the state as per constitutional law with the name , lit. "Arabic language". Interest in the local vernacular began in the 1800s (in opposition to the language of the ruling class, Turkish), as the Egyptian national movement for self-determination was taking shape. For many decades to follow, questions about the reform and the modernization of Arabic were hotly debated in Egyptian intellectual circles. Proposals ranged from developing neologisms to replace archaic terminology in Modern Standard Arabic to the simplification of syntactical and morphological rules and the introduction of colloquialisms to even complete "Egyptianization" (, ) by abandoning the so-called Modern Standard Arabic in favor of Masri or Egyptian Arabic.

Proponents of language reform in Egypt included Qasim Amin, who also wrote the first Egyptian feminist treatise, former President of the Egyptian University, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, and noted intellectual Salama Moussa. They adopted a modernist, secular approach and disagreed with the assumption that Arabic was an immutable language because of its association with the Qur'an. The first modern Egyptian novel in which the dialogue was written in the vernacular was Muhammad Husayn Haykal's '' Zaynab'' in 1913. It was only in 1966 that Mustafa Musharafa's ''Kantara Who Disbelieved'' was released, the first novel to be written entirely in Egyptian Arabic. Other notable novelists, such as Ihsan Abdel Quddous and Yusuf Idris, and poets, such as Salah Jahin, Abdel Rahman el-Abnudi and Ahmed Fouad Negm, helped solidify vernacular literature as a distinct literary genre.

Amongst certain groups within Egypt's elite, Egyptian Arabic enjoyed a brief period of rich literary output. That dwindled with the rise of Pan-Arabism, which had gained popularity in Egypt by the second half of the twentieth century, as demonstrated by Egypt's involvement in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War under King Farouk of Egypt. The Egyptian revolution of 1952, led by Mohammed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser, further enhanced the significance of Pan-Arabism, making it a central element of Egyptian state policy. The importance of Modern Standard Arabic was reemphasised in the public sphere by the revolutionary government, and efforts to accord any formal language status to the Egyptian vernacular were ignored. Egyptian Arabic was identified as a mere dialect, one that was not spoken even in all of Egypt, as almost all of Upper Egypt speaks Sa'idi Arabic. Though the revolutionary government heavily sponsored the use of the Egyptian vernacular in films, plays, television programmes, and music, the prerevolutionary use of Modern Standard Arabic in official publications was retained.

Linguistic commentators have noted the multi-faceted approach of the Egyptian revolutionaries towards the Arabic language. Whereas Egypt's first president, Mohammed Naguib exhibited a preference for using Modern Standard Arabic in his public speeches, his successor, Gamal Abdel Nasser was renowned for using the vernacular and for punctuating his speeches with traditional Egyptian words and expressions. Conversely, Modern Standard Arabic was the norm for state news outlets, including newspapers, magazines, television, and radio. That was especially true of Egypt's national broadcasting company, the Arab Radio and Television Union, which was established with the intent of providing content for the entire Arab world, not merely Egypt, hence the need to broadcast in the standard, rather than the vernacular, language. The Voice of the Arabs radio station, in particular, had an audience from across the region, and the use of anything other than Modern Standard Arabic was viewed as eminently incongruous.

In a study of three Egyptian newspapers (Al-Ahram, Al-Masry Al-Youm, and Al-Dustour) Zeinab Ibrahim concluded that the total number of headlines in Egyptian Arabic in each newspaper varied. Al-Ahram did not include any. Al-Masry Al-Youm had an average of 5% of headlines in Egyptian, while Al-Dustour averaged 11%.

As the status of Egyptian Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic can have such political and religious implications in Egypt, the question of whether Egyptian Arabic should be considered a "dialect" or "language" can be a source of debate. In sociolinguistics, Egyptian Arabic can be seen as one of many distinct varieties that, despite arguably being languages on grounds, are united by a common in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA).

Publications

During the early 1900s many portions of the Bible were published in Egyptian Arabic. These were published by the Nile Mission Press. By 1932 the whole New Testament and some books of the Old Testament had been published in Egyptian Arabic in Arabic script.

The dialogs in the following novels are partly in Egyptian Arabic, partly in Standard Arabic: Mahmud Tahir Haqqi's ''Adhra' Dinshuway'' ( ar , عذراء دنشواي; 1906), Yaqub Sarruf's ''Fatat Misr'' ( ar , فتاة مصر , Fatāt Miṣr , translit-std=ALA; first published in Al-Muqtataf 1905–1906), and Mohammed Hussein Heikal's '' Zaynab'' (1914).

Early stage plays written in Egyptian Arabic were translated from or influenced by European playwrights. Muhammad 'Uthman Jalal translated plays by Molière, Racine and Goldoni to Egyptian Arabic and adapted them as well as ten fables by Jean de La Fontaine. Yaqub Sanu translated to and wrote plays on himself in Egyptian Arabic.
Many plays were written in Standard Arabic, but performed in colloquial Arabic. Tawfiq al-Hakim took this a step further and provided for his Standard Arabic plays versions in colloquial Arabic for the performances. Mahmud Taymur has published some of his plays in two versions, one in Standard, one in colloquial Arabic, among them: ''Kidb fi Kidb'' ( ar , كذب في كذب , lit=All lies, 1951 or ca. 1952) and ''Al-Muzayyifun'' ( ar , المزيفون , Al-Muzayyifūn , translit-std=ALA , lit=The Forgers, ca. 1953).

The writers of stage plays in Egyptian Arabic after the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 include No'man Ashour, Alfred Farag, , Rashad Roushdy, and Yusuf Idris. Thereafter the use of colloquial Egyptian Arabic in theater is stable and common. Later writers of plays in colloquial Egyptian include Ali Salem, and Naguib Surur.

Novels in Egyptian Arabic after the 1940s and before the 1990s are rare. There are by ''Qantarah Alladhi Kafar'' ( ar , قنطرة الذي كفر , Qanṭarah Alladhī Kafar , translit-std=ALA , lit=Qantara Who Disbelieved , lable=none, Cairo, 1965) and Uthman Sabri's ( ar , عثمان صبري , ʻUthmān Ṣabrī , translit-std=ALA; 1896–1986) ''Journey on the Nile'' ( arz , رحلة في النيل , Riḥlah fī il-Nīl , translit-std=ALA, 1965) (and his ''Bet Sirri'' ( arz , بيت سري , Bēt Sirri , translit-std=ALA , lit=A Brothel , label=none, 1981) that apparently uses a mix of Standard Arabic and Egyptian Arabic).

Prose published in Egyptian Arabic since the 1990s include the following novels:
Yusuf al-Qa'id's ''Laban il-Asfur'' ( arz , لبن العصفور , Laban il-ʿAṣfūr , translit-std=ALA , lit=The Milk of the Bird , label=none; 1994),
Baha' Awwad's ( ar , بهاء عواد , Bahāʾ ʿAwwād , translit-std=ALA) ''Shams il-Asil'' ( arz , شمس الاصيل , Shams il-ʿAṣīl , translit-std=ALA , lit=Late Afternoon Sun , label=none; 1998),
Safa Abdel Al Moneim's ''Min Halawit il-Ruh'' ( arz , من حلاوة الروح , Min Ḥalāwit il-Rōḥ , translit-std=ALA , lit=Zest for Life , label=none, 1998),
Samih Faraj's ( ar , سامح فرج , Sāmiḥ Faraj , translit-std=ALA) ''Banhuf Ishtirasa'' ( arz , بانهوف اشتراسا , Bānhūf Ishtirāsā , translit-std=ALA , lit=Bahnhof Strasse , label=none, 1999);
autobiographies include the one by Ahmed Fouad Negm,
by ''Ula Awwil'' ( arz , اولى أول , Ūlá Awwil , translit-std=ALA , lit=First Class Primary School , label=none),
and Fathia al-Assal's ''Hudn il-Umr'' ( arz , حضن العمر , Ḥuḍn il-ʿUmr , translit-std=ALA , lit=The Embrace of a Lifetime , label=none).

The epistolary novel ''Jawabat Haraji il-Gutt'' ( aec , جوابات حراجى القط , Jawābāt Ḥarājī il-Guṭṭ , translit-std=ALA , lit=Letters of Haraji the Cat, 2001) by Abdel Rahman el-Abnudi is exceptional in its use of Saʽidi Arabic.

21th-century journals publishing in Egyptian Arabic include ''Bārti'' (from at least 2002), the weekly magazine ''Idhak lil-Dunya'' ( ar , اضحك للدنيا , Iḍḥak lil-Dunyā , translit-std=ALA , lit=Smile for the World , label=none, from 2005), and the monthly magazine ( arz , احنا , Iḥna , translit-std=ALA , lit=We , label=none, from 2005).

Spoken varieties

Sa'īdi Arabic is a different variety than Egyptian Arabic in Ethnologue.com and ISO 639-3 and in other sources, and the two varieties have limited mutual intelligibility. It carries little prestige nationally but continues to be widely spoken, with 19,000,000 speakers.

The traditional division between Upper and Lower Egypt and their respective differences go back to ancient times. Egyptians today commonly call the people of the north () and those of the south (). The differences throughout Egypt, however, are more wide-ranging and do not neatly correspond to the simple division. The language shifts from the eastern to the western parts of the Nile Delta, and the varieties spoken from Giza to Minya are further grouped into a Middle Egypt cluster. Despite the differences, there are features distinguishing all the Egyptian Arabic varieties of the Nile Valley from any other varieties of Arabic. Such features include reduction of long vowels in open and unstressed syllables, the postposition of demonstratives and interrogatives, the modal meaning of the imperfect and the integration of the participle.

The Western Egyptian Bedawi Arabic variety of the western desert differs from all other Arabic varieties in Egypt in that it linguistically is part of Maghrebi Arabic. Northwest Arabian Arabic is also distinct from Egyptian Arabic.

Regional variation

Egyptian Arabic varies regionally across its ''sprachraum'', with certain characteristics being noted as typical of the speech of certain regions.

Alexandria

The dialect of Alexandria (West Delta) is noted for certain shibboleths separating its speech from that of Cairo (South Delta). The ones that are most frequently noted in popular discourse are the use of the word ''falafel'' as opposed to ''ṭa`meyya'' for the fava-bean fritters common across the country and the pronunciation of the word for the Egyptian pound ( ), as , closer to the pronunciation of the origin of the term, the British guinea).
The speech of the older Alexandrian families is also noted for use of the first-person plural even when they speak in the singular, a feature of Maghrebi Arabic.
The dialects of the western Delta tend to use the perfect with instead of the perfect with , for example for this is instead of .

Port Said

Port Said's dialect (East Delta) is noted for a "heavier", more guttural sound, compared to other regions of the country.

Rural Nile Delta

The dialect of the Fellah in Northern Egypt is noted for a distinct accent, replacing the urban pronunciations of (spelled ) and ( ) with and respectively, but that is not true of all rural dialects, a lot of them do not have such replacement. The dialect also has many grammatical differences when contrasted to urban dialects.

Phonology

Egyptian Arabic has a phonology that differs significantly from that of other varieties of Arabic, and has its own inventory of consonants and vowels.

Morphology

Nouns

In contrast to CA and MSA, Egyptian Arabic nouns are not inflected for case and lack nunation (with the exception of certain fixed phrases in the accusative