Central Asian Arabic or Jugari Arabic (in Arabic: العربية الآسيوية الوسطى) is a
variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
of
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
currently facing extinction and spoken predominantly by
Arab communities living in portions of
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
.
It is a very different variant from others known in the
Arabic language
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
and, although it bears certain similarities with
North Mesopotamian Arabic
North Mesopotamian Arabic (also known as Moslawi Mosul.html"_;"title="eaning_'of_Mosul">eaning_'of_Mosul'or_Mesopotamian_Qeltu_Arabic)_is_Varieties_of_Arabic.html" ;"title="Mosul">eaning_'of_Mosul'.html" ;"title="Mosul.html" ;"title="eaning 'of ...
, it is part of the Central Asian family, an independent linguistic branch of the five mainly groups of the
Modern Standard Arabic
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of standardized, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; occasionally, it also ref ...
. There is no
diglossia
In linguistics, diglossia () is a situation in which two dialects or languages are used (in fairly strict compartmentalization) by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety (labeled ...
with Modern Standard Arabic.
It is spoken by an estimated 6,000 people in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
,
Tajikistan
Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
, and
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...
, countries where Arabic is not an official language, and reported to be declining in number.
In contrast to all Arab countries, it is not characterized by
diglossia
In linguistics, diglossia () is a situation in which two dialects or languages are used (in fairly strict compartmentalization) by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety (labeled ...
; The Arab ethnic group use Uzbek and
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
(including Dari and Tajiki) to communicate with each other, and as literary language; Speakers are reported to be bilingual, others speak these languages as mother tongue, and only few members of the communities now speak Jugari Arabic.
History
It was once spoken among
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
's numerous settled and nomadic
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
communities who moved there after the fall of
Sasanian Empire. They inhabited areas in
Samarqand
fa, سمرقند
, native_name_lang =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from the top: Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zin ...
,
Bukhara,
Qashqadarya,
Surkhandarya (present-day Uzbekistan), and
Khatlon
Khatlon Region ( tg, Вилояти Хатлон, ''Viloyati Xatlon''), one of the four provinces of Tajikistan ( tg, вилоят, ''Viloyat''), is the most populous of the four first level administrative regions. It is situated in the southwes ...
(present-day Tajikistan), as well as
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
. The first wave of Arabs migrated to this region in the 8th century during the
Muslim conquests
The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests ( ar, الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, ), also referred to as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the main Islamic prophet. He estab ...
and was later joined by groups of Arabs from
Balkh and
Andkhoy (present-day Afghanistan). According to
İbn Al-Athir, the Arabic conquerors settled about 50,000 Arabic families in to Iranian Khorasan, modern day Northern Afghanistan and southern Turkmenistan, but the number is definitely exaggerated. Owing to heavy
Islamic influences, Arabic quickly became the common language of science and literature of the epoch. Most Central Asian Arabs lived in isolated communities and did not favour intermarriages with the local population. This factor helped their language survive in a multilingual milieu until the 20th century. By the 1880s many Arab pastoralists had migrated to northern Afghanistan from what is now Uzbekistan and Tajikistan following the
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
n conquest of Central Asia. These Arabs nowadays speak no Arabic having adapted to
Dari
Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...
and Uzbek.
With the establishment of the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
rule in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, Arab communities faced major linguistic and identity changes having had to abandon nomadic lifestyles and gradually mixing with
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks ( uz, , , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the wider Central Asian region, being among the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakh and Karakalpak mino ...
,
Tajiks
Tajiks ( fa, تاجيک، تاجک, ''Tājīk, Tājek''; tg, Тоҷик) are a Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Tajiks are the largest ethnicity in Taj ...
and
Turkmen. According to the
1959 census, only 34% of Soviet Arabs, mostly elderly, spoke their language at a native level. Others reported
Uzbek or
Tajik as their mother tongue.
Varieties
Giorgi Tsereteli and
Isaak Natanovich Vinnikov were responsible for the first academic studies of Central Asian Arabic, which is heavily influenced by the local languages in phonetics, vocabulary and syntax.
The Jugari Arabic comprises four varieties: Bakhtiari Arabic (also called Bactrian Arabic), Bukhara Arabic (also called Buxara Arabic), Kashkadarya Arabic and
Khorasani Arabic
Khorasani Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Iran. It is a variety of Central Asian Arabic spoken in a few villages in the Iranian province of Khorasan
Khorasan may refer to:
* Greater Khorasan, a historical region which lies mostly in mo ...
. The first three have their speakers spread across Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Khorasani came to be considered by scholars as part of the Central Asian Arabic dialect family only recently.
It is reported to be spoken in 5 villages of
Surkhandarya,
Qashqadarya and
Bukhara. In Uzbekistan, there are at least two dialects of Central Asian Arabic: Bukharian (influenced by Tajik) and Qashqadaryavi (influenced by
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia ( Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic l ...
). These dialects are not
mutually intelligible. In Tajikistan, Central Asian Arabic is spoken by 35.7% of the country's Arab population, having been largely replaced by Tajik. Bakhtiari Arabic is spoken in Arab communities in northern Afghanistan.
Recent studies considered Khorasani Arabic (spoken in
Khorasan,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
) as part of the Central Asian Arabic family, and found that it was closely related to Qashqadaryavi.
[Ulrich Seeger, ]
On the Relationship of the Central Asian Arabic Dialects
' (translated from German to English by Sarah Dickins)
Numbers
* ''wahid'' > ''fad''
* ''ithnaân'' > ''isnen''
* ''thalatha'' > ''salaâs''
* ''arba3a'' > ''orba3''
See also
*
History of Arabs in Afghanistan
*
Khoja
The Khojas ( sd}; gu, ખોજા, hi, ख़ोजा) are a mainly Nizari Isma'ili Shia community of people originating in Gujarat, India.
Derived from the Persian Khwaja, a term of honor, the word Khoja is used to refer to Lohana Rajp ...
*
:ru:Среднеазиатские арабы - central Asian Arabs
References
Bibliography
* Versteegh, Kees. ''The Arabic Language.'' — Edinburgh University Press, 2014. — 410 p. — .
{{Varieties of Arabic
Arabic languages
Mashriqi Arabic
Languages of Afghanistan
Languages of Uzbekistan
Languages of Tajikistan
Languages of Iran