Sanʽani Arabic is an

Arabic dialect The varieties (or dialects or vernacular languages) of Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family originating in the Arabian Peninsula, are the linguistic systems that Arabic speakers speak natively. There are considerable variatio ...

spoken in north of

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

in the city of

Sana'a Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Governo ...

Phonology

The Sanaani dialect is distinguished among Yemeni dialects by its use of the sound in the place of the (' ) used in

Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of Standard language, standardized, Literary language, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th ...

Consonants

Vowels

* The short vowels can have lax allophones of . * within emphatic environments can be heard as back .

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 Libyan Arabic ( ar, ليبي, Lībī) is a variety of Arabic spoken mainly in Libya, and neighboring countries. It can be divided into two major dialect areas; the eastern centred in Benghazi and Bayda, and the western centred in Tripoli and M ...

and

Levantine Arabic Levantine Arabic, also called Shami (autonym: or ), is a group of mutually intelligible vernacular Arabic varieties spoken in the Levant, in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Turkey (historically in Adana, Mersin and Hatay on ...

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".Janet C. E. Watson, ''Sbahtu! A Course in Sanʽani Arabic''. Semitica Viva: Series Didactica, 3. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1996. xxvii, 324 pp., glossary, index 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

} am, ድመት , , - , ; , glass (cup) , tr, bardak; English , , - , , to drop , English , , - , , bottle , hi, डिब्बा , , - , , Allow me (informal) , , , - , , OK , ar, نهى , , - , , kitchen , , , - , , bicycle , hi, साइकिल ,

References

{{Varieties of Arabic Arabic languages