Hassaniya Arabic (; also known as , , , , and Maure) 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), ...

Maghrebi Arabic Maghrebi Arabic, often known as ''ad-Dārija'' to differentiate it from Literary Arabic, is a vernacular Arabic dialect continuum spoken in the Maghreb. It includes the Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, Libyan, Hassaniya and Saharan Arabic di ...

spoken by

Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...

n Arabs,

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

an Arabs and the

Sahrawis The Sahrawis, or Sahrawi people ( '), are an ethnic group native to the western part of the Sahara desert, which includes the Western Sahara, southern Morocco, much of Mauritania, and along the southwestern border of Algeria. They are of mixed ...

. It was spoken by the

Beni Ḥassān Beni Ḥassan ( "sons of Ḥassān") is a Bedouin Arab tribe which inhabits Western Sahara, Mauritania, Morocco and Algeria. It is one of the four sub-tribes of the Banu Maqil who emigrated in the 11th century from South Arabia to the Maghreb wi ...

Bedouin tribes of

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

i origin who extended their authority over most of

and

Western Sahara Western Sahara is a territorial dispute, disputed territory in Maghreb, North-western Africa. It has a surface area of . Approximately 30% of the territory () is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 70% is ...

between the 15th and 17th centuries. Hassaniya Arabic was the language spoken in the pre-modern region around

Chinguetti Chinguetti ( ; ) is a ksar and a medieval trading center in northern Mauritania, located on the Adrar Plateau east of Atar. Chinguetti had a population of 4,800 as of 2013. Founded in the 13th century as the center of several trans-Saharan trad ...

. The language has completely replaced the

Berber languages The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight, are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related but mostly mutually unintelligible languages spoken by Berbers, Berber communities, ...

that were originally spoken in this region. Although clearly a western dialect, Hassānīya is relatively distant from other Maghrebi variants of Arabic. Its geographical location exposed it to influence from Zenaga-Berber and

Pulaar Pulaar (in Latin script, Latin: , in Ajami script, Ajami: ), often referred to as Pulaar du Nord, is dialect of the Fula language spoken primarily as a first language by the Fula people, Fula and Toucouleur peoples in the Senegal River valley ar ...

. There are several dialects of Hassaniya, which differ primarily phonetically. There are still traces of South Arabian in Hassaniya Arabic spoken between Rio de Oro and

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; ; Koyra Chiini: ; ) is an ancient city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. It is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali, having a population of 32,460 in the 2018 census. ...

, according to G. S. Colin. Today, Hassaniya Arabic is spoken in

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

and the

Phonology

The phonological system of Hassānīya exhibits both very innovative and very conservative features. All phonemes of

Classical Arabic Classical Arabic or Quranic Arabic () is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notably in Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid literary texts such as poetry, e ...

are represented in the dialect, but there are also many new phonemes. As in other Bedouin dialects, Classical /q/ corresponds mostly to dialectal ; and have merged into ; and the interdentals and have been preserved. The letter ج is realized as . However, there is sometimes a double correspondence of a classical sound and its dialectal counterpart. Thus, classical is represented by in 'to take' but by in 'scissors'. Similarly, becomes in 'laugh (noun)', but in 'to be sick'. Some consonant roots even have a double appearance: 'heavy (mentally)' vs. 'heavy (materially)'. Some of the "classicizing" forms are easily explained as recent loans from the literary language (such as 'law') or from sedentary dialects in case of concepts pertaining to the sedentary way of life (such as 'scissors' above). For others, there is no obvious explanation (like 'to be sick'). Etymological appears constantly as , never as . Nevertheless, the phonemic status of and as well as and appears very stable, unlike in many other Arabic varieties. Somewhat similarly, classical has in most contexts disappeared or turned into or ( 'family' instead of , 'insist' instead of and 'yesterday' instead of ). In some literary terms, however, it is clearly preserved: 'suffering (participle)' (classical ).

Consonants

Hassānīya has innovated many consonants by the spread of the distinction ''emphatic/non-emphatic''. In addition to the above-mentioned, and have a clear phonemic status and more marginally so. One additional emphatic phoneme is acquired from the neighboring Zenaga Berber language along with a whole palatal series from

Niger–Congo languages Niger–Congo is a hypothetical language family spoken over the majority of sub-Saharan Africa. It unites the Mande languages, the Atlantic–Congo languages (which share a characteristic noun class system), and possibly several smaller groups ...

of the south. At least some speakers make the distinction /p/–/b/ through borrowings from

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

(and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

in Western Sahara). All in all, the number of consonant phonemes in Hassānīya is 31, or 43 counting the marginal cases. On the phonetic level, the classical consonants and are usually realised as voiced (hereafter marked ) and . The latter is still, however, pronounced differently from , the distinction probably being in the amount of air blown out (Cohen 1963: 13–14). In geminated and word-final positions both phonemes are voiceless, for some speakers /θ/ apparently in all positions. The uvular fricative is likewise realised voiceless in a geminated position, although not fricative but plosive: . In other positions, etymological seems to be in free variation with (etymological , however varies only with ).

Vowels

Vowel phonemes come in two series: long and short. The long vowels are the same as in

, and the short ones extend this by one: . The classical diphthongs and may be realised in many different ways, the most usual variants being and , respectively. Still, realisations like and as well as and are possible, although less common. As in most Maghrebi Arabic dialects, etymological short vowels are generally dropped in open syllables (except for the feminine noun ending < ): > 'you (f. sg.) write', > > 'he wrote'. In the remaining closed syllables dialectal /a/ generally corresponds to classical , while classical and have merged into . Remarkably, however, morphological is represented by and by in a word-initial pre-consonantal position: 'I stood up' (root ''w-g-f''; cf. 'I wrote', root ''k-t-b''), 'he descends' (subject prefix ''i-''; cf. 'he writes', subject prefix ''jə-''). In some contexts, this initial vowel even gets lengthened, which clearly demonstrates its phonological status of a vowel: 'they stood up'. In addition, short vowels in open syllables are found in Berber loanwords, such as 'man', 'calves of 1 to 2 years of age', and in passive formation: 'he was met' (cf. 'he met').

Code-switching

Many educated Hassaniya Arabic speakers also practice

code-switching In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. These alternations are generally intended to ...

. In Western Sahara it is common for code-switching to occur between Hassaniya Arabic,

Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA) is the variety of Standard language, standardized, Literary language, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in some usages al ...

, and

, as

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

had previously controlled this region; in the rest of Hassaniya-speaking lands,

is the additional language spoken.

Orthography

Hassaniya Arabic is normally written with an

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...

. However, in

, the government has adopted the use of the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

to write the language, as established by Decree 2005–980 of October 21, 2005.

Speakers distribution

According to ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...

'', there are approximately three million Hassaniya speakers, distributed as follows: *

: 2,770,000 (2006) *

and the southern area of

, known as the

Tekna The Tekna () is a semi-nomadic Sahrawi tribal confederation of mixed Arab and Lamta Sanhaja Berber origins. Its constituents today inhabit southern Morocco, northern Western Sahara and western Algeria, but traditionally with wider migration rout ...

zone: 200,000+ (1995) *

: 175,800 – 210,000 (2000) *

: 162,000 (2015) *

: 150,000 (1985) *

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

: 40,000 (1985) *

: 10,000 (1998)

References

* * "Hassaniya, the Arabic of Mauritania", Al-Any, Riyadh S. / In: ''Linguistics''; vol. 52 (1969), pag. 15 / 1969 * "Hassaniya, the Arabic of Mauritania", Al-Any, Riyadh S. / In: ''Studies in linguistics''; vol. 19 (1968), afl. 1 (mrt), pag. 19 / 1968 * "Hassaniya Arabic (Mali) : Poetic and Ethnographic Texts", Heath, Jeffrey; Kaye, Alan S. / In: ''Journal of Near Eastern studies''; vol. 65 (2006), afl. 3, pag. 218 (1) / 2006 * ''Hassaniya Arabic (Mali) : poetic and ethnographic texts'', Heath, Jeffrey / Harrassowitz / 2003 * ''Hassaniya Arabic (Mali) – English – French dictionary'', Heath, Jeffrey / Harrassowitz / 2004 *Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2006. Ḥassāniya Arabic. In Kees Versteegh (ed.), Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, 240–250. Leiden: E.~J.~Brill.

External links

Hassaniya Arabic
at

Omniglot Omniglot () is an online encyclopedia focused on languages and writing systems. Etymology The name "Omniglot" comes from the Latin prefix (meaning "all") and the Greek root (, meaning "tongue"). History The website was launched by British ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hassaniya Arabic Maghrebi Arabic Languages of Algeria Languages of Libya Languages of Mali Languages of Mauritania Languages of Morocco Languages of Niger Languages of Senegal Languages of Western Sahara Languages written in Latin script