Central Asian Arabic

Central Asian Arabic or Jugari Arabic (Arabic: العربية الآسيوية الوسطى) refers to a set of four closely related varieties of Arabic currently facing extinction and spoken predominantly by Arab communities living in portions of Central Asia. These varieties are Bactrian (or Bakhtāri/Baxtāri) Arabic, Bukharan (or Bukhāri/Buxāri) Arabic, Qashqa Darya (or Kashka-darya) Arabic, and Khorasani (or Xorasāni) Arabic.

The Central Asian Arabic varieties are markedly different from all other Arabic language varieties, especially in their syntax and to a lesser extent, morphology, which have been heavily influenced by the surrounding Western Iranian and Turkic languages. They are, however, relatively conservative in their lexicon and phonology. While they bear certain similarities with North Mesopotamian Arabic, they constitute an independent linguistic branch of Arabic, the Central Asian family.

Along with Maltese and Cypriot Arabic, the Central Asian Arabic varieties are exceptional among Arabic-speaking communities in not being characterized by diglossia with Modern Standard Arabic, except in religious contexts; rather, Uzbek or Persian (including Dari and Tajik) function as the high prestigelect and literary language for these communities. Essentially all speakers are reported to be bilingual, with essentially no Jugari Arabic monolinguals remaining. Many, if not most self-identified ethnic Arabs in these communities do not speak the language at a native level, and report other languages as their mother tongues.

These varieties are spoken by an estimated 6,000 people total in Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, but declining in number; in all four of these countries, Arabic is not an official language.