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Yemeni Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken in Yemen. It is generally considered a very conservative dialect, as it has retained many classical features lost across most of the Arabic speaking world. Yemeni Arabic can be divided roughly into several main dialect groups, each with its own distinctive vocabulary and phonology. The most important of these groups are San'ani, Adani, Tihami and Hadhramawti. The independent languages of Mahri and Suqutri are not Arabic dialects at all, but developed from Old South Arabian via the ancient Sabaen language.
= The San'ani Arabic Dialect =
Grammar
The San'ani dialect is distinguished among Yemeni dialects by its use of the hard sound in the place of the classical Arabic *(also" target="_blank" >transliterated *)" target="_blank" >for the Arabic letter *" target="_blank" >or *" target="_blank" >is apparently related to the classical *" target="_blank" >is likely an abbreviation of *" target="_blank" >is used, although many of the villages around San'a extend the use of [ša- for all persons.
Vocabulary
The San'ani vocabulary is also very distinct and conservative. The classical verb "sāra, yasīr" is retained with the meaning of "to go".
= The Adeni Arabic Dialect = The Adeni dialect is also very distinct from the rest of the Yemeni dialects. Like the majority of Yemeni dialects, Adeni uses the hard uvular for the classical *" target="_blank" >for the classical *" target="_blank" >becomes *" target="_blank" >becomes *" target="_blank" >and the emphatic dental plosive *.
= The Tihami Arabic Dialect = The Tihami dialect has many aspects which differentiate it from all other dialects in the Arab world. Phonologically Tihami is similar to the majority of Yemeni dialects, pronouncing the Qaf as and the Jim as a hard *" target="_blank" >with the prefix *, for all persons, e.g. "sha-buuk am-suuq" meaning, "I will go to the Souq". Some Tihami dialects, such as that spoken in Al-Hodeida, are otherwise fairly similar to other Yemeni dialects in grammar and syntax, differing mainly in vocabulary, while others can be so far from any other Arabic dialect that they are practically incomprehensible even to other Yemenis.
The dialect of Zabid
Of all the Tihami dialects, the dialect of Zabid is rightly regarded as the most bizarre. It shares the transformed definite article of with the rest of the Tihami dialects, but it is unique in retaining certain of the declensional suffixes in the nominitive case. Indefinite masculine nouns in nominal sentences as well as the subjects of verbal sentences are suffixed with the sound *." target="_blank" > Likewise the phonology of the Zabidi dialect is perhaps unique among all Arabic dialects in that it replaces the sound [‘ain with the glottal stop ’ . In terms of vocabulary, the zabidi dialect shares very little with other Arabic dialects, in many respects it seems to be a different language. Zabidis use the verb "baaka, yabuuk" to mean "to go" and the verb "baġa, yibġa" to mean "to want". The word "gohd" and "gohda" mean man, and woman, respectively. And the word "fiiaym" to mean "where", hence the phrase: "fiiaym baayku" meaning "Where are you going", which is grammatically parallel to the more familiar: "fayn raayih" of more mainstream dialects.
= The Hadrami Arabic Dialect =
(Excerpted from A. Al-Saqqaf (in press): "Co-Referential Devices in Hadrami Arabic Discourse" Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik.)
Phonology:
The dialect in many towns and villages in the Wādī (valley) and the coastal region is characterised by its ج below).
The ق reflex is pronounced as a voiced velar in all lexical items throughout the dialect. In some other Arabic dialects,
is realised as a voiceless uvular plosive in certain lexemes which are marked [+ religious
, educational etc., e.g. /qur’ān/ “Qur’an”. With the spread of literacy and contact with speakers of other Arabic dialects, future sociolinguistic research may reveal whether HA is going to witness innovation like using the uvular in certain lexemes while retaining the velar /g/ for others.
Wādī HA makes ث / ت
In non-emphatic environments, /ā/ is realised open front (slightly raised) unrounded. Thus /θānī/ “second; psn. name” which is normally realised with an quality in the Gulf dialects is realised with an [æ: in HA.
This dialect is characterised by not allowing final consonant clusters to occur in final position. Thus Classical Arabic /bint/ “girl” is realised as /binit/. In initial positions, there is a difference between the Wādī and the coastal varieties of HA. Coastal HA has initial clusters in /bġā/ “he wants”, /bSal/ “onions” and /brīd/ “mail (n.)” while Wādī HA realises the second and third words as /baSal/ and /barīd/ respectively.
Morphology: When the first person singular comes as an independent subject pronoun, it is marked for gender, thus /anā/ for masculine and /anī/ for feminine. As an object pronoun, it comes as a bound morpheme, thus /–nā/ for masculine and /–nī/ for feminine. The first person subject plural is /naHnā/
The first person direct object plural is /naHnā/ rather than /–nā/ which is the case in many dialects. Thus, the cognate of the Classical Arabic /Darabanā/ “he hit us” is /Ðarab naHnā/ in HA.
Stem VI, /tC1āC2aC3/, can be umlauted to /tC1ēC2aC3/, thus changing the pattern vowel |ā| to /ē/. This leads to a semantic change as in /tšāradaw/ “they ran away suddenly” and /tšēradaw/ “they shirk, try to escape”
Intensive and frequentative verbs are common in the dialect. Thus /kasar/ “to break” is intensified to |kawsar| as in /kōsar fi l-l‘ib/ “he played rough”. It can be metathesized to become frequentative as /kaswar min iÐ-ÐaHkāt/ “he made a series (lit. breaks) of giggles or laughs”.
Syntax: The syntax of HA has many similarities to other Peninsular Arabic dialects. However, the dialect contains a number of unique particles used for coordination, negation and other sentence types. Examples in coordination include /kann, lākan/ “but; nevertheless, though”, /mā/ (Classical Arabic /ammā/) “as for…” and /walla/ “or”. Like many other dialects, apophonic or ablaut passive (as in /kutib/ "it was written") is not very common in HA and perhaps is confined to clichés and proverbs from other dialects including Classical Arabic.
The particle /qad/ developed semantically in HA into /kuð/ or /guð / “yet, already, almost, nearly” and /gad/ or /gid/ “maybe, perhaps”.
Vocabulary: There are a few lexical items that are shared with Modern South Arabian languages, which perhaps distinguish this dialect from other neighbouring Peninsular dialects. The effect of Hadrami migration to South-East Asia (see Arab Singaporean), the Indian sub-continent and East Africa on HA is clear in the vocabulary especially in certain registers like types of food and dress, e.g. /Sārūn/ "sarong". Many loan words were listed in al-Saqqaf (2006): http://www.multilingual-matters.net/beb/009/beb0090075.htm
= The Yafi'i Arabic Dialect = While there is much about the Lower Yafa'i dialect that has not been thoroughly studied, it does have a very interesting phonological shift. Like the southern bedouin dialects, with which it shares much in common, Yafi'i pronounces the (supposedly) classical as *(also" target="_blank" >transliterated *," target="_blank" >pronouncing them, respectively *(can" target="_blank" >also be transliterated as [ghāf). This unique shift gives the dialect characteristically disconcerting quality, as many common words are confused, often to humourous effect. This phenomenon exists also in some other Arabic dialects in the Sudan and the Arabian Peninsula including the Yemeni dialects of Abyan and Lahej.
=Other Arabic Dialects= Southern Yemeni (Qahtani, Biblical Joktan) dialects are different especially Hadhramaut which still retains old pre-Islamic elements.
= Non-Arabic Dialects = Mehri is still spoken in the east (bordering other South Arabian languages in Oman) and Soqotri is spoken on Socotra. These languages are technically not dialects, retaining ancient South Arabian language elements.
"Yemeni Arabic"