Kuwaiti Arabic should not be confused with Kuwaiti Persian.
| Kuwaiti Arabic | |
| Nativename: | Arabic: كويتي |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /fr/ |
| States: | Grane, nowadays State of Kuwait |
| Speakers: | million |
| Date: | 2021 |
| Ref: | e26 |
| Familycolor: | Afro-Asiatic |
| Fam2: | Semitic |
| Fam3: | West Semitic |
| Fam4: | Central Semitic |
| Fam5: | Arabic |
| Fam6: | Peninsular |
| Fam7: | Gulf |
| Script: | Arabic, with addition of 3 or 4 letters.[1] |
| Iso1: | afb |
| Iso3: | afb |
| Nation: | Not official in any country |
| Agency: | Not recognised as a language |
| Glotto: | kuwa1251 |
| Glottorefname: | Kuwaiti Hadari Arabic |
| Notice: | IPA |
Kuwaiti (pronounced as /[kweːti]/) is a Gulf Arabic dialect spoken in Kuwait. Kuwaiti Arabic shares many phonetic features unique to Gulf dialects spoken in the Arabian Peninsula. Due to Kuwait's soap opera industry, knowledge of Kuwaiti Arabic has spread throughout the Arabic-speaking world and become recognizable even to people in countries such as Tunisia and Jordan.
Kuwaiti Arabic speakers exhibit features not found in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), due in part to natural linguistic change over time, influence from nearby dialects in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, as well as influence from English, Italian, Persian, Turkish, as well as Hindi-Urdu and Swahili. Three groups make up the Kuwaiti population: the descendants of people from the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, and Iran.
Kuwaiti Arabic is rapidly changing due to many factors, in particular contact with speakers of other languages and other Arabic varieties.
Kuwaiti Arabic has three short vowels pronounced as //a i u// and five long vowels pronounced as //a: e: i: o: u://. Short pronounced as /[e]/ and pronounced as /[o]/ appear in some words, typically as allophones (such as word-final pronounced as //a//, which raises to pronounced as /[e]/), though their phonemicity is marginal and many of the words they appear in are loans from other languages.
| Labial | Dental | Denti-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | emphatic | ||||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||||
| Occlusive | voiceless | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /tˤ/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /dˤ/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /sˤ/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| voiced | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /ðˤ/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Trill | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
Consonants in parentheses are marginal, found exclusively in formal, educated speech or from loanwords. Similarly, the glottal stop pronounced as /[ʔ]/ is rare, occurring in borrowings from Modern Standard Arabic.
pronounced as //ɡ// and pronounced as //tʃ// are the Kuwaiti Arabic reflexes of Classical Arabic *q (pronounced as /[q]/ in MSA) and *k (pronounced as /[k]/ in MSA), respectively. pronounced as //ɡ// may also be fronted to pronounced as //dʒ// in the context of front vowels.12
pronounced as //v// appears exclusively in loanwords from English; speakers may have difficulty with this sound and replace it with pronounced as /[f]/.
Emphatic consonants are pronounced with simultaneous velarization or pharyngealization; like MSA and other Arabic dialects, Kuwaiti Arabic makes phonemic contrasts between emphatic and non-emphatic consonants, though AlBader identifies allophonic emphaticization of pronounced as //b f l m n r//, which become pronounced as /[bˤ fˤ lˤ mˤ nˤ rˤ]/ when they come before a long pronounced as //a:// or when they are in close proximity to an emphatic consonant or back vowel.
Kuwaiti Arabic is divided into two varieties: Urban and Bedouin; the latter is considered to be more linguistically conservative, while the former, associated largely with sedentary urban speakers, has novel features not shared by surrounding dialects and is considered to be more prestigious. The urban dialect originates from the spoken dialect of Arabian Peninsular Arabic speakers who migrated to the area in the 18th century, being strongly influenced by contact with and immigration from the outside world.
The Urban speech is divided into four sub-dialects, while the Bedouin dialect is divided into two.[2] The four sedentary dialects are:
While the two Bedouin varieties are:
Historians and researchers usually demonstrate differences between the dialects using pronounced as //sukkar//, the Kuwaiti word for "sugar", which has three different pronunciations depending on the speaker's dialect. It is pronounced (pronounced as /[ʃɪkər]/) in Sharq dialect, Shakar (pronounced as /[ʃəkər]/) in Fintaas dialect, and Shakir (pronounced as /[ʃakɪr]/) in Jibla dialect.[4] [5]
Dashti identifies four varieties of Arabic in Kuwait. Classical Arabic (CA), the language of the Quran, the liturgical language of Islam, the religion of the vast majority of Kuwaitis, and old Arabic literature, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which is the medium of formal communication and school education. This variety is considered the second language of Kuwaitis as they are only introduced to when they start school. Kuwaiti Arabic (KA), the language of everyday's life and the symbol of the Kuwaiti identity. It is a symbol of prestige in the Kuwaiti society. The last variety is Educated Standard Arabic (ESA), in which the speaker mixes between MSA and KA. This language is used in Radio, TV, and academics' informal discussions. Kuwait is diglossic, like the rest of the Arab world, with the Arabic language being seen as the high variety, while Kuwaiti is seen more like a patois or a low-variety colloquial dialect of Arabic.[6] [7]
Kuwaiti is the "normal" way of speaking in everyday's life and is acquired naturally at home and not taught at schools (as it is considered a mere dialect of the Arabic language by the public).
After conducting several interviews with speakers of Kuwaiti, Akbar states that for many, speaking Kuwaiti is the most important criterion of being considered Kuwaiti.[8]
Kuwaiti Arabic is a variant of Gulf Arabic, sharing similarities with the dialects of neighboring coastal areas in Eastern Arabia. Due to immigration during its early history as well as trade, Kuwaiti was influenced by many languages such as Persian, English, Italian, Urdu, Turkish, and others.[9]
A characteristic in Kuwait is the use of words and phrases by women exclusively, for example "يَا حَافِظ", roughly translated to "Oh Saver [God]", is rarely or never used by men.[10] It also differs from other Arabic variants in the way phonological assimilation occurs to a multitude of words, but not to all of them. The only case of full assimilation is /dˤ/ changing to /ðˤ/ in all words.
Each colloquial variety of Arabic has evolved and developed over time from earlier Arabic dialects. In addition to the phonological differences mentioned above, some of the grammatical differences between the Standard Arabic (MSA) and Kuwaiti Arabic are:
Note: Copulas are used before verbs only, not adjectives. For example: I am drinking, not I am drunk. Many linguists define copulas as expressing identity and "is-a" relations. Since the following "copulas" are only use before verbs, they may be classified as aspectual particles.
| Verb | In Kuwaiti | Transliteration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| am, is | قَعَ/قَامْ/قَاعِدْ/قَاعْ/قَعْدْ | pronounced as /[ɡəʕ]/, pronounced as /[ɡam]/, pronounced as /[ɡaʕɪd]/, pronounced as /[ɡaʕ]/, pronounced as /[ɡəʕd]/ | |
| are | قَعَ/قَامْ/قَاعْدِينْ/قَاعْ/قَعْدْ | pronounced as /[ɡəʕ]/, pronounced as /[ɡam]/, pronounced as /[ɡaʕdin]/, pronounced as /[ɡaʕ]/, pronounced as /[ɡəʕd]/ |
Kuwaiti has borrowed many words from other languages due to immigration and trade. Below are few examples with the corresponding Arabic words. As noticed, many words come from Turkish. This is due to the historical influence of Ottomans that ruled over neighboring regions.
Note: A green box indicates that the MSA word is used in Kuwaiti (most of the times interchangeably), while a red box means it is not.
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning | Origin | In Original Language | In Modern Standard Arabic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| دِقْمَة or دُقْمَة | pronounced as /[dɪɡ.mə]/ or pronounced as /[dʉ́ɡ.mə]/ | 'button' | Turkish | düğme | ||
| شِگرْدِي | pronounced as /[ʃɪɡərdɪ]/ | 'kind-hearted person' | Persian | شگردي | ||
| بَخْت and بَخَتْ | pronounced as /[bəxt]/ and pronounced as /[bəxæt]/ | 'luck' | Persian | بخت | ||
| وَايِر | pronounced as /[wajɪr]/ | 'wire' | English | wire | ||
| دَبَل | pronounced as /[dəbəl]/ | 'double' | English | double | ||
| أَصَنْصير | pronounced as /[əsˤən.sˤeːr]/ | 'elevator' | French | ascenseur | ||
| تِيلَة | pronounced as /[tiːlə]/ | 'marble [toy]' | Persian | تیله | ||
| كِتِر | pronounced as /[kɪtɪr]/ | 'quarters' | English | quarter | ||
| جيكَر | pronounced as /[dʒeːkər]/ | 'ugly' (often used humorously) | English | joker, from the playing card | ||
| رزنامة | pronounced as /[rɪznamə]/ | 'calendar' | Persian | روزنامه | ||
| شوُرْبَة or شورُبَة | pronounced as /[ʃoːrbə]/ or pronounced as /[ʃoːrʉ́bə]/ | 'soup' | Turkish | çorba | ||
| صَالون | pronounced as //sˤaloːn// | 'lounge' | French | salon | ||
| طرْشِي | pronounced as /[tˤʊrʃi]/ | 'pickle' | Turkish | turşu | ||
| نَمْرَة or نِمْرَة | pronounced as /[nɪmrə]/ or pronounced as /[nəmrə]/ | 'phone number' | Persian | نمره | ||
| بنْك or بَّنْگ | pronounced as /[bəŋk]/ or pronounced as /[bʌŋg]/ | 'bank' | English | bank | ||
| يَواشْ يَواش | pronounced as /[jəwaʃ]/ or pronounced as /[jəwaʃ]/ | 'slow down/be careful' | Turkish | yavaş | ||
| طوز | pronounced as /[tˤoːz]/ | 'sandstorm' | Turkish | toz | ||
| تلفزيون | pronounced as /[tĭlfvɪzjɔ́n]/ or pronounced as /[təlvɪzjɔ́n]/or pronounced as /[tĭlɪfɪzjɔ́n]/ | 'television' | English | television | ||
| كمْبِيُوتَرْ | pronounced as /[kɪ́mbjutar]/ | 'computer' | English | computer | ||
| دِرِيشَة | pronounced as /[dɪrɪ́jʃə]/ | 'window' | Persian | دريچه | ||
| زبالة | pronounced as /[ɪ́zbalə]/ or pronounced as /[zubalə]/ | 'garbage/trash' | Persian | زباله | ||
| صالَة | pronounced as /[sˤalˤaːh]/ | 'living room' | Spanish | sala | ||
| جُوتي (pl. جُواتي) | pronounced as /[ʤʉ́ti (pl.ʤʉ́waːti ]/ | 'shoe(s)' | Hindi | جوتا | ||
| أُوتي | pronounced as /[ʉ́ti]/ | 'flatiron' | Turkish | ütü | ||
| أَبَجوْرَة | pronounced as /[abajɔ́rə]/ | 'lampshade' | French | abat-jour | ||
| ميز تُواليْت | pronounced as /[mɛ́z twaːlɛ́t]/ | 'dresser/makeup table/toilette' | Persian | ميز توالت | ||
| أكو (conj. شكو، ماكو) | pronounced as /[akʉ́ (conj.ʃakʉ́, makʉ́]/ | 'there is (there isn't, what is there? [often also "no way!" in exclamation.])' | Akkadian | - | ||
| دِكّان | pronounced as /[dɪkːkɑ́ːn]/ | 'store' | Persian | دكان | ||
| بَّنْكَة | pronounced as /[bʌŋkːah]/ | 'fan' | Hindi | پنکها | ||
| سِيْدَة | pronounced as /[sɪ́jdːah]/ | 'straight/straight ahead' | Hindi | سیدها | ||
| أَبْلَّة | pronounced as /[ʌbːxʲah]/ | 'female teacher' | Turkish | abla | ||
| بخشيش | pronounced as /[baxːʃɪ́ʃ]/ | 'tip (as in tipping at a restaurant)' | Turkish | bahşiş | ||
| قوزي | pronounced as /[k̚ʉ́zɪ]/ or pronounced as /ɣʉ́zɪ/ | '
| Turkish | kuzu | ||
| هم | pronounced as /[həm]/ | 'also' | Persian | هم | ||
| كنْديْشِن | pronounced as /[candēshin]/ | 'air conditioner' | English | air conditioner | ||
| فِنگر [12] | pronounced as /[fingar]/ | 'to kick something with one's toes' | English | finger | ||
| شُوت | pronounced as /[ʃuːt]/ | 'to kick (a ball, or in martial arts, etc.)' | English | shoot | ||
| خَزْ | pronounced as /[xəz]/ | 'stare' | Turkish | gözü | ||
| گز | pronounced as /[ɡəz]/ | 'to meander' | English | gaze[13] |
some words were replaced by native Arabic words over time. A few examples of such words include:[14] [15]
Dr. Ya'goob al-Ghaneem points at the increasing numbers of Arab expatriate and exposure to media in different Arabics as the reasons behind this change. Fatima Mahasin hypothesises that the words being replaced are not of English, French or Italian origins, and tend originate from "less-prestigious" languages.[16]
Lahjah :: لـهجـة
. www.lahjah.com. 2016-10-01.