Sanʽani Arabic


Sanʽani Arabic is an Arabic dialect spoken in Yemen.

Phonology

The Sanaani dialect is distinguished among Yemeni dialects by its use of the sound in the place of the classical Arabic , as well as its preservation of the classical Arabic palatal pronunciation of .

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 or is used. The derivation of is apparently related to the classical, and is likely an abbreviation of, meaning "after". For all other persons in Sanʽa proper the simple prefix is used, although many of the villages around Sanʽa extend the use of 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 ". For instance, mā ajmal, is used to mean "how beautiful", from the adjective jamīl, meaning "beautiful"; a construction it shares with Libyan Arabic and Levantine Arabic.

Vocabulary

The Sanʽani vocabulary is also very distinct and conservative. The classical verb sāra, yasīr is retained with the meaning of "to go". Shalla, yashill is used to mean "to take/get".
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