Hassaniya Arabic
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Hassaniya Arabic (Template:Langx; also known as Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, and Maure) is a variety of Maghrebi Arabic spoken by Mauritanian Arabs, Malian Arabs and the Sahrawis. It was spoken by the Beni Ḥassān Bedouin tribes of Yemeni origin who extended their authority over most of Mauritania and Western Sahara between the 15th and 17th centuries. Hassaniya Arabic was the language spoken in the pre-modern region around Chinguetti.
The language has completely replaced the Berber languages 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. 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, according to G. S. Colin.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Today, Hassaniya Arabic is spoken in Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Senegal and the Western Sahara.
Phonology
The phonological system of Hassānīya exhibits both very innovative and very conservative features. All phonemes of Classical Arabic are represented in the dialect, but there are also many new phonemes. As in other Bedouin dialects, Classical /q/ corresponds mostly to dialectal Template:IPA; Template:IPA and Template:IPA have merged into Template:IPA; and the interdentals Template:IPA and Template:IPA have been preserved. The letter ج Template:IPA is realized as Template:IPA.
However, there is sometimes a double correspondence of a classical sound and its dialectal counterpart. Thus, classical Template:IPA is represented by Template:IPA in Template:IPA 'to take' but by Template:IPA in Template:IPA 'scissors'. Similarly, Template:IPA becomes Template:IPA in Template:IPA 'laugh (noun)', but Template:IPA in Template:IPA 'to be sick'. Some consonant roots even have a double appearance: Template:IPA 'heavy (mentally)' vs. Template:IPA 'heavy (materially)'. Some of the "classicizing" forms are easily explained as recent loans from the literary language (such as Template:IPA 'law') or from sedentary dialects in case of concepts pertaining to the sedentary way of life (such as Template:IPA 'scissors' above). For others, there is no obvious explanation (like Template:IPA 'to be sick'). Etymological Template:IPA appears constantly as Template:IPA, never as Template:IPA.
Nevertheless, the phonemic status of Template:IPA and Template:IPA as well as Template:IPA and Template:IPA appears very stable, unlike in many other Arabic varieties. Somewhat similarly, classical Template:IPA has in most contexts disappeared or turned into Template:IPA or Template:IPA (Template:IPA 'family' instead of Template:IPA, Template:IPA 'insist' instead of Template:IPA and Template:IPA 'yesterday' instead of Template:IPA). In some literary terms, however, it is clearly preserved: Template:IPA 'suffering (participle)' (classical Template:IPA).
Consonants
Hassānīya has innovated many consonants by the spread of the distinction emphatic/non-emphatic. In addition to the above-mentioned, Template:IPA and Template:IPA have a clear phonemic status and Template:IPA more marginally so. One additional emphatic phoneme Template:IPA is acquired from the neighboring Zenaga Berber language along with a whole palatal series Template:IPA from Niger–Congo languages of the south. At least some speakers make the distinction /p/–/b/ through borrowings from French (and Spanish 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 Template:IPA and Template:IPA are usually realised as voiced Template:IPA (hereafter marked Template:IPA) and Template:IPA. The latter is still, however, pronounced differently from Template:IPA, 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 Template:IPA is likewise realised voiceless in a geminated position, although not fricative but plosive: Template:IPA. In other positions, etymological Template:IPA seems to be in free variation with Template:IPA (etymological Template:IPA, however varies only with Template:IPA).
Vowels
Vowel phonemes come in two series: long and short. The long vowels are the same as in Classical Arabic Template:IPA, and the short ones extend this by one: Template:IPA. The classical diphthongs Template:IPA and Template:IPA may be realised in many different ways, the most usual variants being Template:IPA and Template:IPA, respectively. Still, realisations like Template:IPA and Template:IPA as well as Template:IPA and Template:IPA 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 Template:IPA < Template:IPA): Template:IPA > Template:IPA 'you (f. sg.) write', Template:IPA > Template:IPA > Template:IPA 'he wrote'. In the remaining closed syllables dialectal /a/ generally corresponds to classical Template:IPA, while classical Template:IPA and Template:IPA have merged into Template:IPA. Remarkably, however, morphological Template:IPA is represented by Template:IPA and Template:IPA by Template:IPA in a word-initial pre-consonantal position: Template:IPA 'I stood up' (root w-g-f; cf. Template:IPA 'I wrote', root k-t-b), Template:IPA 'he descends' (subject prefix i-; cf. Template:IPA 'he writes', subject prefix jə-). In some contexts, this initial vowel even gets lengthened, which clearly demonstrates its phonological status of a vowel: Template:IPA 'they stood up'. In addition, short vowels Template:IPA in open syllables are found in Berber loanwords, such as Template:IPA 'man', Template:IPA 'calves of 1 to 2 years of age', and Template:IPA in passive formation: Template:IPA 'he was met' (cf. Template:IPA 'he met').
Code-switching
Many educated Hassaniya Arabic speakers also practice code-switching. In Western Sahara it is common for code-switching to occur between Hassaniya Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, and Spanish, as Spain had previously controlled this region; in the rest of Hassaniya-speaking lands, French is the additional language spoken.
Orthography
Hassaniya Arabic is normally written with an Arabic script. However, in Senegal, the government has adopted the use of the Latin script to write the language, as established by Decree 2005–980 of October 21, 2005.<ref name=Senegal>Template:Cite web</ref>
| Hassaniya Arabic alphabet (Senegal) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | B | C | D | Ḍ | E | Ë | F | G | H | Ḥ | I | J | K | L | M | N | Ñ | O | Q | R | S | Ṣ | Ŝ | T | Ṭ | Ŧ | U | V | W | X | Ẋ | Y | Z | Ż | Ẓ | ʔ |
| a | b | c | d | ḍ | e | ë | f | g | h | ḥ | i | j | k | l | m | n | ñ | o | q | r | s | ṣ | ŝ | t | ṭ | ŧ | u | v | w | x | ẋ | y | z | ż | ẓ | ʼ |
Speakers distribution
According to Ethnologue, there are approximately three million Hassaniya speakers, distributed as follows:
- Mauritania: 2,770,000 (2006)
- Western Sahara and the southern area of Morocco, known as the Tekna zone: 200,000+ (1995)
- Mali: 175,800 – 210,000 (2000)
- Senegal: 162,000 (2015)
- Algeria: 150,000 (1985)
- Libya: 40,000 (1985)
- Niger: 10,000 (1998)
See also
References
Template:More footnotes needed Template:Reflist Template:Notelist
- Template:Cite book
- "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.