Najdi Arabic

Najdi Arabic (Arabic: اللهجة النجدية‎‎) is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Najd region of Saudi Arabia.

There are four major dialects of Najdi Arabic.

1. Northern Najdi, spoken in Ha'il Region and Al-Qassim Region in the Najd.
2. Central Najdi (Urban Najdi), spoken in the city of Riyadh and surrounding towns and farming communities.
3. Southern Najdi, spoken in the city of Al-Kharj and surrounding towns.
4. Badawi Najdi, spoken by the nomadic bedouins of Najd. Some tribes have their own distinct accents. Badawi Najdi is also spoken in neighboring Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, and Iraq.^[3][4]

Phonology

Consonants

Here is a table of the consonant sounds of Najdi Arabic. The phonemes /p/ ⟨پ⟩ and /v/ ⟨ڤ⟩ (not used by all speakers) are not considered to be part of the phonemic inventory, as they exist only in foreign words and can be pronounced as /b/ and /f/ respectively depending on the speaker.

Phonetic notes:

• The classicized [q] is an allophone for /g/ ⟨ق⟩ in few words and proper names as in القرآن [alqur'ʔaːn] ('Quran') and قانون [qaːnuːn] ('Law').^[6]
• The distinction between the classical /dˤ/ ⟨ض⟩ and /ðˤ/ ⟨ظ⟩ was completely lost in Najdi Arabic, and both are realised as /ðˤ/.
• the marginal phoneme /k/ only occurs in the word الله /aɫːaːh/ ('god') and words derived from it,^[7] it contrasts with /l/ in والله /waɫːa/ ('i swear') vs. ولَّا /walːa/ ('or'), but it occurs as an allophone of /l/ in many other contexts, especially when neighboring the phonemes /g, x, sˤ, tˤ/ e.g. قَلَم "pencile" /galam/→[gaɫam].
• The phonemes /ɣ/ ⟨غ⟩ and /x/ ⟨خ⟩ can be realised as uvular fricatives [ʁ] and [χ] respectively.
• In the consonantal system of Najdi Arabic, there is an occurrence of the alveolar affricates [t͡s] and [d͡z] as allophonic variants of the velar stops /k/ and /g/, respectively.^[8]

Footnotes

Arabic edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bibliography

• P.F. Abboud. 1964. "The Syntax of Najdi Arabic", University of Texas PhD dissertation.
• Al Motairi, Sarah Soror (2015). "An Optimality-Theoretic Analysis of Syllable Structure in Qassimi Arabic". 

Languages of Iraq
Official languages	Standard Arabic Mesopotamian Arabic (Main) Bedawi Kurdish
Minority languages	Kurdish (Main) Neo-Aramaic Syriac Armenian South Azerbaijani Luri Persian
Sign languages	Iraqi Sign Language

Languages of Syria
Official language	Standard Arabic
Minority languages	Adyghe Afshar Armenian Azerbaijani Domari Kurdish Kurmanji Turoyo Western Neo-Aramaic
Varieties of Arabic	Bedawi Levantine Mesopotamian Najdi North Syrian
Sign languages	Levantine Arabic Sign Language

Languages of Saudi Arabia
Official language	Arabic
Vernaculars	Baharna Bareqi Bedawi Gulf Hejazi Najdi
Sign languages	Saudi Sign Language