Levantine Arabic (Arabic: شامي (Shami) and sometimes called Eastern Arabic) is a group of Arabic varieties spoken in the 100 km-wide eastern-Mediterranean coastal strip known as the Levant, i.e. in Syria, Israel, Palestine, western Jordan and Lebanon. This corresponds to the western wing of the Fertile Crescent, which clearly appears green on satellite photos.

To the East, in the Desert, the North Arabian Beduinic dialects are found. There is no transition to Egyptian dialects in the South due to the Sinai desert. In the North, between Aleppo and the Euphrates valley, there may be a transition zone towards North Mesopotamian qeltu dialects (to be confirmed, since the Raqqah dialect in the Syrian Euphrates valley still seems to be quite close to South Iraqi and Beduinic dialects.)

It can be divided into the following "mutually intelligible" sub-dialects:

• North Syrian (Aleppo)
• West (coastal) Syrian (Latakia to Tripoli)
• Central Syrian (Hama to Damascus)
• Lebanese (Mount Lebanon and Beirut)
• Urban Palestinian (South Lebanon, Haifa, Nablus, Jaffa, Nazareth, Hebron, Jerusalem, ...)
• Rural Palestinian (Palestine down to Bethlehem), west Jordan.
• Bedouin Palestinian dialects in the southern Margins (Palestine, Jordan)

Sub dialects can be distinguished by the following features:

• Product of /aː/
• Products of diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/
• Realizations of feminine ending -ah
• Realizations of ﻙ /k/, ﻕ /q/, and ﺝ /ʤ/.
• Conservation of interdentals ﺙ /θ/, ﺫ /ð/, and ﻅ /ðˁ/;
• Vocalism and consonnatism of the plural suffix pronouns, -kum and -kunna (your m./f.)
• The form of the plural independent pronouns, hum and hunna (they m./f.)
• The use of ش /ʃ/ for negation
• The vowel following the second radical in verbal forms

The table below shows how the variants are distributed.

Dialect		/aː/	/aj/	/aw/	/k/	/q/	/ʤ/	/θ/	/ð/	/ðˁ/	-ah	-kum	-kunna	hum	hunna	Not	We can
North Syrian	urban	/eː/, /æː/	/eː/	/oː/	/k/	/ʔ/	/ʤ/	/t/	/d/	/dˁ/	-e	-kon	-kon	hennen	hennen	mæː, muː	nəʔder
	rural	/eː/	/aj/	/aw/	/k/	/ʔ/, /q/	/ʤ/	/t/	/d/	/dˁ/	-i	-kun	-kun	hinnin	hinnin	mæː, muː	niʔdir
West Syrian	urban	/oː/, /aː/	/eː/	/oː/	/k/	/ʔ/	/ʒ/	/t/	/d/	/dˁ/	-e	-kon	-kon	henne(n)	henne(n)	moː, muː	nəʔdor
	rural	/oː/	/aj/	/aw/	/k/	/q/	/ʒ/	/t/	/d/	/dˁ/	-i	-kun	-kun	hinni(n)	hinni(n)	moː, muː	niʔdur
Central Syrian	urban	/aː/	/eː/	/oː/	/k/	/ʔ/	/ʒ/	/t/	/d/	/dˁ/	-e	-kon	-kon	henne(n)	henne(n)	muː	nəʔder
	rural	/aː/, /eː/ word-terminally	/aj/	/aw/	/k/	/ʔ/, /q/	/ʒ/	/t/	/d/	/dˁ/	-i	-kun	-kun	hinni(n), hinnon	hinni(n), hinnon	muː	niʔdir
Lebanese		/eː/, /aː/	/aj/	/aw/	/k/	/ʔ/, /q/	/ʒ/,	/t/	/d/	/dˁ/	-i	-kun	-kun	hinni	hinni	miʃ, muʃ, -ʃ suffix	niʔdar
Palestinian	urban	/æː/	/eː/	/oː/	/k/	/ʔ/	/ʒ/	/t/	/d/	/dˁ/	-e, -i	-kom, -kum	-kom, -kum	homme, hommi	homme, hommi	miʃ, muʃ, -ʃ suffix	niʔdar
	rural	/aː/	/eː/	/oː/	/ʧ/	/kˁ/	/ʤ/	/θ/	/ð/	/ðˁ/	-e, -a	-kem	-ken	hemme	henne	miʃ, muʃ, -ʃ suffix	nikˁdar
	bedouin	/aː/	/eː/	/oː/	/ʧ/	/ɡ/	/ʤ/	/θ/	/ð/	/ðˁ/	-a	-kom	-ken	homme	henne	miʃ, muʃ, -ʃ suffix	nigdar

See more

For more information, see

• Lebanese Arabic
• Palestinian Arabic
• Syrian Arabic

References

• Ethnologue entry for North Levantine Arabic
• Ethnologue entry for South Levantine Arabic

Links