What IS Levantine Arabic?
Levantine Arabic is the Arabic spoken by people in the Levant, namely Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. It is similar to Iraqi Arabic and Gulf Arabic, but quite different from North African Arabic. It is also very different from Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Formal Arabic, the Arabic often taught by schools and books in Western countries. These schools and books teach MSA because it is common to all Arabic-speaking countries, where it is used in formal television programmes, radio, and books. This means that when learning MSA you don't have to specify what region's Arabic you want to learn. However, although MSA is helpful, in particular for reading Arabic material, nobody speaks MSA, so if you want to be able to speak to people and understand them, you will have to learn a dialect. Ideally, of course, you will learn both. However, both the grammar and the vocabulary of dialects are simpler than of MSA. The only problem with learning dialects is that there are no agreed-upon rules, and therefore almost no resources or books, which is why we decided to create Real Arabic.
The Levantine dialect is one of the most convenient and widely spoken, but unfortunately will be of little use to you in many North African countries, in particular Morrocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. We therefore recommend that you try to expose yourself to these dialects too, which you can do through movies, tv shows, and books (until Real Arabic expands to all dialects, of course ;) ).
The Levantine dialect is one of the most convenient and widely spoken, but unfortunately will be of little use to you in many North African countries, in particular Morrocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. We therefore recommend that you try to expose yourself to these dialects too, which you can do through movies, tv shows, and books (until Real Arabic expands to all dialects, of course ;) ).
Photo credit: Alex Durie, https://www.alexdurie.com/
Some Differences Between LEvantine Arabic and MSA
1. Verb Conjugation. Verbs in the present tense in Levantine Arabic are conjugated the same as in MSA, except with a 'b' at the beginning.
Example: To sleep = nam (infinitive)
Ana bnam, Nehna mennam, Enta btnam, Enti btnami, Ento btnamo, Huwi beenam, Heyyi btnam, Henni beenamo.
2. Letter Pronunciation. Lots of the letters of the Arabic alphabet, all of which are pronounced in MSA are not pronounced in the dialects. This differs depending on the dialects, and in some places all of the letters are pronounced, but below is a list of the letters commonly not pronounced in Levantine Arabic:
(i) ث. Pronounced instead as 'ta'
e.g. thalj (ice) is pronounced talj.
(ii) ذ. Pronounced instead as 'z'
e.g. estadh (sir, professor) is pronounced estaz.
(iii) ض. Also pronounced as z
e.g. mahdhoodh (lucky) is pronounced mahzooz.
(iv) ظ. Also pronounced as z
e.g. thabat (to fix) is pronounced zabat.
(v) ق. The famous letter that so many struggle with is not pronounced in many areas of the Levant, replaced either by 'a' or a glottal stop
e.g. daqeeqa (minute) is pronounced da'ee'a, and qahwe (coffee) is pronounced aahwe.
3. Vocabulary. Most of the vocabulary is different, and confusingly, some words that exist in both languages mean completely different things. We've compiled a list of the most important words that differ.
- Fi. This means 'in' in MSA, but it means there is or there are in Levantine Arabic.
- Bi. This is how you say 'in' in Levantine.
- To go. The verb is raaH, but this changes to ruuH in present tense conjugation.
Example: To sleep = nam (infinitive)
Ana bnam, Nehna mennam, Enta btnam, Enti btnami, Ento btnamo, Huwi beenam, Heyyi btnam, Henni beenamo.
2. Letter Pronunciation. Lots of the letters of the Arabic alphabet, all of which are pronounced in MSA are not pronounced in the dialects. This differs depending on the dialects, and in some places all of the letters are pronounced, but below is a list of the letters commonly not pronounced in Levantine Arabic:
(i) ث. Pronounced instead as 'ta'
e.g. thalj (ice) is pronounced talj.
(ii) ذ. Pronounced instead as 'z'
e.g. estadh (sir, professor) is pronounced estaz.
(iii) ض. Also pronounced as z
e.g. mahdhoodh (lucky) is pronounced mahzooz.
(iv) ظ. Also pronounced as z
e.g. thabat (to fix) is pronounced zabat.
(v) ق. The famous letter that so many struggle with is not pronounced in many areas of the Levant, replaced either by 'a' or a glottal stop
e.g. daqeeqa (minute) is pronounced da'ee'a, and qahwe (coffee) is pronounced aahwe.
3. Vocabulary. Most of the vocabulary is different, and confusingly, some words that exist in both languages mean completely different things. We've compiled a list of the most important words that differ.
- Fi. This means 'in' in MSA, but it means there is or there are in Levantine Arabic.
- Bi. This is how you say 'in' in Levantine.
- To go. The verb is raaH, but this changes to ruuH in present tense conjugation.