Jordanian Arabic is a dialect continuum of mutually intelligible varieties of Arabic spoken in Jordan.
Jordanian Arabic can be divided into sedentary and Bedouin varieties. Sedentary varieties belong to the Levantine Arabic dialect continuum. Bedouin varieties are further divided into two groups, Northwest Arabian Arabic varieties of the south, and Najdi Arabic and Shawi Arabic varieties of the north. Jordan Arabic incorporates vocabulary and expressions influenced by neighboring dialects, including those from Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Saudi arabia.
Arabic is a member of the Semitic language family. Jordanian Arabic varieties are spoken by more than 8.5 million people, and understood throughout the Levant and, to various extents, in other Arabic-speaking regions. As in all Arab countries, language use in Jordan is characterized by diglossia; Modern Standard Arabic is the official language used in most written documents and the media, while daily conversation is conducted in the local colloquial varieties.
Although there is a common Jordanian dialect mutually understood by most Jordanians, the daily language spoken throughout the country varies significantly through regions. These variants impact altogether pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.
Jordanian Arabic can primarily be divided into sedentary and Bedouin varieties, each of which can be further divided into distinct subgroups:
Sedentary varieties
Bedouin varieties
In addition to geographic differences, social variables such as gender correlate with variation in Jordanian Arabic. Research on public and social media contexts reports higher rates of politeness markers and indirect requests among women, and higher rates of direct forms among men. The size and direction of these differences vary by audience, topic, and platform.
One syllable of every Jordanian word has more stress than the other syllables of that word. Some meaning is communicated in Jordanian by the location of the stress of the vowel. So, changing the stress position changes the meaning (e.g. ['katabu] means they wrote while [kata'bu] means they wrote it). This means one has to listen and pronounce the stress carefully.
/il-/ is used in most words that don't start with a vowel. It is affixed onto the following word. Il-bÃÂb meaning the door. /iC-/ is used in words that start with a consonant produced by the blade of the tongue (t, á¹Â, d, á¸Â, r, z, áºÂ, à ¾, s, á¹£, à ¡, n. Sometimes [l] and [j] as well depending on the dialect). This causes a doubling of the consonant. This e is pronounced as in a rounded short backward vowel or as in an e followed by the first letter of the word that follows the article. For example: ed-desk meaning the desk, ej-jakét meaning the jacket, es-seks meaning the sex or hÃÂda' et-téléfón meaning that is the telephone.
Contrary to MSA, dual pronouns do not exist in Jordanian; the plural is used instead. Because conjugated verbs indicate the subject with a prefix or a suffix, independent subject pronouns are usually unnecessary and mainly used for emphasis. Feminine plural forms modifying human females are found primarily in rural and Bedouin areas.
Bound pronouns typically attach to nouns, prepositions, verbs andalso to certain adverbs, conjunctions and other discourse markers:
Indirect object / dative pronouns arise from the merging of l- âÂÂfor, toâÂÂ, and the bound pronouns. Note that geminated forms like Ammani after-CC katabt-illo âÂÂI wrote for himâ are not to be found in Salti, which has katab(ÃÂ)t-lo:
Demonstratives can appear pre-nominally or post-nominally
In Amman, Form I strong verbs usually have perfect CaCaC with imperfect CCuC/CCaC, and perfect CiCiC with imperfect CCaC. In Salt, CaCaC and CiCiC can occur with imperfect CCiC.
Geminate verbs generally have perfect CaCC and imperfect CiCC. In Amman and Salt, the 2nd person singular masculine and the 1st person singular perfect inflect as CaCCÃÂt: ḥassÃÂt, à ¡addÃÂt. In Amman, the active participle alternates between CÃÂCC and CÃÂCC (ḥÃÂss and ḥÃÂsis). In Salt, only CÃÂCC (ḥÃÂss) is present.
Note that Salt forms the perfect on a different template than Amman. In any case, the perfect is conjugated as a strong verb:
The vowel of the short base of the perfect usually has the same quality as the vowel of the imperfect: gÃÂm~ygà «m~gumt and gÃÂm~ygëm~gimt. An exception is à ¡ÃÂf~yà ¡à «f~à ¡uft. Verbs with yCÃÂC imperfects usually have CiCt perfects.
In the perfect, both CaCa and CiCi are found.
Form IV is not productive in the sedentary dialects of Amman or Karak. A conservative feature of the sedentary BalqÃÂwi-HÃ Ârani group is the preservation of Form IV, which is productive in three uses:
Qdar is the infinitive form of the verb can. Baqdar means I can, I can't is Baqdareà Â, adding an eà  or Ã±à  to the end of a verb makes it negative; if the word ends in a vowel then a à  should be enough.
An in-depth example of the negation: Baqdarelhomm figuratively means I can handle them, Baqdarelhommeà  means I cannot handle them, the same statement meaning can be achieved by Baqdareà  l'ñl homm
Jordanian Arabic is not regarded as the official language even though it has diverged significantly from Classic Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). A large number of Jordanians, however, call their language "Arabic", while referring to the original Arabic language as Fusça. This is common in many countries that speak languages or dialects derived from Arabic and can prove to be quite confusing. Whenever a book is published, it is usually published in English, French, or in MSA and not in Levantine.
There are many ways of representing Levantine Arabic in writing. The most common is the scholastic Jordanian Latin alphabet (JLA) system which uses many accents to distinguish between the sounds (this system is used within this article). Other Levantine countries, however, use their own alphabets and transliterations, making cross-border communication inconvenient.
There are some phonemes of the Jordanian language that are easily pronounced by English speakers; others are completely foreign to English, making these sounds difficult to pronounce.
Contrasting with the rich consonant inventory, Jordanian Arabic has much fewer vowels than English. Yet, as in English, vowel duration is relevant (compare /i/ in bin and bean).
Social factors shape lexical choices in Jordanian Arabic, such as terms for fruits and vegetables. In Amman, studies report that older men and speakers with less formal education more often use idiomatic forms, whereas neutral terms are more frequent in other groups. Local sociolinguistic work treats these patterns as correlations between vocabulary choice and variables such as age and education.
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is spoken in formal TV programs, and in Modern Standard Arabic classes, as well as to quote poetry and historical phrases. It is also the language used to write and read in formal situations if English is not being used. However, MSA is not spoken during regular conversations. MSA is taught in most schools and a large number of Jordanian citizens are proficient in reading and writing formal Arabic. However, foreigners residing in Jordan who learn the Levantine language generally find it difficult to comprehend formal MSA, particularly if they did not attend a school that teaches it.
Other influences include English, French, Turkish, and Persian. Many loan words from these languages can be found in the Jordanian dialects, particularly English. However, students also have the option of learning French in schools. Currently, there is a small society of French speakers called Francophone and it is quite notable in the country. The language is also spoken by people who are interested in the cultural and commercial features of France.
A variety of different stories from Amman in the local dialect by Zaytuna Knowledge