Sanýani Arabic is an Arabic dialect spoken in northern Yemen in the city of Sanaa.
The Sanaani dialect is distinguished among Yemeni dialects by its use of the sound in the place of the (' ) used in Modern Standard Arabic.
Along with these phonological similarities to other dialects, Sanýani Arabic also has several unique features. It uses the classical màin the meaning of "what", as well as in negations. Unlike the classical usage, this màis used without distinction in verbal and nominal sentences alike. Sanýani Arabic represents the future aspect with a complex array of prefixes, depending on the person of the verb. For first-person verbs the prefix (à ¡a-) or (âÂÂad) is used. The derivation of (à ¡a-) is apparently related to the classical (sa-), and (âÂÂad) is likely an abbreviation of (baâÂÂd), meaning "after". For all other persons in Sanýa proper the simple prefix (âÂÂa-) is used, although many of the villages around Sanýa extend the use of (à ¡a-) for all persons.
Sanýani syntax differs from other Arabic dialects in a number of ways. It is one of few remaining Arabic dialects to retain the màafâÂÂal exclamatory sentence type with the meaning "how (adjective)". For instance, màajmal, is used to mean "how beautiful", from the adjective jamël, meaning "beautiful"; a construction it shares with Libyan Arabic and Levantine Arabic.
The Sanýani vocabulary is also very distinct and conservative. The classical verb sÃÂra, yasër is retained with the meaning of "to go" (similar to Moroccan). Shalla, yashill is used to mean "to take/get".
As an example of its distinctiveness, during an appearance of the would-be parliament speaker of Yemen, Abdullah Alahmar, on Al-Jazeera TV some years ago, viewers and the TV host needed a translation of his Yemeni dialect into Standard Arabic in order to understand what he said.