Palestinian Arabic

Palestinian Arabic is a Levantine Arabic dialect subgroup spoken by the Palestinian people. Palestinian rural dialects exhibit several distinctive features (particularly the pronunciation of qaf as kaf) which distinguish them from other Arabic varieties, but Palestinian urban dialects more closely resemble northern Levantine dialects, i.e., those of Syria and Lebanon.

Related Topics:
Levantine Arabic - Palestinian - Syria - Lebanon

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The pronunciation of q?f serves as a shibboleth to distinguish its three main dialects: it becomes a glottal stop in most cities, a uvular k in smaller villages and the countryside, and g in the far south or among Bedouin speakers. In addition, a feminine suffix -a rather than the more common Levantine -i or -é is fairly widespread, particularly in the south of the area. In dialects where q?f is pronounced as k, a true k?f is often pronounced {{Unicode|/t?/}}, as in some dialects of Gulf Arabic. This is generally a feature of more conservative idiolects. In general, the rural dialects are somewhat stigmatised and urban pronunciations are gaining ground, as is the case in other Arabic dialect groups.

Related Topics:
Shibboleth - Glottal stop - Uvular - Bedouin - Suffix - Gulf Arabic - Idiolect

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The pronunciation of hamzated verbs with an 'o'-like vowel in the imperfect is typical of Palestinian dialects. For example, in {{Unicode|Fu??a}} the imperfect of ??? akala is ??? ?kulu: the common equivalent in Palestinian dialect is ???? bokel (the b is an imperfect tense marker common to most Mashriqi dialects).

Related Topics:
Hamza - Fu??a - Mashriq

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Palestinian Arabic also shares some features with Egyptian and other southern Levantine dialects. In addition to vocabulary differences (for example ?? zayy in Palestine and Egypt, ??? mitl in Syria and Lebanon), the Palestinian dialects typically suffix (? -sh {{Unicode|(/?/)}}) to form the negative of verbs and pseudo-verbal prepositional pronouns.

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