Levantine 

Literature Review

Additionally, due to immigration and refugee movement there are Levantine communities all over the United States, Canada, Australia, and various countries in Europe contributing to its widespread use.Arabic has numerous dialects that can be broadly categorized into two groups: Sedentary Dialects and Bedouin Dialects.

These dialects tend to have more conservative linguistic features due to their speakers’ lifestyle, which limits exposure to outside influences and helps preserve the older form of the language.

As Simon Hopkins states, ‘This long contact between Arabic and Aramaic has had important linguistic consequences on both sides… the influence of Aramaic upon those (non-classical) Arabic dialects spoken on former Aramaic territory and the extent and depth of the Aramaic imprint upon the modern vernaculars of the region.’ (Hopkins,1995, pg 38) and Na’ama Pat-El and Phillip W. Stokes supports in their paper, ‘The Aramaic Substrate Hypothesis in the Levant Revisited’ Examples of words of Aramaic origin include: ‏ ‎ šōb ‘heat’; šalaḥ ‘to undress’; ‎ bassaṭ ‘to stretch.’ Aramaic is not the only language that influenced Levantine Arabic, The French Mandate (1920-
1946) effect on the Levant region, introducing the French language into official documents,
schools, government institutions. This period enabled cultural exchange between the two nations.
Many words were adapted by Levantine Arabic blending French elements with local dialect. Examples of words in French influencing Levantine Arabic include: asansiyr ‘elevator’; bantouf ‘slipper’; boaniya ‘handle.’ Levantine Arabic has also been influenced by other languages through historical and modern interactions, including Turkish, Italian, Greek, Persian, and Hebrew. Levantine Arabic, being one of the many colloquial dialects, is commonly used for communication for everyday life within the cultural and social context of the Levant region. The Levant region has a significant religious heritage which includes Islam, Christianity, and Judaism with many Holy Sites, such as the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock, and Jordan River. Additionally, it features historical landmarks like Baalbek, Aleppo Citadel, and Masada to name a few.

Levantine Arabic is called an emphatic language as it has phonetic features such as
Pharyngealization (constriction of the pharynx), Velarization (pronounced at the back of the
tongue raised towards the velum), and Glottalization (adding a glottal stop or constriction) that
causes greater force and intensity. Referred to as “emphatic consonants,” because more
constriction is used in the vocal tract leading to a more pronounced and distinct articulation.
Emphatic consonants can change the meaning of a word making it a distinct feature in the
language. Example: (ṣabr) meaning “patience” with (sabr), means “explore.”
Modern Standard Arabic is known for its richness and melodious quality while Levantine Arabic is considered a smoother language due to its simplified grammatical structure that makes everyday conversations more natural and fluid. Example: Modern Standard Arabic: ‘hādhā al-kitāb jayid jiddan’ (This book is very good) Levantine Arabic ‘hal-kitāb ktīr mnih’ (This book is very good). Levantine Arabic also follows a different sentence structure than Modern Standard Arabic. While MSA follows a strict Verb-Subject-Object sentence structure, Levantine Arabic is more flexible with a Subject-Verb-Object order and sometimes putting the verb first. Example would be: MSA: “Al-rajul qara al-kitab” (The man read the book).  Levantine Arabic:  “Ir-rajel qara l-kitāb”.

This complementary distribution was found to occur in words of different parts of speech, nominal alterations being the most frequent one.Morphological alterations included suffix deletion and neutralization, in Levantine Arabic. And, last but not least, at the syntactic level, the two varieties showed some word order differences. These differences, going hand in hand, have resulted in drastic differences, thereby a mutual unintelligibility” (Jabbari, 2013, pg 115). In summary, Levantine Arabic is an evolving language that continues to influence and be
influenced by the world around it. Its dynamic nature is a testament to the culture and identity of the people who speak it and reflects the vibrant history and cultural diversity of the Levant
region.

First Round of Interviews: Belle’s Criteria Insight

Vitality- 

Eman learned Arabic growing up in Palestine as she lived there for her first 15 years of life. She grew up Muslim and so while reading the Quran, going to school, and communicating with people around her village she always used Arabic. This goes back further to many years of generational transmission of Levantine Arabic. 

After immigrating to the United States with her husband who was also born and raised in Palestine speaking Levantine Arabic, they raised a family. Eman taught her first daughter Levantine, but not her other six children. When her second daughter was born deaf, the doctors and family advised Eman to only speak one language in the house. This almost completely erased the usage of Arabic in the house for 15 years. The only time Arabic was spoken since that time was when Eman’s or her husband’s family would come over especially because that’s the first language they all spoke too. 

Eman mentions that she slowly tried to integrate Arabic into the household with her children after Reham turned 15, but it was a little difficult and if only for the point where they could understand Arabic but could not speak it.

Historicity – 

Eman says that speaking Arabic connects her to her culture, family, life back home, and to her religion. She says when she speaks Levantine Arabic or even her hometown variety of Falahee she feels closer to the people around her. 

Eman also mentions that even though for work she speaks English, she still does her thinking in Arabic and it’s very natural for her to do that. She feels smarter in Arabic because she can express herself more precisely and with bigger vocabulary to match what she wants to say. She says that also being that she speaks both English and Arabic, she thinks Arabic is more precise and that helps her explain herself with the depth she’s looking for. 

Standardization – 

Eman says that she never really switches to speaking the standard Arabic but that she’ll switch over to different dialects (ie Egyptian) when she speaks to someone on that variety. People in Palestine also spoke certain town varieties so the people in the city would speak Madinee and the people in smaller towns and villages would speak Falahi and so depending on where she was in Palestine she would adjust herself accordingly. So overall, she would speak falahi when speaking to her mom or sisters, and speak Madinee if she were to go outside to the city. She would speak Levantine if she would talk to a Lebanese or Syrian or Jordanian person. 

Autonomy –

Eman says that knowing both English and Arabic made her realize how different Arabic is from other languages. She mentions that Arabic is so in depth and precise and has millions of words for example a camel sitting down would be a different word than a came that is standing or a cow that has had babies is different than a camel that has never had babies. The way that everything is so specific that it’s even harder to fully know everything is what makes Arabic so different and just feel different emotionally and logistically when speaking. She gives another example that there are 18 different verbs to say “love.”

Eman also adds that the Quran was written in Arabic and because Arabic is so specific if she were to read a transliteration of it in English, it would not have the same effect emotionally or logistically. She says once you translate it out of Arabic there are so many things lost in meaning that you wouldn’t know unless you spoke Arabic.

De Facto Norms –

Eman says that there are people who are more educated and they speak in a more sophisticated manner and then there’s others who only use simple terms or “slang” from their home town. Especially with how in-depth Arabic is, it is very rare to see people who actually know every single word for something and depending on their skills, their relationship with the language, or even how they use Arabic (either formally or informally) then it would affect how “good” of a speaker someone is. If someone is a native Arabic speaker but stopped using the language compared to someone who might have less education but uses it in their everyday language would be considered a better speaker.