Yemeni Arabic is a cluster of Arabic varieties spoken in Yemen and southwestern Saudi Arabia.^[2][3] It is generally considered a very conservative dialect cluster, as it has many classical features not found across most of the Arabic speaking world.

Yemeni Arabic can be divided roughly into several main dialect groups, each with its own distinctive vocabulary and phonology. The most important of these groups are San'ani, Ta'izzi, Adani (Adenese), Tihami and Hadhrami (Hadrami). The independent languages of Mahri (Mehri) and Suqutri (Socotri, Soqotri), as well as a couple of smaller languages, are not Arabic dialects at all, but form a group of its own, confusingly called Modern South Arabian languages, although they are not descended from Old South Arabian (also called Sayhadic). Below is a table showing the transliteration system of some consonants together with their IPA values (Note that some phonetic symbols may not appear in some versions of web browser):

[edit] San'ani Arabic dialect

Phonology[link]

The San'ani dialect is distinguished among Yemeni dialects by its use of the hard [ɡ] sound in the place of the classical Arabic qāf (ق), as well as its preservation of the classical Arabic palatal pronunciation of j (also transliterated ǧ, IPA transcription [dʒ]) for the Arabic letter ج jīm. In these respects, San'ani Arabic is very similar to most Bedouin dialects across the Arabian peninsula.

Morphology[link]

Along with these phonological similarities to other dialects, San'ani Arabic also has several unique features. It uses the classical mā in the meaning of "what", as well as in negations. Unlike the classical usage, this mā is used without distinction in verbal and nominal sentences alike. It represents the future aspect with a complex array of prefixes, depending on the person of the verb. For first-person verbs the prefix (ša-) or (‘ad) is used. The derivation of (ša-) is apparently related to the classical (sa-), and (‘ad) is likely an abbreviation of (ba‘d), meaning "after". For all other persons in San'a proper the simple prefix (‘a-) is used, although many of the villages around San'a extend the use of (ša-) for all persons.

Syntax[link]

San'ani syntax differs from other Arabic dialects in a number of ways. It is one of few remaining Arabic dialects to retain the mā af‘al exclamatory sentence type with the meaning "how (adjective)". For instance, mā ajmal, is used to mean "how beautiful", from the adjective jamīl, meaning "beautiful"; a construction it shares with Libyan Arabic and Levantine Arabic.

Vocabulary[link]

The San'ani vocabulary is also very distinct and conservative. The classical verb sāra, yasīr is retained with the meaning of "to go". Shalla, yashill is used to mean "to take/get".^[4] An example, would be the parliament speaker of Yemen, Abdullah Alahmar, when he spoke on AL-Jazeera TV few years ago, they actually had to translate his Yemeni dialect to Standard Arabic, for viewers and the TV host to understand what he said.

[edit] Ta'izzi Arabic dialect

The Ta'izzi Arabic Dialect is spoken in Taiz, Aden, parts of Ibb.

[edit] Adeni Arabic dialect

The Adeni dialect is also very distinct from the rest of the Yemeni dialects. Like the majority of Yemeni dialects, Adeni uses the hard uvular [q] for the classical qāf (ق). Like the Taiz dialect, however, Adeni Arabic substitutes dental fricatives for dental plosives, /θ/ becomes /t/, /ð/ becomes /d/, and the two (classical) emphatics, /ðˤ/ and /dˤ/ are both merged into one sound, namely /dˤ/.

[edit] Tihami Arabic dialect

The Tihami dialect has many aspects which differentiate it from all other dialects in the Arab world. Phonologically Tihami is similar to the majority of Yemeni dialects, pronouncing the qaf (ق) as [q] and the jīm (ج) as a hard [ɡ] ([ɡ] exists in Egyptian Arabic also). Grammatically all Tihami dialects also share the unusual feature of replacing the definite article (al-) with the prefix (am-). The future tense, much like the dialects surrounding Sana'a, is indicated with the prefix (sh-), for all persons, e.g. sha-būk am-sūq "I will go to the Souq". Some Tihami dialects, such as that spoken in Al-Hodeida, are otherwise fairly similar to other Yemeni dialects in grammar and syntax, differing mainly in vocabulary, while others can be so far from any other Arabic dialect that they are practically incomprehensible even to other Yemenis.

Zabidi dialect[link]

Of all the dialects of the Tihami tihama region, the dialect of Zabid displays the most innovations. It shares the transformed definite article of (am-) with the rest of the Tihami dialects, but it is unique in retaining certain of the declensional suffixes in the nominative case. Indefinite masculine nouns in nominal sentences as well as the subjects of verbal sentences are suffixed with the sound (-ū), which stems from the classical suffix (-un/-u). Likewise the phonology of the Zabidi sub-dialect is perhaps unique among all Arabic dialects in that it replaces the sound (‘ain) [ʕ] (ع) with the glottal stop ( ’ ) [ʔ] (ء). In terms of vocabulary, the Zabidi dialect shares very little with other Arabic dialects, in many respects it seems to be a different language. Zabidis use the verb bāka, yabūk to mean "to go." The word goh#d and goh#da mean man, and woman, respectively. And the word fīaym to mean "where", hence the phrase: fīaym bāyku? meaning "Where are you going?", which is grammatically parallel to the more familiar: fayn rāyih# of more mainstream dialects.

[edit] Hadhrami Arabic Dialect

Phonology[link]

The dialect in many towns and villages in the Wādī (valley) and the coastal region is characterised by its pronunciation of the voiced palatal plosive (or affricate) (ج) as the semi-vowel (ي) (y) ([j]). In this it resembles some Eastern Arabian and Gulf dialects including the dialects of Basra in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the dialects of the other Arab Emirates. In educated speech, (ج) is realised as a voiced palatal plosive ([ɟ]) or affricate ([dʒ]) in some lexical items.

The ق [q] reflex is pronounced as a voiced velar [ɡ] in all lexical items throughout the dialect. With the spread of literacy and contact with speakers of other Arabic dialects, future sociolinguistic research may reveal whether HA is going to witness innovation like using the uvular /q/ in certain lexemes while retaining the velar /ɡ/ for others.

Wādī HA makes ث / ت [t], [θ] (⟨t⟩, ⟨ṯ⟩) and ذ / د [d], [ð] (⟨d⟩, ⟨ḏ⟩) distinction but ض [dˤ] ⟨ḍ⟩ and ظ [ðˤ] ⟨đ̣⟩ are both pronounced ظ [ðˤ] whereas Coastal HA merges all these pairs into the stops د , ت and ض (/t/, /d/ and /ḍ/) respectively.

In non-emphatic environments, (ā) is realised as an open front (slightly raised) unrounded vowel. Thus (θānī) “second; psn. name”, which is normally realised with an [ɑː]-like quality in the Gulf dialects, is realised with an [æː] quality in HA.

This dialect is characterised by not allowing final consonant clusters to occur in final position. Thus Classical Arabic bint “girl” is realised as binit. In initial positions, there is a difference between the Wādī and the coastal varieties of HA. Coastal HA has initial clusters in (bġā) “he wants”, (bṣal) “onions” and (brīd) “mail (n.)” while Wādī HA realises the second and third words as (baṣal) and (barīd) respectively.

Morphology[link]

When the first person singular comes as an independent subject pronoun, it is marked for gender, thus (anā) for masculine and (anī) for feminine. As an object pronoun, it comes as a bound morpheme, thus (–nā) for masculine and (–nī) for feminine. The first person subject plural is (naḥnā).

The first person direct object plural is (naḥnā) rather than (–nā) which is the case in many dialects. Thus, the cognate of the Classical Arabic (ḍarabanā) “he hit us” is (đ̣arab naḥnā) in HA.

Stem VI, (tC1āC2aC3), can undergo a vowel stem shift to (tC1ēC2aC3), thus changing the pattern vowel (ā) to (ē). This leads to a semantic change as in (tšāradaw) “they ran away suddenly” and (tšēradaw) “they shirk, try to escape”

Intensive and frequentative verbs are common in the dialect. Thus /kasar/ “to break” is intensified to /kawsar/ as in (kōsar fi l - l‘ib) “he played rough”. It can be metathesized to become frequentative as (kaswar min iđ̣-đ̣aḥkāt) “he made a series (lit. breaks) of giggles or laughs”.

Syntax[link]

The syntax of HA has many similarities to other Peninsular Arabic dialects. However, the dialect contains a number of unique particles used for coordination, negation and other sentence types. Examples in coordination include (kann, lākan) “but; nevertheless, though”, (mā) (Classical Arabic ammā) “as for…” and (walla) “or”.

Like many other dialects, apophonic or ablaut passive (as in /kutib/ "it was written") is not very common in HA and perhaps is confined to clichés and proverbs from other dialects including Classical Arabic.

The particle /qad/ developed semantically in HA into /kuð/ or /guð / “yet, already, almost, nearly” and /gad/ or /gid/ “maybe, perhaps”.

Vocabulary[link]

There are a few lexical items that are shared with Modern South Arabian languages, which perhaps distinguish this dialect from other neighbouring Arabian Peninsula dialects. The effect of Hadrami migration to Southeast Asia (see Arab Singaporean), the Indian subcontinent and East Africa on HA is clear in the vocabulary especially in certain registers like types of food and dress, e.g. (ṣārūn) "sarong". Many loan words were listed in al-Saqqaf (2006):^[5][6]

[edit] Yafi'i Arabic dialect

While there is much about the Lower Yafa'i dialect that has not been thoroughly studied, it does have a very interesting phonological shift. Along with the southern bedouin dialects, in Abyan and Lahej, with which it shares much in common, Yafi'i pronounces the classical jīm (ج) as gīm, but unlike all other dialects, Yafi'i systematically pronounces the classical sound ġayn (/ʁ/ as qain and qāf as ġāf, effectively switching the pronunciation of the one letter for the other. An illustration of this phonemic interchange can be seen in the Yafi'i words baġar “cow” and qanam “goat”, which correspond to the classical words baqar “cow” and ġanam “goat”.

Although a similar phonological shift occurs in certain words in the Sudan as well, the similarities are rather misleading. Whereas the shift is systematic in Yafi', occurring at every instance of the relevant phonemes, in the Sudan it is usually a form of hypercorrection which takes place only in certain classical words. In the Sudan, the phoneme [q] is systematically pronounced [ɡ] in all common words, with the pronunciation ġ [ʁ] occurring as a hypercorrection in words such as istiqlāl "freedom", pronounced istighlāl (meaning "exploitation" in Standard Arabic).

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Ethnologue entry for Hadrami Arabic
• Ethnologue entry for Sanaani Arabic
• Ethnologue entry for Ta'izzi-Adeni Arabic

External links[link]

• Recording of Yemeni Arabic

External links[link]

Yemeni Americans are citizens of the United States of Yemeni ancestry or a Yemeni who has U.S. citizenship. According to an estimate of 2010, more than 20,000 Yemenis live in the United States.

History[link]

Although it is unknown when Yemenis first arrived, it is believed that Yemenis were immigrating to the U.S. after 1869, and are recorded in the 1890s. Some Yemenis gained U.S. citizenship by fighting in World War I and World War II. Yemenis immigrants settled in existing Lebanese communities in cities like New York. They were outcast as Muslims, as the Lebanese communities were predominately Christian, as were Syrian and Palestinian communities. After becoming situated, many Yemenis traveled westward for better job opportunities. They worked in factories in the Midwest and on farms in the San Joaquin Valley in California. Thus as in factory workers in Detroit, Canton, Weirton, and Buffalo. Since the Great Depression of 29 and until 1945, end of World War II, Yemeni immigration to United States slowed dramatically, increasing from this year (1945). In 1945, many Yemenis emigrated to United States from Vietnam, where many Yemenis had worked in warehouses, shops, and on the docks. Many Yemeni immigrants had the status of illiterate, already that not knew literate in arab, that was their mother tongue. Because to this they could bypass regulations and were admitted. When in 1965 the quota system for immigration was eliminated, Yemenis could more easily gain visas to reside in the U.S. and get a job in this country, prompting a great increase in the numbers of Yemenis immigrants. Another feature of Yemeni immigrants in the U.S. is that in the years of immigration that occurred to 1970, nearly all immigrants from Yemen were adult males.^[1]

Demography[link]

Although most of Yemeni Americans are Muslim, there are also some American Jews of Yemeni ancestry, mostly whose parents or ancestors came to the U.S. via Israel. Significant Yemeni communities exist in Brooklyn, New York; Buffalo, New York; Lackawanna, New York; Dearborn, Michigan; Hamtramck, Michigan; Falls Church, Virginia; Chicago, Illinois; Oakland, California and Fresno, California. About 15,000 Yemeni Americans live in Michigan. A significant population of Yemeni Americans live in the southside of Dearborn (Salina area). A few Yemenis had arrived in Michigan around 1900 but a much larger group came to work in the Ford Motor Company's Rouge Plant in the 1920s.^[2] Immigration to Michigan is still occurring. A survery of Arab Americans in the Detroit area after 9/11 found that Yemenis made up 9% of the area's Arab population and that Yemenis had the largest families, the lowest rate of business ownership (3% compared to 20% for other Arab groups), and a the highest rate of employment in "trades" as opposed to services, administration, professional or sales (43 percent in trades compared to 7 to 17 percent for other Arabs groups).^[3] Anthropologist Loukia K. Sarroub while investigating the Dearborn Yemeni culture through the perspective of 6 high-school age girls noted that the community was "a guetto-like enclave of Dearborn" and a "'Yemeni village' in the United States" where "this community continued to live much as they did in Yemen".^[4]

There is an estimated 20,000-40,000 Yemenis living in the United States as of 2010.

Language and religion[link]

Yemeni Americans speak both English and Arabic. They speak many different dialects of Arabic, including: Sanaani or Northern Yemeni dialect, Ta'izzi-Adeni or Southern Yemeni dialect, Hadrami dialect, Mehri dialect, and Judeo-Yemeni dialect. Most of them are Muslim.^[1]

Media and Organizations[link]

The Yemeni American Net was established in June 2007 as a web-site dedicated to bring a view to the world on the Yemeni Americans. One year later, a newspaper was established as the Yemeni American nNews. The American Association of Yemeni Scientists and Professionals promotes Yemenis in technical fields and provides a college scholarship program.^[5] The Yemeni American Association and the Yemeni American Benevolent Association also provide scholarships.^[6][7]

See also[link]

• Demographics of Yemen
• Yemeni British

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} Everyculture:Yemeni Americans
2. ^ The Detroit Arab American Community, Arab Detroit, 2011
3. ^ PRELIMINARY FINDINGS FROM THE DETROIT ARAB AMERICAN STUDY, Wayne Baker, Sally Howell, Amaney Jamal, Ann Chih Lin, Andrew Shryock, Ron Stockton, Mark Tessler, University of Michigan, July 4, 2004
4. ^ All American Yemeni Girls Being Muslim in a Public School, Loukia K. Sarroub, Universtiy of Pennsylvania Press, 2005
5. ^ American Association of Yemeni Scientists and Professionals, website, 2011
6. ^ Arab American Scholarships, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 2011
7. ^ Yemeni Americans Pillar of Support for Michigan Community, M. Scott Bortot, U.S. Embassy in Belgium, 10 March 2011

• Yemeni American Net

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