Hejazi Arabic, also called Hijazi Arabic or West Arabian Arabic, is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, centered on the cities of Jeddah, Mecca, Medina, and, in part, Taif. It had about 11 million speakers as of 2018. The dialect divides into an urban form spoken in the cities and a rural or Bedouin form spoken by semi nomadic and settled communities in smaller towns and the surrounding countryside, with the urban variety, which has received most scholarly attention, showing a blend of urban and Bedouin features shaped by the region's long history as a center of trade neighboring Bedouin settlements. Linguists classify it within the Peninsular branch of Arabic, itself part of the Central Semitic, West Semitic, Semitic, and Afro-Asiatic language groupings.
Facts
Regionis a variety of Arabic spoken in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia. 1 Speaker Communitythere are two main groups of dialects spoken in the Hejaz region, one by the urban population, originally spoken mainly in the cities of Jeddah, Mecca, Medina and partially in Ta'if and another dialect by the urbanized rural and bedouin populations. 1 Distinguishing Featuresthe constant use of full vowels and the absence of vowel reduction plus the distinction between the emphatic letters ⟨ض⟩ and ⟨ظ⟩ is generally retained. 1 Classification
Variety Kind Sources
1. Wikipedia: Hejazi Arabic
Wikimedia FoundationLead section, opening definition clause
is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia.
Lead section, speaker groups sentence
there are two main groups of dialects spoken in the Hejaz region, one by the urban population, originally spoken mainly in the cities of Jeddah, Mecca, Medina and partially in Ta'if and another dialect by the urbanized rural and bedouin populations.
Classification section, retained-features clause
the constant use of full vowels and the absence of vowel reduction plus the distinction between the emphatic letters ⟨ض⟩ and ⟨ظ⟩ is generally retained.
Variety kind, Hejazi Arabic entity page
Hejazi Arabic, also called Hijazi Arabic or West Arabian Arabic, is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, centered on the cities of Jeddah, Mecca, Medina, and, in part, Taif.
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