Linguistic Nuances of Arabic Spoken in the Irbid Region of Northern Jordan

This paper discusses the linguistic dynamics of Arabic spoken in the Irbid region of Northern Jordan. It explores the phonological, morpho-syntactic, and sociolinguistic features of Irbid Arabic compared to Standard Arabic. The paper aims to identify specific distinctions and nuances in the Arabic spoken in the Irbid region.

Running head: LINGUISTIC NUANCES OF ARABIC SPOKEN IN THE IRBID REGION OF
NORTHERN JORDAN
LINGUISTIC NUANCES OF ARABIC SPOKEN IN THE IRBID REGION OF NORTHERN
JORDAN
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................6
1. Phonological features in Irbid Arabic..........................................................................................6
1.1 Characteristic Differences......................................................................................................6
1.2 Vowels and Consonants .........................................................................................................8
1.3 Syllable Structure..................................................................................................................10
1.4 Stress in Irbid Arabic............................................................................................................10
2. Sociolinguistic impact on phonological variables of Irbid Arabic............................................11
2.1 Phonological variables influenced by sociolinguistic factors...............................................11
2.2 Role of gender in choice of phonological variant ................................................................14
2.3 Role of educational setting in justifying the speech variation .............................................16
3. The morpho-syntactic features in Irbid Arabic – borrowing from neighbouring and globally
predominant languages..................................................................................................................18
Summary and conclusion ..............................................................................................................27
References......................................................................................................................................29

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Abstract
All major languages in the world have minor, categorical counterparts known as dialects.
Although there exists one standardized version of the language, the dialects share features with
that language that are common and some which are distinctly different. This paper talks about
the linguistic dynamic extant amongst the population in the North Jordanian city of Irbid.
Through a phonological, morpho-syntactic analysis of their speech in contrast with the so called
standardized Jordanian, This paper attempts to discover certain feature distinctions in the North
Jordanian speech and more specifically in the Arabic Spoken in the Irbid region.
Keywords
Jordanian Arabic, Irbid Arabic, Fallahi, Al – Fusha, Standardized Arabic, Arabic Phonology,
Morpho-syntax, Sonority sequencing principle.

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Introduction
Arabic is a Semitic language, originally spoken by the nomads of Arabia. Owing to the
Islamic expansion that took place in the 7th century, the language too expanded, incorporating
various elements from the nearby countries through language contact, sociocultural influence and
immigration. The classical Arabic has elaborate inflectional and derivational systems, however,
Arab speakers do not make much distinction between the early Islamic Arabic and modern
Arabic (Versteegh 2014). The variety is most commonly known as ‘Al-Arabiyya Al-Fusha’, and
will hereafter be referred to as Al-Fusha. At the end of the 7th century, the Islamic population
migrated and thus the language spread to places in Northern Africa like Syria, Jordan, Lebanon
and Palestine, collectively termed as the Levant. There the languages settled, and gradually over
the period of centuries through contact with the natives settled in the region as well as the
neighbouring nations, it evolved incorporating distinctive features in terms of phonology,
morphology and syntax. Through a gamut of socio-cultural factors, the specific features of the
language currently stand portraying an array of differences and nuances that are specific to the
dialectal versions and some even challenge the existing predominant norms and regulations of
linguistic rules
While in Jordan, the language came in contact with that of the native Jordanians, forming
a pidgin which later morphed into a creole with certain identifiable similarities with Al-Fusha.
Currently, Jordanian Arabic incorporates many regional varieties like the urban Madani, The
rural Fallahi and the Bedouin Badawi (Zuraiq and Zhang 2006). While in Irbid Township,

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Madani is the most commonly used language, Fallahi finds extensive use in the rural context in
the Irbid villages. A big part of places like Ajloun and Jerash also fall under this categorization.
The objective of this paper is to provide an analytical understanding of the Fallahi variety
which would also be termed as Irbid Arabic in some parts of the paper. From phonological,
morpho-syntactic and sociolinguistic aspects, elaboration of the differences and specific
characteristics of the Fallahi variety in contrast with the Al-Fusha and more specifically, the
Madani variety has been attempted.
In order to reach the objectives of the paper, three main studies have been considered,
analysed critically and referred to for instances that signify the various features that help in
answering a certain set of questions. Apart from them, many other studies have also been
extensively considered in order to gain a thorough understanding of specific features. The studies
considered are –
1. “The Syntax-prosody Interface of Jordanian Arabic (Irbid Dialect)” - Abedalaziz
Jaradat (2018)
2. “Foreign Words in Jordanian Arabic among Jordanians Living in Irbid City: The
Impact of Foreign Languages on Jordanian Arabic” – Ibrahim Abushihab (2016)
3. “An experimental Sociolinguistic study of Language Variation in Jordanian Arabic” -
Mohammed Nahar Al-Ali and Heba Isam Mahmoud Arafa (2010)
Other notable studies -
4. “Rural and urban dialects in contact in Jordan: the case of [tʃ] de-affrication in the
rural dialect of Irbid suburbs” - Sharif Alrabab’ah (2018)

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5. Assessing Al-Koura Rural Dialect Archaic Vocabulary Among the Young Generation
- Amer Radwan Humeidat (2018)
6. The linguistic status of the modern Jordanian dialects – Ahmad Khalaf Sakarna
(2005)
The questions that this paper attempts to answer are
A. What are some of the specific characteristics of Irbid Arabic that stand out when we
compare this variety to the standardized Arabic, in terms of specific phonological
nuances?
B. Are there certain socio-cultural factors that inadvertently determine the choice in the use
of certain phonological principles? If yes what are they and how do they materialize?
C. Are there instances in Irbid Arabic that stand out in terms of features provided due to
language contact? If yes, what are the instances?
This paper is divided into three major categories exploring the phonological aspect of the
language, the sociolinguistic aspect of the language and the morpho-syntactic aspect of the
language. These aspects are correlated with one another in the sense that all of these aspects
eventually talk about Irbid Arabic as a variety of Standardized Arabic or Al-Fusha, and how they
differ on certain specific key factors pertaining to the phonology, morpho-syntax and
sociolinguistic parameters of the standard language in contrast with the dialect.

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Discussion
1. Phonological features in Irbid Arabic-
Irbid Arabic has been noted to express instances where certain phonological features of the
dialect stand out as significantly different from Al-Fusha in terms of maintaining relation with
the phonological rules and regulations generally accepted for standardized languages. While
some rules are broken, some are kept intact while the standardized language breaks them.
1.1Characteristic differences
Concerning Jordanian Arabic, the three aforementioned varieties namely Madani, Fallahi and
Badawi are the ones that most inhabitants learn and use on a daily context. The three varieties
pertain to the Urban, Rural and Bedouin languages respectively (Sakarna 2005). Officially, the
language that children learn is Al-Fusha. This is also used for governance, news and
entertainment media. Fallahi as a dialect differs from Al-fusha on various grounds. The most
notable ones are discussed as follows –
One of the components that make Fallahi different from Al-Fusha is the syllable structure of
the language (Broselow 2017). In Fallahi, the complex onsets exist while in Al-Fush they are

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omitted. Even in case of complex codas, it is only possible in the Fallahi variety and not in Al-
Fusha, since in the former, it maintains the Sonority Sequencing Principle (Tamimi & Shboul
2013). Morpho-syntactic markers like case markers in Al-Fusha are subjected either to paradigm
leveling or dropping. The genitive and accusative masculine plural case ‘-i:n’ in Al-Fusha for
example, is converted to the nominative case in Fallahi. An important hypothesis that can be
derived here is that most varieties of Jordanian Arabic are influenced strongly by the
neighbouring languages and not descended directly from Al-Fusha (Vesteegh 1984).
Another important feature of Fallahi that distinguishes it from Madani is the recurrence of
discontinuous negation marker (Lafkioui 2013). An example is given as follows –
“He did not say that”
Fallahi- ma : ga : l - iʃ
Madani- ma : ga : l
Pharyngealization, or the articulation of vowel or consonants in the form of a glottal
constriction, is another feature that distinguishes Fallahi from Madani, as exemplified below
(Alwabari 2013).
“He said”
Madani – g a : l
Fallahi - g ʕ a : ʕ l ʕ
The presence of Alveo-palatal affricate in the place of standard K, is another
distinguishing feature of Fallahi (Sabir & Alsaeed 2014). For example k - [tʃ] - ammal (Finish).

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Besides, in Madani, /g/ is pronounced in the form of a glottal stop but not in Fallahi (Al-
Ani 2014). There are numerous word level, phrasal and structural nuances that are not present in
other dialects of Jordanian Arabic.
Language contact affects Fallahi Arabic to a certain extent (Rouchdy 2013). Rural
women for example, tend to code mix Fallahi with Madani in their dialect, using glottal stops
and avoiding the alveo-palatal variant of k and instead revealing a strong tendency towards using
the marked variant [tʃ], an allophone of /k/ (Alrabab’ah 2018). The growth of Syrian refugees in
the north of Jordan has also influenced the mixing of Syrian words in the Fallahi dialect.
1.2 Vowels and Consonants
Jaradat (2018) has highlighted the consonants and vowels of Fallahi spoken in Irbid in the
consecutive tables as illustrated below –
Consonants
Plosive Nasal Tap Fricative Affricate Approximant Lateral
Labial b m f w
Inter-dental θ ð ðʕ
(Post)alveol
ar
t tʕ d n ɾ s sʕ ʃ z d ʒ l
Palatal j

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Velar k g
Uvular x ɣ
Pharyngeal ħ ʕ
Glottal ʔ h
(Jaradat 2018)
Vowels
Front Central Back
Short Long Short Long Short Long
High i i: u u:
Mid e: o:
Low a a:
(Jaradat 2018)
The tables validate the previous assertion of the presence of Velar /g/ in Fallahi along with
the alveo-palatal variant /tʃ/ instead of k.

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Diphthongs in Fallahi are also found to be absent. Therefore a word like ‘saif’ in Al-Fusha is
changed to sound like s e : f in Irbid Arabic (Jaradat 2018).
1.3 Syllabic structure in Irbid Arabic
A feature of Irbid Arabic or more specifically Fallahi is the presence of complex onsets when
they are followed by long vowels (Altakhaineh 2016).
Sba : ħa (CCV : CV) - Swimming
Wla : d (CCV:C) – Children
This also shows that Fallahi tends to maintain the Sonority Sequence Principle, which says
that the nucleus of a syllable structure, the vowel, forms the peak of the syllable sonority and is
preceded as well as succeeded by a cluster of consonants with the coda gradually decreasing the
sonority (Clements 1990). This exists in direct contrast with the Modern Standard Arabic which
possesses structures that violate Sonority Sequence Principle (Selkirk 1984).
1.4 Stress in Irbid Arabic
Stress assignment in Arabic dialects vary in terms of syllable weight and relative position
according to other syllables (Saeigh-Haddad & Hekin-Roitfarb 2014). The way the stress
structure materialises in Fallahi is depicted as follows
Final superheavy syllable is stressed
Taħ. ˈsiin (developing)
If final syllable is not superheavy, then the stress falls on the heavy penultimate

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is. ˈtaf. Sar (ask about)
For a light penultimante, the antepenultimate receives the stress
ˈiʃ. ta. ra (he bought)
Morphological structure of Fallahi affects assignment of stress (Al-Ani 2014). In the
word ‘Maktabeh’ (Library), the stress falls on the antepenultimate because of the absence of a
superheavy ultimate syllable. However on affixation of – hum, the stress shifts to the heavy
penultimate.
ˈmak. ta. be-[h] → mak. ta. ˈbe-[t] - hum
Zuraiq (2005) has also found that Irbid Arabic tends to lengthen the stressed syllables in contrast
with the Al-Fusha counterpart.
2. Sociolinguistic impact on phonological variables of Irbid Arabic
Around 88 km to the north of Amman, lies the Governorate of Irbid. With Al-Fusha being
considered the official urban dialect, the localized dialects are often considered inferior, as
happens with most cases of language standardization (Zuraiq and Zhang 2006). This motivates
the local speakers to adopt more of the urban dialects it the cost of their own (Abd-el-Jawad
1986).
This section of the paper considers the phonological variables /θ/, /dʒ/ and /ð/ since they are the
most subject to change when the local speakers are considered.
2.1Phonological variables influenced by sociolinguistic factors

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The following three phonological variables are considered because of the significance
they portray in term of social variation.
1. /θ/, the voiceless inter-dental fricative has two other discrete variants, voiceless dental
stop [t], and voiceless alveolar fricative [s]. In Irbid Arabic, these three represent a separate
phoneme each. These three variants differ in a number of ways while occurring in different
conditions. As shown in the following examples, they differ in terms of various minimal pairs
(Al-Ali & Arafa 2010)
e.g.1. /θ a : m Ι r/ [θ a : m Ι r] "Thamir"
/s a : m Ι r/ [s a : m Ι r] "Samir"
/t a : m Ι r/ [t a : m Ι r] "Tamir"
e.g.2. /θ a r a/ [θ a r a] "soil"
/s a r a/ [s a r a] "He left early"
/t a r a/ [t a r a] "She can see"
These three types [T], [t], and [s] can also be considered to be allophones of the same
phoneme /Τ/. For example
/θ a l a : T/ [θ a l a : T] "three"
/θ a l a : T/ [t a l a : t] "three"
/θ a l a : T/ [s a l a : s] "three"

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The local speech variety of Irbid associates the inter-dental fricative [Τ] with itself. The
[t] and [s] however, represent the standardized and prestigious Urban Speech.
2. / dʒ /, the voiced post-alveolar affricate has two types: voiced post-alveolar affricate
[dʒ], and voiced alveolar fricative [Ζ]. It must be noted that [dʒ] is connected more with Irbid
Arabic whereas [Ζ] is associated with the Urban Speech.
3. /ð/, the voiced inter-dental fricative has two other distinct voiced types: the voiced
dental stop [d], and the voiced alveolar fricative [z]. These three types can be used as allophones
of the same phoneme /ð/ in different scenarios because of social variations in the dialect. [ð] is
associated with Irbid Arabic, while the other two allophones represent the urban speech. Let us
look at the following example:
/ð a h a b a/ [ð a h a b a] "he went"
[z a h a b a] "he went"
[d a h a b a] "he went"
However, the differences between [ð], [d] and [z] in Standard Arabic is more phonemic
in nature as they assume the role of contrastive features in a number of minimal pairs (Yasin &
Owens 1987). The following examples show what happens in this scenario:
e.g.1 /ð a l a/ [ð a l : 1 a] "he disgraced himself"
/z a l a/ [z a : l a] "he made a mistake"
/d a l a/ [d a l : a] "he guided someone"

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e.g.2 /ð a k a/ [ð a k : a] "he made a 'religious' sacrifice"
/z a k a/ [z a k : a] "he paid alms"
/d a k a/ [d a k : a] "he pounded"
2.2 Role of gender in choice of phonological variant
Al-Ali and Arafa (2010), in their experiment has found several instances that show the role of
gender in the choice of phonological variants. These will be discussed in this section here.
The results of their experiment showed that each of the three phonological variables /θ/, /dʒ/
and /ð/ has multiple iterations. The inter-dental /θ/ has a standard and a local type [θ], and two
non-local types [τ] and [s] (Al-Ali & Arafa 2010). The other inter-dental /ð/ has four types: the
standard local [ð], and the other non-locals - [d] [z], and [t]. Similarly, the affricate /dΖ/ has 4
types: the standard local [dʒ], and the non-locals - [ʒ], [t∫] and [∫]. Males and females differ in
terms of choice and duration of the phonological variants of /θ/, /dʒ/ and /ð/.
Concerning /θ/, the results as documented by Al-Ali and Arafa (2010) revealed that “the [θ]
variant, which is considered the standard and the local variant, was used in 75% of the total
number of occurrences of the /θ/ variable, while the other three, which are perceived as non-local
urban variants and identified with prestige, were employed in 25% of /θ/ occurrences” (P.234).
However, speakers tend to differ in their choice of these urban varieties. Males use them less
frequently than females. It has also been reported that 79% of women resort to changing the
inter-dental /θ/ and use the non-local stop [t] or sibilant [s] while speaking. This suggests that

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non-local variants in Irbid Arabic is more preferred by the females. This adoption of the urban
type is suggested to result in a phonologically significant language change. Al-Ali and Arafa
(2010) also report that “the tendency to replace [ð] with the non-local variants [d], [z] or [t] in
forty-three percent of /ð/ occurrences is more frequent among the female subjects. This tendency
reflects a drift, which is more frequent (70%) in females’ pronunciation, towards the non-local
urban variants. In contrast, males tend to use the standard local inter-dental variant [ð] more
often” (P.235).
Concerning the voiced affricate /dʒ/, four distinct types were identified: the standard local
[dʒ] variant and the non-local [ʒ], [t∫] and [∫]. However, Al-Wer (1991) found that only the
former two types - [dʒ] and [ʒ] are more prevalent in the female speech in Irbid. Even though the
[t∫] and [∫] have not yet been identified predominantly in Irbid Arabic, Al-Ali and Arafa (2010)
state that “the use of these variants in the near future may be more frequent in people’s speech,
especially in words ending with /dʒ/” (P.235). Their results also exemplify the following - [t∫] is
used in 25% of the cases with the word “/taadʒ/ (crown)” but not found in /dʒazar/ (carrots).
Notably, all occurrences of [t∫] was seen to appear in male speech, while [∫] occurred
predominantly in female speech. This indicates that [t∫] associated closely with males, whereas
[∫], more with females. The [ʒ] formulates the greater amount of female speech, while [dʒ] is
predominantly used by males. Al-Wer (1991) connects [dʒ] to being tough and [ʒ] to being soft
as no other visible social stigma or norm is found to be attached with the use of one type over the
other. Usage of the non-local stop and sibilant types thus tend to be associated with being soft
and feminine. They are a symbol of the prestigious urban social life style, while the local types
are more connected to the conceptions regarding being tough and masculine. Thus, it is out of a
desire to associate themselves to a particular lifestyle that women tend to incorporate more non-

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local types in their speech while men retain the use of local types. Abdel Jawad (1986) points out
that the use of standard variants are more frequent in men than women. Wolfram and Schilling-
Estes (2015) have provided similar thoughts in this regard. Al-Ali and Arafa (2010) further
expand upon this by stating that “the tendency of males to use more stigmatized variants in their
speech than females may be seen in terms of the symbolic value of such variants in defining
oneself as either masculine or feminine” (P.235).
As far as the durations of frication in the [θ], [ð], [ʒ] and [dʒ] types are considered, the
analysis of acoustic data in the experiments conducted by Al-Ali and Arafa (2010) indicated that
females produce shorter duration of [θ] and [ð] than males. Their Assumption states that
“lengthening the fricative, probably, makes frication noise more obvious. This may also be an
attempt by males to demonstrate virility. Unlike males, females tend to shorten frication duration
in order to produce less noisy and noticeable fricative, a feature regarded as suiting female
softness” (P.236).
Nevertheless, female speech demonstrated longer frication duration in [ʒ] of the [dʒ] type.
Al-Ali and Arafa (2010) state “one rationalization is that women reduce the salience of the dental
stop by prolonging the frication part of the affricate, thereby the segment produced resembles the
non-local prestigious [ʒ] variant rather than the local [dʒ]” (P.236).
2.3 Role of educational setting in justifying the speech variation
This section is also built upon the findings by Al-Ali and Arafa (2010) as they attempt to
narrow down upon the factors that affect the choice of the aforementioned phonological variants
and whether or not there exists any correlation between various other implicit socio-cultural
factors in making that decision.

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In order to explain the role played by education, the data was from high school and university
students. While the former group is used to a more homogenous setting that includes children
from the same colony or locality and linguistic background, the latter group involves students
who have been in contact with other students from outside countries. This would also include
students from adjoining nations and other countries of North Africa and the Middle East,
bringing a dynamic variety of similar languages with them (Suleiman 2013). Thus the latter
forms a more heterogeneous group that would indicate clear instances of effects of language
contact like borrowing and integration of loanwords, code mixing and code switching, use of
other variants of language in order to signify upper social hierarchy and many more. In the
experiment, clear variations were observed in the use of the local types [ð], [dʒ], and [θ] and the
respective non-local types among high school and university students. The results indicate that
university students use the non-local types in higher frequency than students in high schools. On
the contrary, high school students use the local types [ð], [dʒ], and [θ] more, the frequency being
63%, 67%, and 52%, respectively (Al-Ali and Arafa 2010). Drawing reference from the previous
section, the female students tend to retain the use of local types more than the male students.
This also means that linguistic behaviour of university students are highly affected by the
university environment and exposure to new settings would lead the students to opt for the other
type in order to keep correlation with the required social norms (Abushihab 2015). Level of
education too plays a significant role in retention or loss of lexicon especially when languages
are in contact (Humeidat 2018). With an increase in the kind and number of contact with people
from foreign communities, people tend to shift from their regular use of linguistic norms and
incorporate themselves into a newly adapted structure in accordance with the requirement of the
social dynamic (Milroy & Llamas 2013).

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The results along with the explanations given conclude that the use of local, colloquial types
and structures of a particular phonological variant is inversely correlated with the amount and
nature of contact with individuals and groups from foreign nations. Nonetheless, this type of a
linguistic shift is not abrupt in nature, instead an effect of building up of multiple factors that has
been acted upon only when certain specific social norms require the individual to do so.
According to Eckert (2003) “While adolescence patterns of variation begin to fall into the kinds
of global patterns found in the adult population, I would argue that this does not signal a sudden
awareness of the social functions of variation, but the adaptation of an already robust
sociolinguistic competence to a new set of social meanings” (P.8). Therefore, even though high
school students are aware of the social connotations attached with specific variants and types,
their use of localized types only refer to their instinct of fitting in with the community that they
are exposed to for the major part of the time. In this case their favouritism towards the localized
types is their way of adapting to the community that they live in. Same can be said for the
university students, who, because of the nature of their social dynamic, tend to use the non-
localized types more frequently in their speech in order to fit themselves in with the kind of
social community that they live in and interact with on a daily basis, creating a particular set of
diglossics (Al-Sobh, Abu-Melhim & Bani-Hani 2015). Non localized types usually carry
connotations of prestige and a higher social status. That is something which would be more
relevant to a university student but less to a high school student. The latter might even be
ostracized for their use of so called ‘sophisticated’ speech in a school setting where most people
resort to using the localized types.

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3 The morpho-syntactic features in Irbid Arabic – borrowing from
neighbouring and globally predominant languages.
Crystal (1992) defines lexical borrowing as “a term used in comparative and historical
linguistics to refer to linguistic form being taken over by one language or dialect from another;
such borrowings are usually known as loanwords” (P.41). Language contact and cultural osmosis
results in the borrowing of certain foreign words from the languages of the countries that are
influencing the contact as well as languages that are globally dominant like English (Zibin 2019).
Hashemi et al (2014) says “Borrowing words is a common and unavoidable phenomenon that is
closely related with relation of different linguistic communities” (P.225). Standard and classical
Arabic being rich in their vocabulary, Arab grammarians restrict from importing words and
phrases into the lexicon (Ennaji 2013). Instead in order to Arabize certain words and to find
alternatives for the words without Arabic equivalent, Arabic institutions were established.
According to Abushihab (2016), most words that are borrowed have gender and number as
inflections and are subjected to grammatical system of Jordanian Arabic. Irbid Arabic has two
plural types namely sound and broken (Ben-Meir 2015). Sound plurals are formed by adding the
inflectional suffix /- uun/ or /- aat/ to the nouns whereas the glottal stop (-ʔ) in final position is
mostly replaced with /w/.
Abushihab (2016) provides the following examples in this regard.
/mu - ʕ - alim/ - male teacher
Mu - ʕ - alim - uun - male teachers
/mudarisa/ - female teacher

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/mudaris - aat/ - female teachers
/hasna - ʔ/ - beautiful girl
/hasna - waat/ - beautiful girls
Broken plurals are formed through gemination that is insertion of a vowel or a semi-
vowel or changing of vowel order (Neme & Laporte 2013). The following examples show how it
is done (Abushihab 2016):
/tuħfa/ - a present
/tuħaf/ - presents
/kitab/ - a book
/kutub/ - books
Irbid Arabic also show two types of feminine gender. The first type inserts the feminine
morphological marker ‘–t’ (Abushihab 2016):
/mu - ʕ - alim/ male teacher.
/mu - ʕ - alim - atun/ female teacher.
The other feminine type is a personification of inanimate objects. By using /haðˤa/ for
masculine and /haðˤihi/ for feminine, in this case, we can differentiate between the two
(Abushihab 2016):
/haðˤa - qamar/ - this is a moon (masculine)
/ haðˤihi - ʃams/ - this is a sun (feminine)

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LINGUISTIC NUANCES OF ARABIC SPOKEN IN THE IRBID REGION OF
NORTHERN JORDAN
Moreover, the words borrowed in Irbid Arabic are also inflected by number in the same
manner as exemplified below (Abushihab 2016):
/televizjon/ - television (English).
/televizjonaat/ - televisions (inflectional Arabic plural suffix / - aat/ added.)
/kundara/ - one shoe (Turkish)
/kanadir/ - a pair of shoes (Broken Plural).
/subermarket/ - supermarket (masculine) - /haðˤa subermarket/.
/kamira/ - camera (feminine) - /haðˤihi kamira/.
Irbid Arabic includes many words that are borrowed from foreign languages like English
and Turkish. Abdul-Sahib (1986) says that Arab grammarians mostly stress on the process of
Arabization. This process refers to the complete incorporation of foreign words and modifying
them as seen fit to match the Arab dictionary.
Al-Saidat (2011) distinguishes between loanwords, borrowing and code- switching. In
code-switching, the speakers alternate between two different languages while loanwords are
foreign words integrated into a speaker’s native language. Since most of the English and Arabic
loanwords are inflected according to gender and number, they are considered to be borrowed
items in Irbid Arabic and not a part of code-switching.
Abushihab (2016) in his study has reportedly categorized the borrowed words in Irbid Arabic
under a number of groups. The findings are shown in the following table –

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LINGUISTIC NUANCES OF ARABIC SPOKEN IN THE IRBID REGION OF
NORTHERN JORDAN
Category Example Word Source Language
Political Term /kungress/ congress English
Consumer Terms /bitza/ pizza English
Technical Terms /radjo/ radio English
Houshold Terms /dʒoket/ jacket English
Recreational Terms /mosiqa/ music English
Educational (scientific)
Terms
/bakalorjus/ bachelor English
Religious and Social Terms /pri:st/ priest English
Miscellaneous /efendi/ gentleman Turkish
(Abushihab 2016)
These findings show a heavy influence of English and moderate influence of Turkish in
redefining the lexicon of Irbid Arabic. The former can be explained as a result of contact with
English as the most dominant language in the world, while the latter is explained by the
geographical proximity. Most of these words are incorporated into the lexicon as an effect of
Language contact and sociolinguistic variables affecting the use of a language. Abushihab (2016)
has provided more instances where each of the specific categories has exemplified instances of
borrowing into the Irbid Arabic lexicon, a few of which, specifically pertaining to more Turkish
examples, are illustrated as follows –

23
LINGUISTIC NUANCES OF ARABIC SPOKEN IN THE IRBID REGION OF
NORTHERN JORDAN
Political and governance related terminology
Borrowed word Word as per source Source language
baʃa baş (leader) Turkish
zinzanah zindan (prison cell) Turkish
ʕaskeri asker (soldier) Turkish
Parlaman parliament English
ʔistratidʒija strategy English
brotokol protocol English
dictator dictator English
Abushihab (2016)
Consumer related terminology
bojah boya (paint) Turkish
sadʒ saç or sac (sheet iron for cooking) Turkish
zandʒabil zencefil (ginger) Turkish
hamburger hamburger English
bitza pizza English
ʔisbirin aspirin English
Abushihab (2016)

24
LINGUISTIC NUANCES OF ARABIC SPOKEN IN THE IRBID REGION OF
NORTHERN JORDAN
Technological terminology
soba soba (stove) Turkish
ʃader çadır (tent) Turkish
darabzin tirabzan or trabzan (stair rail, banister) Turkish
radjo radio English
sterjo stereo English
kombuter computer English
Abushihab (2016)
Household terminology
mobilja mobilya (furniture made of wood) Turkish
dʒazma çizme (top boot) Turkish
baltˤ o palto (coat) Turkish
oðˤ a oda (room) Turkish
bantˤ alon pantaloon English
balkon balcony English
robe robe English
glas glass English

25
LINGUISTIC NUANCES OF ARABIC SPOKEN IN THE IRBID REGION OF
NORTHERN JORDAN
Abushihab (2016)
Recreational terminology
kamandʒa kemençe (violin) Turkish
ʃatir şatir (merry) Turkish
alzahar zar (die used games) Turkish
ʔaflam films English
bjano piano English
ʔobera opera English
Abushihab (2016)
Educational terminology
ʔibrindʒi birinci (first, highest, priority) Turkish
ʔabla abla (a respectful address for a
female teacher)
Turkish
tambal tembel (lazy, indolent) Turkish

26
LINGUISTIC NUANCES OF ARABIC SPOKEN IN THE IRBID REGION OF
NORTHERN JORDAN
bajolodʒi biology English
doktor doctor English
Abushihab (2016)
Religious and social terminology
daʃir (negative sense) dişarı (outside, out, exterior) Turkish
boʃ boş (empty) Turkish
ʔidʒrabat çorap (sock) Turkish
brotastant protestant English
kaθolik catholic English
vatikan vatican English
Abushihab (2016)
Miscellaneous terminology
basˤ mah basma (finger print) Turkish
kubri köprü (bridge) Turkish
jufarmal frenlemek (to brake) Turkish
bas bus English
ʔinʃ inch English

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LINGUISTIC NUANCES OF ARABIC SPOKEN IN THE IRBID REGION OF
NORTHERN JORDAN
jarida journal English
Abushihab (2016)
Summary and conclusion
In light of all information provided by numerous studies over time, a detailed analysis of a very
specific topic has been made possible. This paper at the very outset put forth a set of questions
and attempted to answer them. Summarizing this paper helps us realise whether or not those
questions have been answered.
The phonological features of Irbid Arabic elaborates certain key features that differentiate the
dialect from Al-Fusha or the standard Arabic. Those features are inclusive of Syllable structure,
pharyngealization, specifications in terms of vowels and consonants and syllable stress.
In terms of certain phonological features and variations where the localized and non-localized
variations are kept under scrutiny, the paper highlights the difference between three key features
and elaborates two social factors, gender and education as independent variables that help
determine the choice and duration of those features.
Finally, it exemplifies influence of language contact in the form of lexical borrowing and gives
us instances of borrowing from both English and Turkish. The reason behind chosing the two

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LINGUISTIC NUANCES OF ARABIC SPOKEN IN THE IRBID REGION OF
NORTHERN JORDAN
languages are simple – while the former is a global linguistic giant, the latter is a direct
geographical influencer.
In conclusion, the information provided in this paper are far from complete. There are numerous
other cases studies and experiments that deal with a variety of other factors in the same category.
Irbid Arabic as a dialect also has many other features that fall beyond the scope of this paper. For
instance, acoustic modelling of specific speech patterns in contrast with those of standard
dialects can open up new dimensions in the understanding of evolution of the dialect in particular
and create a slot for a historical linguistic study as well. In general, it is safe to assume that Irbid
Arabic is just one aspect of understanding dialects of Arabic in Northern Jordan and many more
wold open up with proper background reading, thorough examinations and field testing.

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LINGUISTIC NUANCES OF ARABIC SPOKEN IN THE IRBID REGION OF
NORTHERN JORDAN
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