Consonants

Phonetic notes:

• /p/ only occurs in loanwords;^[12] the non-native letter ⟨پ⟩, or its native counterpart /b/ ⟨ب⟩, are used to denote this sound e.g.: piyāḷah (پيالة or بيالة [pijɒːlˤɒh], 'small glass'), from Persian.
• A feature that distinguishes Gulf Arabic dialects from other Arabic varieties is the retention of the dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, which in many other dialects merged with other sounds; similarly, the reflex of the merger of classical */ɮˤ/ ⟨ض⟩ and */ðˤ/ ⟨ظ⟩ is often /dˤ/ in some dialects but is a fricative (either /ðˤ/ or /zˤ/) in Gulf dialects.^[13][12] It shares this feature with most Peninsular and Mesopotamian dialects.
• /ɮˤ/ ⟨ض⟩ has merged to /ðˤ/ ⟨ظ⟩.
• Historically, /q/ became [ɡ] in Gulf Arabic. Due to influence from MSA, the sound was reintroduced in a handful of classicisms.^[14] A number of speakers realize this restricted phoneme as a voiced uvular stop;^[15] these same speakers have post-velar or uvular realizations of /x/ and /ɣ/ ([χ] and [ʁ], respectively).^[16] For such speakers, [ɢ] and the [ʁ] are in free variation while other speakers distinguish /q/ from /ɣ/. Thus قرآن /qurʔaːn/ may be realized as [ɢɪrʔaːn] or [ʁɪrʔaːn] for such speakers.^[17]
• The emphatic consonants /tˤ dˤ sˤ ðˤ/ are variably described in the literature as having secondary velarization or pharyngealization. Other emphatic consonants can be found, but these are the result of a process that spreads the velarization/pharyngealization of these sounds on surrounding consonants. E.g. بطولة /butˤuːla/ ('championship') [bˤʊtˤʊːla]('championship').^[18]

Allophony

/k/ and /ɡ/ are often palatalized when occurring before front vowels unless the following consonant is emphatic. The actual realization is in free variation, and can be [kʲ ɡʲ] or, more commonly, [tʃ dʒ].^[15][19] Speakers who exhibit variation between [ɡʲ] and [dʒ] do so in words derived from historical /q/ (e.g. مقابل [mɪgʲæːbɪl~mɪdʒæːbɪl] 'opposite'); [j] is a contemporary reflex of historical /dʒ/ and so there are also sets of words where [dʒ] and [j] appear in free variation (e.g. (e.g. جار [dʒæːr~jæːr] 'neighbor').^[16][20]

Voiced stops tend to devoice in utterance-final position, especially as the final element in clusters, e.g. كلب ('dog') /kalb/ [tʃælp].^[15]

A notable aspect of Gulf Arabic is the different realization of a number of phonemes inherited from Classical Arabic. These differences are the result, in part, of natural linguistic changes over time. After these changes occurred, the original sounds (or close approximations to them) were reintroduced as a result of contact with other dialects, as well as through influence of Modern Standard Arabic as a language of media, government, and religion. For many of these sounds, speakers exhibit free variation between the MSA form and the colloquial form.^[20] The following table provides a rough outline of these differences:

Vowels

Gulf Arabic has five long vowels and three or four short monophthongs. Two recent studies point to a lack of phonemic contrast between [i] and [u], and Shockley (2020) argues that backness is not phonemically contrastive in short vowels.^[28][29] The most recent grammar of Gulf Arabic similarly points to a reduced central vowel [ə] as a frequent reflex of all short vowels.^[30]

Allophony

Regional variations in vowel pronunciation is considerable, particularly outside of educated speech. Unless otherwise noted, the following are major allophonic variants shared across the entire Gulf region.

Pronouns

Gulf Arabic has 10 personal pronouns.^[36] The conservative dialect has preserved the gender differentiation of the 2nd and 3rd person in the plural forms, whereas dual forms have not survived. The following table bears the generally most common pronouns:

Some pronouns, however, have other (less frequent, resp. local) forms:

• ānā (آنَا):

  anā (أَنَا)

  āni (آنِي) (especially Baḥrānī)

• inta (إِنْتَ):

  init (إِنِتْ)

• huwa (هُوَ):

  hū (هُوْ)

  huwwa (هُوَّ) (especially Qaṭarī)

  uhu (أُهُو)

• hiya (هِيَ):

  hī (هِيْ)

  hiyya (هِيَّ) (especially Qaṭarī)

  ihi (إِهِي)

• niḥin (نِحِنْ):

  niḥna (نِحْنَ)

  iḥna (إِحْنَا) (especially Baḥrānī and Qaṭarī)

  ḥina (حِنا) (Qaṭarī)

• intum (إِنْتُمْ):

  intu (إنْتُ)

• hum (هُمْ):

  humma (هُمَّ) (especially Qaṭarī)

  uhum (أُهُمْ)

Citations

Sources