Hassaniya
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Ḥassānīya is a Bedouin dialect derived from the Arabic dialect spoken by the Beni Hassān tribes, who extended their authority over most of the Mauritanian Sahara between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. It has replaced the Berber dialect spoken by the tribes. Though clearly a western dialect, Ḥassānīya is relatively distant from other North African variants of Arabic; its geographical isolation exposed it to influence from Zenaga and Wolof, and insulated it from the influence of northern Berber languages and Romance languages. The primary differences among the numerous dialects of Ḥassānīya are phonetic. Today it is spoken by two closely connected tribal groupings, the Sahrawis of Western Sahara, and among the moors of Mauritania.
Pronunciation
The phonological system of Ḥassānīya is both very innovative and very conservative. All phonemes of Classical Arabic are represented in the dialect, but new phonemes are numerous, too. As in other Bedouin dialects, Classical /q/ corresponds mostly to dialectal /g/, /dˤ/ and /ðˤ/ have merged into /ðˤ/ and the interdentals /θ/ and /ð/ have been preserved. In common with most western Arabic varieties, the equivalent of Modern Standard Arabic /dʒ/ is realised as /ʒ/.
For reasons not quite clear, however, there is sometimes a double correspondence of a classical sound and its dialectal counterpart. Thus classical /q/ is represented by /g/ in /gbaðˤ/ 'to take' but by /q/ in /mqass/ 'scissors'. Similarly, /dˤ/ becomes /ðˤ/ in /ðˤəħk/ 'laugh (noun)', but /dˤ/ in /mrˤədˤ/ 'to be sick'. Some consonant roots even have a double appearance: /θaqiːl/ 'heavy (mentally)' vs. /θgiːl/ 'heavy (materially)'. Some of the "classicizing" forms are easily explained as recent loans from the literary language (such as /qaːnuːn/ 'law') or from sedentary dialects in case of concepts pertaining to the sedentary way of life (such as /mqass/ 'scissors' above). For others, there is no obvious explanation (like /mrˤədˤ/ 'to be sick'). Etymological /ðˤ/ appears constantly as /ðˤ/, never as /dˤ/. Nevertheless, the phonemic status of /q/ and /dˤ/ as well as /g/ and /ðˤ/ appears very stable, unlike in many other Arabic varieties. Somewhat similarly, classical /ʔ/ has in most contexts disappeared or turned into /w/ or /j/ (/ahl/ 'family' instead of /ʔahl/, /wakkad/ 'insist' instead of /ʔakkad/ and /jaːməs/ 'yesterday' instead of /ʔamsi/). In some literary terms, however, it is clearly preserved: /mətʔallam/ 'suffering (participle)' (classical /mutaʔallim/).
Ḥassānīya has innovated many consonants by the spread of the distinction emphatic/non-emphatic. In addition to the above-mentioned, /rˤ/ and /lˤ/ have a clear phonemic status and /bˤ fˤ gˤ mˤ nˤ/ more marginally so. Still one emphatic phoneme /zˤ/ is acquired from the neighbouring Zenaga Berber language along with a whole palatal series /c ɟ ɲ/ from Niger-Congo languages of the south. At least some speakers make the distinction /p/–/b/ through borrowings from French. All in all, the number of consonant phonemes in Ḥassānīya is 33, or 39 if you count the marginal cases, too.
On the phonetic level, the classical consonants /f/ and /θ/ are usually realised as voiced [v] (hereafter marked /v/) and [θ̬]. The latter is still, however, pronounced differently from /ð/, the distinction probably being in the amount of air blown out (Cohen 1963: 13–14). In geminated and word-final positions both phonemes are voiceless, for some speakers /θ/ apparently in all positions. The uvular fricative /ʁ/ is likewise realised voiceless in a geminated position, although not fricative but plosive: [qː]. In other positions, etymological /ʁ/ seems to be in free variation with /q/ (etymological /q/, however varies only with /g/).
Vowel phonemes come in two series: long and short. The long vowels are the same as in Classical Arabic /aː iː uː/, and the short ones extend this by one: /a i u ə/. The classical diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/ may be realised in many different ways, the most usual variants being [eːʲ] and [oːʷ], respectively. Still, realisations like [aj] and [aw] as well as [eː] and [oː] are possible, although less common.
As in most western Arabic dialects, etymological short vowels are generally dropped in open syllables (except for the feminine noun ending /-a/): */tak.tu.biː/ > /təktbi/ 'you (f. sg.) write', */ka.ta.ba/ > */ka.tab/ > /ktəb/ 'he wrote'. In the remaining closed syllables dialectal /a/ generally corresponds to classical /a/, while classical /i/ and /u/ have merged into /ə/. Remarkably, however, morphological /j/ is represented by [i] and /w/ by [u] in a word-initial pre-consonantal position: /u.gəft/ 'I stood up' (root w-g-f; cf. /ktəbt/ 'I wrote', root k-t-b), /i.nag.gaz/ 'he descends' (subject prefix i-; cf. /jəktəb/ 'he writes', subject prefix jə-). In some contexts this initial vowel even gets lengthened, which clearly demonstrates its phonological status of a vowel: /uːg.vu/ 'they stood up'. In addition, short vowels /a i/ in open syllables are found in Berber loanwords, such as /a.raː.gaːʒ/ 'man', /i.vuː.kaːn/ 'calves of 1 to 2 years of age', and /u/ in passive formation: /ugaːbəl/ 'he was met' (cf. /gaːbəl/ 'he met').
See also
Bibliography
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