South Mesopotamian Arabic

South Mesopotamian Arabic (Arabic: اللهجة العراقية الجنوبية, romanized: al-lahja l-ʿirāqiyya l-janūbiyya) or Marsh Arabic or Comminly known as Basrawai as is a variety of Mesopotamian Arabic spoken by Southern Iraqis in Basra, Maysan, Dhi Qar, Wasit and Muthanna.^[1][2] This dialect differs distinctly from other dialects of Iraq and features a strong Aramaic and Sumerian influence.^[3] One of the most noticeable features of South Mesopotamian Arabic is the existence of the sounds [ɡ] (< */q/), [tʃ] (< */k/), [ʒ] (< */dʒ/) and /p/.^[4]

South Mesopotamian Arabic
South Iraqi Arabic Marsh Arabic
Native to	Iraq
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Mesopotamian Gilit South Mesopotamian Arabic
Dialects	Basrawi
Writing system	Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Phonology

The following describes the sounds of the Baṣra dialect:^[5]

Consonants

		Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
		plain	emph.	plain	emph.	plain	emph.
Nasal		m	mˤ			n
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	(p)	(pˤ)			t	tˤ	t͡ʃ	k	(q)		ʔ
	voiced	b	bˤ			d		d͡ʒ	ɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	fˤ	θ		s	sˤ	ʃ	x		ħ	h
	voiced			ð	ðˤ	z	zˤ	(ʒ)	ɣ		ʕ
Flap						ɾ	ɾˤ
Approximant						l	lˤ	j	w

• Sounds /p, pˤ/ are only heard from loanwords.
• [ɡ] is more commonly heard as the reflex of /q/ in the Baṣra dialect, whereas /q/ more commonly is heard in cultural words or names.
• /d͡ʒ/ may also be heard as a fricative [ʒ] in rural areas.^[6]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Mid	eː		o oː
Open	a aː

• /i/ can be heard as [ɪ] in word-final positions. It may be pronounced as [ɨ̞] when in positions of pharyngeal consonants
• /u/ can be heard as [ʊ] in word-final positions. It may be pronounced as [o] when after pharyngealized consonants.
• /a, aː/ is typically heard as [æ, æː] when in palatal consonant environments. It is heard as [ɒ, ɒː] when in pharyngealized environments.

See also

• Varieties of Arabic
• Mesopotamian Arabic