Qatari Arabic

Qatari Arabic (قطري عربي) is a variety of Gulf Arabic spoken in Qatar characterized by its distinct phonetic and syntactic features. As the prestige dialect within the nation, Qatari Arabic not only functions in everyday communication but also plays a significant role in maintaining cultural identity and social cohesion among the Qatari people.

The vocabulary of Qatari Arabic incorporates a plethora of loanwords from Aramaic, Persian, Turkish, and more recently, English. Phonetically, it conserves many classical Arabic features such as emphatic consonants and interdental sounds, which distinguish it from other Arabic dialects that have simplified these elements. Syntactically, Qatari Arabic exhibits structures that align with other Gulf dialects but with unique adaptations, such as specific verb forms and negation patterns.

Variations
A South Asian pidgin form of Qatari Arabic has emerged in modern times.

As English is considered the prestige lingua franca in Qatar, bilingual locals have incorporated elements of English into Qatari Arabic when communicating on an informal level. This mixture of English terms and phrases in Qatari Arabic speech is colloquially known as Qatarese. The practice of interchanging English and Arabic words is known as code-switching and is mostly seen in urban areas and among the younger generation.

Geographical variation
In Doha, the capital of Qatar, the local populace is primarily divided into two groups: bedouins, known for their traditional nomadic lifestyle, and hadaris, who are urban dwellers. There is a noticeable trend among the younger bedouins in Doha and other towns like Al Khor to adopt urban linguistic features. This phenomenon, often referred to as 'hadarization', involves incorporating urban phonetic and semantic elements into their speech. Examples include the preference for the glide /y/ over the bedouin voiced affricate /j/ in words such as /rayyal/ instead of /rajjal/, and the use of /tʃi/ or /tʃɪði/ (hadari) over /kɪðə/ (bedouin) for phrases such as "like this".

This shift towards hadari dialect features is not just a linguistic evolution but also a social adaptation driven by the higher status associated with urban dialects. Bedouins are transitioning to the hadari dialect to align with the cosmopolitan, educated, and sophisticated lifestyle epitomized by Qatar’s royal family.

Phonology
In Qatari Arabic, like many Arabic dialects, there is a significant phonological distinction between long and short vowels. This distinction is crucial for both pronunciation and meaning. Long vowels in Qatari Arabic are generally held for approximately twice the duration of their short counterparts. This length distinction can affect the meaning of words, making vowel length phonemically significant.

Qatari Arabic typically includes five long vowels: /ā/, /ē/, /ī/, /ō/, and /ū/. These long vowels are analogous to the long vowels found in Classical Arabic and are integral to maintaining the clarity and meaning of words. For example, the word for 'dog' in Arabic is /kalb/ with a short vowel, but with a long vowel, it becomes /kālib/, meaning 'heart'.

Short vowels in Qatari Arabic are /a/, /i/, and /u/. These vowels are shorter in duration and can be less emphasized in casual speech. In some dialectical variations, short vowels may even be dropped entirely in certain environments, a process known as vowel reduction. This feature is common in rapid, informal speech and can lead to significant variations in pronunciation from the standard forms of the language. Some regard /u/ as an allophone of /i/, pointing to words in Qatari Arabic such as ṣufɨr instead of Standard Arabic's ṣifr for "zero", χunṣɨr instead of χinṣir for "little finger", and ṭubb instead of ṭibb for "medicine".

The distinction between long and short vowels in Qatari Arabic not only affects pronunciation but also plays a role in the grammatical structure of words, influencing verb conjugations, noun cases, and the definiteness of nouns through the use of the definite article /al-/.

Qatari Arabic retains the classical Arabic emphatic consonants more consistently than some other dialects. These include the commonly noted emphatic consonants of /ṭ/ (emphatic /t/), /ḍ/ (emphatic /d/), and /ṣ/ (emphatic /s/). These are produced with a distinct, heavier sound due to pharyngealization or velarization, setting them apart from their non-emphatic counterparts.

Lexicon
The vocabulary of Qatari Arabic reflects the centuries of trade, migration, and cultural exchange that occurred in the peninsula. This is evident in the presence of loanwords from Aramaic, Persian, Turkish, Portuguese, and even more recent borrowings from English. Aramaic loanwords are remnants of the pre-Islamic era, found mostly in religious, agricultural, and trade-related terms. Prior to the arrival of Islam around 628, Qatar was the center of an Aramaic-speaking region known as Beth Qatraye. The language spoken in this region, known as Qatrayith, was mainly Aramaic with some Persian and Arabic loanwords, and has been categorized as 'Southeastern Aramaic'. Turkish influence was seen from the 16th century onwards due to the presence of the Ottoman Empire in the Arabian Peninsula.