Baghdad Arabic

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Baghdad Jewish Arabic is the Arabic dialect spoken by the Jews of Baghdad and other towns of Southern Iraq. This dialect differs from the dialect spoken by the Jews in Northern Iraq, such as Mosul and 'Ana. The Baghdadi and Northern dialects may be regarded as subvarieties of Judeo-Iraqi Arabic.

Classification

Baghdad Jewish Arabic (and Baghdadi Christian Arabic) resemble the dialect of Northern Iraq, and more distantly that of Syria, rather than the Baghdad Arabic spoken by the Muslims. The Muslim dialect is classified as a gilit dialect (from their pronunciation of the Arabic word for "I said") while the others are qeltu dialects. Another resemblance between Baghdad Jewish Arabic and North Mesopotamian Arabic is the pronunciation of ra as a uvular. This peculiarity goes back centuries: in medieval Iraqi Judaeo-Arabic manuscripts the letters ra and ghayn are frequently interchanged.^[1] It is thought that the qeltu dialects represent the older Arabic dialect of Mesopotamia while the gilit dialect is of Bedouin origin. Another factor may be the northern origins of the Jewish community of Baghdad after 1258 (see below under History). Like Northern Mesopotamian and Syrian Arabic, Jewish Baghdadi Arabic shows some signs of an Aramaic substrate. Violette Shamosh^[2] records that, at the Passover Seder, she could understand some of the passages in Aramaic but none of the passages in Hebrew.

History

The Jewish community of Baghdad was virtually wiped out under Mongol rule (from 1258), so that the later community was largely descended from immigrants from Mosul and Aleppo.

Jews in Baghdad used to speak Jewish Baghdadi at home and with members of their community, but with Muslims they usually used the Muslim dialect. Jewish Baghdadi was used in Jewish Baghdadian communities established in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries in Bombay, Calcutta, Singapore, Hongkong, Manchester and many other places.

After the emigration of Jews from Iraq to Israel, Israel became the major center of Jewish Baghdadi speakers. It is mainly the older people who still speak Jewish Baghdad Arabic in its original form and it is believed that theirs is perhaps the last generation to speak it as a mother tongue.

Orthography

The Jews of Baghdad also have a written Judeo-Arabic, which differs from the spoken language and uses Hebrew characters^[3]. There is a sizeable published religious literature in the language, including several translations of the Bible and the Qanun an-nisa' of the Ben Ish Hai.

The following method of describing the letters of the Hebrew alphabet was used by teachers in Baghdad until quite recently:^[4]

Phonology

Consonants

JB is relatively conservative in preserving Classical Arabic phonemes. Classical Arabic /q/ has remained as an uvular (or post-velar) stop^[6], like Christian Baghdad Arabic, but unlike in Muslim Baghdad Arabic where it is pronounced as [g]. /k/ is retained as [k], like in Christian Baghdadi, but unlike the Muslim dialect where it is sometimes [tʃ]. Classical Arabic interdental /ð, θ, ðˠ/ are preserved, like in Muslim Baghdadi Arabic (Christian Baghdadi Arabic merges them into /d, t, dˤ/). /dˤ/ has merged into /ðˠ/.^[7]

There are a few rare minimal pairs with /lˠ, bˠ/ (e.g. wáḷḷa 'by God! (an oath)' vs. wálla 'he went away', ḅāḅa 'father, dad' vs. bāba 'her door'). In other words there are velarized segments which cannot be demonstrated to be phonemic, but which cannot be substituted, e.g. ṃāṃa 'mother, mummy'.^[8] There is a certain degree of velarization harmony.

/r/ is one of the primary distinguishing features of Jewish (as opposed to Muslim, Christian) Baghdadi Arabic. Older Arabic /r/ has shifted to /ɣ/ (as in Christian, but not Muslim, Baghdadi Arabic). However /r/ has been re-introduced in non-Arabic loans (e.g. brāxa 'blessing' < Heb. ברכה, qūri 'teapot' < Pers. qūrī). Modern loan words from other Arabic dialects also have this sound; this sometimes leads to cases where the same word may have two forms depending on context, e.g. ʿáskaġ 'army' vs. ḥākəm ʿáskari 'martial law'. There are many instances where this alternation leads to a subtle change in meaning, e.g. faġġ 'he poured, served foot' vs. farr 'he threw'.^[9]

The consonants /p, g, tʃ/ were originally of foreign origin, but have pervaded the language to the extent that native speakers do not perceive or even realize their non-native origin.^[10]

Vowels

Suprasegmentals

Stress is usually on the ultimate or penultimate syllable, but sometimes on the antipenultimate (mostly in loans or compound words).^[12]

Grammar

Verbs

See also

• Judeo-Iraqi Arabic
• Iraqi Arabic
• Baghdad Arabic
• Judeo-Arabic languages
• Baghdadi Jews
• History of the Jews in Iraq

References

Bibliography

• Blanc, Haim, Communal Dialects in Baghdad: Harvard 1964
• Kees Versteegh, et al. Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics: Brill 2006
• Mansour, Jacob, The Jewish Baghdadi Dialect: Studies and Texts in the Judaeo-Arabic Dialect of Baghdad: The Babylonian Jewry Heritage Centre 1991

External links

• Jewish Baghdadi recordings