Al-Ahsa Dialect :: Hasawi Dialect

1. INTRODUCTION. Hasawi is a variety of Arabic whose roots refer to the family of Central Semitic Languages such as Hebrew and Aramaic. The Hasawi dialect is spoken in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia, exactly in Al-Ahsa (Al-Hasaa) province. Therefore, the dialect of Al-Ahsa, or Hasawi (HD), is also known as the Eastern Arabian dialect. In fact, it is considered the dominant dialect in the area although there are other local dialects found in the same area, such as Badawi which is spoken by some Bedouins tribes. In 2009, the number of Hasawi speakers was estimated as 200,000 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ('Arabic, Gulf Spoken, Ethnologu', 2009). There are three reasons for selecting Hasawi for this study. First, there is little previous work related to Hasawi even though it is considered an enormous dialect because it is expanded to other Gulf countries, such as Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates. Thus, HD is also spoken as a minor dialect in the previous mentioned countries so that Hasawi is sometimes called Gulf Arabic 'Khaliji'. Secondly, the emergence of a new dialect a few years ago which is Modern Hasawi, a blend of old Hasawi and Najdi, threatens the existence of the original Hasawi in Saudi Arabia in spite of the massive expansion of the dialect to the neighboring countries. Finally, the dialect of Al-Ahsa is seen as a humorous matter among other Saudi dialects because it is hard to understand (Bassiouney, 2010). Probably the cause of such difficulty refers to the sociolinguistic impact of non-Arabian languages, such as Farsi 'Persian' and Turkish. However, it would be proven at the end of t his paper that this unattractive dialect has unique acoustic features. Hence, the overall goal of this study is to investigate the Hasawi plosive phonemes and how they shape different allophones. This paper is divided into five main sections: the first section is an introduction of the topic including an overview of the dialect; the second section is a review of the literature which includes brief previous related studies; the methodology used for this study is described in the third section; the fourth section demonstrates the findings of this study; and finally the conclusion. 1.1. RESEARCH QUESTIONS. †¢ Does Hasawi dialect have various allophones of its plosive sounds? If so, what phonemes are pronounced differently? †¢ What are the phonetic facts of Hasawi allophones? 1.2. PHONOLOGICAL BACKGROUND. This part of the first section presents the inventory of Hasawi phonemes as a good reference for Results section. Al-Ahsa Dialect :: Hasawi Dialect 1. INTRODUCTION. Hasawi is a variety of Arabic whose roots refer to the family of Central Semitic Languages such as Hebrew and Aramaic. The Hasawi dialect is spoken in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia, exactly in Al-Ahsa (Al-Hasaa) province. Therefore, the dialect of Al-Ahsa, or Hasawi (HD), is also known as the Eastern Arabian dialect. In fact, it is considered the dominant dialect in the area although there are other local dialects found in the same area, such as Badawi which is spoken by some Bedouins tribes. In 2009, the number of Hasawi speakers was estimated as 200,000 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ('Arabic, Gulf Spoken, Ethnologu', 2009). There are three reasons for selecting Hasawi for this study. First, there is little previous work related to Hasawi even though it is considered an enormous dialect because it is expanded to other Gulf countries, such as Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates. Thus, HD is also spoken as a minor dialect in the previous mentioned countries so that Hasawi is sometimes called Gulf Arabic 'Khaliji'. Secondly, the emergence of a new dialect a few years ago which is Modern Hasawi, a blend of old Hasawi and Najdi, threatens the existence of the original Hasawi in Saudi Arabia in spite of the massive expansion of the dialect to the neighboring countries. Finally, the dialect of Al-Ahsa is seen as a humorous matter among other Saudi dialects because it is hard to understand (Bassiouney, 2010). Probably the cause of such difficulty refers to the sociolinguistic impact of non-Arabian languages, such as Farsi 'Persian' and Turkish. However, it would be proven at the end of t his paper that this unattractive dialect has unique acoustic features. Hence, the overall goal of this study is to investigate the Hasawi plosive phonemes and how they shape different allophones. This paper is divided into five main sections: the first section is an introduction of the topic including an overview of the dialect; the second section is a review of the literature which includes brief previous related studies; the methodology used for this study is described in the third section; the fourth section demonstrates the findings of this study; and finally the conclusion. 1.1. RESEARCH QUESTIONS. †¢ Does Hasawi dialect have various allophones of its plosive sounds? If so, what phonemes are pronounced differently? †¢ What are the phonetic facts of Hasawi allophones? 1.2. PHONOLOGICAL BACKGROUND. This part of the first section presents the inventory of Hasawi phonemes as a good reference for Results section.