Endangered Semitic language of Central Asia
Central Asian Arabic
|
---|
|
Native to
| Afghanistan
,
Iran
,
Tajikistan
,
Uzbekistan
|
---|
Speakers
| (16,000 cited 1992?2023)
[1]
|
---|
| |
---|
Dialects
|
|
---|
|
ISO 639-3
| Either:
abh
? Tajiki Arabic
auz
? Uzbeki Arabic
|
---|
Glottolog
| cent2410
|
---|
Enclaves in Afghanistan, Iran and Uzbekistan where Central Asian Arabic is still spoken. In brackets, after the name of each region, is the number of villages with Arabic-speaking inhabitants.
|
Central Asian Arabic
or
Jugari Arabic
(
Arabic
:
??????? ???????? ??????
) refers to a set of four closely-related
varieties
of
Arabic
currently facing extinction and spoken predominantly by
Arab communities
living in portions of
Central Asia
. These varieties are Bactrian (or Bakhtiari) Arabic, Bukhara (or Buxara) Arabic,
[2]
Qashqa Darya (or Kashkadarya) Arabic,
[3]
and
Khorasani Arabic
.
The Central Asian Arabic varieties are markedly different from all other
Arabic language
varieties, especially in their
syntax
and to a lesser extent,
morphology
, which have been heavily influenced by the surrounding
Western Iranian
and
Turkic languages
.
[2]
[3]
They are, however, relatively conservative in their lexicon and phonology.
[2]
While they bear certain similarities with
North Mesopotamian Arabic
, they constitute an independent linguistic branch of Arabic, the Central Asian family.
Along with
Maltese
, the Central Asian Arabic varieties are exceptional among Arabic-speaking communities in not being characterized by
diglossia
with
Modern Standard Arabic
, except in religious contexts; rather,
Uzbek
or
Persian
(including
Dari
and
Tajik
) function as the
high prestige
lect
and
literary language
for these communities.
[3]
[4]
Essentially all speakers are reported to be bilingual, with essentially no Jugari Arabic
monolinguals
remaining. Many, if not most self-identified ethnic Arabs in these communities do not speak the language at a native level, and report other languages as their mother tongues.
[4]
These varieties are estimated to be spoken by an estimated 6,000 people total in
Afghanistan
,
Iran
,
Tajikistan
, and
Uzbekistan
, but declining in number; in all four of these countries, Arabic is not an official language.
[4]
History
[
edit
]
It was once spoken among
Central Asia
's numerous settled and nomadic
Arab
communities who moved there after the fall of
Sasanian Empire
. They inhabited areas in
Samarqand
,
Bukhara
,
Qashqadarya
,
Surkhandarya
(present-day Uzbekistan), and
Khatlon
(present-day Tajikistan), as well as
Afghanistan
. The first wave of Arabs migrated to this region in the 8th century during the
Muslim conquests
and was later joined by groups of Arabs from
Balkh
and
Andkhoy
(present-day Afghanistan). According to
Ibn Al-Athir
, the Arabic conquerors settled about 50,000 Arabic families in to Iranian Khorasan, modern day Northern Afghanistan and southern Turkmenistan, but the number is definitely exaggerated.
[5]
Owing to heavy
Islamic
influences, Arabic quickly became the common language of science and literature of the epoch. Most Central Asian Arabs lived in isolated communities and did not favour intermarriages with the local population. This factor helped their language survive in a multilingual milieu until the 20th century. By the 1880s many Arab pastoralists had migrated to northern Afghanistan from what is now Uzbekistan and Tajikistan following the
Russian
conquest of Central Asia. These Arabs nowadays speak no Arabic, having adapted to
Dari
and Uzbek.
[6]
With the establishment of the
Soviet
rule in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, Arab communities faced major linguistic and identity changes having had to abandon nomadic lifestyles and gradually mixing with
Uzbeks
,
Tajiks
and
Turkmen
. According to the
1959 census
, only 34% of Soviet Arabs, mostly elderly, spoke their language at a native level. Others reported
Uzbek
or
Tajik
as their mother tongue.
Varieties
[
edit
]
Giorgi Tsereteli
and
Isaak Natanovich Vinnikov
were responsible for the first academic studies of Central Asian Arabic, which is heavily influenced by the local languages in phonetics, vocabulary and syntax.
The Jugari Arabic comprises four varieties: Bakhtiari Arabic (also called Bactrian Arabic), Bukhara Arabic (also called Buxara Arabic), Kashkadarya Arabic and
Khorasani Arabic
. The first three have their speakers spread across Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Khorasani came to be considered by scholars as part of the Central Asian Arabic dialect family only recently.
It is reported to be spoken in 5 villages of
Surkhandarya
,
Qashqadarya
and
Bukhara
. In Uzbekistan, there are at least two dialects of Central Asian Arabic: Bukharian (influenced by Tajik) and Qashqadaryavi (influenced by
Turkic languages
). These dialects are not
mutually intelligible
.
[7]
In Tajikistan, Central Asian Arabic is spoken by 35.7% of the country's Arab population,
[
as of?
]
having been largely replaced by Tajik.
[8]
Bakhtiari Arabic is spoken in Arab communities in northern Afghanistan.
[9]
[10]
Recent studies considered Khorasani Arabic (spoken in
Khorasan
,
Iran
) as part of the Central Asian Arabic family, and found that it was closely related to Qashqadaryavi.
[11]
Numbers
[
edit
]
- wahid
>
fad
- ithnaan
>
isnen
- thalatha
>
salaas
- arba’a
>
orba’
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Tajiki Arabic
at
Ethnologue
(27th ed., 2024)
Uzbeki Arabic
at
Ethnologue
(27th ed., 2024)
- ^
a
b
c
Ratcliffe, Robert R. (2004-08-02).
"Bukhara Arabic: A Metatypized Dialect of Arabic in Central Asia"
. In Csato, Eva Agnes; Isaksson, Bo; Jahani, Carina (eds.).
Linguistic Convergence and Areal Diffusion
. Routledge.
doi
:
10.4324/9780203327715
.
ISBN
978-1-134-39631-3
.
- ^
a
b
c
Jastrow, Otto (2004-08-02).
"Uzbekistan Arabic: A Language Created by Semitic-Iranian-Turkic Linguistic Convergence"
. In Csato, Eva Agnes; Isaksson, Bo; Jahani, Carina (eds.).
Linguistic Convergence and Areal Diffusion
. Routledge.
doi
:
10.4324/9780203327715
.
ISBN
978-1-134-39631-3
.
- ^
a
b
c
Frawley, William (2003).
"Semitic Languages"
.
International Encyclopedia of Linguistics: 4-Volume Set
. Oxford University Press. p. 39.
ISBN
978-0195139778
.
- ^
Prof. Dr. Aydın Usta, Turkler ve ?slamiyet, Yeditepe Yayınevi, 1. Baskı, March 2020, s. 56-57 (using the Turkish translation of el-Kamil fi't-Tarih by Ibn Al-Athir as a source)
- ^
Peter R. Blood, ed. Afghanistan: A Country Study
. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 2001
- ^
Kobzeva, Olga.
Этнические атлас Узбекистана: Арабы
[Ethnic Minorities of Uzbekistan: Arabs].
Этнические меньшинства
(PDF)
(Report) (in Russian). pp. 27?31. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on February 5, 2007.
- ^
Арабы Таджикистана
[Ethnic Minorities of Tajikistan: Arabs]. Этнические группы.
Minority: Национальные меньшинства Таджикситана
(in Russian). Archived from
the original
on 2007-09-30.
- ^
Sharq?w?, Mu?ammad; al-Sharkawi, Muhammad, eds. (2005).
"Foreigner Talk in Arabic"
.
The Ecology of Arabic: A Study of Arabicization
. Brill. p. 243.
ISBN
978-9004186064
.
- ^
Owens, Jonathan (2000). Owens, Jonathan (ed.).
Arabic as a Minority Language (Contributions to the Sociology of Language)
. De Gruyter Mouton.
ISBN
978-3110165784
.
- ^
Ulrich Seeger,
On the Relationship of the Central Asian Arabic Dialects
(translated from German to English by Sarah Dickins)
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Versteegh, Kees (2014).
The Arabic Language
. Edinburgh University Press.
ISBN
9780748645282
.