Northwest Arabian Arabic
Northwest Arabian Arabic (also called Levantine Bedawi Arabic or Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic) is a proposed subfamily of Arabic encompassing the traditional Bedouin dialects of the Sinai Peninsula, the Negev, Gaza Strip, southern Jordan, and the northwestern corner of Saudi Arabia.
Northwest Arabian Arabic | |
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Levantine Bedawi Arabic Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic | |
Native to | Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Syria |
Native speakers | 2.8 million (2021) |
Afro-Asiatic
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Arabic alphabet | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | avl |
Glottolog | east2690 |
The dialect of the Maʿāzah in the Egyptian Eastern Desert borders the dialect of the ʿAbābdah, who speak a dialect more closely related to Sudanese Arabic. Research is needed to establish whether the Maʿāzah dialect is the southwestern extremity of Northwest Arabian on the Egyptian mainland.
In Saudi Arabia, the dialects of the eastern coast of the Gulf of Aqaba, the Hisma, and the Harrat al-Riha belong to the Northwest Arabian type, but the dialect of the Bili to the south is not closely related.