Dear all,
Below please find my answer to a question asked by a linguist about /q/ variation in Arabic three and a half years ago. I post it here for both documentation purpose and the general good.


Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 08:10:20 +0100 (BST)
From: "Dinha Gorgis" <gorgis_3@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Arabic
To: tomwisn@yahoo.com





Dear researcher,

I'll attempt to answer your first question. Standard Arabic /q/ is realised differently by not only Bedouin groups but also by different Arabic dialects. The only dialects that retain it in all positions is Mosuli Arabic (north of Iraq) and Druzian Arabic spoken in Lebanon, Syria, and part of eastern Jordan. Except for religious names, e.g. /qur'aan/ 'Qur'an',(historical) names, be it places or persons, e.g. /dimashq/ 'Damascus', /Taariq bin ziyaad/ 'the Moslim leader who crossed Gibraltar in the 8th c.', or locomotive such as /qiTaar/ 'train', /q/ is mostly realised as /g/ or /?/ in the Arab world. /q/ is pronounced as ch in the south of Iraq and many Bedouins of the Peninsula, e.g. 'chitala' (he killed him). This palatalisation seems to be most likely influenced by Persian. In Jordan, for example, there are four more variants which are determined by region, gender, and education, viz./?/, /g/ (both voiced and devoiced), and /k/. In Baghdadi Arabic /g/ is predominantly used except for religious and proper names. This, however, requires extensive research because the position in which /q/ occurs may determine its palatalisation or otherwise. Even in southern Iraq or elsewhere in the Arabia or Africa /q/ will never change into ch in, for example, /qawi/ 'strong'. Rather, you'll hear /giwi/ all over the specified areas while bearing in mind the excluded dialects (or, better, accents).

Best,

Prof. Dinha T. Gorgis
The Hashemite Univ.,
Jordan.