Lebanese Arabic | |
---|---|
اللهجة اللبنانية | |
Pronunciation | [ˈʕaɾabe ləbˈneːne] |
Native to | Lebanon |
Native speakers | 5.0 million (2022)[1] |
Dialects | |
Arabic alphabet Arabic chat alphabet | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | (covered by apc) |
Glottolog | stan1323 |
IETF | ar-LB |
![]() North Lebanese Arabic
North-Central Lebanese Arabic
Beqaa Arabic
Jdaideh Arabic
Sunni Beiruti Arabic
South-Central Lebanese Arabic
Iqlim-Al-Kharrub Sunni Arabic
Saida Sunni Arabic
South Lebanese Arabic | |
Lebanese Arabic (Arabic: عَرَبِيّ لُبْنَانِيّ ʿarabiyy lubnāniyy; autonym: ʿarabe lebnēne [ˈʕaɾabe ləbˈneːne]), or simply Lebanese (Arabic: لُبْنَانِيّ lubnāniyy; autonym: lebnēne [ləbˈneːne]), is a variety of North Levantine Arabic, indigenous to and primarily spoken in Lebanon, with significant linguistic influences borrowed from other Middle Eastern and European languages and is in some ways unique from other varieties of Arabic. Due to multilingualism and pervasive diglossia among Lebanese people (a majority of the Lebanese people are bilingual or trilingual), it is not uncommon for Lebanese people to code-switch between or mix Lebanese Arabic, French, and English in their daily speech. It is also spoken among the Lebanese diaspora.
Lebanese Arabic is a descendant of the Arabic dialects introduced to the Levant and other Arabic dialects that were already spoken in other parts of the Levant in the 7th century AD, which gradually supplanted various indigenous Northwest Semitic languages to become the regional lingua franca. As a result of this prolonged process of language shift, Lebanese Arabic possesses a significant Aramaic substratum, along with later non-Semitic adstrate influences from Ottoman Turkish, French, and English. As a variety of Levantine Arabic, Lebanese Arabic is most closely related to Syrian Arabic and shares many innovations with Palestinian and Jordanian Arabic.