Gulf Arabic

Gulf Arabic
خليجي, Ḵalījī اللهجة الخليجية, il-lahja il-Ḵalījīya
Pronunciation	[χɐˈliːdʒi]
Native to	Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, and parts of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Oman, Kuwait
Native speakers	6.8 million (2016)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Peninsular Gulf Arabic
Writing system	Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	afb
Glottolog	gulf1241

Gulf Arabic (خليجي Ḵalījī local pronunciation: [χɐˈliːdʒi] or اللهجة الخليجية il-lahja il-Ḵalījīya, local pronunciation: [(ɪ)lˈlɐhdʒɐ lχɐˈliːdʒiːjɐ]) is a variety of the Arabic language spoken in Eastern Arabia around the coasts of the Persian Gulf in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, eastern Saudi Arabia, northern Oman, and by some Iranian Arabs.

References

Sources

• Awde, Nicholas; Smith, Kevin (2003), Arabic dictionary, London: Bennett & Bloom, ISBN 1-898948-20-8
• Frawley, William (2003), International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, vol. 1, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195139771
• Holes, Clive (2001), Dialect, Culture, and Society in Eastern Arabia: Glossary, Brill, ISBN 9004107630
• Qafisheh, Hamdi A. (1977), A short reference grammar of Gulf Arabic, Tucson, Az.: University of Arizona Press, ISBN 0-8165-0570-5

Further reading

• AlBader, Yousuf B. (2015). Semantic Innovation and Change in Kuwaiti Arabic: A Study of the Polysemy of Verbs (Thesis). University of Sheffield.