Lebanese Arabic

Lebanese Arabic
اللهجة اللبنانية
Pronunciation[ˈʕaɾabe lɪbˈneːne]
Native toLebanon
Native speakers
5.0 million (2022)[1]
Dialects
Arabic alphabet
Arabic chat alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3(covered by apc)
Glottologstan1323
IETFar-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
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Lebanese Arabic (Arabic: عَرَبِيّ لُبْنَانِيّ ʿarabiyy lubnāniyy; autonym: ʿarabe libnēne [ˈʕaɾabe lɪbˈneːne]), or simply Lebanese (Arabic: لُبْنَانِيّ lubnāniyy; autonym: libnēne [lɪbˈneːne]), 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.

  1. ^ "Arabic, North Levantine Spoken". Ethnologue. Retrieved 8 August 2018.