Judeo-Egyptian Arabic
Arabic dialect spoken by Egyptian Jews
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Judeo-Egyptian Arabic (also Egyptian Judeo-Arabic) is an Arabic dialect spoken by Egyptian Jews. It is a variety of Egyptian Arabic.
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Semitic
- Central Semitic
- Arabic
- Egyptian Arabic
- Judeo-Egyptian Arabic
- Egyptian Arabic
- Arabic
- Central Semitic
| Judeo-Egyptian Arabic | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Egypt |
| Ethnicity | Egyptian Jews |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
| Arabic alphabet Hebrew alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
| ELP | Judeo-Egyptian Arabic |
Classification
Judeo-Egyptian Arabic is one of the Judeo-Arabic dialects.[1] It is close to the dialect of Alexandria, and this similarity holds true even for those who speak it in Cairo. For example, in Cairene Arabic, "I write" is baktib (بكتب) and "I eat" is bakol. In Egyptian Judeo-Arabic, as in western Alexandrian Arabic it is nektobou (نكتبوا) and neshrabou, resembling a first person but in plural form.[2]
History
Until the mid 20th century, there were around 75,000 speakers of Judeo-Egyptian Arabic. Today, most Egyptian Jews live in Israel and speak Hebrew.[3]
The first research on Judeo-Egyptian Arabic was done in 1968 by Nada Tomiche.[4]
Current status
Judeo-Egyptian Arabic is currently in decline due to the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, with almost none remaining today. The language may soon become extinct.[5]
Vocabulary
Most of the unique words in Judeo-Egyptian Arabic come from Hebrew, though some come from French and Italian. It also contains several words made by mixing Hebrew and Egyptian Arabic, as well as several extra pronouns not found in Egyptian Arabic.[5]
Like other Judeo-Arabic dialects, Judeo-Egyptian Arabic preserves several archaic traits lost in Egyptian Arabic.[6]
