Dialect of southern Mesopotamian Arabic spoken by Arabs in Khuzestan Province, Iran
Khuzestani Arabic
Native to
Iran
Native speakers
570,000 (2021)[1]
Language family
Afro-Asiatic
Semitic
West Semitic
Central Semitic
Arabic
Mesopotamian
Gilit
Khuzestani Arabic
Writing system
Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3
acm
Glottolog
None
Khuzestani Arabic is a dialect of South Mesopotamian Arabic (SMA or "Gələt Arabic") spoken by the Iranian Arabs in Khuzestan Province of Iran. While it is a variety of SMA, it has many similarities with Gulf Arabic in neighbouring Kuwait. It has subsequently had a long history of contact with the Persian language, leading to several changes.[2] The main changes are in word order, noun–noun and noun–adjective attribution constructions, definiteness marking, complement clauses, and discourse markers and connectors.[2][3]
Khuzestani Arabic is only used in informal situations. It is not taught in school even as an optional course, although Modern Standard Arabic is taught at a basic level for religious purposes.[2] Almost all Khuzestani Arabic speakers are bilingual in Iranian Persian, which is the official language of Iran.[4] Khuzestani Arabic speakers are shifting to Persian; if the existing shift continues into the next generations, according to Bahrani & Gavami in Journal of the International Phonetic Association, the dialect will be nearly extinct shortly.[4]
It is not clear how many speakers of Khuzestani Arabic there are.
The province of Khuzestan has about 4.5 million inhabitants. [...] Although no official numbers exist, it has been estimated that around 2 to 3 million people of the inhabitants of Khuzestan are Arabs (Matras and Shabibi 2007: 137; Gazsi 2011: 1020). Yet it is hard to determine what percentage of this population uses Arabic actively. Estimates in the 1960s of the Arabic-speaking population in Iran ranged from 200,000 to 650,000 (Oberling 1986: 216). Today, the usage and cross-generational transfer of Arabic have lowered in recent decades, especially among the wealthier social classes and in multilingual cities and neighbourhoods. In rural areas and neighborhoods (e.g. Shadegan and Hoveyzeh), where the majority of the residents are Arabs, this tendency is not felt.[5]
^Khuzestani Arabic at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
^ abcKhuzestani Arabic: a case of convergence
^Shabibi, Maryam (2006). Contact-induced grammatical changes in Khuzestani arabic (PhD thesis). University of Manchester. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.529368.
^ abBahrani, Nawal; Ghavami, Golnaz Modarresi (2021). "Khuzestani Arabic". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 51 (2): 1. doi:10.1017/S0025100319000203. S2CID 235915108.
^Leitner, Bettina (2022). Grammar of Khuzestani Arabic: A Spoken Variety of South-West Iran. BRILL. pp. 4–5. ISBN 978-90-04-51024-1.
KhuzestaniArabic is a dialect of South Mesopotamian Arabic (SMA or "Gələt Arabic") spoken by the Iranian Arabs in Khuzestan Province of Iran. While it...
Khuzestani Arabs (Arabic: عرب خوزستان) are the Arabic speaking inhabitants of the Khuzestan province and the largest Arabic speaking community in Iran...
6% in Khuzestani Arabs. Most Iranian Arabs in Khuzestan Province speak Arabic and Persian. The Arabic spoken in the province is KhuzestaniArabic, a mixture...
Iraq. Central Iraqi Group Baghdad Arabic The surrounding area around Baghdad Southern Iraqi and KhuzestaniArabic group Urban dialects Rural dialects...
dialects of Arabic spoken by Arab minorities in Iran (like Ahwazi Arabs, Khamseh Arabs, Marsh Arabs as well as Arabs in Khorasan) are KhuzestaniArabic and Mesopotamian...
instance, a portion of Khuzestan's populace speaks Arabic (KhuzestaniArabic). Another part of Khuzestanis speak in Bakhtiari dialect. Neo-Mandaic is spoken...
Iraq. Central Iraqi Group Baghdad Arabic The surrounding area around Baghdad Southern Iraqi and KhuzestaniArabic group Urban dialects Rural dialects...
etc.). The local dialect of Arabic spoken in Iran is KhuzestaniArabic, but the varieties of Arabic taught across Iran to students in secondary schools...
Caucasus KhuzestaniArabic Central Asian Arabic Anna Zelkina. The Arabic Linguistic and Cultural Tradition in Dagestan: an Historical Overview. Arabic as a...
Santur player; Khuzestani Arab. Mehdi Yarrahi - (14 November 1981, Ahvaz) pop singer; Khuzestani Arab. Mehdi Yarrahi (1981) Khuzestani Arab Jassem Ghazbanpour...
to speak a dialect much closer to Gulf Arabic opposed to the KhuzestaniArabic which is closer to Iraqi Arabic. According to Arab traditions, tribes are...
Najdi Arabic (Arabic: اللهجة النجدية) is the group of Arabic varieties originating from the Najd region of Saudi Arabia. Outside of Saudi Arabia, it is...
southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan, most people speak Khuzestani Persian, KhuzestaniArabic, and Standard Persian, sometimes in addition to their own...
Hejazi Arabic or Hijazi Arabic (HA) (Arabic: حجازي, romanized: ḥijāzī, Hejazi Arabic pronunciation: [ħɪˈdʒaːzi]), also known as West Arabian Arabic, is a...
al-Jummal (Arabic: حِسَاب ٱلْجُمَّل, ḥisāb al-jummal), are a decimal alphabetic numeral system/alphanumeric code, in which the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet...
European Parliament resolution condemning the forced displacement of Khuzestani Arabs. The resolution condemns the treatment of minorities such as .....
The Marsh Arabs (Arabic: عرب الأهوار ʻArab al-Ahwār "Arabs of the Marshlands"), also referred to as Ahwaris, the Maʻdān (Arabic: معدان "dweller in the...
countries. Arabs also come from non-Arab countries as ethnic minorities (e.g. Khuzestani Arabs). The majority of British Arabs reside in the British capital of...
coaching positions (technical director, head coach, assistant coach) with Khuzestani club sides. ""نوری خدایاری"، مردی که هنوز فوتبال ایران به او نیاز داشت"...
Huwala seem to have a different origin to other Iranian Arabs such as Khuzestanis or Ahwazis, according to scholarly consensus and Huwala's own origin...
2005, when a fabricated government document was circulated among the Khuzestani Arabs to provoke ethnic tensions. Shortly after the group's military wing...
Global Information
