Sudanese Arabic Language Guide

Also spoken in
Sudan, Eritrea
Script
Arabic

Where it's spoken

Glottolog says that Sudanese Arabic is spoken throughout Sudan and parts of Eritrea, and lists Khartoum Arabic among its alternative names.

A study of Sudanese spoken Arabic gives the word for "water" as mooya in central Sudan and alme in the western part of the country, as an example of words that differ from one region to another. This app's card for "Water" is موية, romanized Mōya. The study uses a transcription different from this app's romanization, so its mooya is spelled differently from the romanization in this app.

The note on this app's card for "Yes" says that Standard Arabic نعم is not used in speech.

As a general note, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan runs the Overseas Safety website, which publishes safety information by country and region.

Sources

Script & pronunciation

This app's Sudanese Arabic cards are written in Arabic script, and none of the card texts carries short-vowel marks. A paper on a conventional orthography for dialectal Arabic says that letters are always written while diacritics are optional, and cites a figure that over 98% of written Arabic words in general are diacritic free.

The study of Sudanese spoken Arabic says that the variety is overwhelmingly spoken and not written. In its table of sound changes it sets the Standard Arabic word for "three" against the Sudanese form, which has تلاتة with ت where Standard Arabic has ث. This app's card for "One, two, three" writes تلاتة and romanizes it talāta. The same study gives mitein for "when", and this app's card for "When does this shop open?" writes متين and romanizes it mitēn. Because the study uses a transcription different from this app's romanization, its mitein is spelled differently from the app's mitēn.

Every card has a romanization line, and the notes on many cards say that the vowels in it are estimated. The letter ق is written g in it: the card for "Once more, please", قول مرة تانية لو سمحت, is romanized Gōl marra tānya law samaḥt, and its note says that ق is pronounced g. The letter ج is written j, as in the card for "I don't have a reservation", ما عندي حجز, romanized Ma ʿindi ḥajz.

Sources

Grammar essentials

A paper on the negation marker ma in four Arabic dialects lists the verbal negation of Sudanese Arabic as either ma … syi or ma alone, and lists mafi among the negation forms of Sudanese Arabic. It says that the negation marker ma is mostly used in the modern Arabic dialects and is found before the verb in both the perfective and the imperfective. In this app, the card for "I don't have a reservation", ما عندي حجز, puts ما before عندي, and the card for "I don't understand", أنا ما فاهم, puts ما before the participle فاهم. The note on that card says that فاهم is a participle that changes by gender and number, with the feminine فاهمة and the plural فاهمين.

The app's card for "No problem", ما في مشكلة, is romanized Ma fī mushkila, and its note says that ما في is the usual "there is no".

The note on the card for "I speak a little", أنا بتكلم شوية, romanized Ana batkallam shuwayya, says that the present tense puts ب before the verb; the same note says the card was composed from known words and sentence patterns and that native review is recommended. The note on the card for "Do you speak English?", انت بتتكلم انجليزي؟, says that a question keeps the statement word order and just rises at the end.

The note on the card for "This", دا, says that a demonstrative follows the noun, as in العربية دي, "this car", and that the plural is ديل; its usage line says that دي is said for a feminine noun.

Sources

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