The Spread of Arab Dialects Across the Middle East

In a conversation with an Emirati, I found that my previous assertion that the pronunciation of kaf as chaf was limited to Palestine, Northern Jordan, and Iraq was false: rather, the Emiratis speak this way as well. In fact, the Emirati brother thought that pronunciation of the kaf as chaf was common among all bedouins. He also mentioned that Emiratis pronounce the qaf jaf. (In the Emirates, Shariqa is pronounced Sharja.) This agrees with the pronunciation of the elderly among Bani Hassan here in Jordan, but southern Jordanians do not speak this way. In fact, I had to explain to one of the bedouins in Petra that saying chaf was not city speak.

Another thing that the Emirati brother mentioned is that the Omani dialect stands out in that they pronounce the jeem geem, like the Egyptians. (This is also the pronunciation of some of those from neighbouring Hadramaut, Yemen.)

The Arabic language prior to Islam and shortly afterwards was a wide array of dialects and pronunciations. The Qur'an preserved some of these dialects, the Sunnah contains some others, and Arabic poetry as well as erudite texts document some of the others. These dialects spread across what then became known as the Arab lands to Iraq, the Levant, and North Africa. For example, the Himyarite dialect survived in one incarnation across Egypt and the Levant: instead of al-bari7a, we all say imbari7, as they used am- in place of al- for the definite article. The urban Egyptian dialect seems to have at least a bit of Southern Arabian influence, as they pronounce jeem geem. In Jordan, it appears that the north was influenced by the same tribes who settled in the Gulf region while the south of Jordan is closer to the Hijaz.