North Levantine Arabic

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North Levantine Arabic (Arabic: اللهجة الشامية الشمالية, romanized: al-lahja š-šāmiyya š-šamāliyya, North Levantine: el-lahje š-šāmiyye š-šmāliyye) was defined in the ISO 639-3 international standard for language codes as a distinct Arabic variety, under the apc code. It is also known as Syro-Lebanese Arabic,[1] though that term is also used to mean all of Levantine Arabic.[2]

It was reported by Ethnologue as stemming from the north in Turkey (specifically the coastal regions of the Adana, Hatay, and Mersin provinces)[1][3] to Lebanon,[4][1] passing through the Mediterranean coastal regions of Syria (the Latakia and Tartus governorates) as well as the areas surrounding Aleppo and Damascus.[1][5]

In 2023, South Levantine Arabic and North Levantine Arabic were merged into a single Levantine Arabic in the ISO,[6] based on the high mutual intelligibility between Arabic varieties spoken by sedentary populations across the Levant and the lack of clear distinctions between variants along national borders.[7]

  1. ^ a b c d North Levantine Arabic at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Versteegh, Kees (2009). Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics. Leiden: Brill. p. 170. ISBN 9789004177024. OCLC 401165899.
  3. ^ Turkey in Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2022). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (25th ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
  4. ^ "Glottolog 3.2 - North Levantine Arabic". glottolog.org. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  5. ^ Jordan and Syria in Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2022). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (25th ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
  6. ^ "Glottolog 4.8 - South Levantine Arabic". glottolog.org. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  7. ^ "Request for Change to ISO 639-3 Language Code" (PDF). iso639-3.sil.org.