Levantine Arabic: A Surface Register Contrastive Study

Abstract

Levantine Arabic, also referred to as Eastern Arabic, is a variety of spoken Arabic. It is considered one of the major dialects of Arabic, spoken within the eastern Mediterranean coastal strip, including Lebanon, part of Palestine, Syria and western Jordan. In the frame of the general diglossic status of the Arab world, Levantine Arabic is used in informal situations, while most of the written and official documents and media use Modern Standard Arabic, also referred to as Classical Arabic. Levantine colloquial Arabic is so different from the Modern Standard Arabic that the two varieties are not mutually intelligible. This study aims to introduce the major differences between the two varieties within the framework of Surface Strategy Taxonomy.

Key words: Modern Standard Arabic; Levantine Arabic Surface strategy taxonomy