Egyptian Arabic Language Guide

Also spoken in
Egypt
Script
Arabic

Where it's spoken

Article 2 of the Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt says that Arabic is the official language of the State. It does not name Egyptian Arabic.

A paper on a conventional orthography for dialectal Arabic describes the dialects as the day-to-day vernaculars spoken in the Arab world, living side by side with the official language, Modern Standard Arabic. When it presents its guidelines for Egyptian Arabic, it takes Cairene as the default Egyptian Arabic.

This app's cards are in the everyday spoken language rather than in Modern Standard Arabic: the note on the card for "I don't understand", Mish fāhim, says that the Modern Standard Arabic form is not used in speech.

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Script & pronunciation

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

The same paper says that the letter ج is used to represent the voiced velar stop [g] in Egypt. In this app, the card for "Egyptian pound", Il-Ginēh il-Maṣri, is romanized with g for that letter.

The paper's table gives the Egyptian pronunciation of the letter ق as a glottal stop, with the example qalb, pronounced as 'alb, "heart". In this app, the card for "I'd like a haircut.", ʿĀyiz aʾuṣṣ shaʿri, shows ʾ in aʾuṣṣ.

The paper adds that the long vowels /ē/ and /ō/, which do not exist in Modern Standard Arabic, are spelled as ay and aw. In this app, the card for "Where is the toilet?", Fēn il-ḥammām?, is romanized with ē.

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Grammar essentials

An early grammar of the spoken Arabic of Egypt says that an interrogative sentence usually stands without an introductory particle. In this app, Bi-titkallim ingilīzi? ("Do you speak English?") is a question with no question word.

The same grammar says that the unfinished present is expressed by the aorist with the syllable be (or bi) prefixed, and that the future can be expressed by the aorist with the particle ha prefixed. The orthography paper also lists a progressive particle bi+ and a future particle Ha+ among the clitics Egyptian Arabic has beyond those of Modern Standard Arabic. In this app, Bi-titkallim ingilīzi? has bi-, and Hākhud da ("I will take this") has ha-.

The early grammar says that a verb is made negative by placing the particle ma before it and a suffix sh after it, and the orthography paper lists the negation particle enclitic +š among the Egyptian additions. The app's card for "My luggage hasn't arrived", ma-waṣalit-sh, follows this pattern, and its note says that negation wraps the verb as ma- plus verb plus -sh.

The early grammar says that mush may be used as the negative of the verb "to be" for all numbers and genders, and that it sometimes serves to negate a verb. The app's card for "I don't understand", Mish fāhim, uses mish. The grammar also says that, as the preposition fi is used in the sense of "there is", ma fish signifies "there is not"; in this app, Mafīsh mushkila means "It's OK / No problem".

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Politeness & etiquette

The early grammar says that the words hadra and ganab, "honour", with the pronominal suffix of the second person (making hadritak, ganabak), are often employed when equals or superiors are addressed. In this app, the airport card for "What is the purpose of your visit?" begins with Ḥaḍritak, and the card for "You" says that for a polite "you" the word to use is حضرتك.

The app's card for "How are you?", Izzayyak?, says that it is the form for a man, that to a woman the spelling is identical but it is pronounced Izzayyik?, and that to an elder or a formal contact one says إزاي حضرتك؟.

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