Anatolian Arabic

Anatolian Arabic
Anatolian Arabic
لهجات عربية أناضولية
Native to	Turkey
Ethnicity	Arabs in Turkey (including Mhallami)
Native speakers	160,000 (2025)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Mesopotamian Qeltu Anatolian Arabic; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	anat1256
ELP	Siirti Arabic
	Map of Anatolian Arabic speaking provinces in Turkey as of 1965 census[citation needed]

Anatolian Arabic is a grouping of North Mesopotamian Arabic varieties spoken in Turkey. It encompasses several qeltu varieties of Arabic spoken in the provinces of Mardin, Siirt, Batman, Diyarbakır, Muş and Bitlis.^[2] Since most Jews and Christians have left the area, the vast majority of remaining speakers are Sunni Muslims and the bulk live in the Mardin area. Most speakers also know Turkish and many, especially those from mixed Kurdish-Arab villages, speak Kurdish. Especially in isolated areas, the language has been significantly influenced by Turkish, Kurdish, and historically Turoyo (the latter in the western dialect area).^[3]

The Mardin dialect is mutually intelligible with the Moslawi dialect of Iraq. However, the peripheral varieties in the Siirt, Muş, and Batman provinces near Lake Van are quite divergent.

Mesopotamian Arabic is spoken to the west by about 100,000 people in Şanlıurfa Province, while North Levantine Arabic has over a million speakers in the Adana, Hatay, and Mersin provinces.^{[citation needed]} Anatolian Arabic is not mutually intelligible with the Urfa dialect.^[3]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Interdental		Dental/Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
		Labial	plain	emph.	plain	emph.	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal		m			n
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	p			t	tˤ	t͡ʃ	k	q		ʔ
Stop/ Affricate	voiced	b			d		d͡ʒ	ɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	θ		s	sˤ	ʃ	x		ħ	h
Fricative	voiced	(v)	ð	ðˤ	z		(ʒ)	ɣ		ʕ
Trill					r	rˤ
Approximant					l	ɫ	j	w

The phonemes /v, ʒ/ only occur in the Mardin dialect.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Mid	eː	ə	oː
Open		a aː

/i, u/ may also be lowered as [ɪ, ʊ] when preceding a velar to glottal consonant.^[4]

References

↑ "North Mesopotamian Arabic". Ethnologue. Retrieved June 16, 2026.
↑ "Anatolian Arabic". Academia.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
1 2 Procházka, Stephan (2018). "The Arabic dialects of eastern Anatolia". The Languages and Linguistics of Western Asia. De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-042168-2.
↑ Procházka, Stephan (2018). "The Arabic dialects of eastern Anatolia". The Languages and Linguistics of Western Asia. De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-042168-2.

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[1] "North Mesopotamian Arabic". Ethnologue. Retrieved June 16, 2026.

[2] "Anatolian Arabic". Academia.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-28.

[Procházka-3] 1 2 Procházka, Stephan (2018). "The Arabic dialects of eastern Anatolia". The Languages and Linguistics of Western Asia. De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-042168-2.

[Procházka2-4] Procházka, Stephan (2018). "The Arabic dialects of eastern Anatolia". The Languages and Linguistics of Western Asia. De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-042168-2.

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