Qatari Arabic v. Standard Arabic

Yousra Samir

Contents: Learning How to Speak Qatari Arabic | Qatari Arabic versus Standard Arabic | Qatar Vocabulary and Phrases | Beginners Guide to Arabic

How is Qatari Arabic different to standard Arabic?

Standard, or classical Arabic, is Arabic in its most professional, formal form. It is the Arabic that you hear on the news, that you see in newspapers and magazines and that you find in the Holy Koran.

Most Arabs do not go around speaking to each other in standard Arabic unless they are auditioning for a role in an Arabic period drama! Each Arab sub-region has there own dialect: the Maghreb (Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria) have their own dialect, the Levantine, or Sham, (Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria) have their own dialect, Egyptians have their own dialect. and the Gulf, or Khaleej, have their own dialect. Egyptian Arabic is generally understood by all Arabs because it is easier to grasp, but few non-Gulf Arabs understand Khaleeji Arabic.

Khaleeji (Gulf) Arabic is very throaty. Gulf Arabic also pronounce certain Arabic letters differently to other Arabs. The letter qaf, pronounced qa in standard Arabic, is pronounced ga. The letter kaf, pronounced ka in standard Arabic, is pronounced cha. And the letter jeem, pronounced ja in standard Arabic, is pronounced ya. Khaleeji Arabic also has some Hindi and Urdu words infused into it (probably due to a long history of dealing with people from the sub-continent).

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