# Ahwazi Arabic



## Ali.h

Does anyone know anything about the Ahwazi dialect? What's it like and which other Arabic dialect is it most similar to? 

In case anyone has never heard of "Ahwaz", it is a city in Iran (Arabic: *الأحواز‎*), and it is the capital of the Iranian province of Khuzestan.


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## Masjeen

Their dialect is so similar to those people in Basra and Kuwait.


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## Ali.h

Masjeen said:


> Their dialect is so similar to those people in Basra and Kuwait.


 
Interesting, so the Iraqi and Kuwaiti dialects are identical?


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## Masjeen

Ali.h said:


> Interesting, so the Iraqi and Kuwaiti dialects are identical?


 
For Southern Iraq yes, but now kuwait has a large number of Bedouin (60%) Therefore, the dialect has changed, In addition to the impact of teaching Arabic language in schools Which has profoundly influence..


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## Ali.h

Masjeen said:


> For Southern Iraq yes, but now kuwait has a large number of Bedouin (60%) Therefore, the dialect has changed, In addition to the impact of teaching Arabic language in schools Which has profoundly influence..


 
Is it true that in Iraq instead of saying "kam ghadr", they use the Persian word "che ghadr", like you know when asking for a price in the market. I think I heard they say it like the Persian way in Baghdad, but I'm not sure, have you ever heard this?

And do they use any Persian phrases/words like this in Kuwait as well?


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## Masjeen

well arabs in the far east of the Arab world ( Including me) are Changing the letter K to ch
 so.. kam became cham


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## Ali.h

Masjeen said:


> well arabs in the far east of the Arab world ( Including me) are Changing the letter K to ch
> so.. kam became cham


 
Oh I see, so you guys don't say "che"? Because "che" literally means "kam" in Persian. But is there a reason why you guys use "ch" instead of "k"? Could there be a Turkish influence behind this?

Also if you don't mind can you name me the countries which use "ch" instead of "k"? I am asking becuase I would like to increase my knowledge about the different dialects.


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## Masjeen

Ali.h said:


> Oh I see, so you guys don't say "che"? Because "che" literally means "kam" in Persian. But is there a reason why you guys use "ch" instead of "k"? Could there be a Turkish influence behind this?
> 
> Also if you don't mind can you name me the countries which use "ch" instead of "k"? I am asking becuase I would like to increase my knowledge about the different dialects.


 
from iraq to oman, Saudis (central arabia) say it by a very strange way "ts" kam>> tsam..

But the Arabic language (MSA) destroy everything..Because of the Arab nationalists and Islamists the dialects now are decay Mixed Because of the Arab media (only Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia is still isolated)

Dialects does not have a defender.. or at least have any value


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## clevermizo

Ali.h said:


> Oh I see, so you guys don't say "che"? Because "che" literally means "kam" in Persian. But is there a reason why you guys use "ch" instead of "k"? Could there be a Turkish influence behind this?



No, it's a natural linguistic phenomenon. It probably has to do with some historical palatalizationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenition. It has happened in many languages unrelated in the world. Latin k has become ts, s and ch in daughter languages under certain environments as well. Although Arabic dialects are not considered separate languages, nevertheless we expect normal linguistic processes of sound change to happen anyway.

Here's a good thread about this topic.


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## Mahaodeh

Ali.h said:


> Is it true that in Iraq instead of saying "kam ghadr", they use the Persian word "che ghadr", like you know when asking for a price in the market. I think I heard they say it like the Persian way in Baghdad, but I'm not sure, have you ever heard this?


 
Nope, they neither say kam nor cham in this case, they say بيش.  Also, they don't say che instead of kam, they say cham as in "cham tuffa7a akalit?" = كم تفاحة أكلت. The changing from kaaf to ch sound is called كشكشة and as clevermizo mentioned, it's not related to any foriegn influence.


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## WadiH

Ali.h said:


> Interesting, so the Iraqi and Kuwaiti dialects are identical?



Ahwazi Arabic is essentially a variant of southern Iraqi Arabic (some call this whole cluster "Mesopotamian Arabic").

Iraqi and Kuwaiti Arabic are not identical, but they share a lot of similarities.

I don't believe Iraqis say "che" for "how much," but they do have a "che" particle, which they apparently use as a filler or an interjection.


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## Mahaodeh

That would be "chaa", and it's limited to southern Iraq and mostly in rural areas. I have no idea if it's related to the Persian che, but it doesn't seem to be as it's used in a very different way (at least according to my understanding of che based on the meaning given above).

By the way, it's not really a filler or interjection (except like the common filler يعني), it does have a meaning, it is equivalent to the Iraqi لعد and the Levantine وِلا; I can't think of a fus7a equivalent.


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## Al-Alawi

Salams to all 

this is my first post although I've read through many helpful posts

I was just wondering if anybody had any knowledge of a7wazi arabic? I am trying very hard to find any resources regarding this dialect but its very hard to come across.

I heard its very similar to Kuwaiti as well as Iraqi but it would be very helpful if anybody could point me in the right direction. Is it possible to learn or is it one of those "you have to be born" things?

anyway i'de really appreciate any help 

wasalam


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## Masjeen

Yes It is very similar to Iraqi Arabic.. especially to those who live in south Iraq.. while Kuwaiti Arabic is a mixture of Iraq arabic and Najdi Arabic.


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## Al-Alawi

salam and thanks bro

would you say the closest is Iraqi Arabic? In the sense that if somebody were interesting in learning ahwazi dialect, Iraqi would be a good place to start?


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## Masjeen

Al-Alawi said:


> salam and thanks bro
> 
> would you say the closest is Iraqi Arabic? In the sense that if somebody were interesting in learning ahwazi dialect, Iraqi would be a good place to start?



Definitely yes


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## behbahan

Masjeen said:


> For Southern Iraq yes, but now kuwait has a large number of Bedouin (60%) Therefore, the dialect has changed, In addition to the impact of teaching Arabic language in schools Which has profoundly influence..


Kuwait's native dialect has not changed. There are two types of dialects in Kuwait, 'Hathar' and 'Badu'. Kuwaitis of pre-oil urban origin are known as Hathar and speak Hathari Kuwaiti Arabic whereas the Bedouin speak the Badu dialect. 

Most Kuwaitis of Bedouin origin have adopted the Hathar dialect but there are still some people who speak in the Bedouin dialect.

The Hathar dialect has remained unchanged, it is the Bedouin who had to adapt. Hathar Kuwaitis mocked Bedouin for their dialect so more and more Bedouin began speaking in a Hathar dialect and most Bedouin live side by side with the Hathar.


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## k8an

Hi everyone,

I volunteer with a refugee family from Ahvaz and have always been fascinated by them. As I can speak/understand Lebanese and Egyptian Arabic, their dialect has always seemed Iraqi to me so I understand next to nothing. However, as all residents of Ahvaz are fluent speakers of Persian too (which I am learning), I have noticed a large influence of Persian on their Arabic (for example pronouncing ق as غ (gh) and even sometimes ح as ه (h) (VERY rare, probably just as bad habit) as in Farsi. They also have typical Khaleeji/Iraqi traits of ج pronounced as ي (y) and ك as English "ch" in "cheese", especially for feminine possessive ("weyn telephoneich?" "Shlonech?"). They also have certain words and grammatical features shared with Farsi. 

Here is a link I found about these influences (Ahvaz is in Khuzestan)

http://languagecontact.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/McrLC/casestudies/MS.html


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