# الشارقة‎



## Qureshpor

ٖFriends,

How does الشارقة‎ end up as Sharjah?


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## Mahaodeh

One of the ways of pronouncing the qaaf is turning it into a jeem. Other examples include قاسم -> جاسم and قدر -> جدر. I don't know of a dialect that turns most of their qaafs into jeems but at least in Iraqi Arabic and apparently in Emirati Arabic some change to jeem.


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## Qureshpor

Ah, thank you! This explains it then. But is n't the written word "ashshaariqah"? Has the "i" vowel been gobbled up in "Shaarjah"?


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## Mahaodeh

Yes, that is very strange to me too. It should be written in English Shariqa (with the qaaf intact not only the vowel) just as Ajman is written with a j even though the local pronunciation (Emiratis, not other Arab nationals) is عيمان (turning the jeem to a yaa' as many Gulf dialects do).

If your asking about the local pronunciation, then the kasra is omitted in pronunciation even in other dialects. I've heard Shar'a and Sharqa, both not pronouncing the vowel, frankly I've never heard Sharga but it's a possibility too.


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## Qureshpor

Thank you Mahaodeh for your time.


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## Suqutra

It might have become a g sound at first and then transformed into a j. In Egypt we have a similar situation with the word وجه to وش (face). Egyptian speech used the have a French J (or File:Voiced palato-alveolar sibilant.ogg - Wikipedia) in place of the Classical Arabic ج. This became a ش over time. But now we pronounce our ج like g.


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## Mahaodeh

Suqutra said:


> It might have become a g sound at first and then transformed into a j.


You know, it's possible. It could also have turned into a kaaf, from there to a ch sound, which makes the transition to jeem possible. All these sounds (g, k, and j) are common pronunciations of qaaf in Gulf and Iraqi dialects, the ch sound not so much though, but it's common to turn the kaaf to a ch! So, maybe.

The وجه to وش is plausible but I don't see how it's related because here you seem to mean that the original was wajh not wagh; also, the qaaf is not pronounced sheen in the Gulf (or anywhere else that I know of).



Suqutra said:


> But now we pronounce our ج like g.


I don't think this is related though. The pronunciation of a the Egyptian jeem is much older than that, it's taken from Yemen, that inherited the pronunciation from older South Arabian languages. Another theory is that Old Arabic pronounced it this way, and even Classical Arabic pronounced somewhere in between the g and j sound; and that the Egyptian pronunciation is based on Classical Arabic dialects (other than that of Quraish) but not necessarily borrowed from South Arabian languages.

The Egyptian g for jeem is much older, but the use of j for qaaf developed centuries later.


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## Suqutra

But how do we know that jeem as g is that old?


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## Ihsiin

Mahaodeh said:


> You know, it's possible. It could also have turned into a kaaf, from there to a ch sound, which makes the transition to jeem possible. All these sounds (g, k, and j) are common pronunciations of qaaf in Gulf and Iraqi dialects, the ch sound not so much though, but it's common to turn the kaaf to a ch! So, maybe.



The sequence [q] -> [g] -> [dʒ] is almost certain. In Iraqi at least every instance of ق as [dʒ] exists as a variation of ق as [g] (apart from _jāsim _I think, I've never heard anyone say _gāsim_, but perhaps even that exists), and more broadly the Iraqi and Gulf dialects exist in a continuum of dialects where ق is generally realised as [g] or some variation thereof. I don't think the [k] variant is relevant here - this only occurs when ق proceeds the voiceless ت and thus the [g] is devoiced to [k] (e.g. وكت، كتل). And yes, even this [k] can shift to [tʃ], as we can find چتل _četil _= killing.



Suqutra said:


> But how do we know that jeem as g is that old?



ج - جيم pronunciation


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## Suqutra

Ihsiin said:


> I don't think the [k] variant is relevant here - this only occurs when ق proceeds the voiceless ت and thus the [g] is devoiced to [k] (e.g. وكت، كتل).


That explains why شوكة becomes خاشوگة (spelled خاشوكة) and عشق becomes عشگ (spelled عشك) in Iraqi Arabic. 

But what about the Khalijee/Iraqi (Iraqi is basically a gulf dialect) 2nd person female suffix? Like احبتش?


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## Ihsiin

Suqutra said:


> That explains why شوكة becomes خاشوگة (spelled خاشوكة) and عشق becomes عشگ (spelled عشك) in Iraqi Arabic.



Yes to the second but not the first. خاشوقة comes from Persian or Turkish, I'm not sure which, and isn't related to شوكة. Neither of these have ق as [k], however. The spelling varies because there is no standard way of representing [g] in Arabic, but they are pronounced _xāšūga _and _ʕišig _respectively. On the other hand, وكت is pronounced _wakit_.



> But what about the Khalijee/Iraqi (Iraqi is basically a gulf dialect) 2nd person female suffix? Like احبتش?



Both Iraqi and Gulf dialects are variations of tribal Arabian dialects, I don't think it makes sense to describe one as another, they form a dialect continuum. As for the _-ič _suffix, this is a vary old feature of Bedouin tribal dialects that goes all the way back to classical times (though then it was pronounced _-či _of course).


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## Suqutra

Ihsiin said:


> Yes to the second but not the first. خاشوقة comes from Persian or Turkish


Oh, I assumed because they're close in pronunciation. Do you know why it's written as خاشوكة? It might have been influenced by the Arabic word. 



Ihsiin said:


> As for the _-ič _suffix, this is a vary old feature of Bedouin tribal dialects that goes all the way back to classical times (though then it was pronounced _-či _of course).


That's interesting.


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## Mahaodeh

Ihsiin said:


> چتل _četil _= killing.


Oh yes, I forgot this; there are probably other words that I have forgotten too that turn the qaaf into ch! Good point . However, this may be because قتل turned to كتل with a kaaf, and then the kaaf turned to ch.


Suqutra said:


> That explains why شوكة becomes خاشوگة (spelled خاشوكة)


Actually, these are not related.

خاشوكة (pronounced khashoogeh) is from Persian for spoon, not fork. Fork is جطل (pronounced chaTal), also from Persian. They are both written in this way because they are influenced by Persian spelling using the modified Arabic script. Technically, the kaaf in khashoogeh should have a long strike on it like a long fa7a, which is how the g letter is written in the Persian script, and the jeem in chaTal has three dots under it, which is how the ch letter is written in Persian script.


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## Suqutra

Mahaodeh said:


> Technically, the kaaf in khashoogeh should have a long strike on it like a long fa7a, which is how the g letter is written in the Persian script, and the jeem in chaTal has three dots under it, which is how the ch letter is written in Persian script.



Yeah, I've seen people that speak the Iraqi dialect use the چ in writing. The weird thing is though, Persian use's unnecessary letters, and then adds additional letters. For example, they use ص ض ط ذ and ظ and these letters make them same exact sound as س and ز. They also use غ and the same exact sound for ق when this could have just made it g sound on it's own. Yet they decided to add گ. The letters ه and ح also make the same sound. Sorry if this is a little off topic, but this most likely influenced the Iraqi dialects weird writing.


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## Mahaodeh

Well, maybe it has to do with how the language evolved since the introduction of the Arabic modified script. Maybe at first they used the sounds but then they were merged with other sounds. Another possibility is that they retained the Arabic letters in order to read the Quran as it is, rather than learn two scripts one for Arabic and one for Persian.


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## Suqutra

Well, some people do use the additional Persian letters sometimes, but most do not. I assume because of ease in writing with an Arabic keyboard, instead of alternating between an Persian and Arabic keyboard since Persian does not contain all of the dialect's letters.


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## Mahaodeh

On a computer screen (or mobile or whatever), I rarely see the Persian letters, they just use the similar Arabic ones most of the time. However, in handwriting, you do see it.


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