Ta’izzi-Adeni Arabic or Southern Yemeni Arabic () is a dialect of Arabic spoken primarily in the Republic of Yemen and the nearby Republic of Djibouti. Additionally a small minority of speakers are present in the State of Eritrea, arising from the emigration of Adeni Jews throughout the 20th Century. The dialect itself is further sub-divided into the regional vernaculars of Ta’izzi, spoken in Ta'izz, and Adeni, spoken in Aden.
The languages that existed in this region prior to the arrival of Arabic have had long lasting impacts upon the modern iteration of Ta’izzi-Adeni. Owing to this history, and a relative degree of geographic isolation, it has developed certain, distinctive phonological and vocabularic variations.
Classification
Ta’izzi-Adeni Arabic is classified as a dialect of Yemeni Arabic, itself a variation of the broader Peninsular Arabic, and is native to the areas of South Western Yemen and the nearby country of Djibouti, with a small minority of speakers in Eritrea.
In 2016, it was estimated that the Ta’izzi-Adeni dialect was spoken by approximately 10.48 million people worldwide. In the regions where Ta’izzi-Adeni is spoken, for writing and pre-prepared speech, the more standardised Modern Standard Arabic often supersedes Ta’izzi-Adeni as the language of choice, as is the case with most dialects across the Arab world. For this reason, Arabic and its various dialects are classified as a diglossia; a language wherein the spoken form and the written form are divergent.
Varieties
There are two further sub-divisions of Ta’izzi-Adeni, namely Ta’izzi and Adeni. The Ta’izzi dialect is spoken chiefly in the Yemeni Governorate of Ta’izz and the neighbouring governorate of Ibb, whereas Adeni is spoken further south, within Aden itself and the immediate, outlying, rural areas. Comparing these two sub-divisions, there are certain, distinctive variations, owing largely to the geography and history of the respective regions.
Historically, Aden has been a trade port on the Indian Ocean and a stopping point on the Silk Road. Even today Aden continues to be the largest dockyard servicing the country of Yemen, with the three largest ports all located within the broader city. Due to the port's position on the edge of the Indian Ocean and relatively near to the Red Sea, Aden along with its surroundings was conquered by the United Kingdom in 1831 to be used as a trading port on the route between India, another of the United Kingdom's former colonies, and Great Britain itself. The port therefore saw transitory migration from both the UK and India under British rule and hence has had significantly more contact with the different languages and cultures than the more insular and isolated Ta’izz. As a result, the Adeni Arabic dialect has a higher prevalence of loan words, in particular words of both English and Indian descent, than most other dialects of Arabic.
History
The contemporary Arabic language originated further north than Yemen, in and around the region of Hejaz, and arrived to the modern area of south-western Yemen following the early Muslim conquests of the Arabian Peninsula.
Prior to the advent of Arabic, a cluster of languages collectively known as “Old South Arabian” were spoken in the modern region encompassed by the Ta’izzi-Adeni dialect. This group of languages were closely related to each other and, like modern Arabic, were classified within the Semitic language family. From the limited existing fragments and records of these now-extinct languages, as well as by analysing their modern, surviving descendants, scholars have attempted to reconstruct and categorise their features. From what has been managed to be reconstructed, it appears that the languages have left a significant impression on the Ta’izzi-Adeni dialect and are responsible for many of the unique features of both the dialect's phonology and vocabulary.
Of the two main classifications of Arabic dialects, namely sedentary and nomadic (sometimes erroneously referred to as Bedouin), the Ta’izzi-Adeni dialect belongs to the former category. This distinction has been drawn as considerable differences in both phonology and vocabulary have been observed between the dialects spoken by the townships of the Arabian Peninsula, and those dialects spoken by its formerly nomadic peoples. As the area where Ta’izzi-Adeni is spoken, South Western Yemen, is one of the few areas of the Arabian Peninsula that has sufficient agriculturally productivity to allow for sedentary lifestyles, the inhabitants of this area lived comparatively more sedentary lives. Hence, these lifestyles are reflected in the sounds and vocabulary of the dialect.