Jordanian Arabic is a continuum of mutually intelligible varieties of Levantine Arabic spoken by the population of the Kingdom of Jordan. Jordanian Arabic varieties are Semitic, with lexical influences from English, Turkish and French. They are spoken by more than 6 million people, and understood throughout the Levant and, to various extents, in other Arabic-speaking regions. As in all Arab countries, language use in Jordan is characterized by diglossia; Modern Standard Arabic is the official language used in most written documents and the media, while the daily conversation is conducted in the local colloquial varieties.
Aside from the various dialects, one must also deal with the differences in addressing males, females, and groups; plurals and verb conjugations are highly irregular and difficult to determine from their root letters, and there are several letters in the Arab alphabet that are difficult for an English speaker to pronounce.
Regional Jordanian Arabic varieties
Although there is a common Jordanian dialect mutually understood by most Jordanians, the daily language is spoken throughout the country varies significantly through regions. These variants impact altogether pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.
The Jordanian Arabic falls into five varieties:
• Hybrid variety (Modern Jordanian): It is almost the current spoken language among all Jordanians. This variety was born after the designation of Amman as the capital of the Jordanian kingdom early in the 20th century. It is the result of the merger of the language of populations who moved from northern Jordan, southern Jordan, and later from Palestine. For this reason, it mixes features of the Arabic varieties spoken by these populations. The emergence of the language occurred under the strong influence of the Jordanian north dialect. As in many countries, English is being used to substitute many technical words, even though these words have Arabic counterparts in modern standard Arabic.
• Northern varieties: It is spoken in the area from Amman to Irbid in the far north. As in all sedentary areas, local variations are many. The pronunciation, exemplified by the audio file has /q/ pronounced [g] and /k/ mostly ([tʃ]). This dialect is part of the southern dialect of the Levantine Arabic language.
• Southern/Moab: Spoken in the area south of Amman, in cities such as Al Karak, Tafilah, Ma'an, and Shoubak and their countrysides, replete with city-to-city and village-to-village differences. In this dialect, the pronunciation of the final vowel (æ~a~ɐ) commonly written with tāʾ marbūtah (ة) is raised to [e]. For example, Maktaba (Fuṣḥa) becomes Maktabe (Moab), Maktabeh (North) and Mektaba (Bedawi). Named so after the antique Moab kingdom of southern Jordan, this dialect belongs to the outer southern dialect of the Levantine Arabic language.
• Bedouin: Is spoken by Bedouins mostly in the desert east of the Jordanian mountains and high plateau, and belongs to the Bedawi Arabic. This dialect is not widely used in other regions. It is often considered truer than the Arabic language, but this is a subjective view that shows no linguistic evidence. Note that non-Bedouin is also spoken in some of the towns and villages in the Badia region east of Jordan's mountain heights plateau, such as Al-Azraq oasis.
• Aqaba variety