University of Bucharest

The Arabic Dialect of the Jews of Iskenderun
7
Werner Arnold
University of Heidelberg
Germany
Iskenderun is an important harbour town at the northeastern Mediterranean
seashore in the Turkish province of Hatay. The Arabic speaking population calls
the city Iskadrōna which is the old Aramaic name of the town. Iskenderun is the
northernmost city in which a city dialect of the syro-palestinian type is spoken.
Nearly all dialects of this type have the following features in common:
a) Shift of the interdentales to the corresponding dentals
b) Shift of q to the glottal stop.
c) The lowering of u and i in simple closed word-final syllable to o and e
d) Word final Imāla of the feminine ending -a
e) Monophthongization of aw and ay.
f) Loss of genus distinction in plural forms of verbs and pronouns
The Arabic dialect of the Jews of Iskenderun and of Antakya, the capital
city of the province of Hatay, has all these features:
1) talğ >talğ
hāda > hāda
d}uhr > d}əhr
2) qāla > ‘āl
3) yiktub > yəktob
yinzil > yənzel
4) ši*a > šə*e
5) bayt > bēt
mawt > mōt
6) hənnen yəktəbu