Taʽizzi-Adeni Arabic

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.

[5] 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.

[citation needed] 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.

[6][7] 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.

[10] Additionally, there is a sizeable community of Ta’izzi-Adeni Arabic speakers of predominantly Jewish faith, who inhabit the East African nation of Eritrea.

[11] These Adeni Jews spoke the local language, Ta’izzi-Adeni Arabic, and were not considered ethnically or culturally distinct from the Muslim population.

[13] The British conquest also led to an increase in immigration of Jews from other areas of the Arabian Peninsula to the recently established Aden Protectorate.

[12] Under British rule, many Adeni Jews, speaking Ta’izzi-Adeni Arabic, established commercial enterprises and communities in the nearby Italian territory of Eritrea.

[12] In 1947, following the announcement of the United Nations plan to partition the region of Palestine, large scale riots and protests occurred throughout the British Aden Protectorate, resulting in the deaths of 82 Adeni Jews, as well as the destruction of synagogues and Jewish owned businesses.

[14] Following this, there was a large scale exodus of the Adeni Jews, as those that remained, fled Aden en masse, settling predominantly in the priorly established communities in Eritrea; at that time, a part of Ethiopia.

[12] Due to a somewhat isolated position amidst the mountainous Yemeni highlands, as well as the enduring impacts of the local, pre-Arabic languages on speech and phonology, Ta’izzi-Adeni has developed certain, distinctive features that distinguish it from the multitude of vernaculars spoken throughout the Arab world.

[15] Ta’izzi uses a voiced uvular plosive (in English, this sound does not exist, however, it is akin to a more guttural “k”) to vocalise the Arabic letter, “qaf”.

In the dialect of Ta’izzi-Adeni, these sounds have been merged, yet have still maintained their pharyngealization, to become the pharyngealised voiced alveolar stop, [dˤ].