EURPhon: Negev Arabic

Phylum: Semitic

Genus: Arabic

Lat/lon: 31.385707, 34.758468

ISO code: avl

Consonants

Basic short series

	bilabial	labio-velar	labio-dental	dental	alveolar	postalveolar	palatal	velar	pharyngeal	glottal
stop	b				t, d			k, g		ʔ
trill					r
fricative			f	θ, ð	s, z	ʃ, ʒ		x, ɣ	ħ, ʕ	h
affricate						dʒ
nasal	m				n
approximant		w					j
lateral approximant					l

Short pharyngealised series

	bilabial	labio-dental	dental	alveolar
stop	bˤ			tˤ
trill				rˤ
fricative		fˤ	ðˤ	sˤ
nasal	mˤ
lateral approximant				lˤ

Vowels

Basic short series

	front	central	back
close	i		u
open		a

Long series

	front	central	back
close	iː		uː
open		aː

Diphthongs

/aj/, /aw/

Licit initial clusters

CN, NN

Licit syllabic templates

CV(ː), CV(ː), CVCC

Source: Henkin, Roni. 2008. Negev Arabic. Kees Versteegh (ed.), Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Vol. 3. Brill: Leiden; Boston. 360–369.

Comments: N -- sonorant. Initial NC clusters obtain a prothetic vowel. Word-final CC clusters are usually broken up. Diphthongs are stable only in the speech of the older generation. A rare note on mutual intelligibility: "Today it is an isolated, peripheral minority dialect, not spoken and barely understood elsewhere within the contemporary political boundaries."