Language
The primary language spoken in Jordan is colloquial Arabic, one of the Arabic dialects of Modern Standard Arabic. The dialects spoken by Jordanians typically fall under one of three categories: urban, rural Palestinian, and rural Jordanian or Bedouin Arabic. The dialects differ on both the phonological and the lexical levels. Phonologically, one of the most prominent distinguishers between the dialects is the sound that each makes as a substitute for the letter /q/ in Classical Arabic. The urban dialect is substitutes a (glottal stop) for the letter, whereas Rural Palestinian dialect substitutes a sound for it, and Bedouin dialect, a . A shift, however, has begun to occur with more Jordanians adopting as the Bedouin dialect does for /q/, often hypothesized to be due to feelings of pride and nationalism relating to a local identity represented by Bedouin culture in rural Jordan. The Bedouin dialect is often noted for its similarities Modern Standard Arabic. All of the Jordanian dialects have borrowed words from a variety of languages, with loanwords coming from such languages as Turkish, Italian, French, and English.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Jordan
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man.”
—Martin Heidegger (1889–1976)
“As in private life one differentiates between what a man thinks and says of himself and what he really is and does, so in historical struggles one must still more distinguish the language and the imaginary aspirations of parties from their real organism and their real interests, their conception of themselves from their reality.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The great pines stand at a considerable distance from each other. Each tree grows alone, murmurs alone, thinks alone. They do not intrude upon each other. The Navajos are not much in the habit of giving or of asking help. Their language is not a communicative one, and they never attempt an interchange of personality in speech. Over their forests there is the same inexorable reserve. Each tree has its exalted power to bear.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)