Hassānīya language
| Hassaniyya | |
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حسانية Ḥassānīya |
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| Native to | south-western Algeria, Libya, north-western Mali, Mauritania, southern Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Senegal |
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Native speakers
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(3.2 million cited 1991–2006) |
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Afro-Asiatic
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| Dialects | |
| Arabic alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | hass1238 |
Current distribution of the Hassaniya language, alone (dark green) or alongside Tuareg (light green). It is also spoken in regions around the shaded zone.
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Hassānīya (Arabic: حسانية Ḥassānīya; also known as Hassaniyya, Klem El Bithan, Hasanya, Hassani, Hassaniya) is a variety of Maghrebi Arabic. It was spoken by the Beni Ḥassān Bedouin tribes, who extended their authority over most of Mauritania and Morocco's southeastern and Western Sahara between the 15th and 17th centuries. Hassaniya Arabic was the language spoken in the pre-modern region around Chinguetti.
The language has now almost completely replaced the Berber languages that were originally spoken in this region. Although clearly a western dialect, Hassānīya is relatively distant from other Maghrebi variants of Arabic. Its geographical location exposed it to influence from Zenaga-Berber and Wolof. There are several dialects of Hassānīya which differ primarily phonetically. Today, Hassānīya is spoken in Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Senegal and the Western Sahara.
The phonological system of Hassānīya is both very innovative and very conservative. All phonemes of Classical Arabic are represented in the dialect, but there are also many new phonemes. As in other Bedouin dialects, Classical /q/ corresponds mostly to dialectal /ɡ/, /dˤ/ and /ðˤ/ have merged into /ðˤ/ and the interdentals /θ/ and /ð/ have been preserved. In common with most Maghrebi Arabic varieties, the equivalent of Modern Standard Arabic /d͡ʒ/ is realised as /ʒ/.
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