Literature

    The Arabic language is a Semitic language which has many variations that swerve broadly from one variety to another. In a sociolinguistic context, Arabic in its native environment commonly appears in a diglossic instance. The term diglossia may be referred to as the stable complementary distribution of a standard language and its dialects wherein the standard variation is being utilized for formal and written communication while the dialects are restricted to informal and formal usage.  Simultaneously, linguistics scholars define the term as an instance in which a certain language community utilizes two languages or dialects the first one being a regions modern day vernacular and the second variation being an ancestral version of the same vernacular derived from earlier centuries. Prior to scholar Charles Fergusons redefinition of the term, the term is being deemed as the socially differentiated compartmentalization of languages. Recounting the Fergusons definition, the said term deals with the relationships between form and function in Arabic, Haitian Creole, Swiss German, and Modern Greek (cited in Hole 2004 p. 341).  Based from the Fergusons definition, two linguistics varieties embedded within each language are named as High and Low. These variations are formally and functionally different from one another. In the case of the Arabic language, Ferguson has rendered a clear discussion of the stability of High and Low in Arabic.

    Arabic dialects diverge both from nation to nation and within the bounds of a single country. The spoken Arabic dialects are defined as the varieties of the language which are considered by the majority of the speakers to be their mother tongue before they start their formal education (Holes 2004). The spoken dialects come with distinctions because they geographically converge forming an intersecting continua from one region to another. The intersecting continuum has its distance disturbance which demonstrates that the greater the distance between any two focal points of comparison, the greater will be the instance of ordinary vernaculars spoken in them differing in nature and form.

     From the said conception, it has explicated that the varieties of Arabic spoken at the extreme peripheries of an area differ from each other considerably, and definitely to the point of mutual misunderstanding seen when comparing plain, uneducated vernaculars to those keen learners. In practice, it could be assumed that the in the modern world, a number of measures work to reduce the impact of disparities caused by geographical differences (Holes 2004).

Arabs often deem their own dialect as the purest and the closest form of the Classical Arabic. Contrasting this notion, it had been regarded that the no dialect can be affirmatively defended as pure except possibly the Najdi dialect which is spoken in central Arabia and considered as the most isolated from non-Arabic influences (Nydell 2006). The dialects spoken in the Najd region have striking features which reflect the region as an isolated area in which a purest form of Arabic language has been retained. Such features, often unknown by the public or unreported by some linguistics scholars, preserved some characteristics of the Arabic and traces of ancient dialects of the peninsula. The isolated character of the Najdi dialect is of paramount significance for synchronized, historical and comparative dialect. 

    It is in this notion that this paper aims to explicate more on the topic of the Najdi dialect. This paper renders vivid discussion of the contemporary Najdi dialect in the contexts of morphology, semantics and lexis. It aims to provide a clear manifestation of how English culture influence the Najdi dialect detailed through discussions of English travels, popular culture, and   media. Consequently, it aims to describe the linguistic phenomena in the dialect as reflected upon the regional and socio-linguistic argumentation directed on the mentioned dialect. Various examples and analysis of the type of variation is also given to expound more on the subject of dialect.

Literature Review
    The Najd located in Central Arabia has been deemed as inaccessible region ringed by a belt of sand deserts which are the Nafud, Dahana and the Rub al-Khali. The population in the region is often at odds with the inhabitants of the outer settled lands. However, despite such odd, Najd is the focal area in which purely Arabian culture grounded on a tight collaboration between Bedouin camel husbandry and palm cultivation thrives.

Due to isolation position of the said region, the Najdi dialect is often viewed as an interesting type exuding minute non-Arabic influence. It is in this conception that the reputation of the dialect indicates that the Arabian Bedouin are the preservers of the genuine Classical form. Considering that it is the purest form of ancestral Arabic language, it appears that the dialect is remarkable enough for its conservatism as it simultaneously retains both the classical passive. Also, relative to the isolation character, the Najd region is considered as the powerhouse of dialect that influences other dialects spoken along the region of Gulf Coast encompassing the Syrian Desert.

It can also be recounted that it is in the isolation characteristics of the region that a number of studies concerning the regions oral literature and the morphology and phonology of the dialect had rose. Such studies also explore the phenomenon on the Arabic language while making the modifications in the dialect as the focal point of comparison.

According to German scholar Karl Vollers, the onset of the modern Arabic dialects, suggests that such dialects are the descendant of a case-less variety (Owens 2006). Vollers proposes that the case-less varieties of Arabic appears and that these represent the ancestors of modern dialect. The German scholar argues that the coexistence of case and case-less forms of the Arabic language was studied as a stylistic difference in which there was an interpretation of high, literary case versus low, or the vernacular case-less (Owens 2006). In addition, he expounded on the secondary notion which was in the form of a dialectical one, east (Najdcase) versus west (Hijazcase-less). To support Vollers, some scholars assume at some degree in the prehistory of Arabic that a unique case-variety ancestor existed (Owen 2006). Notably, some shcolars have argued that traits in the modern Arabic dialects, particularly the pronominal forms and the pseudo-dual which retain old Afro-Asiatic forms which have a shortage of the Classical language (Owen 2006). 

The aspect of the emergence of the Neo-Arabic dialects which concerns the topic of the evolvement in the Najdi dialect had been studied by Fleischer who suggested that non-linguistic parameters can be applied to further his interpretations. According to Fleischer, urban Neo-Arabic dialect is further removed from Old Arabic and other Arabian dialects (Owens 2006).  From Fleischers conception, it can be viewed that the Old Arabic and Neo-Arabic dichotomy is to be explored as historical linguistic development which may entail greater or lesser degree of modification in Neo- Arabic.

With this concept, the changes or the evolvement in the Najdi language are to be studied in connection with the Najdi being an isolated region and with the circumstances may it be social, geographical, or linguistic in nature.  Fleischers work reflects his aim to incorporate modern dialects into the total scope of the Arabic language while exploring the works of other scholars on Najdi dialects.  According to Fleischer, the Arabic dialects maybe closer to Old Arabic than commonly thought and maybe hailed as the descendants of the Old Arabic.

Blau (1981) investigated some dialectical elements which he indicated as traces of a now defunct case system. According to him, three aspects could be considered under the dialectical elements which had been impacted by the rise of Modern Arabic and the existence of the classical Arabic. The first of these three is the suffix  an which is clearly manifested in a small set of forms in many Arabic dialects for example the asb-an (asbin in some dialects) in some phrases such as one that means  he must (despite his wish to the contrary), taqriyb-an almost(Owen 2007).

It is stated that the use of the an suffix appears to move backward to the adverbial usage of the accusative, but this notions are so lexically limited that no far-reaching conclusions can be extracted from them. This statement translates to the fact that some terms maybe borrowed from the standard language, and if they are relics coming from the Old Arabic, it is difficult to say that from the isolated examples they can be considered survivals of a case system (Owen 2007). 

Second aspect which Blau had explicated is the nominal suffix, again an or in which commonly appears in various Arab dialects. According to him, the nominal suffix is dialectically more evident than assumed, appearing in Spanish Arabic, throughout the Sudanic Arabic dialects, in Najdi Arabic, and in Tihama Arabic in Yemen (Owen 2007). Blau noted that the suffix is formally similar to the indefinite nominal suffix of the Classical Arabic which has variations according to case like -un, -an, -in, nominative accusative, genitive. This is why the nominal suffix an can be termed as linker. Three main rationalizations are given in accordance with Blaus study (owen 2007) that conjures with the term linker and they are
Sudanic Arabic
ba-jii-k          wakt-an      gariib
I-come-you    time-n         near
Ill come to you soon

Najdi Arabic
kalmit-in      rimy-at
word-n          thrown-F
a word thrown down
Afghanistan Arabic
  hintit-in     hamra
  wheat-n      red
red grains of wheat

In the examples, it can be viewed that the distribution of the suffix is in noun and adjective when it comes to the Najdi Arabic and the frequency of the occurrence of such suffix in the dialect is high because its basic characteristics are common to all dialectical appearance.

As the transformation in the Arabic language occurs to be a strategic way to reformat or restructure the language, the Najdi language has garnered more criticisms rooted out from such transformation. Existing grammatical and linguistic studies often connect Najdi dialect as a historically conservative form of Arabic spoken in Central Arabia. According to Kusterss (2003) analysis of the status of the inflectional morphology in Najdi Moroccan, Najdi Arabic is still approximately at par with Classical Arabic in terms of verb inflection (cited in McWhorter 2007 p. 192). Kursterss analysis also confirms Inghams (1992) study which says

Thus, Classical Arabic represents normal language transmission, a product of language mutation amid small, isolated groups, with the high degree of elaboration, almost counter-intuitive to an English speaker, typical of such languages. The sedentary Arabic resulted when Arabic was successfully acquired but structurally reduced by foreign learners across the new Islamic Empire, and hence their status as Mandarins compared to Classical Arabic. Bedouin Arabic has- developed and survived under conditions inhospitable to non-native acquisition, and hence their intermediate position between Classical and Sedentary Arabic. Pointedly, Bedouin varieties are most conservative in the Arabian heartland. (cited in McWhorter 2007 p.192)

    According to Kursterss research, Najdi has lost both dual and mood marking with the former having a considerable degree for the latter with light and conventionalized pre-verbal markers (cited in McWhorter 2007 p. 192). Kursters adds that Najdi, at same time, increases Classical quotient in conflating active and passive verb forms in instances where there are intransitive active imperfect first vowel changes from a to i which mirrors the passive form (McWhorter 2007). Kursters also examined the introduction of the new allomorph.

Moreover, new allomorph is introduced in that this change does not occur with transitive verbs and in some sub-dialects applies only to the first two persons. While some Classical Arabic allomorphs eliminated by the weakened distinction between i and u, Najdis object suffixes are subject to phonologically conditioned allomorph to an extent beyond their Classical Arabic sources, in this recalling, in type though not extent, the Aramaic and South Arabian situations kital he killed, ktiluh he killed him, ktalan he killed her. (cited in McWhorter 2007 p. 193)

    Also evident in Kursterss analysis is the gender marking in the second- and third-person plural. Kursters explains that where measures five through eight refers to various and only partially predictable shadings of passive, reciprocal, and reflexive meanings,  the Najdi dialect retains only two of the measures which are indicative of the valence with a single suffix t- of relatively lexical application (McWhorter 2007).

    In furthering the study on the dialect, articles published concerning the Dosiri dialect of Kuwait detailed some resemblance of the dialect in terms of structure and vocabulary.  The author of the article revealed some traces of Ajmi influence particularly in the phonology of the Dosiri dialect and concluded that though the Kuwaiti dialect does not share all the distinct features of the Najdi the parent dialect does falls under the south-central type of the Najdi dialect.

Scholar Bruce Ingham furthers the study on the comparison of the dialect to the Kuwaiti in 1994. It has been said that the 1994 study by Ingham gave three factors which are in line with the descriptions of the Gulf dialects as a group which is continually expanding due to various geographical factors and socio-linguistics aspects (Brustad 2000). First in the factors implied in Inghams study suggests that Kuwaiti dialect is Najdi in origin. This concept is grounded on the notion that the ruling elite society of Kuwait migrated from the Najd several decades ago.

The second factor is focused on the contribution of Inghams study in the aspect of syntax. Scholars said that Inghams research answers several gaps made by previous publications on grammars by providing information on the Najdi dialect which in turn beneficial to the study of the Kuwaiti dialect. Third, Inghams findings concerning various aspects of nominal and verbal syntax system have been an aid in formulating some of the published cross-dialect analyses (Brustad 2000). 
According to Ingham, Najdi exhibits a category which divides verbs into two classes namely Action and State or Motion verbs (cited in Brustad 2000 p. 167). In addition, the scholar reiterates that all types of verbs may exude multiple interpretations and inceptive and non-inceptive and he also goes on say that the valence of verbs makes their categorization difficult (cited in Brustad 2000 p. 167).
Johnstone et al. has also referenced significant studies that deal with phonetics and other aspects of the Najdi group set of dialects and there are main points which have been deemed as beneficial to the future studies of the Najdi. The main points of the significant studies are derived from Kupershoek (1995) and are listed below.

The close back vowel u has combined with the phoneme i in most of the Najdi dialects. In the case of the Duwasir in southern Najd, the u in many cases has been retained as a phonemic vowel.
Even though the phoneme i is often considered as a back vowel in the vicinity of the labials b, f, m and emphatic consonants, in most of these instances the transcription i has been unchanged. The high front vowel i is elided in the first open syllables

The vowel a has been changed to i in most non-final open syllables (except when 1) and is being preceded by the back fricatives such as x, g, h and followed by a back fricative or the letters l, r, n, w. In particular instances, m and y are considered to be the initial consonants of a long syllable of which the vowels are a, e, o. The reflexes of the diphthongs aw and ay in Classical Arabic are generally o and e.

It is a rule that the prosthetic vowel prior to the initial consonant clusters has not been provided in the transcription, except in cases where the vowel is preceded by the conjunction w-, in which it is transcribed as wi-.

     It has been generally accepted that the glottal stop hamzah has ceased to exist as a functional phoneme in the Najdi dialects.
The Classic Arabic consonants d and z are combined to form a single inter-dental emphatic d.
The velars g, which are a reflex of Classic Arabic and are pronounced as jim and k are commonly pronounced as dz and ts in the Najdi set of dialects.

Characteristics of the Najdi Dialects
    The distinctive phonological characteristics of the Najdi dialects can be found on the realization of Classical Arabic j, k, and q compared to other dialects spoken in the Gulf Coast and southern Iraq (Ingham 1986).  The j in the Najdi dialect is noted as a palatal plosive  j  while k and q have fallen in the realm of phonemic splitting which results to  k  and    ts and g  and  z  dz. It is distinguished that the    and  z  and  j  forms appear commonly in the fronting phases and are in contrast with the forms 
 ,  j  and  y  which commonly appears in the frontal phase in the other Najdi dialects.
    Ingham (1986) also provided a clear presentation that indicates correspondence of Classical Arabic, Najdi dialect, and Iraqi forms
                                     Classical Arabic                      Najdi dialect                Iraqi
Transitive                         naad                                         niad                      niad 
                                             yanid                                       yanid                    yinid to ask
Intransitive                       salim                                          silim                         
                                             yaslam                                       yaslam                                  to be safe
Causative                          arkab                                           arab                         _
                                               yurkib                                         yirib                  to cause to mount    
According to Ingham (1986), there are various vocabulary items which are suggestive of the Bedouin dialects of the Northern desert. It is then pointed out that the contrast exists more between the Arabian peninsula and Iraq than between Najd and other regions because the dialects spoken at the Gulf Coast area resemble Najdi dialects in the aspect of vocabulary. 
    Aside from the morphological and phonological differences, other features of the Najdi dialect which Inghan (1986) had not been able to determine and these are
-   Feminine plural demonstratives are seen in the terms hadalli or hadallin  these  f. and dall or dallin  those  f.
             -   There is an occurrence of phonemic overlapping between    and     and  M , and k . In this aspect,    and  k  under the Classical Arabic have been turned into    and   M  in a series of environments, specifically in areas where emphatic consonants are present. This certain kind of feature are proven to be most commonly appearing to several dialects of the Syrian desert and was regarded by scholars as in contrast with the southern region s dialects.  Relative to this feature is the appearance of  M  and    in which dialects in the southern region would have aw, ou, and ei in several forms. The overlapping of      and     with  k  and  M   was also tackled by some scholars in relation to the dialect of the Negev Bedouins.
Ingham (1986) has provided some examples of      and   M   in connection with the Classical Arabic or underlying     and  k  and these are the following
   yabk           he wants you    (yabi)    
   taxxna         you will put us under tribute (taxi)
   nxawkam    we will accompany you (nxawi)
   rxs                cheap

Ingham (1986) also obtained some insights from Johnstone who validates the conception that the most relevant and frequently appearing feature that marks the dialect as Najdi in a general sense is the absence of the trisyllabic patterns corresponding to the Classical and  in the verb and in the noun and their replacement by filat, filaw, and filk. Ingham (1986) was also quick to point out that the Najdi dialects can be generally divided into Northern and Central categories with the former being geographically focused on the two categories specified by the mentioned scholar. With such division, Ingham (1986) renders two set of features for the Najdi dialect which are illustrated with examples below

-Features of the Central Najdi Group
    a. Central Najdi dialects often display a negative construction in m bi- in contrast to the more widespread construction with m in the northern region. Examples of this feature are
l hu brkib  he will not be mounted
mk brumuh  it is not a lance
l  d bdllina  he can no longer guide us
m hum bhadrin zuwr  they are not settled cultivators
mhi-biyyh  it is not it
b. There is an appearance of the demonstrative forms da (m.s.) di (f.s.) apart from the commonly occurring hda hdi. The said forms exist as an independent pronoun or a prefixed or suffixed to a noun.
alhaya da j min aimal  that rain came from the north
wila da fln  and there was so and so
ygklha da  that man said it
lahag da  that man arrived  or  he followed that man
di jMm  that is a very old she-camel
sm da ljb  has an offer been made for that jeep
c. The object pronoun for this region is  ik which contrasts with  ak in the northern region and is also widely used in the areas located in the western and southern Arabia.
d. The suffix  a can be applied to verbs in negative sentences to signify  anything .
m gMma          there is nothing wrong with her
m yanna        we did not spot anything
m fha              there is nothing in it
Features of the Southern sub-group

The characteristics exuded by the Najdi dialect in this particular region are heterogeneous. Majority of the characteristics in this region are lexical or concerning commonly appearing syntactic particles. Ingham (1986) explains that there are very few phonological or morphological features of the sort an individual might discover as a characteristic of a major dialect group since the Najdi dialect in this region is structurally nearer to the dialect of the Central Najdi than to that of the South Arabian.
Apart from the features illustrated and enumerated by Ingham (1986), the scholar also recounted that the Najdi Arabic displays another particle that convey nuances of doubt and inference, tigil, which corresponds to imperfect taqklu  you  say  under the Classical Arabic. Examples given by Ingham (1986) are the following
tigil                  ayy-hum                                      ilm           nidir           tigil
IPF-you say      PART-having-come-them        knowledge   warning    you-say      
 It seems they received a warning
ayy-hum                         aayy
having come them         something
or something.

According to Ingham (1986), a speculative nuance is obtained by repeating tigil  you say . As seen in the given example, the sentence construction with ayy-hum as an active participle conveying inference is somewhat similar with the grammatical evidential categories commonly seen in the border area Arabic dialects which are in close contact with the Turkic languages. Ingham (1986) adds that in Najdi Arabic, an active participle of a verb that expresses the meaning of a state after an action has been completed.

From the illustrated examples concerning the Najdi which belongs to the spoken Gulf Arabic dialects, it can be derived that the particular dialect reflects some morphological, phonological, and nominal features of the Gulf Arabic dialects.

Included in the phonological features of the Gulf Arabic dialect according to Holes (2004) are no fixed stress in the subject of fixed stress locations, right-edge or ultimate or penultimate character in the subject of weight-sensitive stress, and long vowel in the subject of weight factors in weight-sensitive stress systems. Morphological features of the spoken dialects as explored by Holes (2004) in the Gulf region is the weakly suffixing in the subject of prefixing versus suffixing in inflectional morphology.

The nominal features of the spoken Gulf Arabic dialects, as what Holes (2004) observed, include two-gender system sex-based in the subject of sex-based and non-sex-based gender systems semantic and formal in the subject of systems of the assignment of gender mixed morphological plural in the subject of coding of nominal plurality definite affix in the subject of definite articles no indefinite but definite article in the subject of indefinite articles two-way contrasts in the subject of distance contrasts in demonstratives different stem in the subject of pronominal demonstratives identical in the subject of intensifiers and reflexive pronouns no case affixes in the subject of  position of case affixes differentiation in the subject and instrumentals first, two-th, three-th in the subject of ordinal numerals and possessive suffixes in the subject of position  of the pronominal possessive affixes.

Belonging to the group of Gulf Arabic dialects, the Najdi possesses a b-prefix that is inserted prior to the p-stem (prefix form) of the verb. However, such b-prefix differs significantly from various Arabic dialects. Based from the existing studies explored in this paper, the b-prefix present among the Gulf Arabic dialects, in particular, the Najdi, encodes future tense or even the definite combination of future tense. In modern linguistics studies, it is deemed that the Gulf Arabic dialects today are a form of generalized marker of the realist mood as opposed to the b-prefix being encoded as future tense. It is noted that the occurrence of rh, emerges as a vivid marker in various points of the dialectal area.

    The b-prefix in the Gulf Arabic dialects has held a dominant post in what has been previously recorded regarding the future tense in the dialects. It is stressed that the Gulf Arabic b-prefix is commonly presented as a marker of future tense. Ingham (1986) reports that, in relation to the b-prefix, both the full format of the verb baga or yabi , to want and its reduced form b-prefix are utilized to convey plain future, future of intent and the imminent future including the term being on the point of. 

According to Ingham (1986), the Najdi dialect is an aspect-focused system like the Classical Arabic. Though the scholar did not identify sporadic clues of a developing tense-based system within the focal structure he devalues any obvious tense markers that may occur in the dialect and believes that such markers sprout from the Arabic dialects direct and indirect influence.
It is then perceived that the temporal and modal system within the Gulf Arabic dialects presents themselves as a rudimentary system as the Arabic language is considered as a language with combined tense and aspect oppositions, connoting the distinction between imperfect and perfect in the Arabic vernacular to signify both aspect and relative tense. Ingham (1986) validates the mentioned concept by saying that the Arabic language is a language that conveys aspect and tense implications. Ingham (1986) furthers his conception by saying that the basic meaning of the b-prefix in the Najdi dialect is wish or intend.

    Concerning the onset of the urban Gulf Arabic dialects, it is noted that the dialects which had descended from the Bedouins in the seaports of southern Iraq and in the Gulf area are an interesting typological convergence between the reduction tendencies o the Levant cities and the conservatism of the inner regions of Saudi Arabia which mirror the socio-linguistic history of the speakers.
Consequently, this statement strengthens the idea that the emergence of the contemporary Najdi dialect maybe rooted out from geographical factors and the character exuded by the regions in Saudi Arabia, in particular, the concept of conservatism. But based from the literatures which are related to the peninsular dialects, the mentioned mood marking in the Bedouin dialects and specifically the dialects in the Arabian Peninsula have not yet fully evolved.

    Taking cues from the literatures and observations studied by this paper, it is generalized that many of the words and phrases in the modern Arabic language originated from loan words from various foreign languages, in particular, English and French. This outcome is due to the establishment of the vectors of transmission, a concept derived from decades of studies in the rich literature on linguistic diversity.

Linguistic diversity is directed on tracing the roots and relationships between languages and regional variations in dialect.  Holes (2004) explains that the loan words in the Arabic dialects are coined to convey concepts related life and aspects of discourse.