Egyptian Arabic phonology

This article is about the phonology of Egyptian Arabic, also known as Cairene Arabic or Masri. It deals with the phonology and phonetics of Egyptian Arabic as well as the phonological development of child native speakers of the dialect. To varying degrees, it affects the pronunciation of Literary Arabic by native Egyptian Arabic speakers, as is the case for speakers of all other varieties of Arabic.

Consonants

Egyptian Arabic consonant phonemes

		Labial		Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
		plain	emphatic	plain	emphatic
Nasal		m	(mˤ)	n
Stop	voiceless	(p)		t	tˤ		k	(q)		ʔ
	voiced	b	(bˤ)	d	(dˤ)		ɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f		s	sˤ	ʃ	x		ħ	h
	voiced	(v)		z	zˤ	(ʒ)	ɣ		ʕ
Tap/trill				ɾ~r	(ɾˤ~rˤ)
Approximant				l	(lˤ)	j	w

Vowels

The Egyptian Arabic vocalic system has changed from the Classical system. The system of vowels is as follows:

Native vowels

	Front			Back
	long	short	final unstressed	long	short	final unstressed
Close	iː		i	uː		o~ʊ~u
Near-close		e~ɪ			o~ʊ
Close-mid	eː			oː
Near-open	æː	æ
Open				ɑː	ɑ

External links

• Egyptian Arabic phonology