Editor’s Note & Disclaimer: The core content and linguistic structure of this lesson were originally authored by Chris Hitchcock for the Team Maha website. This post is part of an effort to preserve, organize, and share these invaluable resources for Arabic learners worldwide.

If you’ve already learnt the basics of FuSHa – as most Arabic learners who start studying dialect have – then you already have a decent basis from which to approach colloquial Levantine (Shami). In many respects, Levantine is closer to FuSHa than other dialects: the stress system is very similar, the sound systems are close to one another, and there often isn’t that much difference between a Levantine word and its FuSHa equivalent.

That said, the common method of teaching colloquial as a set of transformational rules to turn a FuSHa word into its spoken equivalent ignores the fact that spoken Arabic has its own internally coherent structure. In this lesson, we begin with the sound system and consonant shifts.

This series is based primarily on Damascene Arabic (Damascus), with notes on Southern Levantine (Jordanian/Palestinian) and Lebanese (Beiruti) where they differ significantly.

1. General Consonants Overview

Most Arabic consonants are pronounced basically the same in Shami as in newsreader-style MSA. Below is the list alongside their common Arabizi transliteration symbols used in informal typing:

• ب → b
• ت → t
• خ → kh
• د → d
• ر → r
• ز → z
• س → s
• ش → sh
• ع → 3
• غ → gh
• ف → f
• ك → k
• م → m
• ن → n
• ه → h
• و → w (when a consonant)
• ي → y (when a consonant)

2. Key Consonant Shifts

ث (Thaa) → s or t

Usually transliterated and pronounced as s in common words.

• In higher-register words like ثقافة (saqaafe → ‘culture’) or ثورة (sawra → ‘revolution’), some speakers retain the th sound. This is more common in Southern Levantine than in Northern Levantine.
• Many common words with ث in FuSHa take a ت (t) instead in colloquial:
  • تلاته (tlaate → ’three’)
  • تنين (tneen → ’two’)
  • بعت (ba3at → ‘he sent’)
  • Note: This cannot be generalized to every word (e.g., حديث → 7adiis ‘conversation’).

ذ (Dhaal) → z or d

Usually pronounced as z in common words.

• In formal vocabulary like ذهب (zahab → ’to go’), some speakers retain dh.
• Many common words with ذ in FuSHa take a د (d) instead:
  • داق (daa2 → ‘he tasted’)
  • داب (daab → ‘it melted’)
  • بولاد (buulaad → ‘steel’)
  • Note: Exceptions exist, such as ذوق (zoo2 → ’taste’).

ح (7a) & ج (j)

• ح (7): Pronounced as in FuSHa, but in Syrian it is sometimes dropped word-finally in a few common words.
• ج (j): Pronounced as ж / zh (like the s in “pleasure”) in Northern Levantine (Syria/Lebanon), and as j (like “jam”) in Southern Levantine (Jordan/Palestine).

ض (D), ص (S), and ط (T)

• ض (D): The emphatic equivalent of d, pronounced velarized. In urban Syrian/Lebanese, some words with ض are pronounced with an emphatic Z (ظ), such as ظابط (ZaabeT → ‘officer’) or بالظبط (biZZab@T → ’exactly’).
• ص (S) & ط (T): Pronounced as in FuSHa. In colloquial speech, they occasionally blend with s and t. For example, صدّق (sadda2 → ‘believe’) is usually written as in FuSHa but pronounced with a normal s.

ظ (Z)

In Levantine, this is pronounced as an emphatic version of z (Z). A number of words with ظ in FuSHa take ض (D) in Levantine:

• ضل (Dall → ‘he stayed’)
• الضهر (éDDahr → ’noon’)
• ضفر (Défr → ‘fingernail’)
• Note: Words like الظاهر (éZZaaher → ‘it seems’) and ظريف (Zariif → ’nice’) retain Z.

ق (Qaf) → 2 (Glottal Stop / Hamza)

The most famous shift from FuSHa to Levantine is the change of q to a glottal stop (2 / ’):

• بقي (bé2i → ‘it remained’)
• داق (daa2 → ‘he tasted’)
• قال (2aal → ‘he said’)

Higher-register or formal words retain the q sound:

• ثقافة (saqaafe → ‘culture’)
• مقالة (maqaale → ‘article’)
• وِقِع (wéqe7 → ‘rude’)

ء (Hamza) → 2

Pronounced as a glottal stop. However, most FuSHa hamzas are dropped or replaced by vowel lengthening or semivowels. For instance, the active participle pattern faa2il for hollow verbs becomes faayil:

• دايق (daaye2 → ‘having tasted’)
• سايق (saaye2 → ‘driving’)

3. Initial Consonant Clusters

Unlike FuSHa, which forbids starting a word with two consonants without a preceding vowel, Shami freely allows initial consonant clusters:

• كلاب (klaab → ‘dogs’)
• صحون (SHuun → ‘dishes’)
• صغار (Sghaar → ’little kids’)
• ضروب (Droob → ‘hit!’)

Where FuSHa has an a- prefix or an unstressed short vowel in the first syllable of common words, Shami drops it to form a cluster:

• أولاد → ولاد (wlaad)
• حدود → حدود (7duud)

What’s Next?

In Part #2, we will examine the Levantine Vowel System (long vs. short vowels, é, helping vowels, and vowel dropping).