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South Levantine Arabic ( Arabic: اللهجة الشامية الجنوبية) was defined in the ISO 639-3 international standard for language codes as a distinct Arabic variety, under the ajp code. It was reported by Ethnologue as being spoken in the Southern Levant: Palestinian Territories (the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip), Israel, and most of Jordan (in the ‘ Ajlun, Al Balqa’, Al Karak, Al Mafraq, ‘Amman, Irbid, Jarash, and Madaba governorates). [1] [2]

In 2023, South Levantine Arabic and North Levantine Arabic were merged into a single Levantine Arabic, [3] based on the high mutual intelligibility between Arabic varieties spoken by sedentary populations across the Levant and the lack of clear distinctions between variants along national borders. [4]

References

  1. ^ Jordan and Syria in Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2022). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (25th ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
  2. ^ South Levantine Arabic at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  3. ^ "Glottolog 4.8 - South Levantine Arabic". glottolog.org. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  4. ^ "Request for Change to ISO 639-3 Language Code" (PDF). iso639-3.sil.org.