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]