Sedentary and Bedouin Dialects in Contact: Remarks on the Dialect of Christians and Muslims in Kufur-Kanna

Abstract

Abstract Kufur-Kanna is a Palestinian village that has always been in contact with Bedouins. Some of its inhabitants are also Bedouin. One can describe the dialect spoken by both Christians and Muslims in the village as a rural dialect of mixed type. It shows some Bedouin features, e.g. *q > g. The Bedouin features of Kufur-Kanna belong to the Syro-Mesopotamian group of dialects. One can describe several traits shared with Bedouin dialects diachronically as sedentary traits, e.g. the preservation of interdental consonants and gender distinction in the plural of verbs and pronouns. The dialect of Kufur-Kanna has the b-imperfect as other sedentary neighbouring dialects, while it differs from them in some features, e.g. the negation. It is characterized by the compound negation in addition to its absence in other forms that can be considered as a Bedouin feature.