Mesopotamian Arabic

Mesopotamian Arabic
Mesopotamian Arabic
al-lahja al-ʿirāqiyya
اللهجة العراقية
	al-lahja al-ʿirāqiyya (the Iraqi dialect); written in Arabic calligraphy (Naskh)
Native to	Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Iran
Region	Mesopotamia, Khuzestan, Cilicia
Ethnicity	Mainly Iraqi Arabs also used as a L2 language by non Arab communities in the region
Speakers	Gelet/South (acm): 17 million (2020); Qeltu/North (ayp): 10 million (2020)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Mesopotamian Arabic; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Gelet; Qeltu; Judeo-Iraqi;
Writing system	Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously:; acm – Gelet; ayp – Qeltu; yhd – Judeo-Iraqi Arabic
Glottolog	meso1252; nort3142
	Areas where Mesopotamian Arabic is widely spoken (dark blue: majority tongue).[image reference needed]
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Mesopotamian Arabic (Arabic: لهجة بلاد ما بين النهرين), also known as Iraqi Arabic or the Iraqi dialect (Arabic: اللهجة العراقية), or just as Iraqi (Arabic: عراقي), is a group of varieties of Arabic spoken in the Mesopotamian basin of Iraq, as well as in Syria, southeastern Turkey, Iran, Kuwait and Iraqi diaspora communities.^[3]

^ Cite error: The named reference e26 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b Gelet at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
Qeltu at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
Judeo-Iraqi Arabic at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
^ Enam al-Wer, Rudolf Erik de Jong, ed. (2009). Arabic Dialectology: In Honour of Clive Holes on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday. Vol. 53. Brill. pp. 99–100. ISBN 9789047425595.

[e26-1] Cite error: The named reference e26 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[e27-2] Gelet at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
Qeltu at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
Judeo-Iraqi Arabic at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)

[clive-3] Enam al-Wer, Rudolf Erik de Jong, ed. (2009). Arabic Dialectology: In Honour of Clive Holes on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday. Vol. 53. Brill. pp. 99–100. ISBN 9789047425595.

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Mesopotamian Arabic
al-lahja al-ʿirāqiyya
اللهجة العراقية
al-lahja al-ʿirāqiyya (the Iraqi dialect) written in Arabic calligraphy (Naskh)
Native to	Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Iran^[1]
Region	Mesopotamia, Khuzestan, Cilicia
Ethnicity	Mainly Iraqi Arabs also used as a L2 language by non Arab communities in the region
Speakers	Gelet/South (acm): 17 million (2020)^[2] Qeltu/North (ayp): 10 million (2020)^[2]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Mesopotamian Arabic
Dialects	Gelet Qeltu Judeo-Iraqi
Writing system	Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: `acm` – Gelet `ayp` – Qeltu `yhd` – Judeo-Iraqi Arabic
Glottolog	`meso1252` `nort3142`
Areas where Mesopotamian Arabic is widely spoken (dark blue: majority tongue).^{[image reference needed]}
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.