Swadesh lists for Arabic Varieties

These lists serve as a comparison of the major Arabic variety groupings.

The method of transliteration used here is a pseudo-IPA alphabet to represent the sounds used in all of the Arabic varieties. This will hopefully aid in reducing the ambiguity of using standard Roman letters to transliterate Semitic phonemes. Additionally, some IPA values have been replaced by Roman letters so that any reader can read these lists without having prior knowledge of IPA. To aid in the reading of these lists, a key is provided below:
 * a - m e n [ɛ]
 * ʔ - u h- o h [ʔ]
 * ʕ - ara. "ʕayn" = "eye" [ʕ]
 * aa - m a n [æː]
 * ä - r o d [ɑ]
 * ää - l aw n [ɑː]
 * č - ch air [tʃ]
 * ð - th is [ð]
 * đ - ara. "đääđ" = "the letter 'đääđ'" [dˤ]
 * e - b i n [ɪ]
 * ee - wh er e [ɛː]
 * ə - boul e vard [ə]
 * g - g ame [g]
 * ǧ - g em [dʒ]
 * h - h at [h]
 * ħ - ara. " ħ aal" = "condition, state" [ħ]
 * i - m e  [i]
 * ii - m ea n [iː]
 * x - ara. "xaal" = "maternal uncle" [x~χ]
 * o - b oo k [ʊ]
 * oo - r o ll [ɔ]
 * q - ara. " q äuş" = "arc" [q]
 * ɣ - ara. "ɣazaal" = "gazelle" [ɣ~ʁ]
 * ş - ara. " ş äɣir" = "small" [sˤ]
 * ť - ara. " ť ääqa" = "window" [tˤ]
 * θ - th in [θ]
 * u - t o  [u]
 * uu - r oo m [uː]

XX--Note that emphatic consonants are not transliterated if they are for the most part allophonic--XX
 * ž - plea s ure [ʒ]