Hassaniya Arabic

Hassaniya
Hassaniya
Mauritanian Arabic
حسانية; Ḥassānīya
Native to	Southwestern Algeria, Northwestern Mali, Mauritania, southern Morocco, Northern Niger, Western Sahara
Ethnicity	Arabs; Arab-Berbers (Sahrawis; Beidane) ; Haratins; Nemadis; Imraguen
Speakers	5.2 million (2014–2021)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Maghrebi Arabic Hassaniya; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Nemadi; Imraguen;
Writing system	Arabic alphabet, Latin alphabet (in Senegal)
Official status
Official language in	Mali
Recognised minority; language in	Morocco
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mey
Glottolog	hass1238
	Current distribution of the Hassaniya language.
	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.

Hassaniya Arabic (Arabic: حسانية, romanized: Ḥassānīya; also known as Hassaniyya, Klem El Bithan, Hassani, Hassaniya, and Maure) is a variety of Maghrebi Arabic spoken by Mauritanian Arabs and the Sahrawi people. It was spoken by the Beni Ḥassān Bedouin tribes of Yemeni origin who extended their authority over most of Mauritania and Morocco's southeastern and Western Sahara between the 15th and 17th centuries. Hassaniya Arabic was the language spoken in the pre-modern region around Chinguetti.

The language has completely replaced the Berber languages that were originally spoken in this region. Although clearly a western dialect, Hassānīya is relatively distant from other Maghrebi variants of Arabic. Its geographical location exposed it to influence from Zenaga-Berber and Wolof. There are several dialects of Hassaniya, which differ primarily phonetically. There are still traces of South Arabian in Hassaniya Arabic spoken between Rio de Oro and Timbuktu, according to G. S. Colin.^[4] Today, Hassaniya Arabic is spoken in Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and the Western Sahara.

^ Hassaniya at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
^ "JOURNAL OFFICIEL DE LA REPUBLIQUE DU MALI SECRETARIAT GENERAL DU GOUVERNEMENT - DECRET N°2023-0401/PT-RM DU 22 JUILLET 2023 PORTANT PROMULGATION DE LA CONSTITUTION" (PDF). sgg-mali.ml. 22 July 2023. Retrieved 26 July 2023. Article 31 : Les langues nationales sont les langues officielles du Mali.
^ "Morocco 2011 Constitution, Article 5". www.constituteproject.org. Retrieved 2021-07-18.
^ Norris, H. T. (1962). "Yemenis in the Western Sahara". The Journal of African History. 3 (2): 317–322. ISSN 0021-8537.

[e27-1] Hassaniya at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)

[2] "JOURNAL OFFICIEL DE LA REPUBLIQUE DU MALI SECRETARIAT GENERAL DU GOUVERNEMENT - DECRET N°2023-0401/PT-RM DU 22 JUILLET 2023 PORTANT PROMULGATION DE LA CONSTITUTION" (PDF). sgg-mali.ml. 22 July 2023. Retrieved 26 July 2023. Article 31 : Les langues nationales sont les langues officielles du Mali.

[3] "Morocco 2011 Constitution, Article 5". www.constituteproject.org. Retrieved 2021-07-18.

[4] Norris, H. T. (1962). "Yemenis in the Western Sahara". The Journal of African History. 3 (2): 317–322. ISSN 0021-8537.

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Hassaniya
Mauritanian Arabic
حسانية Ḥassānīya
Native to	Southwestern Algeria, Northwestern Mali, Mauritania, southern Morocco, Northern Niger, Western Sahara
Ethnicity	Arabs Arab-Berbers (Sahrawis; Beidane) Haratins Nemadis Imraguen
Speakers	5.2 million (2014–2021)^[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Maghrebi Arabic Hassaniya
Dialects	Nemadi Imraguen
Writing system	Arabic alphabet, Latin alphabet (in Senegal)
Official status
Official language in	Mali^[2]
Recognised minority language in	Morocco^[3]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	`mey`
Glottolog	`hass1238`
Current distribution of the Hassaniya language.
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.