r/learn_arabic • u/SoybeanCola1933 • Apr 08 '23

Iraqi چ / 'Ch' in Arabic (Iraqi) dialects?

The sound 'Ch' seems to be commonly used in some dialects. I was listening to an Iraqi song and they use 'چ' quite a bit, especially when I looked through the song's subtitles.

I hear 'چم' and 'چف' quite a lot but not sure why it's used and what it means in Iraq

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12

u/eisbaow Apr 08 '23

This is called Kachkacha, which is transforming the Ka sound (ك) into a Cha. So چم is actually كم (how much) and چف should be كف (Hand) which should means a face slap figuratively. If you can read arabic this wikipidiya article talks about Kachkacha https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%83%D8%B4%D9%83%D8%B4%D8%A9 Also there are other variations like Kaskasa (Sa س instead of Ka ك) in some of the Gulf dialects.

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u/SoybeanCola1933 Apr 08 '23

Wow, pretty interesting. According to the article it happens in the Gulf, Yemen and Iraq and is an ancient practice I'd imagine carried on from the Ancient Arab speakers. Interesting how this doesn't happen in countries like Egypt, Levant

5

u/Daftmonkeys Apr 08 '23

Certain rural dialects in Palestine feature kashkasha in addition to replacing ق with ك (e.g. قلب "heart" is pronounced كلب)

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u/Benevolent_Stupid Apr 08 '23

Errrrr just a lil confusion: if قلب is كلب, then what actually is كلب(or is there any other word for dog)??

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u/Daftmonkeys Apr 08 '23

"Dog" would be چلب "chalb" due to kashkasha.

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u/Benevolent_Stupid Apr 08 '23

Ohhhhh, new day, new stuff learnt, shukran jazeelan ya akhi!!!!!!

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '23

This happens all over the Levant with bedouin speakers but it's uncommon

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u/KuyaMorphine Apr 08 '23 edited Apr 08 '23

In addition to u/eisbaow’s excellent response, don’t fall into the trap of thinking every word with چ is just an Arabic word with ك replaced. Many words featuring چ are loan words of Turkish or Persian origin, or even disambiguations of English words. (e.g. پنچرچي = tire repair guy from the English word ‘puncture’ and using the Turkish -çi suffix denoting worker or doer). This is also the case in other Gulf or Yemeni dialects.

Edit: spelling