Stress Variation in Cairene and Upper Egyptian Arabic: Implications for Communication

The linguistic sitting in Upper Egypt comprises three different linguistic varieties: Standard Arabic, Cairene Arabic and Upper Egyptian Arabic (UEA). Standard Arabic is used in formal communication either orally or in writing. Cairene Arabic is the Arabic dialect used mainly in Cairo and most radio and TV programs, while UEA is the dialect used in Upper Egypt. The main objective of this article is to illustrate that although these Arabic varieties belong to the same language and are therefore mutually intelligible (i.e. speakers of any variety understand and can be understood the speakers of the other varieties), the phonological, lexical and morphosyntactic differences exhibited by these varieties are significant enough to cause significant communicative problems as well as learning difficulties.