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Jordan Ethnicity and Language
In the late 1980s, several ethnic and religious groups
coexisted on the East Bank. Roughly 5 to 8 percent of the total
population were Christians
(see Jordan - Religious Minorities
, this ch.). Of
these, most were Arabs, including a small number--unique among
Christians in the Middle East--who recently had been pastoral
nomads. The largest group of non-Arab Christians were the
Armenians, perhaps 1 percent of the population, who resided
primarily in Irbid and Amman.
The Circassians, a Sunni Muslim community of approximately
25,000 people, were descendants of families brought from the region
of the Caucasus Mountains when Caucasian territory was ceded to
Russia in the 1880s. By encouraging the Circassians to settle in
northern Jordan, the Ottomans sought to provide an element loyal to
the sultan that could counterbalance the beduins. Circassians
originally settled in Amman and the then-abandoned city of Jarash.
Despite their small numbers, they have long been important in
government, business, and the military and security forces. In
1938, for example, Circassians constituted 7.3 percent of the nonBritish government officials in Transjordan. Twenty-six of the
thirty-three cabinets between 1947 and 1965 included one or more
Circassians. Circassian families included prominent landowners and
leaders in commerce and industry. Peter Gubser, a United States
authority on Jordan, contended in 1983 that the Circassians were
not "politically assertive as a group," although they were known
for "their loyalty to the Hashemites." It is likely, however, that
their relative cultural and economic importance diminished with the
increasing predominance of the Palestinians on the one hand, and
the improved education level of the Jordanians on the other. The
Circassians remained heavily represented in senior military ranks,
however, which caused some resentment among other Jordanians. All
Circassians spoke Arabic and the rate of intermarriage between Arab
Jordanians and Circassians was high.
Another, much smaller group originating in the Caucasus was the
Shishans (also seen as Chechens), whose roughly 2,000 members were
Shia (see Glossary)
Muslims, the only representatives of this
branch of Islam in Jordan. Another religious minority were a small
numbers of Arabic-speaking Druze villagers. A few Arabic-speaking
Kurds lived in several northern villages.
A category of immigrants different from the Palestinian
refugees may be noted. Between the early 1920s and the late 1940s,
some hundreds of families, perhaps more, settled in Transjordan,
having left Palestine, Syria, and the Hijaz region in Saudi Arabia.
Arabs, and usually Sunni Muslims, they were nevertheless only
partially integrated into the local communities in which they
lived. This incomplete assimilation occurred in part because they
were foreigners in the context of the tribal structure of such
communities, and in part because, as merchants, most were looked at
askance by tribally oriented groups. Generally, they tended to
marry among themselves or with persons of similar origin. In the
1980s, however, most of these families had lived in the East Bank
for nearly three generations, and the tribal system that had
excluded them had become less significant within the society.
All Jordanians, regardless of ethnicity or religion, speak
Arabic, the official language of Jordan. Throughout the Arab world,
the language exists in three forms: the classical Arabic of the
Quran, the literary language developed from the classical and known
as Modern Standard Arabic, and the local form of the spoken
language. Modern Standard Arabic has virtually the same structure
wherever it is used, although its pronunciation and lexicon may
vary locally. Educated Arabs tend to know two forms of Arabic--
Modern Standard Arabic and their own dialect of spoken Arabic. Even
uneducated Arabic speakers usually can comprehend the general
meaning of something said in Modern Standard Arabic although they
cannot speak it themselves and often have difficulty understanding
specific expressions. Classical Arabic is known chiefly to
scholars; many people have memorized Quranic phrases by rote but
cannot speak the classic form.
Dialects of spoken Arabic vary greatly throughout the Arab
world. Most Jordanians speak a dialect common to Syria, Lebanon,
Jordan, and parts of Iraq and, like people speaking other dialects,
they proudly regard theirs as the best. (Small numbers of nomads
traversing Jordan from Saudi Arabia may speak a dialect akin to one
used in that country.) Few people believe that their dialect is
actually good Arabic in the sense of conforming to the ideal.
Although they converse in colloquial Arabic, they generally agree
that the written form of Modern Standard Arabic is superior to the
spoken form because it is closer to the perfection of the Quranic
language. Arabs generally believe that the speech of the beduins
resembles the purer classical form most closely and that the local
dialects used by the settled villagers and townspeople are
unfortunate corruptions.
Within a given region, slight differences in speech distinguish
a city dweller from a villager and more significant ones
distinguish either of these from a nomad. Even within the villages,
various quarters often display unique pronunciations, idioms, and
vocabulary specialized to particular lifestyles. Grammatical
structure may differ as well.
Arabic is a Semitic language related to Aramaic, Hebrew,
various Ethiopic languages, and others. Rich in synonyms, rhythmic,
highly expressive and poetic, Arabic can have a strong emotional
effect on its speakers and listeners. As the language of the Quran,
believed by Muslims to be the literal word of God, it has been the
vehicle for recounting of the historic glories of Islamic
civilization. Arabic speakers are more emotionally attached to
their language than are most peoples to their native tongues.
Poetic eloquence was one of the most admired cultural attainments
and signs of cultivation in the Arab world; among rural people,
sedentary and nomadic, as well as among literate city dwellers,
Arabic speakers long have striven to display an extensive command
of traditional phrases and locutions. Beauty of expression was
highly valued, and the speaker and writer traditionally sought an
elaboration and circumlocution in both spoken and written forms
that Westerners might find flowery or verbose.
Data as of December 1989
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