Qatari Arabic (endonym: قطري عربي, romanized: qiṭarī ʻarabī; Arabic: العربية القطرية, romanized: al-ʻarabiyyah al-qaṭariyyah) is a variety of Gulf Arabic spoken in Qatar. As the prestige dialect within the nation, Qatari Arabic not only functions in everyday communication but also helps maintain cultural identity and social cohesion among the Qatari people.

The vocabulary of Qatari Arabic incorporates a plethora of loanwords from Aramaic, Persian, Turkish, and more recently, English. Phonetically, it conserves many classical Arabic features such as emphatic consonants and interdental sounds, which distinguish it from other Arabic dialects that have simplified these elements. Syntactically, Qatari Arabic exhibits structures that align with other Gulf dialects but with unique adaptations, such as specific verb forms and negation patterns.

A South Asian pidgin form of Qatari Arabic has emerged in modern times.

As English is considered the prestige lingua franca in Qatar, bilingual locals have incorporated elements of English into Qatari Arabic when communicating on an informal level. This mixture of English terms and phrases in Qatari Arabic speech is colloquially known as Qatarese. The practice of interchanging English and Arabic words is known as code-switching and is mostly seen in urban areas and among the younger generation.

In Doha, the capital of Qatar, the local populace is primarily divided into two groups: bedouins, known for their traditional nomadic lifestyle, and hadaris, who are urban dwellers. There is a noticeable trend among the younger bedouins in Doha and other towns like Al Khor to adopt urban linguistic features. This phenomenon, often referred to as 'hadarization', involves incorporating urban phonetic and semantic elements into their speech. Examples include the preference for the glide /j/ over the bedouin voiced affricate /dʒ/ in words such as /rajjal/ instead of /raddʒal/, and the use of /tʃi/ or /tʃɪði/ (hadari) over /kɪðə/ (bedouin) for phrases such as "like this".

This shift towards hadari dialect features is a social adaptation driven by the higher status associated with urban dialects. Many bedouins are attempting to align with the cosmopolitan, educated, and sophisticated lifestyle epitomized by Qatar’s royal family.

In Qatari Arabic, like many Arabic dialects, there is a significant phonological distinction between long and short vowels. This distinction is crucial for both pronunciation and meaning. Long vowels in Qatari Arabic are generally held for approximately twice the duration of their short counterparts. This length distinction can affect the meaning of words, making vowel length phonemically significant.

Qatari Arabic typically includes five long vowels: /ā/, /ē/, /ī/, /ō/, and /ū/. These long vowels are analogous to the long vowels found in Classical Arabic and are integral to maintaining the clarity and meaning of words. For example, the word for 'dog' in Arabic is /kalb/ with a short vowel, but with a long vowel, it becomes /kālib/, meaning 'heart'.