Moroccan Arabic

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Moroccan Arabic

Maġribi مغربي

Pronunciation [mɑɣribi]

Spoken in Morocco

Total speakers 19,480,600

Language

family

Afro-Asiatic Semitic o West Semitic Central Semitic South Central Semitic Arabic

Moroccan Arabic

Writing system Arabic alphabet

Official status

Official

language in

none

Regulated by none

Language codes

ISO 639-1 None

ISO 639-2 –

ISO 639-3 ary

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Moroccan Arabic (also known as Darija, الدارجة) is the variety of Arabic spoken in the Arabic-speaking areas of Morocco, as opposed to the official communications of government and other public bodies which use Modern Standard Arabic, as is the case in most Arabic-speaking countries, while a mixture of French and Moroccan Arabic is used in Business. It is within the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum.

Contents

[hide] 1 Overview 2 Relationship with other languages 3 Pronunciation

o 3.1 Vowels o 3.2 Consonants

4 Writing 5 Code switching 6 Vocabulary

o 6.1 Some words borrowed from Berber o 6.2 Some words borrowed from French o 6.3 Some words borrowed from Spanish o 6.4 Some examples of regional differences o 6.5 Some useful sentences

7 Grammar o 7.1 The past tense o 7.2 The present tense o 7.3 Other tenses o 7.4 Negation

7.4.1 Negative interrogation 8 Evolution 9 Diglossia and social prestige 10 Artistic expression 11 Newspapers 12 See also 13 References 14 Bibliography

15 External links

[edit] Overview

An overview of the different Arabic dialects

Native speakers typically consider Moroccan Arabic a dialect because it is not a literary language and because it lacks prestige compared to Standard Arabic (fuṣḥa). It differs from Standard Arabic in phonology, lexicon, and syntax, and has been influenced by Berber (mainly in its pronunciation, and grammar), French and Spanish.

Moroccan Arabic continues to evolve by integrating new French or English words, notably in technical fields, or by replacing old French and Spanish ones with Standard Arabic words within some circles.

It is worth mentioning that Darija (which means dialect) can be divided into two groups:

The pre-French protectorate: when Morocco was officially colonized by France in 1912, it had an accelerated French influence in aspects of everyday life. The pre-French Darija is one that is spoken by older and more conservative people. It is an Arabic dialect with Berber influences that can be found in texts and poems of Malhoun, and Andalusi music for example. Later, in the 1970s, traditionalist bands like Nass El Ghiwane and Jil Jilala followed this course, and only sang in "classical darija".

The post-French protectorate: after the coming of the French, any word, whether a verb or a noun, could be thrown into a sentence. This was more a habit of the young educated generations of the cities.

A similar phenomenon can be observed in Algerian Arabic and Tunisian Arabic.

[edit] Relationship with other languages

Moroccan Arabic has a distinct pronunciation and is nearly unintelligible to other Arabic speakers, but is generally mutually intelligible with other Maghrebi Arabic dialects with which it forms a dialect continuum. It is grammatically simpler, and has a less voluminous vocabulary than Classical Arabic. It has also integrated many Berber, French and Spanish words.

There is a relatively clear-cut division between Moroccan Arabic and Standard Arabic, and most uneducated Moroccans do not understand Modern Standard Arabic. Depending on cultural background and degree of literacy, those who do speak Modern Standard Arabic may prefer to use Arabic words instead of their French or Spanish borrowed counterparts, while others often adopt code-switching between French and Moroccan Arabic. As elsewhere in the world, how someone speaks, what words or language he uses is often an indicator of their social class.

[edit] Pronunciation

Moroccan Arabic has a distinct pronunciation nearly unintelligible to Arabic speakers from the Middle East. It is heavily influenced by Berber pronunciation, and it has even been argued that it is Arabic pronounced with a Berber accent, or with Berber phonemes. This is similar to the phenomenon in the south of France where some pronounce French with Occitan phonemes.

[edit] Vowels

One of the most notable features of Moroccan Arabic is the collapse of short vowels. Initially, short /ă/ and /ĭ/ were merged into a phoneme /ə/ (however, some speakers maintain a difference between /ă/ and /ə/ when adjacent to pharyngeal /ʕ/ and /ħ/). This phoneme was then deleted entirely in most positions; for the most part, it is maintained only in the position /...CəC#/ or /...CəCC#/ (where C represents any consonant and # indicates a word boundary), i.e. when appearing as the last vowel of a word. When /ə/ is not deleted, it is pronunced as a very short vowel, tending towards [ɐ] in the vicinity of emphatic consonants, [a] in the vicinity of pharyngeal /ʕ/ and /ħ/ (for speakers who have merged /ă/ and /ə/ in

this environment), and [ɪ] elsewhere. Original short /ŭ/ usually merges with /ə/ except in the vicinity of a labial or velar consonant. In positions where /ə/ was deleted, /ŭ/ was also deleted, and is maintained only as labialization of the adjacent labial or velar consonant; where /ə/ is maintained, /ŭ/ surfaces as [ʊ]. This deletion of short vowels can result in long strings of consonants (a feature shared with Berber and certainly derived from it). These clusters are never simplified; instead, consonants occurring between other consonants tend to syllabify, according to a sonorance hierarchy. Similarly, and unlike most other Arabic dialects, doubled consonants are never simplified to a single consonant, even when at the end of a word or preceding another consonant.

Some dialects are more conservative in their treatment of short vowels. For example, some dialects allow /ŭ/ in more positions. Dialects of the Sahara, and eastern dialects near the border of Algeria, preserve a distinction between /ă/ and /ĭ/ and allow /ă/ to appear at the beginning of a word, e.g. /ăqsˁărˁ/ "shorter" (standard /qsˁərˁ/), /ătˁlăʕ/ "go up!" (standard /tˁlăʕ/ or /tˁləʕ/), /ăsˁħab/ "friends" (standard /sˁħab/).

Long /a/, /i/ and /u/ are maintained as semi-long vowels, which are substituted for both short and long vowels in most borrowings from Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Long /a/, /i/ and /u/ also have many more allophones than in most other dialects; in particular, /a/, /i/, /u/ appear as [ɑ], [e], [o] in the vicinity of emphatic consonants, but [æ], [i], [u] elsewhere. (Most other Arabic dialects only have a similar variation for the phoneme /a/.) In some dialects, such as that of Marrakech, front-rounded and other allophones also exist.

Emphatic spreading (i.e. the extent to which emphatic consonants affect nearby vowels) occurs much less than in many other dialects. Emphasis spreads fairly rigorously towards the beginning of a word and into prefixes, but much less so towards the end of a word. Emphasis spreads consistently from a consonant to a directly following vowel, and less strongly when separated by an intervening consonant, but generally does not spread rightwards past a full vowel. For example, /bidˤ-at/ [bedɑt͡�s] "eggs" (/i/ and /a/ both affected), /tˤʃaʃ-at/ [t͡ʃɑʃæt͡�s] "sparks" (rightmost /a/ not affected), /dˤrˤʒ-at/ [drˤʒæt͡�s] "stairs" (/a/ usually not affected), /dˤrb-at-u/ [drˤbat͡�su] "she hit him" (with [a] variable but tending to be in between [ɑ] and [æ]; no effect on /u/), /tˤalib/ [t͡ɑlib] "student" (/a/ affected but not /i/). Contrast, for example, Egyptian Arabic, where emphasis tends to spread forward and backward to both ends of a word, even through several syllables.

Emphasis is audible mostly through its effects on neighboring vowels or syllabic consonants, and through the differing pronunciation of /t/ [t͡�s] and /tˤ/ [t͡]. Actual pharyngealization of "emphatic" consonants is weak and may be absent entirely. In contrast with some dialects, vowels adjacent to emphatic consonants are pure; there is no diphthong-like transition between emphatic consonants and adjacent front vowels.

[edit] Consonants

Moroccan Arabic consonant phonemes[1]

  Labial Dental/Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn Glottal

-geal

plainemphatic labialized

plain emphatic

Nasal m (mˤʷ)2 n            

Stop

voiceless (p)3   t͡�s, (t͡)1 t͡ˤ   k q6   ʔ

voiced b (bˤʷ)2 d dˤ   g6,7      

Fricative

voiceless f (fˤʷ)2 s8 sˤ ʃ x   ħ h

voiced (v)3   z8 zˤ ʒ7 ɣ   ʕ  

Tap     ɾ ɾˤ4          

Approximant     l (lˤ)5 j w      

1. In normal circumstances, non-emphatic /t/ is pronounced with noticeable affrication, almost like /t͡�s/ (still distinguished from a sequence of /t/ + /s/), and hence is easily distinguishable from emphatic /t͡ˁ/. However, in some recent loanwords from European languages, a non-affricated, non-emphatic /T/ [t͡] appears, distinguished from emphatic /t͡ˁ/ primarily by its lack of effect on adjacent vowels (see above; an alternative analysis is possible).

2. mˤʷ, bˤʷ, fˤʷ are very distinct consonants that only occur geminated, and almost always come at the beginning of a word. They function completely differently from other emphatic consonants: They are pronounced with heavy pharyngealization, affect adjacent short/unstable vowels but not full vowels, and are pronounced with a noticeable diphthongal off-glide between one of these consonants and a following front vowel. Most of their occurrences can be analyzed as underlying sequences of /mw/, /fw/, /bw/ (which appear frequently in diminutives, for example). However, a few lexical items appear to have independent occurrences of these phonemes, e.g. /mˤmˤʷ-/ "mother" (with attached possessive, e.g. /mˤmˤʷək/ "your mother").

3. (p) and (v) occur mostly in recent borrowings from European languages, and may be assimilated to /b/ or /f/ in some speakers.

4. Unlike in most other Arabic dialects (but, again, similar to Berber), non-emphatic /r/ and emphatic /rˁ/ are two entirely separate phonemes, almost never contrasting in related forms of a word.

5. (lˤ) is rare in native words; in nearly all cases of native words with vowels indicating the presence of a nearby emphatic consonant, there is a nearby triggering /t͡ˁ/, /dˁ/,

/sˁ/, /zˁ/ or /rˁ/. Many recent European borrowings appear to require (lˤ) or some other unusual emphatic consonant in order to account for the proper vowel allophones; but an alternative analysis is possible for these words where the vowel allophones are considered to be (marginal) phonemes on their own.

6. Original /q/ splits lexically into /q/ and /g/; for some words, both alternatives exist. 7. Original /dʒ/ normally appears as /ʒ/, but as /g/ (sometimes /d/) if /s/ or /z/ appears

later in the same stem: /gləs/ "he sat" (MSA /dʒalas/), /gzzar/ "butcher" (MSA /dʒazza:r/), /duz/ "go past" (MSA /dʒu:z/).

8. Original /s/ is converted to /ʃ/ if /ʃ/ occurs elsewhere in the same stem, and /z/ is similarly converted to /ʒ/ as a result of a following /ʒ/: /ʃəmʃ/ "sun" vs. MSA /ʃams/, /ʒuʒ/ "two" vs. MSA /zawdʒ/ "pair", /ʒaʒ/ "glass" vs. MSA /za:dʒ/, etc. This does not apply to recent borrowings from MSA (e.g. /mzaʒ/ "disposition"), nor as a result of the negative suffix /ʃ/ or /ʃi/.

[edit] Writing

Moroccan Arabic is rarely written (most books and magazines are in French or Modern Standard Arabic), and there is no universally standard written system.[2] However, most systems used for writing Moroccan Arabic in linguistic works largely agree among each other, and such a system is used here.

Long (aka "stable") vowels /a/, /i/, /u/ are written a, i, u. e represents /ə/ and o represents /ŭ/ (see section on phonology, above). ă is used for /ă/ in speakers who still have this phoneme in the vicinity of pharyngeal /ʕ/ and /ħ/. ă, ĭ, and o are also used for ultra-short vowels used by educated speakers for the short vowels of some recent borrowings from MSA.

Note that in practice, /ə/ is usually deleted when not the last vowel of a word, and hence some authors prefer a transcription without this vowel, e.g. ka-t-ktb-u "You're (pl) writing" instead of ka-t-ketb-u. We maintain the e in accordance with Richard Harrell's reference grammar of Moroccan Arabic. In the system with a maintained e, it cannot occur in an open syllable (followed by a single consonant and then a vowel), so in such a situation the e is transposed with the preceding consonant (or geminate consonant), which ends up following the e. This procedure is known as inversion.

y represents /j/.

ḥ and ` represent pharyngeal /ħ/ and /ʕ/.

ġ and x represent velar /ɣ/ and /x/.

ṭ, ḍ, ṣ, ẓ, ṛ, ḷ represent emphatic /t͡ˁ, dˁ, sˁ, zˁ, rˁ, lˁ/ .

š, ž represent hushing /ʃ, ʒ/.

[edit] Code switching

Many Moroccan Arabic speakers among the educated class, especially in the territory which was previously known as French Morocco, also practice code-switching (moving from

Moroccan Arabic to French and the other way around as it can be seen in the movie Marock). In the northern parts of Morocco, some people also switch from Moroccan Arabic to Spanish. This is due to the place once being invaded by Spain and for their proximity to Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

[edit] Vocabulary

Moroccan Arabic is grammatically simpler, and has a less voluminous vocabulary than Classical Arabic. It has also integrated many Berber, French and Spanish words. Spanish words typically entered Moroccan Arabic earlier than French ones. Some words might have been brought by Moriscos who spoke Andalusi Arabic which was influenced by Spanish (Castilian), an example being the typical Andalusian dish Pastilla. Other influences have been the result of the Spanish protectorate in Spanish Morocco. French words came with the French protectorate (1912-1956).

There are noticeable lexical differences between Moroccan Arabic and most other dialects. Some words are essentially unique to Moroccan Arabic: e.g. daba "now". Many others, however, are characteristic of Maghrebi Arabic as a whole, including both innovations and unusual retentions of Classical vocabulary that has disappeared elsewhere such as hbeṭ' "go down" from Classical habaṭ. Others distinctives are shared with Algerian Arabic such as hḍeṛ "talk", from Classical hadhar "babble" and temma "there" from Classical thamma.

There are a number of Moroccan Arabic dictionaries in existence, including (in chronological order):

A Dictionary of Moroccan Arabic: Moroccan-English, ed. Richard S. Harrell & Harvey Sobelman. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1963 (reprinted 2004.)

Mu`jam al-fuṣḥā fil-`āmmiyyah al-maghribiyyah في الفصحى معجمالمغربية .Muhammad Hulwi, Rabat: al-Madaris 1988 ,العامية

Dictionnaire Colin d'arabe dialectal marocain (Rabat, éditions Al Manahil, ministère des Affaires Culturelles), by a Frenchman named Georges Séraphin Colin, who devoted nearly all his life to it from 1921 to 1977. The dictionary contains 60 000 entries and was published in 1993, after Colin's death.

[edit] Some words borrowed from Berber Mouch or Mech : cat (orig. Amouch) (IPA pronunciation: [muʃ]) Khizzou : carrots (IPA pronunciation: [xizzu]) Yekh : onomatopoeia expressing disgust (orig. Ikhan) (IPA pronunciation: [jɛx]) Dcher or Tcher : zone (IPA pronunciation: [t͡ʃɑr]) Yeh : yes (IPA pronunciation: [jɛh]) Neggafa : wedding facilitator (orig. taneggaft) (IPA pronunciation: [nɪggafa]) sifet or sayfet : send (IPA pronunciation: [sˁaɪfɪt͡ˁ]) Mezyan : good (IPA pronunciation: [mɪzjæn])

[edit] Some words borrowed from French forchita : fourchette (fork) (IPA pronunciation: [forʃit͡ˁɑ]) tomobile or tonobile : automobile (car) (IPA pronunciation: [t͡ˁomobil])

telfaza : télévision (television) (IPA pronunciation: [t͡ɪlfɑzɑ]) radio : radio (IPA pronunciation: [rɑdˁjo]) bartma : appartement (apartment) (IPA pronunciation: [bɑrt͡ˁmɑ]) tobis : autobus (bus) (IPA pronunciation: [t͡ˁobis]) camera: caméra (camera) (IPA pronunciation: [kɑmerɑ]) portable: portable (cell phone) (IPA pronunciation: [port͡ˁɑbl]) tiliphune: téléphone (telephone) (IPA pronunciation: [t͡ilifu:n]) brika: briquet (lighter) (IPA pronunciation: [bri-key])

[edit] Some words borrowed from Spanish

Some of these words might also have come through Andalusi Arabic brought by Moriscos when they were expelled from Spain following the Christian Reconquest.

roueda : rueda (wheel) (IPA pronunciation: [rwedˁɑ]) cuzina : cocina (kitchen) (IPA pronunciation: [kuzinɑ]) simana : semana (week) (IPA pronunciation: [simɑnɑ]) manta : manta (blanket) (IPA pronunciation: [mɑlt͡ˁɑ]) rial : real (five centimes; this term has also been borrowed into many other Arabic

dialects) (IPA pronunciation: [rjɑl]) fundo : fondo (bottom of the sea or the swimming pool) (IPA pronunciation:

[fundˁo]) carrossa : carrosa (carrosse) (IPA pronunciation: [kɑrrosɑ]) courda : cuerda (rope)(IPA pronunciation: [kordˁɑ]) cama (in the north only) : cama (bed) (IPA pronunciation: [kamˁɑ]) blassa : plaza (place)(IPA pronunciation: [blasɑ])

[edit] Some examples of regional differences Now: "daba" in the majority of regions, but "druuk" or "druuka" in the South, and

"drwek" or "durk" in the East When?: "fuqash" in most regions, but "yimta" in the Atlantic region,and "waqtash" in

Rabat region What?: "Ashnu","ash" in most regions, but "shenni","shennu" in the North,"shnu","sh"

in Fes, and "washta", "wasmu", "wash" in the Far East

[edit] Some useful sentences

Note: All the sentences are written according to the transliteration of the Arabic alphabet.

English Western ArabicNorthern (Jebli, Tetouani)

ArabicEastern (Oujda)

Arabic

How are you? La bas / Ça va? La bas? / Bikhayr?La bas? / Rak ġaya / Rak Shbab?

Can you help me?

Yemken lek tʿaweni? Tekdar dʿaweni?Yemken lek tʿaweni?

Do you speak English?

Waš katehdar lingliziya / wash katidwi bil lingliziya?

Waš kadehdar bel ingliziya?Waš tehdar lingliziya?

Excuse me Smaḥ liya Smaḥ li Smaḥ liya

Good luck ḥaḍ saʿid ḥaḍ saʿid ḥaḍ saʿid

Good morning

ṣbaḥ el-khir ṣbaḥ el-khir ṣbaḥ el-khir

Good night Teṣbaḥ ʿla khir ṣbaḥ ʿla khir Teṣbaḥ ʿla khir

Goodbye Beslama Beslama / howa hadak ah Beslama

Happy new year

Sana saʿida Sana saʿida Sana saʿida

HelloAs-salam ʿleykum / Ahlan

Salam / Ahlan As-salam ʿlikum

How are you doing?

La bas ʿlik? La bas ʿlik? La bas ʿlik?

How are you?Ki dayer ? (masculine) / Ki dayra ? (feminine)

Kif el-ḥala? Ki rak?

Is everything okay?

Kulši mezyan ?Kulši mezyan ? / Kulšî huwa hadak ?

Kulši mliḥ? / Kulšî zin?

Nice to meet you

Metšarfin Metšarfin Metšarfin

No thanks La šukran La šukran La šukran

Please Allāh ikhallik / ʿafakLaykhallik / Layʿizek / Khaylah / Khaylak

Allāh ikhallik / yʿizek

Take care Thalla f raṣek Thallah / Thalla Thalla f raṣek

Thank you very much

Šukran bezaf Šukran bezaf Šukran bezaf

What do you do?

Faš khaddam?Škad ʿaddel? / šenni khəddam? (masculine) / šenni khəddama? (feminine) / škadekhdem?

Faš tekhdem? (masculine) / Faš tkhedmi ? (feminine)

What's your name?

Ašnu smiytek? / šu smiytek

Šenni ismek? Wašta smiytek?

Where are you from?

Mnin nta? (masculine) / Mnin nti? (feminine)

Mnayen ntina? / Mayen ntina?Min ntaya? / Min ntiya?

Where are you going?

Fin ġadi temši? Naymaši? (masculine) / Naymaša? (feminine)

Ferak temši? / Ferak rayaḥ

You are welcome

La šukr ʿlâ wajib / Bla jmil

La šukr ʿlâ wajib/mashi mushkil La šukr ʿlâ wajib

[edit] Grammar

The regular Moroccan verb conjugates with a series of prefixes and suffixes. The stem of the conjugated verb may change a bit depending on the conjugation. Example:

The stem of the Moroccan verb for "to write" is kteb.

[edit] The past tense

The past tense of kteb "write" is as follows:

I wrote: kteb-t

You wrote: kteb-ti

He/it wrote: kteb (kteb can also be an order to write, e.g.: kteb er-rissala: Write the letter)

She/it wrote: ketb-et

We wrote: kteb-na

You (pl) wrote: kteb-tu

They wrote: ketb-u

Note that the stem kteb turns into ketb before a vowel suffix, due to the process of inversion described above.

[edit] The present tense

The present tense of kteb "write" is as follows:

I'm writing: ka-ne-kteb

You're (masculine) writing: ka-te-kteb

You're (feminine) writing: ka-t-ketb-i

He's/it's writing: ka-ye-kteb

She's/it's writing: ka-te-kteb

We're writing: ka-n-ketb-u

You're (pl) writing: ka-t-ketb-u

They're writing: ka-y-ketb-u

Note that the stem kteb turns into ketb before a vowel suffix, due to the process of inversion described above. Between the prefix ka-n-, ka-t-, ka-y- and the stem kteb, an e vowel appears, but not between the prefix and the transformed stem ketb, due to the same restriction that produces inversion.

In the north, "you're writing" is always ka-de-kteb, regardless of whom you are speaking to. This is also the case of de in de-kteb, as northerners prefer to use de and southerners prefer using te. Instead of the prefix ka, some speakers prefer the use of ta (e.g. ta-ne-kteb "I'm writing"). The co-existence of these two prefixes is due to historical differences. In general ka

is more used in the north and ta in the south. In some regions like the east (Oujda) the majority of speakers don't use any preverb (ne-kteb, te-kteb, y-kteb, etc.).

[edit] Other tenses

To form the future tense, just remove the prefix ka-/ta- and replace it with the prefix ġa-, ġad- or ġadi instead (e.g. ġa-ne-kteb "I will write", ġad-ketb-u (north) or ġadi t-ketb-u "You (pl) will write").

For the subjunctive and infinitive, just remove the ka- (e.g. bġit ne-kteb "I want to write", bġit te-kteb "I want you to write").

The imperative is conjugated with the suffixes of the present tense but without any prefixes or preverbs:

kteb "Write! (masc. sing.)"

ketb-i "Write! (fem. sing.)"

ketb-u "Write! (pl.)"

[edit] Negation

For negative expressions, the prefix ma and suffix ši or š are added to the verb.

Examples:

ma-ġa-ne-kteb-ši "I will not write" ma-te-kteb-ši "Do not write"

Negative pronouns such as walu "nothing", ḥta ḥaja "nothing" and ḥta waḥed "nobody" could be added to the sentence without ši as a suffix.

Examples:

ma-ġa-ne-kteb walu "I will not write anything" ma-te-kteb ḥta ḥaja "Do not write anything" ḥta waḥed ma-ġa-ye-kteb "Nobody will write" wellah ma-ne-kteb or wellah ma-ġa-ne-kteb "I swear to God I will not write"

Note: wellah ma-ne-kteb could be a response to a command to write kteb, while wellah ma-ġa-ne-kteb could be an answer to a question like waš ġa-te-kteb? "Are you going to write?" .

[edit] Negative interrogation

In Moroccan Arabic, the word order doesn't change for negative questions in the northern parts of Morocco, but in the western areas and other regions, the word order is preferably changed. The pronoun waš could be added in the beginning of the sentence, although it rarely changes the meaning of it. The prefix ma can rarely be removed when asking a question in a fast way.

Examples:

ma-ġa-te-kteb-ši? "Aren't you going to write?" ma-ġadi-ši-te-kteb? (same) waš ma-baġi-ši te-kteb? "You don't want to write?" (North) waš ma-bġi-t(i)-ši te-kteb? (same) (Western and other regions)

A ka can be added in the beginning of the sentence when asking a question in an angry or surprised way. In this case, waš can't be added.

Examples:

ka ma-ġa-te-kteb-ši?! ka ma-ġadi-ši-te-kteb?!

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Evolution

In general, Moroccan Arabic is one of the most innovative (in the technical sense of "least conservative") of all Arabic dialects. Nowadays Moroccan Arabic continues to integrate new French words, mainly technological and modern words. However, in recent years constant exposure to revived classical forms on television and in print media and a certain desire among many Moroccans for a revitalization of an Arab identity has inspired many Moroccans to integrate words from Standard Arabic, replacing their French or Spanish counterparts or even speaking in Modern Standard Arabic while keeping the Moroccan accent to sound less pedantic. This phenomenon mostly occurs among literate people.

Though rarely written, Moroccan Arabic is currently undergoing an unexpected and pragmatic revival. It is now the preferred language in Moroccan chat rooms or for sending SMS, using Arabic Chat Alphabet composed of Latin letters supplemented with the numbers 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9 for coding specific Arabic sounds as is the case with other Arabic speakers.

The language continues to evolve quickly as can be noted when consulting the Colin dictionary. Many words and idiomatic expressions recorded between 1921 and 1977 are now obsolete.

[edit] Diglossia and social prestige

While being a natural localization of Classical Arabic for geographic and historical reasons, as French has evolved from Vulgar Latin, Moroccan Arabic is considered as a language of low prestige[citation needed] and suffers from the fact that Classical Arabic is the language of the Qur'an which serves as a reference. While the Moroccan Arabic is being the mother tongue of nearly twenty million people in Morocco it is rarely written, this situation probably explains in part the high illiteracy rates in Morocco.

This situation is not specific to Morocco, but occurs in all Arabic speaking countries. The French Arabist William Marçais coined in 1930 the term diglossie (diglossia) to describe this situation, where two (often) closely-related languages co-exist, one of high prestige, which is

generally used by the government and in formal texts, and one of low prestige, which is usually the spoken vernacular tongue.

[edit] Artistic expression

There exists some poetry written in Moroccan Arabic like the Malhun. In the troubled and autocratic Morocco of the ’70s with no freedom of speech, the legendary Nass El Ghiwane band wrote beautiful and allusive lyrics in Moroccan Arabic which were very appealing to the youth even in other Maghreb countries.

Another interesting movement is the development of an original rap music scene, which explores new and innovative usages of the language. Generally, Moroccan Arabic remains the preferred language of Moroccan singers.

[edit] Newspapers

There are now at least three Moroccan Arabic newspapers, their aim is to bring information to people with a low level of education. Telquel Magazine has a Moroccan Arabic edition Nichane. There is also a free weekly magazine that is totally written in "standard" Moroccan dialect: Khbar Bladna, i.e. 'News of our country'.

Moroccan Arabic , vocabulary and   phrases

This page has some useful phrases to communicate well in Morocco. The Moroccan Arabic is very different from the standard Arabic, that is, if by chance you learn Arabic in a school it means you’ll learn the classic Arabic and later coming to Morocco, practically no one will understand you.

Moroccan Arabic vocabulary

FOUQASH – when BABA – father MAMA – mother DAR – house FI – in TILIFOUN – phone KULCHI – all SEMEHLI – sorry LBARHE – yesterday SHUKRAN – thank you KIFACH – how BISAF – a lot WALOU – nothing

DABA – now GHEDA – tomorrow BEIJO – kiss

Phrases in Moroccan Arabic

FOUQACH NAMSHIU 3AND BABAK?

When do we go to your father’s?

FOUQACH NAMSHIU 3AND WALID-DIALIK?

When do we go to your father’s?

FOUQACH DJI 3AND-I?

When do you come and meet me?

FOUQACH DJI 3AND-A?

When do you come and meet her?

FOUQACH DJI 3AND-U?

When do you come and meet him?

FOUQACH DJI 3AND-NA?

When do you come and meet us?

MANQDARCH NJI 3AND

I can not go and meet you

MANQDARCH NJI 3AND-U

I can not go and meet him

NQDAR NDKHUL?

Can I come in?

NQDAR NKHERJ?

Can I come out?

NQDAR N-HADAR?

Can I talk?

NQDAR NTAKALAM?

Can I talk?

NQDAR NMSHI?

Can I go?

FOUQACH NQDAR NJI 3ANDK?

When can I go and meet you?

NQDAR NMSHI MA3K

I can go with you

NQDAR NMSHI BOUHEDI

I can go alone

Learn Moroccan Arabic Phrases

Commonly used Moroccan Arabic Phrases include:

It is good to see you – mezian li tlaqina

See you later (to a male) – ntlaqaw menba’d

something – shi haja

who is that? – shkon hadak?

favorite – li kat’ejbek ktar

There are many more Moroccan Arabic Phrases but these are some of them.

Additional important phrases that are used often when speaking Moroccan Arabic are:

I like to see ..... - tay’jebni nshof ......

when is your .....? - m’ash ‘andek .....

Example: when is your flight? - m’ash ‘andek tyara?

Learn Moroccan Arabic Phrases

Commonly used Moroccan Arabic Phrases include:

It is good to see you – mezian li tlaqina

See you later (to a male) – ntlaqaw menba’d

something – shi haja

who is that? – shkon hadak?

favorite – li kat’ejbek ktar

There are many more Moroccan Arabic Phrases but these are some of them.

Additional important phrases that are used often when speaking Moroccan Arabic are:

I like to see ..... - tay’jebni nshof ......

when is your .....? - m’ash ‘andek .....

Example: when is your flight? - m’ash ‘andek tyara?

Moroccan Arabic

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Moroccan Arabic

Maġribi مغربي

Pronunciation [mɑɣribi]

Spoken in Morocco

Total speakers 19,480,600

Language

family

Afro-Asiatic Semitic o West Semitic Central Semitic South Central Semitic Arabic

Moroccan Arabic

Writing system Arabic alphabet

Official status

Official

language in

none

Regulated by none

Language codes

ISO 639-1 None

ISO 639-2 –

ISO 639-3 ary

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Moroccan Arabic (also known as Darija, الدارجة) is the variety of Arabic spoken in the Arabic-speaking areas of Morocco, as opposed to the official communications of government and other public bodies which use Modern Standard Arabic, as is the case in most Arabic-speaking countries, while a mixture of French and Moroccan Arabic is used in Business. It is within the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum.

Contents

[hide] 1 Overview 2 Relationship with other languages 3 Pronunciation

o 3.1 Vowels o 3.2 Consonants

4 Writing 5 Code switching 6 Vocabulary

o 6.1 Some words borrowed from Berber o 6.2 Some words borrowed from French o 6.3 Some words borrowed from Spanish o 6.4 Some examples of regional differences o 6.5 Some useful sentences

7 Grammar o 7.1 The past tense o 7.2 The present tense o 7.3 Other tenses o 7.4 Negation

7.4.1 Negative interrogation 8 Evolution 9 Diglossia and social prestige 10 Artistic expression 11 Newspapers

12 See also 13 References 14 Bibliography

15 External links

[edit] Overview

An overview of the different Arabic dialects

Native speakers typically consider Moroccan Arabic a dialect because it is not a literary language and because it lacks prestige compared to Standard Arabic (fuṣḥa). It differs from Standard Arabic in phonology, lexicon, and syntax, and has been influenced by Berber (mainly in its pronunciation, and grammar), French and Spanish.

Moroccan Arabic continues to evolve by integrating new French or English words, notably in technical fields, or by replacing old French and Spanish ones with Standard Arabic words within some circles.

It is worth mentioning that Darija (which means dialect) can be divided into two groups:

The pre-French protectorate: when Morocco was officially colonized by France in 1912, it had an accelerated French influence in aspects of everyday life. The pre-French Darija is one that is spoken by older and more conservative people. It is an Arabic dialect with Berber influences that can be found in texts and poems of Malhoun, and Andalusi music for example. Later, in the 1970s, traditionalist bands like Nass El Ghiwane and Jil Jilala followed this course, and only sang in "classical darija".

The post-French protectorate: after the coming of the French, any word, whether a verb or a noun, could be thrown into a sentence. This was more a habit of the young educated generations of the cities.

A similar phenomenon can be observed in Algerian Arabic and Tunisian Arabic.

[edit] Relationship with other languages

Moroccan Arabic has a distinct pronunciation and is nearly unintelligible to other Arabic speakers, but is generally mutually intelligible with other Maghrebi Arabic dialects with which it forms a dialect continuum. It is grammatically simpler, and has a less voluminous vocabulary than Classical Arabic. It has also integrated many Berber, French and Spanish words.

There is a relatively clear-cut division between Moroccan Arabic and Standard Arabic, and most uneducated Moroccans do not understand Modern Standard Arabic. Depending on cultural background and degree of literacy, those who do speak Modern Standard Arabic may prefer to use Arabic words instead of their French or Spanish borrowed counterparts, while others often adopt code-switching between French and Moroccan Arabic. As elsewhere in the world, how someone speaks, what words or language he uses is often an indicator of their social class.

[edit] Pronunciation

Moroccan Arabic has a distinct pronunciation nearly unintelligible to Arabic speakers from the Middle East. It is heavily influenced by Berber pronunciation, and it has even been argued that it is Arabic pronounced with a Berber accent, or with Berber phonemes. This is similar to the phenomenon in the south of France where some pronounce French with Occitan phonemes.

[edit] Vowels

One of the most notable features of Moroccan Arabic is the collapse of short vowels. Initially, short /ă/ and /ĭ/ were merged into a phoneme /ə/ (however, some speakers maintain a difference between /ă/ and /ə/ when adjacent to pharyngeal /ʕ/ and /ħ/). This phoneme was then deleted entirely in most positions; for the most part, it is maintained only in the position /...CəC#/ or /...CəCC#/ (where C represents any consonant and # indicates a word boundary), i.e. when appearing as the last vowel of a word. When /ə/ is not deleted, it is pronunced as a very short vowel, tending towards [ɐ] in the vicinity of emphatic consonants, [a] in the vicinity of pharyngeal /ʕ/ and /ħ/ (for speakers who have merged /ă/ and /ə/ in this environment), and [ɪ] elsewhere. Original short /ŭ/ usually merges with /ə/ except in the vicinity of a labial or velar consonant. In positions where /ə/ was deleted, /ŭ/ was also deleted, and is maintained only as labialization of the adjacent labial or velar consonant; where /ə/ is maintained, /ŭ/ surfaces as [ʊ]. This deletion of short vowels can result in long strings of consonants (a feature shared with Berber and certainly derived from it). These clusters are never simplified; instead, consonants occurring between other consonants tend to syllabify, according to a sonorance hierarchy. Similarly, and unlike most other Arabic dialects, doubled consonants are never simplified to a single consonant, even when at the end of a word or preceding another consonant.

Some dialects are more conservative in their treatment of short vowels. For example, some dialects allow /ŭ/ in more positions. Dialects of the Sahara, and eastern dialects near the border of Algeria, preserve a distinction between /ă/ and /ĭ/ and allow /ă/ to appear at the beginning of a word, e.g. /ăqsˁărˁ/ "shorter" (standard /qsˁərˁ/), /ătˁlăʕ/ "go up!" (standard /tˁlăʕ/ or /tˁləʕ/), /ăsˁħab/ "friends" (standard /sˁħab/).

Long /a/, /i/ and /u/ are maintained as semi-long vowels, which are substituted for both short and long vowels in most borrowings from Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Long /a/, /i/ and /u/ also have many more allophones than in most other dialects; in particular, /a/, /i/, /u/ appear as [ɑ], [e], [o] in the vicinity of emphatic consonants, but [æ], [i], [u] elsewhere. (Most other Arabic dialects only have a similar variation for the phoneme /a/.) In some dialects, such as that of Marrakech, front-rounded and other allophones also exist.

Emphatic spreading (i.e. the extent to which emphatic consonants affect nearby vowels) occurs much less than in many other dialects. Emphasis spreads fairly rigorously towards the beginning of a word and into prefixes, but much less so towards the end of a word. Emphasis spreads consistently from a consonant to a directly following vowel, and less strongly when separated by an intervening consonant, but generally does not spread rightwards past a full vowel. For example, /bidˤ-at/ [bedɑt͡�s] "eggs" (/i/ and /a/ both affected), /tˤʃaʃ-at/ [t͡ʃɑʃæt͡�s] "sparks" (rightmost /a/ not affected), /dˤrˤʒ-at/ [drˤʒæt͡�s] "stairs" (/a/ usually not affected), /dˤrb-at-u/ [drˤbat͡�su] "she hit him" (with [a] variable but tending to be in between [ɑ] and [æ]; no effect on /u/), /tˤalib/ [t͡ɑlib] "student" (/a/ affected but not /i/). Contrast, for example, Egyptian Arabic, where emphasis tends to spread forward and backward to both ends of a word, even through several syllables.

Emphasis is audible mostly through its effects on neighboring vowels or syllabic consonants, and through the differing pronunciation of /t/ [t͡�s] and /tˤ/ [t͡]. Actual pharyngealization of "emphatic" consonants is weak and may be absent entirely. In contrast with some dialects, vowels adjacent to emphatic consonants are pure; there is no diphthong-like transition between emphatic consonants and adjacent front vowels.

[edit] Consonants

Moroccan Arabic consonant phonemes[1]

 

Labial Dental/Alveolar

Palatal Velar UvularPharyn

-geal

Glottal

plainemphatic labialized

plain emphatic

Nasal m (mˤʷ)2 n            

Stop

voiceless (p)3   t͡�s, (t͡)1 t͡ˤ   k q6   ʔ

voiced b (bˤʷ)2 d dˤ   g6,7      

Fricative

voiceless f (fˤʷ)2 s8 sˤ ʃ x   ħ h

voiced (v)3   z8 zˤ ʒ7 ɣ   ʕ  

Tap     ɾ ɾˤ4          

Approximant     l (lˤ)5 j w      

1. In normal circumstances, non-emphatic /t/ is pronounced with noticeable affrication, almost like /t͡�s/ (still distinguished from a sequence of /t/ + /s/), and hence is easily distinguishable from emphatic /t͡ˁ/. However, in some recent loanwords from European languages, a non-affricated, non-emphatic /T/ [t͡] appears, distinguished from emphatic /t͡ˁ/ primarily by its lack of effect on adjacent vowels (see above; an alternative analysis is possible).

2. mˤʷ, bˤʷ, fˤʷ are very distinct consonants that only occur geminated, and almost always come at the beginning of a word. They function completely differently from other emphatic consonants: They are pronounced with heavy pharyngealization, affect adjacent short/unstable vowels but not full vowels, and are pronounced with a noticeable diphthongal off-glide between one of these consonants and a following front vowel. Most of their occurrences can be analyzed as underlying sequences of /mw/, /fw/, /bw/ (which appear frequently in diminutives, for example). However, a few lexical items appear to have independent occurrences of these phonemes, e.g. /mˤmˤʷ-/ "mother" (with attached possessive, e.g. /mˤmˤʷək/ "your mother").

3. (p) and (v) occur mostly in recent borrowings from European languages, and may be assimilated to /b/ or /f/ in some speakers.

4. Unlike in most other Arabic dialects (but, again, similar to Berber), non-emphatic /r/ and emphatic /rˁ/ are two entirely separate phonemes, almost never contrasting in related forms of a word.

5. (lˤ) is rare in native words; in nearly all cases of native words with vowels indicating the presence of a nearby emphatic consonant, there is a nearby triggering /t͡ˁ/, /dˁ/, /sˁ/, /zˁ/ or /rˁ/. Many recent European borrowings appear to require (lˤ) or some other unusual emphatic consonant in order to account for the proper vowel allophones; but an alternative analysis is possible for these words where the vowel allophones are considered to be (marginal) phonemes on their own.

6. Original /q/ splits lexically into /q/ and /g/; for some words, both alternatives exist. 7. Original /dʒ/ normally appears as /ʒ/, but as /g/ (sometimes /d/) if /s/ or /z/ appears

later in the same stem: /gləs/ "he sat" (MSA /dʒalas/), /gzzar/ "butcher" (MSA /dʒazza:r/), /duz/ "go past" (MSA /dʒu:z/).

8. Original /s/ is converted to /ʃ/ if /ʃ/ occurs elsewhere in the same stem, and /z/ is similarly converted to /ʒ/ as a result of a following /ʒ/: /ʃəmʃ/ "sun" vs. MSA /ʃams/, /ʒuʒ/ "two" vs. MSA /zawdʒ/ "pair", /ʒaʒ/ "glass" vs. MSA /za:dʒ/, etc. This does not apply to recent borrowings from MSA (e.g. /mzaʒ/ "disposition"), nor as a result of the negative suffix /ʃ/ or /ʃi/.

[edit] Writing

Moroccan Arabic is rarely written (most books and magazines are in French or Modern Standard Arabic), and there is no universally standard written system.[2] However, most systems used for writing Moroccan Arabic in linguistic works largely agree among each other, and such a system is used here.

Long (aka "stable") vowels /a/, /i/, /u/ are written a, i, u. e represents /ə/ and o represents /ŭ/ (see section on phonology, above). ă is used for /ă/ in speakers who still have this phoneme in

the vicinity of pharyngeal /ʕ/ and /ħ/. ă, ĭ, and o are also used for ultra-short vowels used by educated speakers for the short vowels of some recent borrowings from MSA.

Note that in practice, /ə/ is usually deleted when not the last vowel of a word, and hence some authors prefer a transcription without this vowel, e.g. ka-t-ktb-u "You're (pl) writing" instead of ka-t-ketb-u. We maintain the e in accordance with Richard Harrell's reference grammar of Moroccan Arabic. In the system with a maintained e, it cannot occur in an open syllable (followed by a single consonant and then a vowel), so in such a situation the e is transposed with the preceding consonant (or geminate consonant), which ends up following the e. This procedure is known as inversion.

y represents /j/.

ḥ and ` represent pharyngeal /ħ/ and /ʕ/.

ġ and x represent velar /ɣ/ and /x/.

ṭ, ḍ, ṣ, ẓ, ṛ, ḷ represent emphatic /t͡ˁ, dˁ, sˁ, zˁ, rˁ, lˁ/ .

š, ž represent hushing /ʃ, ʒ/.

[edit] Code switching

Many Moroccan Arabic speakers among the educated class, especially in the territory which was previously known as French Morocco, also practice code-switching (moving from Moroccan Arabic to French and the other way around as it can be seen in the movie Marock). In the northern parts of Morocco, some people also switch from Moroccan Arabic to Spanish. This is due to the place once being invaded by Spain and for their proximity to Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

[edit] Vocabulary

Moroccan Arabic is grammatically simpler, and has a less voluminous vocabulary than Classical Arabic. It has also integrated many Berber, French and Spanish words. Spanish words typically entered Moroccan Arabic earlier than French ones. Some words might have been brought by Moriscos who spoke Andalusi Arabic which was influenced by Spanish (Castilian), an example being the typical Andalusian dish Pastilla. Other influences have been the result of the Spanish protectorate in Spanish Morocco. French words came with the French protectorate (1912-1956).

There are noticeable lexical differences between Moroccan Arabic and most other dialects. Some words are essentially unique to Moroccan Arabic: e.g. daba "now". Many others, however, are characteristic of Maghrebi Arabic as a whole, including both innovations and unusual retentions of Classical vocabulary that has disappeared elsewhere such as hbeṭ' "go down" from Classical habaṭ. Others distinctives are shared with Algerian Arabic such as hḍeṛ "talk", from Classical hadhar "babble" and temma "there" from Classical thamma.

There are a number of Moroccan Arabic dictionaries in existence, including (in chronological order):

A Dictionary of Moroccan Arabic: Moroccan-English, ed. Richard S. Harrell & Harvey Sobelman. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1963 (reprinted 2004.)

Mu`jam al-fuṣḥā fil-`āmmiyyah al-maghribiyyah في الفصحى معجمالمغربية .Muhammad Hulwi, Rabat: al-Madaris 1988 ,العامية

Dictionnaire Colin d'arabe dialectal marocain (Rabat, éditions Al Manahil, ministère des Affaires Culturelles), by a Frenchman named Georges Séraphin Colin, who devoted nearly all his life to it from 1921 to 1977. The dictionary contains 60 000 entries and was published in 1993, after Colin's death.

[edit] Some words borrowed from Berber Mouch or Mech : cat (orig. Amouch) (IPA pronunciation: [muʃ]) Khizzou : carrots (IPA pronunciation: [xizzu]) Yekh : onomatopoeia expressing disgust (orig. Ikhan) (IPA pronunciation: [jɛx]) Dcher or Tcher : zone (IPA pronunciation: [t͡ʃɑr]) Yeh : yes (IPA pronunciation: [jɛh]) Neggafa : wedding facilitator (orig. taneggaft) (IPA pronunciation: [nɪggafa]) sifet or sayfet : send (IPA pronunciation: [sˁaɪfɪt͡ˁ]) Mezyan : good (IPA pronunciation: [mɪzjæn])

[edit] Some words borrowed from French forchita : fourchette (fork) (IPA pronunciation: [forʃit͡ˁɑ]) tomobile or tonobile : automobile (car) (IPA pronunciation: [t͡ˁomobil]) telfaza : télévision (television) (IPA pronunciation: [t͡ɪlfɑzɑ]) radio : radio (IPA pronunciation: [rɑdˁjo]) bartma : appartement (apartment) (IPA pronunciation: [bɑrt͡ˁmɑ]) tobis : autobus (bus) (IPA pronunciation: [t͡ˁobis]) camera: caméra (camera) (IPA pronunciation: [kɑmerɑ]) portable: portable (cell phone) (IPA pronunciation: [port͡ˁɑbl]) tiliphune: téléphone (telephone) (IPA pronunciation: [t͡ilifu:n]) brika: briquet (lighter) (IPA pronunciation: [bri-key])

[edit] Some words borrowed from Spanish

Some of these words might also have come through Andalusi Arabic brought by Moriscos when they were expelled from Spain following the Christian Reconquest.

roueda : rueda (wheel) (IPA pronunciation: [rwedˁɑ]) cuzina : cocina (kitchen) (IPA pronunciation: [kuzinɑ]) simana : semana (week) (IPA pronunciation: [simɑnɑ]) manta : manta (blanket) (IPA pronunciation: [mɑlt͡ˁɑ]) rial : real (five centimes; this term has also been borrowed into many other Arabic

dialects) (IPA pronunciation: [rjɑl])

fundo : fondo (bottom of the sea or the swimming pool) (IPA pronunciation: [fundˁo])

carrossa : carrosa (carrosse) (IPA pronunciation: [kɑrrosɑ]) courda : cuerda (rope)(IPA pronunciation: [kordˁɑ]) cama (in the north only) : cama (bed) (IPA pronunciation: [kamˁɑ]) blassa : plaza (place)(IPA pronunciation: [blasɑ])

[edit] Some examples of regional differences Now: "daba" in the majority of regions, but "druuk" or "druuka" in the South, and

"drwek" or "durk" in the East When?: "fuqash" in most regions, but "yimta" in the Atlantic region,and "waqtash" in

Rabat region What?: "Ashnu","ash" in most regions, but "shenni","shennu" in the North,"shnu","sh"

in Fes, and "washta", "wasmu", "wash" in the Far East

[edit] Some useful sentences

Note: All the sentences are written according to the transliteration of the Arabic alphabet.

English Western ArabicNorthern (Jebli, Tetouani)

ArabicEastern (Oujda)

Arabic

How are you? La bas / Ça va? La bas? / Bikhayr?La bas? / Rak ġaya / Rak Shbab?

Can you help me?

Yemken lek tʿaweni? Tekdar dʿaweni?Yemken lek tʿaweni?

Do you speak English?

Waš katehdar lingliziya / wash katidwi bil lingliziya?

Waš kadehdar bel ingliziya?Waš tehdar lingliziya?

Excuse me Smaḥ liya Smaḥ li Smaḥ liya

Good luck ḥaḍ saʿid ḥaḍ saʿid ḥaḍ saʿid

Good morning

ṣbaḥ el-khir ṣbaḥ el-khir ṣbaḥ el-khir

Good night Teṣbaḥ ʿla khir ṣbaḥ ʿla khir Teṣbaḥ ʿla khir

Goodbye Beslama Beslama / howa hadak ah Beslama

Happy new year

Sana saʿida Sana saʿida Sana saʿida

HelloAs-salam ʿleykum / Ahlan

Salam / Ahlan As-salam ʿlikum

How are you doing?

La bas ʿlik? La bas ʿlik? La bas ʿlik?

How are you?Ki dayer ? (masculine) / Ki dayra ? (feminine)

Kif el-ḥala? Ki rak?

Is everything okay?

Kulši mezyan ?Kulši mezyan ? / Kulšî huwa hadak ?

Kulši mliḥ? / Kulšî zin?

Nice to meet you

Metšarfin Metšarfin Metšarfin

No thanks La šukran La šukran La šukran

Please Allāh ikhallik / ʿafakLaykhallik / Layʿizek / Khaylah / Khaylak

Allāh ikhallik / yʿizek

Take care Thalla f raṣek Thallah / Thalla Thalla f raṣek

Thank you very much

Šukran bezaf Šukran bezaf Šukran bezaf

What do you do?

Faš khaddam? Škad ʿaddel? / šenni khəddam? (masculine) / šenni khəddama?

Faš tekhdem? (masculine) / Faš

(feminine) / škadekhdem? tkhedmi ? (feminine)

What's your name?

Ašnu smiytek? / šu smiytek

Šenni ismek? Wašta smiytek?

Where are you from?

Mnin nta? (masculine) / Mnin nti? (feminine)

Mnayen ntina? / Mayen ntina?Min ntaya? / Min ntiya?

Where are you going?

Fin ġadi temši? Naymaši? (masculine) / Naymaša? (feminine)

Ferak temši? / Ferak rayaḥ

You are welcome

La šukr ʿlâ wajib / Bla jmil

La šukr ʿlâ wajib/mashi mushkil La šukr ʿlâ wajib

[edit] Grammar

The regular Moroccan verb conjugates with a series of prefixes and suffixes. The stem of the conjugated verb may change a bit depending on the conjugation. Example:

The stem of the Moroccan verb for "to write" is kteb.

[edit] The past tense

The past tense of kteb "write" is as follows:

I wrote: kteb-t

You wrote: kteb-ti

He/it wrote: kteb (kteb can also be an order to write, e.g.: kteb er-rissala: Write the letter)

She/it wrote: ketb-et

We wrote: kteb-na

You (pl) wrote: kteb-tu

They wrote: ketb-u

Note that the stem kteb turns into ketb before a vowel suffix, due to the process of inversion described above.

[edit] The present tense

The present tense of kteb "write" is as follows:

I'm writing: ka-ne-kteb

You're (masculine) writing: ka-te-kteb

You're (feminine) writing: ka-t-ketb-i

He's/it's writing: ka-ye-kteb

She's/it's writing: ka-te-kteb

We're writing: ka-n-ketb-u

You're (pl) writing: ka-t-ketb-u

They're writing: ka-y-ketb-u

Note that the stem kteb turns into ketb before a vowel suffix, due to the process of inversion described above. Between the prefix ka-n-, ka-t-, ka-y- and the stem kteb, an e vowel appears, but not between the prefix and the transformed stem ketb, due to the same restriction that produces inversion.

In the north, "you're writing" is always ka-de-kteb, regardless of whom you are speaking to. This is also the case of de in de-kteb, as northerners prefer to use de and southerners prefer using te. Instead of the prefix ka, some speakers prefer the use of ta (e.g. ta-ne-kteb "I'm writing"). The co-existence of these two prefixes is due to historical differences. In general ka is more used in the north and ta in the south. In some regions like the east (Oujda) the majority of speakers don't use any preverb (ne-kteb, te-kteb, y-kteb, etc.).

[edit] Other tenses

To form the future tense, just remove the prefix ka-/ta- and replace it with the prefix ġa-, ġad- or ġadi instead (e.g. ġa-ne-kteb "I will write", ġad-ketb-u (north) or ġadi t-ketb-u "You (pl) will write").

For the subjunctive and infinitive, just remove the ka- (e.g. bġit ne-kteb "I want to write", bġit te-kteb "I want you to write").

The imperative is conjugated with the suffixes of the present tense but without any prefixes or preverbs:

kteb "Write! (masc. sing.)"

ketb-i "Write! (fem. sing.)"

ketb-u "Write! (pl.)"

[edit] Negation

For negative expressions, the prefix ma and suffix ši or š are added to the verb.

Examples:

ma-ġa-ne-kteb-ši "I will not write" ma-te-kteb-ši "Do not write"

Negative pronouns such as walu "nothing", ḥta ḥaja "nothing" and ḥta waḥed "nobody" could be added to the sentence without ši as a suffix.

Examples:

ma-ġa-ne-kteb walu "I will not write anything" ma-te-kteb ḥta ḥaja "Do not write anything" ḥta waḥed ma-ġa-ye-kteb "Nobody will write" wellah ma-ne-kteb or wellah ma-ġa-ne-kteb "I swear to God I will not write"

Note: wellah ma-ne-kteb could be a response to a command to write kteb, while wellah ma-ġa-ne-kteb could be an answer to a question like waš ġa-te-kteb? "Are you going to write?" .

[edit] Negative interrogation

In Moroccan Arabic, the word order doesn't change for negative questions in the northern parts of Morocco, but in the western areas and other regions, the word order is preferably changed. The pronoun waš could be added in the beginning of the sentence, although it rarely changes the meaning of it. The prefix ma can rarely be removed when asking a question in a fast way.

Examples:

ma-ġa-te-kteb-ši? "Aren't you going to write?" ma-ġadi-ši-te-kteb? (same) waš ma-baġi-ši te-kteb? "You don't want to write?" (North) waš ma-bġi-t(i)-ši te-kteb? (same) (Western and other regions)

A ka can be added in the beginning of the sentence when asking a question in an angry or surprised way. In this case, waš can't be added.

Examples:

ka ma-ġa-te-kteb-ši?! ka ma-ġadi-ši-te-kteb?!

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Evolution

In general, Moroccan Arabic is one of the most innovative (in the technical sense of "least conservative") of all Arabic dialects. Nowadays Moroccan Arabic continues to integrate new French words, mainly technological and modern words. However, in recent years constant exposure to revived classical forms on television and in print media and a certain desire among many Moroccans for a revitalization of an Arab identity has inspired many Moroccans to integrate words from Standard Arabic, replacing their French or Spanish counterparts or even speaking in Modern Standard Arabic while keeping the Moroccan accent to sound less pedantic. This phenomenon mostly occurs among literate people.

Though rarely written, Moroccan Arabic is currently undergoing an unexpected and pragmatic revival. It is now the preferred language in Moroccan chat rooms or for sending SMS, using Arabic Chat Alphabet composed of Latin letters supplemented with the numbers 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9 for coding specific Arabic sounds as is the case with other Arabic speakers.

The language continues to evolve quickly as can be noted when consulting the Colin dictionary. Many words and idiomatic expressions recorded between 1921 and 1977 are now obsolete.

[edit] Diglossia and social prestige

While being a natural localization of Classical Arabic for geographic and historical reasons, as French has evolved from Vulgar Latin, Moroccan Arabic is considered as a language of low prestige[citation needed] and suffers from the fact that Classical Arabic is the language of the Qur'an which serves as a reference. While the Moroccan Arabic is being the mother tongue of nearly twenty million people in Morocco it is rarely written, this situation probably explains in part the high illiteracy rates in Morocco.

This situation is not specific to Morocco, but occurs in all Arabic speaking countries. The French Arabist William Marçais coined in 1930 the term diglossie (diglossia) to describe this situation, where two (often) closely-related languages co-exist, one of high prestige, which is generally used by the government and in formal texts, and one of low prestige, which is usually the spoken vernacular tongue.

[edit] Artistic expression

There exists some poetry written in Moroccan Arabic like the Malhun. In the troubled and autocratic Morocco of the ’70s with no freedom of speech, the legendary Nass El Ghiwane band wrote beautiful and allusive lyrics in Moroccan Arabic which were very appealing to the youth even in other Maghreb countries.

Another interesting movement is the development of an original rap music scene, which explores new and innovative usages of the language. Generally, Moroccan Arabic remains the preferred language of Moroccan singers.

[edit] Newspapers

There are now at least three Moroccan Arabic newspapers, their aim is to bring information to people with a low level of education. Telquel Magazine has a Moroccan Arabic edition

Nichane. There is also a free weekly magazine that is totally written in "standard" Moroccan dialect: Khbar Bladna, i.e. 'News of our country'.

[edit] See also

Varieties of Arabic Dialect continuum Maghrebi Arabic Algerian Arabic Tunisian Arabic Libyan Arabic Tetuani The language of The Qur'an for the relationship between modern Arabic dialects and

the Qur'an's Arabic

[edit] References

1. ̂ Watson (2002:21) 2. ̂ Some effort has recently been made in that direction with the KtbDarija [1] (literaly

"WriteDarija") project, which proposes a Latin alphabet for writing Darija, and a set of keyboard layouts for writing in this alphabet.

[edit] Bibliography

Ethnologue entry for Moroccan Arabic Lonely Planet Moroccan Arabic Phrasebook ISBN 0-86442-586-4 Ernest T. Abdel Massih, Introduction to Moroccan Arabic, Univ of Michigan,

Washington, 1982. Jordi Aguadé, "Notes on the Arabic Dialect of Casablanca", AIDA 5th Conference

Proceedings, Universidad de Cadiz, 2003, 301-308. Louis Brunot, Introduction à l'arabe marocain, Maisonneuve, Paris, 1950. Dominique Caubet, L'arabe marocain, Paris-Louvain, Peeters, 1993. Olivier Durand, L'arabo del Marocco. Elementi di dialetto standard e mediano,

Università degli Studi La Sapienza, Rome, 2004. Richard S. Harrel, A short reference grammar of Moroccan Arabic, Georgetown

University Press, Washington, 1962. Richard S. Harrel, A Dictionary of Moroccan Arabic, Georgetown University Press,

Washington, 1966. Jeffrey Heath, Ablaut and Ambiguity: Phonology of a Moroccan Arabic Dialect, State

University of New York Press, Albany, 1987. Angela Daiana Langone, "Khbar Bladna. Une expérience journalistique en arabe

dialectal marocain", in Estudios de Dialectologia Norteafricana y Andalusi n.7, 2003, 143-151.

Angela Daiana Langone, "Jeux linguistiques et nouveau style dans la masrahiyya en-Neqsha, Le déclic, écrite en dialecte marocain par Tayyeb Saddiqi", in Actes d'AIDA 6, Tunis, 2006, 243-261.

Abderrahim Youssi, "La triglossie dans la typologie linguistique", in La Linguistique n. 19, 1983, 71-83.

Abderrahim Youssi, Grammaire et lexique de l'arabe marocain moderne, Wallada, Casablanca, 1994.