Family of Arabic dialects spoken in the Maghreb
"Darja" redirects here. For the village in Iran, see
Darreh Ja
. For the Romanian village of Darja, see
Panticeu
.
Maghrebi Arabic
(
Arabic
:
???????? ?????????????
,
romanized
:
al-lahja l-magh?ribiyya
,
lit.
'Western Arabic' as opposed to
Eastern or Mashriqi Arabic
), often known as
ad-D?rija
[a]
(Arabic:
???????
, meaning 'common/everyday [dialect]')
[2]
to differentiate it from
Literary Arabic
,
[3]
is a
vernacular
Arabic
dialect continuum
spoken in the
Maghreb
. It includes the
Moroccan
,
Algerian
,
Tunisian
,
Libyan
,
Hassaniya
and
Saharan
Arabic dialects. Maghrebi Arabic has a predominantly
Semitic
and
Arabic
vocabulary,
[4]
[5]
although it contains a few
Berber
loanwords which represent 2?3% of the vocabulary of Libyan Arabic, 8?9% of Algerian and Tunisian Arabic, and 10?15% of Moroccan Arabic.
[6]
Maghrebi Arabic was formerly spoken in
Al-Andalus
and
Sicily
until the 17th and 13th centuries, respectively, in the extinct forms of
Andalusi Arabic
and
Siculo-Arabic
. The
Maltese language
is believed to have its source in a language spoken in Muslim
Sicily
that ultimately originates from Tunisia, as it contains some typical Maghrebi Arabic areal characteristics.
[7]
Name
[
edit
]
Darija
,
Derija
or
Delja
(
Arabic
:
???????
) means "everyday/colloquial dialect";
[8]
it is also rendered as
ed-d?rija
,
derija
or
darja
. It refers to any of the varieties of colloquial Maghrebi Arabic. Although it is also common in
Algeria
and
Tunisia
to refer to the Maghrebi Arabic varieties directly as languages, similarly it is also common in
Egypt
and
Lebanon
to refer to the Mashriqi Arabic varieties directly as languages. For instance, Algerian Arabic would be referred as
Dzayri
(Algerian) and Tunisian Arabic as
Tounsi
(Tunisian), and Egyptian Arabic would be referred as
Masri
(Egyptian) and Lebanese Arabic as
Lubnani
(Lebanese).
In contrast, the colloquial dialects of more eastern Arab countries, such as Egypt, Jordan and Sudan, are usually known as
al-‘?mm?ya
(
???????
), though Egyptians may also refer to their dialects as
el-logha d-darga
.
History and origin
[
edit
]
Maghrebi Arabic can be divided into two lineages in North Africa. One originates from the urban
Arabs
and dates back to the
Arab Muslim conquest of the Maghreb
in the 7th and 8th centuries, referred to as
Pre-Hilalian Arabic
. The other stems from the
Bedouin Arabic
varieties brought in by the
Bedouin
Arab tribes of
Banu Hilal
,
Banu Sulaym
and
Ma'qil
in the 11th and 12th centuries, termed as
Hilalian Arabic
.
[9]
The Pre-Hilalian varieties were largely bedouinized by the Hilalian migrations in the 11th century, producing hybrid varieties that combined both pre-Hilalian and Hilalian features.
[10]
This led to the choice of Banu Hilal's Arabic as the
lingua franca
of the Maghreb.
[11]
This variety, with influences from
Berber languages
and
Punic
, gave rise to the modern Arabic varieties in the Maghreb spoken by the vast majority of Maghrebis.
[11]
The Arabic language was spread across North Africa throughout the
Rashidun
and
Umayyad
conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries, during which about 150,000 Arabs settled in the Maghreb.
[12]
[13]
[14]
As Arab-led forces established settlements in a triangle encompassing Roman towns and cities such as
Tangier
,
Sale
and
Walili
,
Moroccan Arabic
began to take form.
[10]
Arabization
was widespread in cities where both Arabs and Berbers lived, as well as Arab centers and surrounding rural areas. Nevertheless, the Arabization process in the countryside remained gradual until the Hilalian invasions of the 11th century.
[9]
Maghrebi Arabic originates from the
Bedouin Arabic
varieties that were introduced to the Maghreb in the 11th century by
Banu Hilal
and
Banu Sulaym
, who effectively accelerated the
Arabization
of a great part of the
Berbers
.
[11]
Sources estimate that around 1 million Arabs migrated to the Maghreb in the 11th century.
[15]
Their impact was profound and reshaped the demographic situation and living conditions across the Maghreb. They played a major role in spreading Bedouin Arabic to rural areas such as the countryside and steppes, and as far as the southern areas near the
Sahara
.
[9]
Characteristics
[
edit
]
The varieties of Maghrebi Arabic form a
dialect continuum
. The degree of mutual intelligibility is high between geographically adjacent dialects (such as local dialects spoken in Eastern Morocco and Western Algeria or Eastern Algeria and North Tunisia or South Tunisia and Western Libya), but lower between dialects that are further apart, e.g. between Moroccan and Tunisian Darija. Conversely, Moroccan Darija and particularly Algerian Derja cannot be easily understood by Eastern Arabic speakers (from Egypt, Sudan, Levant, Iraq, and Arabian peninsula) in general.
[16]
Maghrebi Arabic continues to evolve by integrating new French or English words, notably in technical fields, or by replacing old French and Italian/Spanish ones with Modern Standard Arabic words within some circles; more educated and upper-class people who code-switch between Maghrebi Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic have more French and Italian/Spanish loanwords, especially the latter came from the time of
al-Andalus
. Maghrebi dialects all use
n-
as the
first-person
singular
prefix
on
verbs
, distinguishing them from
Levantine dialects
and Modern Standard Arabic.
Relationship with Modern Standard Arabic and Berber languages
[
edit
]
Modern Standard Arabic
(
Arabic
:
??????
,
romanized
:
al-fu??a
) is the primary language used in the government, legislation and judiciary of countries in the Maghreb. Maghrebi Arabic is mainly a
spoken
and
vernacular dialect
, although it occasionally appears in entertainment and advertising in urban areas of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. In Algeria, where Maghrebi Arabic was taught as a separate subject under French colonization, some textbooks in the dialect exist but they are no longer officially endorsed by the Algerian authorities. Maghrebi Arabic has a mostly
Semitic
Arabic
vocabulary.
[5]
It contains
Berber
loanwords, which represent 2?3% of the vocabulary of Libyan Arabic, 8?9% of Algerian and Tunisian Arabic, and 10?15% of Moroccan Arabic.
[6]
[17]
The dialect may also possess a
substratum
of
Punic
.
[18]
Latin substratum
[
edit
]
Additionally, Maghrebi Arabic has a
Latin
substratum, which may have been derived from the
African Romance
that was used as an urban lingua franca during the
Byzantine Empire
period.
[19]
in morphology, this substratum is considered the origin of the plural noun morphemes
-?sh
/
-osh
that are common in northern Moroccan dialects,
[20]
and probably the loss of gender in the second person singular of personal pronouns verbs, for example in Andalusian Arabic.
[21]
The lexicon contains many loanwords from Latin, e.g. Moroccan/Algerian/Tunisian
???????
,
sh?q?r
, 'hatchet' from
sec?ris
(this could also be borrowed from Spanish
segur
);
[22]
????
, 'snail' from
bab?sus
and
????
, 'chick' from
pullus
through Berber
afullus
.
[23]
Relationship with other languages
[
edit
]
Maghrebi Arabic speakers frequently borrow words from French (in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia), Spanish (in northern Morocco and northwestern Algerian) and Italian (in Libya and Tunisia) and
conjugate
them according to the rules of their dialects with some exceptions (like passive voice for example). As it is not always written, there is no standard and it is free to change quickly and to pick up new vocabulary from neighboring languages. This is comparable to the evolution of
Middle English
after the
Norman conquest
.
[
citation needed
]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Darja
,
Derdja
,
Derja
,
Derija
or
Darija
, depending on the region's dialect.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Algerian Arabic
at
Ethnologue
(27th ed., 2024)
Andalusi Arabic
at
Ethnologue
(27th ed., 2024)
Hassaniya Arabic
at
Ethnologue
(27th ed., 2024)
Libyan Arabic
at
Ethnologue
(27th ed., 2024)
Maltese
at
Ethnologue
(27th ed., 2024)
Moroccan Arabic
at
Ethnologue
(27th ed., 2024)
(Additional references under 'Language codes' in the information box)
- ^
Wehr, Hans (1979).
A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic: (Arab.-Engl.)
. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 319.
ISBN
3447020024
. Retrieved
30 September
2017
.
- ^
Harrell, Richard Slade (2004).
A Dictionary of Moroccan Arabic: Moroccan-English
. Georgetown University Press. p. 18.
ISBN
1589011031
. Retrieved
30 September
2017
.
- ^
Harrat, Salima (18 September 2018).
"Maghrebi Arabic dialect processing: an overview"
.
Journal of International Science and General Applications
.
- ^
a
b
Elimam, Abdou (2009).
Du Punique au Maghribi :Trajectoires d'une langue semito-mediterraneenne
(PDF)
. Synergies Tunisie.
- ^
a
b
Wexler, Paul (2012-02-01).
The Non-Jewish Origins of the Sephardic Jews
. State University of New York Press.
ISBN
978-1-4384-2393-7
.
- ^
Borg, Albert; Azzopardi-Alexander, Marie (2013).
Maltese
.
Routledge
. p. xiii.
ISBN
978-1136855283
.
OCLC
1294538052
.
OL
37974130M
.
Wikidata
Q117189264
. Retrieved
17 March
2023
.
- ^
Wehr, Hans (2011).
A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic
.
;
Harrell, Richard S. (1966).
Dictionary of Moroccan Arabic
.
- ^
a
b
c
Duri, A. A. (2012).
The Historical Formation of the Arab Nation (RLE: the Arab Nation)
. Routledge. p. 73.
ISBN
978-0-415-62286-8
.
- ^
a
b
Heath, Jeffrey (2020).
"Moroccan Arabic"
.
Language Science Press
. Berlin: University of Michigan: 213?223.
- ^
a
b
c
Ennaji, Moha (2014-04-16).
Multiculturalism and Democracy in North Africa: Aftermath of the Arab Spring
. Routledge. p. 46.
ISBN
978-1-317-81362-0
.
- ^
Bateson, Mary Catherine (1967).
Arabic Language Handbook
. Georgetown University Press. p. 106.
ISBN
978-0-87840-386-8
.
- ^
Spickard, Paul R. (2005).
Race and Nation: Ethnic Systems in the Modern World
. Psychology Press. p. 135.
ISBN
978-0-415-95002-2
.
- ^
Mountjoy, Alan B.; Embleton, Clifford (2023-12-01).
Africa: A Geographical Study
. Taylor & Francis.
ISBN
978-1-003-83813-5
.
- ^
Hareir, Idris El; Mbaye, Ravane (2011-01-01).
The Spread of Islam Throughout the World
. UNESCO. p. 409.
ISBN
978-92-3-104153-2
.
- ^
Zaidan, Omar F.; Callison-Burch, Chris (2014).
"Arabic Dialect Identification"
.
Computational Linguistics
.
40
(1): 171?202.
doi
:
10.1162/COLI_a_00169
.
- ^
Tilmatine, Mohand (1999).
"Substrat et convergences: Le berbere et l'arabe nord-africain"
.
Estudios de dialectologia norteafricana y andalusi
(in French).
4
: 99?119.
- ^
Benramdane, Farid (1998).
"
Le maghribi, langue trois fois millenaire
de Elimam, Abdou (Ed. ANEP, Alger 1997)"
.
Insaniyat
(6): 129?130.
doi
:
10.4000/insaniyat.12102
.
S2CID
161182954
. Retrieved
12 February
2015
.
- ^
Sayahi, Lotfi (2014).
Diglossia and Language Contact: Language Variation and Change in North Africa
. Cambridge University Press. p. 26.
ISBN
978-0521119368
. Retrieved
13 December
2017
.
- ^
Aguade, Jorge (2018).
The Maghrebi dialects of Arabic
. p. 34.
doi
:
10.1093/OSO/9780198701378.003.0002
.
ISBN
978-0-19-870137-8
.
Wikidata
Q117189070
.
- ^
Corriente, Federico (29 September 2012).
A Descriptive and Comparative Grammar of Andalusi Arabic
. pp. 142?143.
ISBN
978-90-04-22742-2
.
OL
25253097M
.
Wikidata
Q117189169
.
- ^
cf.
Singer, Hans R. (1 June 1984).
Grammatik der arabischen Mundart der Medina von Tunis
(in German). Berlin, New York City:
De Gruyter
. p. 129.
doi
:
10.1515/9783110834703
.
ISBN
978-3-11-003435-6
.
OL
2348842M
.
Wikidata
Q117189196
.
- ^
Aguade, Jorge (2018).
The Maghrebi dialects of Arabic
. p. 35.
doi
:
10.1093/OSO/9780198701378.003.0002
.
ISBN
978-0-19-870137-8
.
Wikidata
Q117189070
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Singer, Hans-Rudolf (1980) “Das Westarabische oder Maghribinische” in Wolfdietrich Fischer and Otto Jastrow (eds.)
Handbuch der arabischen Dialekte
. Otto Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden. 249?76.
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