Ajay Kumar at 05:32, 29 August 2023

2023-08-29T05:32:09Z

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{{short description|Family of Arabic dialects spoken in the Maghreb}}
{{for|the people|Maghrebi Arabs}}
{{redirect|Darja|the village in Iran|Darreh Ja|the Romanian village of Dârja|Panticeu}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Maghrebi Arabic
| altname = Darija, Western Arabic<br />North African Arabic
| region = [[Maghreb]]
| familycolor = Afro-Asiatic
| fam2 = [[Semitic languages|Semitic]]
| fam3 = [[Central Semitic languages|Central Semitic]]
| fam4 = [[Arabic]]
| dia1 = [[Algerian Arabic]]
| dia2 = [[Moroccan Arabic]]
| dia3 = [[Libyan Arabic]]
| dia4 = [[Tunisian Arabic]]
| dia5 = [[Jebli Arabic]]
| dia6 = [[Jijel Arabic]]
| dia7 = [[Hassaniya Arabic]]
| dia8 = [[Algerian Saharan Arabic|Saharan Arabic]]
| dia9 = [[Andalusi Arabic]]{{extinct}}
| dia10 = [[Siculo-Arabic]]{{extinct}} (Evolved Into [[Maltese language|Maltese]])
| script = [[Arabic abjad]]
| glotto = nort3191
| glottorefname = North African Arabic
| nativename = اللهجات المغاربية
}}
'''Maghrebi Arabic''' ({{Lang-ar|الْلهجَة الْمَغاربِيَة}}, Western Arabic; as opposed to [[Mashriqi Arabic|Eastern or Mashriqi Arabic]]) is a [[vernacular]] [[Arabic]] [[Varieties of Arabic|dialect continuum]] spoken in the [[Maghreb]]—western Islamic Africa and, in the past, [[Al-Andalus|Islamic Iberia]] and [[Emirate of Sicily|Sicily]]. It includes [[Moroccan Arabic|Moroccan]], [[Algerian Arabic|Algerian]], [[Tunisian Arabic|Tunisian]], [[Libyan Arabic|Libyan]], [[Hassaniya Arabic|Hassaniya]], [[Maltese Language|Maltese]], and, previously, [[Andalusi Arabic|Andalusi]] and [[Siculo-Arabic]]. It is known locally as '''''ad-Dārija'''''{{Efn|Darja, Derdja, Derja, Derija or Darija, depending on the region's dialect}} ({{lang-ar|الدارجة}}; meaning "common or everyday dialect"<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wehr|first1=Hans|title=A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic: (Arab.-Engl.)|date=1979|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=3447020024|page=319|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WTak55pG-_IC&pg=PA319|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref>). This serves to differentiate the spoken vernacular from [[Modern Standard Arabic|Standard Arabic]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Harrell|first1=Richard Slade|title=A Dictionary of Moroccan Arabic: Moroccan-English|date=2004|publisher=Georgetown University Press|isbn=1589011031|page=18|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uQD2Qd-dhy0C&pg=PA18|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref> Maghrebi Arabic has a predominantly [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] and [[Arabic]] vocabulary,<ref name="Abdou Elimam">{{cite book |last1=Elimam |first1=Abdou |url=http://gerflint.fr/Base/Tunisie1/elimam.pdf |title=Du Punique au Maghribi :Trajectoires d'une langue sémito-méditerranéenne |publisher=Synergies Tunisie |year=2009}}</ref> although it contains a few [[Berber languages|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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Wexler |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YJpdiPiG2g4C&pg=PA174 |title=The Non-Jewish Origins of the Sephardic Jews |date=2012-02-01 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-1-4384-2393-7 |language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite Q |Q117189264 |last1=Borg |first1=Albert |last2=Azzopardi-Alexander |first2=Marie |title=Maltese |date=2013 |isbn=978-1136855283|page=xiii|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=80S7B0sAKFIC&pg=PR13 |access-date=17 March 2023}}</ref>

==Name==
''Darija'', ''Derija'' or ''Delja'' ({{lang-ar|الدارجة}}) means "everyday/colloquial dialect";<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wehr |first=Hans |title=A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic |date=2011}}; {{Cite book |last=Harrell |first=Richard S. |title=Dictionary of Moroccan Arabic |date=1966}}</ref> it is also rendered as ''{{transl|aeb|ed-dārija}}'', ''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 ''{{transl|aeb|al-‘āmmīya}}'' ({{lang|ar|العامية}}), though Egyptians may also refer to their dialects as ''al-logha-d-darga''.

==Characteristics==
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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zaidan |first1=Omar F. |last2=Callison-Burch |first2=Chris |date=2014 |title=Arabic Dialect Identification |url=https://direct.mit.edu/coli/article/40/1/171-202/1458 |journal=Computational Linguistics |language=en |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=171–202 |doi=10.1162/COLI_a_00169 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

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 [[grammatical person|first-person]] [[grammatical number|singular]] [[prefix (linguistics)|prefix]] on [[verb]]s, distinguishing them from [[Levantine Arabic|Levantine dialects]] and Modern Standard Arabic.

===Relationship with Modern Standard Arabic and Berber languages===
Modern Standard Arabic ({{lang-ar |الفصحى |al-fuṣḥá |translit-std=ALA}}) is the primary language used in the government, legislation and judiciary of countries in the Maghreb. Maghrebi Arabic is mainly a [[spoken language|spoken]] and [[Vernacular|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 languages|Semitic]] [[Arabic]] vocabulary.<ref name="Abdou Elimam" /> It contains a few [[Berber languages|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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Mohand">{{Cite journal |last=Tilmatine |first=Mohand |date=1999 |title=Substrat et convergences: Le berbère et l'arabe nord-africain |url=https://www.uco.es/ucopress/ojs/index.php/edna/article/view/7273 |journal=Estudios de dialectología norteafricana y andalusí |language=fr |volume=4 |pages=99–119}}</ref> The dialect may also possess a [[substratum]] of [[Punic language|Punic]].<ref name="maghribi">{{Cite journal |last=Benramdane |first=Farid |date=1998 |title=''Le maghribi, langue trois fois millénaire'' de Elimam, Abdou (Éd. ANEP, Alger 1997) |url=http://insaniyat.revues.org/12102 |journal=Insaniyat |issue=6 |pages=129–130 |doi=10.4000/insaniyat.12102 |s2cid=161182954 |access-date=12 February 2015}}</ref>

===Latin substratum===
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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sayahi|first1=Lotfi|title=Diglossia and Language Contact: Language Variation and Change in North Africa|date=2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0521119368|page=26|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9R5GAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA26|access-date=13 December 2017}}</ref>
Morphologically, this substratum brought the plural noun morphemes ''-əsh''/''-osh'' that are common in northern Moroccan dialects<ref>{{Cite Q |Q117189070 |last=Aguadé |first=Jorge |p=34}}</ref> and probably the gender merging in the second person singular of personal pronouns verbs for example in Andalusian Arabic.<ref>{{Cite Q |Q117189169 |last=Corriente |first=Federico |pp=142–143}}</ref>
The lexicon derives many words form Latin, e.g. the Moroccan/Algerian/Tunisian {{lang-ary |شَاقُور |shāqūr |translit-std=ALA |lit=hatchet |label=none}} from {{wikt-lang|la|secūris}} (this could also be derived from Spanish {{wikt-lang|es|segur}});<ref>Cf. {{Cite Q |Q117189196 |last=Singer |first=Hans R. |p=129}}</ref> {{lang-ary |rtl=no |{{wikt-lang|ary|ببوش}} | |translit-std= |lit=snail |label=babbūsh}} from {{wikt-lang|la|babōsus}} and {{lang-ary |rtl=no |{{wikt-lang|ary|فلوس}} | |translit-std= |lit=chick |label=falus}} from {{wikt-lang|la|pullus}} through Berber {{Lang|ber-Latn|afullus}}.<ref>{{Cite Q |Q117189070 |last=Aguadé |first=Jorge |p=35}}</ref>

===Relationship with other languages===
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 [[Grammatical conjugation|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]].

==Varieties==
* [[Varieties of Arabic]]
* [[Pre-Hilalian Arabic dialects]]
* [[Hilalian dialects]]
* [[Judeo-Arabic dialects]]
* [[Koiné language|Koinés]]:
** [[Algerian Arabic]]
** [[Moroccan Arabic]]
*** [[Judeo-Moroccan Arabic]]
** [[Tunisian Arabic]]
** [[Libyan Arabic]]
*** [[Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic]]
** [[Jebli Arabic]]
** [[Jijel Arabic]]
** [[Andalusi Arabic]] (extinct)
** [[Siculo-Arabic]] (extinct)
*** [[Maltese language]] (descended from Sicilian Arabic, but influenced [[lexicon|lexically]] by Sicilian, Italian, French, and more recently, English)
* Western [[Bedouin]]:
** [[Hassaniya Arabic]]
** [[Algerian Saharan Arabic|Saharan Arabic]]

==See also==

* [[Maghrebi Arabs]]
* [[Varieties of Arabic]]
* [[Moroccan Arabic]]
* [[Languages of Africa]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
<references />

==Further reading==
* 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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{{Arabic language}}
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[[Category:Maghrebi Arabic| ]]
[[Category:Arabic languages]]
[[Category:Languages of Gibraltar]]
[[Category:Languages of Sicily]]
[[Category:Languages of Spain]]

Maghrebi Arabic - Revision history

Ajay Kumar at 05:32, 29 August 2023