Maghrebi Arabic
Maghrebi Arabic | |
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Darija, Western Arabic North African Arabic | |
اللهجات المغاربية | |
Region | Maghreb |
Ethnicity | Arabs, also used as a second language by other ethnic groups in the Maghreb |
Native speakers | 88 million (2020–2022)[1] |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
Dialects |
|
Glottolog | nort3191 |
Maghrebi Arabic (
Name
Darija, Derija or Delja (
In contrast, the colloquial dialects of more eastern Arab countries, such as Egypt, Jordan and Sudan, are usually known as al-‘āmmīya (العامية), though Egyptians may also refer to their dialects as el-logha d-darga.
History and origin
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, Salé 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
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
Relationship with Modern Standard Arabic and Berber languages
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.[19] in morphology, this substratum is considered the origin of the plural noun morphemes -əsh/-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 شَاقُور, shāqūr, 'hatchet' from secūris (this could also be borrowed from Spanish segur);[22] ببوش, 'snail' from babōsus and فلوس, 'chick' from pullus through Berber afullus.[23]
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
See also
Notes
- ^ Darja, Derdja, Derja, Derija or Darija, depending on the region's dialect
References
- ^ 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) - ISBN 3447020024. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
- 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 sémito-méditerranéenne (PDF). Synergies Tunisie.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4384-2393-7.
- Wikidata Q117189264. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
- ^ Wehr, Hans (2011). A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic.; Harrell, Richard S. (1966). Dictionary of Moroccan Arabic.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-415-62286-8.
- ^ a b Heath, Jeffrey (2020). "Moroccan Arabic". Language Science Press. Berlin: University of Michigan: 213–223.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-317-81362-0.
- ISBN 978-0-87840-386-8.
- ISBN 978-0-415-95002-2.
- ISBN 978-1-003-83813-5.
- ISBN 978-92-3-104153-2.
- .
- ^ Tilmatine, Mohand (1999). "Substrat et convergences: Le berbère et l'arabe nord-africain". Estudios de dialectología norteafricana y andalusí (in French). 4: 99–119.
- S2CID 161182954. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
- ISBN 978-0521119368. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- )
- Wikidata Q117189169.
- Wikidata Q117189196.
- )
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.