Moroccan Arabic - Overview

Overview

Moroccan Arabic is one of the spoken varieties of Arabic. The question of whether the spoken Arabic varieties are separate languages or merely dialects of "Arabic" (considered as a single language) is a wrong question. Native speakers typically consider the spoken varieties to be dialects because they are not literary languages and lack prestige compared to Standard Arabic (fuṣḥa). From a linguist's perspective, Moroccan Arabic (or perhaps a combined Moroccan–Tunisian–Algerian or "Maghrebi" Arabic) appears to be a separate language but but a thorough study shows many common points between Maghreb dialects and dialects of the East all that leave no doubt about their common origin. 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. Darija (which means " current") 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 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 French 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.