Arabic, Moroccan Spoken

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A language of Morocco

ISO 639-3
ary
Alternate Names
Colloquial Arabic, Maghrebi Arabic, Maghribi, Moroccan Arabic, Moroccan Colloquial Arabic, Moroccan Dareja, Moroccan Darija, Moroccan Dereja
Population

18,800,000 in Morocco (1995). Population total all countries: 21,048,600.

Location

North, south of Atlas Mountains, including Sahara port cities. Also in Belgium, Egypt, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Libya, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Western Sahara.

Language Maps
Language Status

3 (Wider communication). De facto national working language.

Classification
Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic
Dialects

Fez, Jebli (Jbala, Jebelia), Marrakech, Meknes, Oujda, Rabat-Casablanca Arabic, Southern Morocco Arabic, Tangier.

Typology

SVO; prepositions; genitives, adjectives, relatives after noun heads; articles and numerals before noun heads; question word initial; prefixes 3. suffixes 4; word order distinguishes subjects, objects, indirect objects, topic and comment; affixes do not indicate case of noun phrase; verb affixes mark person, number, gender of subject, object-obligatory; CCVCC; nontonal

Language Use

5,000,000 L2 speakers. Speakers are keenly aware of differences with other Arabic varieties.

Language Development
NT: 1932–2012.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Arabic, Moroccan Spoken
Writing
Arabic script.
Other Comments

Muslim (Sunni).

Also spoken in:

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