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Ethnologue: Languages of the World
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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Africa > Morocco > Arabic, Moroccan Spoken

Arabic, Moroccan Spoken

A language of Morocco

ISO 639-3ary

Population  18,800,000 in Morocco (1995). Population total all countries: 21,048,900.
Region  North, south of Atlas Mountains, including Sahara port cities. Also in Belgium, Egypt, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Libya, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Western Sahara.
Language map  Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Western Sahara
Alternate names   Colloquial Arabic, Maghrebi Arabic, Maghribi, Moroccan Arabic, Moroccan Colloquial Arabic, Moroccan Dareja, Moroccan Darija, Moroccan Dereja
Dialects  Rabat-Casablanca Arabic, Fez, Meknes, Tangier, Oujda, Jebli (Jebelia, Jbala), Southern Morocco Arabic, Marrakech.
Classification  Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic
A member of macrolanguage Arabic [ara] (Saudi Arabia).
Language use  5,000,000 L2 speakers. Speakers are keenly aware of differences with other Arabic varieties.
Language development  NT: 1932.
Writing system  Arabic script.
Comments  Speakers across North Africa call their spoken Arabic varieties ‘darija’ or ‘darijah’, so it is not specific for this variety. 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. Muslim (Sunni).

Also spoken in:

Western Sahara

Language name   Arabic, Moroccan Spoken
Language map 
Language use  Official language.