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
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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). |