Maghrebi Arabic

Maghrebi Arabic
Maghrebi Arabic
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
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Maghrebi Arabic; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Algerian Arabic; Moroccan Arabic; Libyan Arabic; Tunisian Arabic; Hassaniya Arabic; Saharan Arabic; Siculo-Arabic (survives as Maltese); Andalusi Arabic †; Dialectal continuums:; Hilalian dialects; Pre-Hilalian dialects;
Writing system	Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously:; arq – Algerian Arabic; xaa – Andalusi Arabic; mey – Hassaniya Arabic; ayl – Libyan Arabic; ary – Moroccan Arabic; aao – Saharan Arabic; sqr – Siculo-Arabic; aeb – Tunisian Arabic
Glottolog	nort3191

Maghrebi Arabic (Arabic: الْلهجَة الْمَغاربِيَة, Western Arabic; as opposed to Eastern or Mashriqi Arabic) is a vernacular Arabic dialect continuum spoken in the Maghreb. It includes the Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, Libyan, Hassaniya and Saharan Arabic dialects. It is known as ad-Dārija (Arabic: الدارجة; meaning "common or everyday dialect"). This serves to differentiate the spoken vernacular from Standard Arabic. Maghrebi Arabic has a predominantly Semitic and Arabic vocabulary, although it contains a few Berber loanwords which represent 2–3% of the vocabulary of Libyan Arabic, 8–9% of Algerian and Tunisian Arabic, and 10–15% of Moroccan Arabic. Maghrebi Arabic was formerly spoken in Al-Andalus and Sicily until the 17th and 13th centuries, respectively, in the extinct forms of Andalusi Arabic and Siculo-Arabic. The Maltese language is believed to have its source in a language spoken in Muslim Sicily that ultimately originates from Tunisia, as it contains some typical Maghrebi Arabic areal characteristics.

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