Moroccan Arabic
Moroccan Arabic (Arabic: العربية المغربية الدارجة, romanized: al-ʻArabiyyah al-Maghribiyyah ad-Dārija lit. 'Moroccan vernacular Arabic'), also known as Darija (الدارجة or الداريجة), is the dialectal, vernacular form or forms of Arabic spoken in Morocco. It is part of the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum and as such is mutually intelligible to some extent with Algerian Arabic and to a lesser extent with Tunisian Arabic. It is spoken by 90.9% of the population of Morocco. While Modern Standard Arabic is used to varying degrees in formal situations such as religious sermons, books, newspapers, government communications, news broadcasts and political talk shows, Moroccan Arabic is the predominant spoken language of the country and has a strong presence in Moroccan television entertainment, cinema and commercial advertising. Moroccan Arabic has many regional dialects and accents as well, with its mainstream dialect being the one used in Casablanca, Rabat, Tangier, Marrakesh and Fez, and therefore it dominates the media and eclipses most of the other regional accents.
Moroccan Arabic | |
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Darija | |
العربية المغربية الدارجة | |
Pronunciation | [ddæɾiʒæ] |
Native to | Morocco |
Region | Western Maghreb |
Ethnicity | Moroccans |
Speakers | L1: 30 million (2020) L2: 9.6 million (2020) Total: 39 million |
Dialects | |
Arabic alphabet | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | ary |
Glottolog | moro1292 |
Map of Moroccan Arabic | |
SIL International classifies Moroccan Arabic, Hassaniya Arabic and Judeo-Moroccan Arabic as different varieties of Arabic.