Darija

"Darja" redirects here. For the Romanian village of Dârja, see Panticeu.

Darija (الدارجة; also transcribed (ad-)dārija (standard), derija or darja, which means "dialect" in Modern Standard Arabic) is the group of Arabic dialects spoken by Maghrebi Arabic speakers. It is only used for oral communication, with Modern Standard Arabic (الفصحى (al-)fuṣḥā) used for written communication. Darija has acquired the majority of its vocabulary from Classical Arabic, however it also includes significant overtones of Berber substrates,^[1] as well as extensive borrowings from French, and to a lesser extent Castilian Spanish and even Italian (primarily in Libya) – the languages of the historical colonial occupiers of the Maghreb. Darija is mutually spoken and understood in the Maghreb countries, especially Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, but can often be unintelligible to speakers of other Arabic dialects. Darija continues to evolve by integrating new French or English words, notably in technical fields, or by replacing old French and Spanish ones with Standard Arabic words within some circles.

In contrast, the colloquial dialects of other Arab countries, including Egypt, Jordan and the Sudan, are most often known as (العامي al-‘āmmiyya.

Darija can refer to:

• Algerian Arabic
• Ḥassāniyya, spoken by the Saharans in Mauritania and the Western Sahara.
• Libyan Arabic
• Moroccan Arabic
• Tunisian Arabic

Arab language dialects

An overview of the different Arabic dialects

Notes and references

Notes

1. ^ Tilmatine Mohand, Substrat et convergences: Le berbére et l'arabe nord-africain (1999), in Estudios de dialectologia norteaafricana y andalusi 4, pp 99–119