Moroccan Arabic (Darija) Language Guide

Official language in
Morocco
Script
Arabic

Where it's spoken

Morocco's constitution says that Arabic remains the official language of the State and that Tamazight is also an official language of the State. A paper on a Darija dataset describes Darija as the informal and widely used dialect in Morocco, and the Peace Corps textbook calls Moroccan Arabic "also called Darija"; this app's card "I don't speak Darija well", ماكانهضرش الدارجة مزيان (mā kānhḍer-sh d-dārija mizyān), uses that name.

The Peace Corps textbook says that greetings change from one region to another, and that people in different parts of Morocco may form the future tense differently, though everyone in Morocco should understand you whichever way you form it.

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Script & pronunciation

The paper on the Darija dataset says that Darija lacks a standard orthography and has only recently begun to appear frequently in writing, using either the Arabic alphabet or a mixture of the Latin alphabet and numbers. This app writes it in Arabic script and adds a Latin romanization to every card.

As in Standard Arabic, vowels are often left unwritten in Arabic-script Darija. The Peace Corps textbook adds that syllables and even whole words without a written vowel are normal in Moroccan Arabic, and this app's romanization of كانهضر ("I speak a little"), kānhḍer, shows the consonants h and ḍ side by side.

Moroccan Arabic has a hard "g" sound that Standard Arabic lacks. One article on Moroccan writing says that Morocco chose a kaf with three dots above it for this sound, and this app's card for "My luggage has not arrived", الباڭاج ديالي ماوصلش (l-bāgāj dyāli mā wṣel-sh), writes it with ڭ.

This app's romanization writes the sound of ش as sh and the sound of غ as gh, as in ghādi, whereas the Peace Corps textbook uses š for ش and ġ for غ.

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Grammar essentials

To negate a verb, Moroccan Arabic adds the prefix ma to the beginning of the verb and the suffix š to its end; this app writes the suffix as -sh, as in its card for "I don't understand", مافهمتش (mā fhemt-sh).

In the present tense, the verb takes the prefix ka plus one more letter (n, t or y), and the present tense normally expresses both habitual and ongoing actions; this app's card "I speak a little", كانهضر شوية (kānhḍer shwiyya), has the prefix ka with n for "I". The future is formed by dropping that ka prefix and placing ġadi before the verb, as in the app's card "When do we board the plane?", إمتا غادي نركبو فالطيارة؟ (imta ghādi nrkbu f-ṭ-ṭayyāra?).

When a pronoun is followed by a noun or an adjective, the verb "to be" is not needed, as in the app's card "You are very kind", نتا ضريف بزاف (nta ḍrīf bzāf).

A yes/no question can begin with a question word spelled weš in the Peace Corps textbook, which this app writes wāsh, as in its card "Do you speak English?", واش كاتهضر بالانجليزية؟ (wāsh kāthḍer b-l-inglīzīya?). In the Peace Corps examples, question words such as "what", "where" and "when" also come at the start of the sentence.

"There is" is expressed with kayn for a masculine singular, kayna for a feminine singular and kaynin for a plural; this app's cards "Is there an elevator?", واش كاين السانسور؟ (wāsh kāyn s-sānsūr?), and "Where is the bank?", فين كاينة البنكة؟ (fīn kāyna l-benka?), use the first two forms.

Possession can be expressed with the word dyal placed after a noun that has the definite article, with a possessive ending attached to dyal, as in the app's card الباڭاج ديالي (l-bāgāj dyāli), "my luggage".

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Politeness & etiquette

The word for "you" has separate forms for a man, nta, and for a woman, nti, with ntuma as the plural, according to the Peace Corps textbook; this app's card for "You", نتا / نتي (nta / nti), says that there is no separate polite form.

Verbs addressed to a woman take an ending: the Peace Corps textbook gives "you write" with an added -i for a woman, and this app's card "Do you speak English?" notes that you say kāthḍri to a woman. The same split appears in the greeting "How are you?", كيداير؟ / كيدايرة؟ (kīdāyer? / kīdāyra?), where the first form is for a man and the second for a woman.

The Peace Corps textbook lists many requests that end in the word for "please", such as "Give me … please", and this app's card "Please show me your passport", ورّيني الباسبور ديالك عافاك (warrīni l-pāspōr dyālek ʿāfāk), follows the same pattern. The card for "Please", عافاك (ʿāfāk), notes that the same form is used for men and women and that the Standard Arabic min faḍlik is not used in Moroccan speech.

The greeting السلام عليكم (s-salāmu ʿalaykum) is answered with وعليكم السلام (w-ʿalaykum s-salām), according to the Peace Corps textbook, and its cultural note says that "How are you?" requires only a simple "Fine, thanks be to God"; this app's card for that reply is بيخير الحمد لله، شكرا (bīkhīr l-ḥamdu lillāh, shukran).

This app's card مرحبا (marḥba) is a reply to thanks meaning "You're welcome", and its note says it is not a plain hello.

Sources

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