This makes learning the dialect a tricky affair. Moroccan Arabic textbooks are equally as rare. There are hardly any books written in dialect and certainly no newspapers written completely in dialect.
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Due to the status that MSA has, the dialects are often thought of a corruptions rather than variants of Arabic. Students take Darija classes in addition to their MSA classes and are really challenged by the fact that what they hear at home and what they hear on the street differ from the majority of what they are learning in school.
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It is the language spoken by all the students’ teachers, and the language spoken by cab drivers and business owners alike.ĭarija differs so much from MSA that the two are almost mutually unintelligible when spoken. Egypt has Egyptian Arabic, Iraq has Iraqi Arabic, Syria has Syrian Arabic and Morocco has Moroccan Arabic. But, every Arabic speaking country has it’s own dialect. The texts that they study are in MSA.Īs soon as they leave the classroom, they leave the domain of MSA and enter the land of Darija…Įvery Arabic speaking country uses MSA in its print media and in all formal interactions. Their tests and oral presentations are in MSA. Students spend the majority of their time in class studying in MSA. Because of the importance and all-pervasiveness of Islam in Arabic-speaking countries and MSA’s closeness to Classical Arabic, MSA is given high status. Religious services, newspapers, novels, university lectures or any other official means of communication are done in MSA. Modern Standard Arabic (or MSA) is the language of print media, academia and religion. NSLI-Y students in Morocco are essentially learning two languages. The two languages are so similar that they are sometimes considered two registers of the same language. Whew!Ĭlassical Arabic, the language that the Koran was written in, is considered the parent language of Modern Standard Arabic, the formal, standardized language of today in all Arab countries. They will also be familiar with Classical Arabic – the language of the Quran.
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In addition, Moroccans who have completed high school will be conversant in Modern Standard Arabic, French and Moroccan “Darija” Arabic. Figures are hard to nail down, but approximately 30% of Moroccans speak a Berber* dialect. Due to a long history of foreign occupation, starting with the Romans and ending with the French, multilingualism abounds.
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Most Moroccans speak at least two languages.