Algerian Arabic (), natively known as or , is a variety of Arabic spoken in Algeria. It belongs to the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum and is mostly intelligible with the Tunisian and Moroccan dialects. Darja () means 'everyday/colloquial dialect'.;
Like other varieties of Maghrebi Arabic, Algerian Arabic has a mostly Semitic vocabulary. 20% of Algerian Arabic words are from Arabic and 34% of Algerian words are inspired from it. It contains Berber, Punic, and African Romance influences and has some loanwords from French, Andalusi Arabic, Ottoman Turkish and Spanish. Berber loanwords represent 8% to 9% of its vocabulary.
Use Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is generally reserved for official use and education, while Algerian Arabic is the native dialect of 75% to 80% of Algerians and is mastered by 85% to 100% of them. It is a spoken language used in daily communication and entertainment. As in the rest of the Arab world, this linguistic situation has been described as diglossia: MSA is nobody's first acquired language; it is learned through formal instruction rather than transmission from parent to child.
Besides informal communication, Algerian Arabic is rarely written. In 2008, The Little Prince was translated in Algerian Arabic. The first novel written in Algerian Arabic is published by Rabeh Sebaa in 2021 and is entitled Fahla (in Latin script and Arabic characters).
Dialects The classification of dialects in Algeria is made particularly difficult due to the geography of Algeria, allowing pockets of isolated speakers to form, as well as the mixing of dialects in urban centers, creating a "koine" for each city.
However, the Arabic dialects can still be divided into two genetically different groups: pre-Hilalian and Hilalian dialects.
Hilalian dialects Hilalian dialects of Algeria belong to three linguistic groups:K. Versteegh, Dialects of Arabic: Maghreb Dialects , hteachmideast.org. Eastern Hilal dialects: includes three main groups: Sétif-Batna, Mila-Skikda (includes Constantine), and Annaba-Tébessa-Biskra.The dialects of El Oued and El Taref are very close to Tunisian Arabic. Central Hilal dialects: of central and southern Algeria, includes two clusters: Chlef-Médéa and Tipaza-Boumerdès (includes Algiers).The Central Hilal also includes Algerian Saharan Arabic. Mâqil dialects: spoken in the western part of Oranais (noted for the third singular masculine accusative pronoun h, for example, (I saw him), which would be in other dialects).The Mâqil family of dialects also includes Moroccan Bedouin Arabic dialects and Hassaniya. Those of the Oranais are similar to those of eastern Morocco (Oujda area).
Modern koine languages, urban and national, are based mainly on Hilalian dialects.
Pre-Hilalian dialects Pre-Hilalian Arabic dialects are generally classified into three types: Urban, "Village" Sedentary, and Jewish dialects. Several Pre-Hilalian dialects are spoken in Algeria:D. Caubet, Questionnaire de dialectologie du Maghreb , in: EDNA vol.5 (2000-2001), pp.73-92 Urban dialects can be found in all of Algeria's big cities. Urban dialects were formerly also spoken in other cities, such as Azemmour and Mascara, Algeria, where they are no longer used. The Jijel Arabic (or Jijeli Dialect) is spoken in the triangular area north of Constantine, including Collo and Jijel (it is noteworthy for its pronunciation of [q] as [k] and [t] as [ts] and characterized, such as other Eastern pre-Hilalian dialects, by the preservation of the three short vowels). The traras-Msirda dialect is spoken in the area north of Tlemcen, including the eastern Traras, Rachgoun and Honaine (it is noted for its pronunciation of [q] as [k]); Judeo-Algerian Arabic is no longer spoken after Algerian Jews left Algeria in 1962.
Phonology Consonants +Consonant phonemes of Algerian Arabic LabialDental/AlveolarPalatalVelarUvularPharyngealGlottal plainemphatic plain emphaticNasal () ()Occlusivevoiceless() ()voiced ()Affricatevoiceless() voicedFricativevoicelessvoiced()TrillApproximant In comparison to other Maghrebi dialects, Algerian Arabic has retained numerous phonetic elements of Classical Arabic lost by its relatives; In the Algiers dialect, the letters , , and are not used, they are in most cases pronounced as the graphemes , , and respectively. This conservatism concerning pronunciation is in contrast to Algerian Arabic grammar which has shifted noticeably. In terms of differences from Classical Arabic, the previous and phonemes have developed contrastive glottalized forms and split into and ; and and . Additionally, from Classical Arabic has split into and in most dialects. The phonemes and which are not common in Arabic dialects arise almost exclusively from (predominantly French) loanwords.
The voiceless "Ch" (t͡ʃ) is used in some words in the Algerian dialect like "" (orange) or "" (A kind of Algerian sweet) and it is largely seen in Eastern Hilal dialects.
Dissimilation A study of Northwestern Algerian Arabic (specifically around Oran) showed that laterals or or the nasal consonant would be dissimilated into either in the case of or ; or or in the case of when closely preceding a corresponding lateral or nasal consonant. Thus (earthquake) has become , conversely "mutton" becomes .
Assimilation The same study also noted numerous examples of assimilation in Northwestern Algerian Arabic, due to the large consonant clusters created from all of the historical vowel deletion: examples include "chicken", becoming and "good", becoming . An example of assimilation that occurs after the short vowel deletion is the historical / "now" becoming and then being assimilated to , illustrating the order in which the rules of Algerian Arabic may operate.
Vowels +Monophthong phonemes of Algerian ArabicShortLongFrontCentralBackFrontBackCloseəMidOpen The phonemic vowel inventory of Algerian Arabic consists of three long vowels: , , and contrasted with two short vowels: and /ə/. Algerian Arabic Vowels retains a great deal of features in relation to Classical Arabic Arabic phonology, namely the continued existence of 3 long vowels: , , and , Algerian Arabic also retains the short close back vowel in speech, however the short equivalents of and have fused in modern Algerian Arabic, creating a single phoneme /ə/. Also notable among the differences between Classical Arabic and Algerian Arabic is the deletion of short vowels entirely from open syllables and thus word final positions, which creates a stark distinction between written Classical Arabic, and casually written Algerian Arabic. One point of interest in Algerian Arabic that sets it apart from other conservative Arabic dialects is its preservation of phonemes in (specifically French) loanwords that would otherwise not be found in the language: , , and are all preserved in French loanwords such as (French: 'sûre', English: 'sure') or /kɔnɛksiɔ̃/ (connection).
Grammar
Nouns and adjectives English Algerian Arabic drink šrab sky sma water ma woman / women mra / nsa fire nar big kbir man / men rajel / rjal day nhar / yum moon qmer night lil bread khubz / kesra small ṣγir Turtle Fekrun sand rmel winter / rain šta / mṭar / nu ball balun towel serbita toilet / bathroom bit-el-ma / bit-er-raḥa / Twalat
Conjunctions and prepositions
English Algerian Arabic Notes of usage but beṣṣaḥ , emeṣṣaḥ if ila, ida, lakan, kun, Fihalat used for impossible conditions and comes just before the verb if lukan, kun for possible conditions, Also used is "ida" and "kan" so that, that baš, bah that belli as if ki šγul, tquši, tqul, tgul because xaṭar, xaṭrakeš, εlaxaṭer, εlajal when ila / wakta / winta / Ki (used for some cases like : when you come I'll tell you) before qbel ma / gbel ma used before verbs without bla ma / blach used before verbs whether kaš ma used before verbs under taḥt over, on top of fuq or fug after mur / mura / Baεd / wra before qbel / gbel used only for time next to, beside quddam or guddam is also used "ḥda" / "baḥda" at εend / εla with mεa among, between bin, binat (plural) same as, as much as εla ḥsab, qed, ged, kima amount oh, oh so much ya, ah
Some of them can be attached to the noun, just like in other Arabic dialects. The word for in, "fi", can be attached to a definite noun. For example, the word for a house has a definite form "ed-dar" but with "fi", it becomes "fed-dar".
Gender Algerian Arabic uses two genders for words: masculine and feminine. Masculine nouns and adjectives generally end with a consonant while the feminine nouns generally end with an a.
Examples: "Rafik is beautiful(male)", "Zeyneb is beautiful(female)".
Verbs usually have an "i" when directed towards a female, Although in some dialects (Eastern Hilal dialect for example), the same verb ending with an "i" is used for both females and males.
Examples: "What did you eat today?(male)", "What did you eat today?(either female or both female and male depending on the dialect)".
Pluralisation Hilalian dialects, on which the modern koine is based, often use regular plural while the wider use of the broken plural is characteristic to pre-Hilalian dialects.
The regular masculine plural is formed with the suffix -in, which derives from the Classical Arabic genitive and accusative ending -īna rather than the nominative -ūna: mumen (believer) → mumnin For feminine nouns, the regular plural is obtained by suffixing -at: Classical Arabic: bint (girl) → banat Algerian Arabic: bent → bnat
The broken plural can be found for some plurals in Hilalian dialects, but it is mainly used, for the same words, in pre-Hilalian dialects: Broken plural: ṭabla → ṭwabəl.
Article The article el is indeclinable and expresses a definite state of a noun of any gender and number. It is also prefixed to each of that noun's modifying adjectives.
It follows the sun and moon letters rules of Classical Arabic: if the word starts with one of these consonants, el is assimilated and replaced by the first consonant:
, , , , , , , , , , .
Examples:
rajel → er-rajel "man" (assimilation) qeṭṭ → el-qeṭṭ "cat" (no assimilation)
Important Notes:
When lunar letters are followed by consonants, the article le- is used.
Examples:
qmer → le-qmer "moon" ḥjer → le-ḥjer "stone"
The article el is always used with words that begin with vowels.
Examples:
alf → el-alf "thousand"
Verbs Verbs are conjugated by adding affixes (prefixes, postfixes, both or none) that change according to the tense.
In all Algerian Arabic dialects, there is no gender differentiation of the second and third person in the plural forms, nor is there gender differentiation of the second person in the singular form in pre-Hilalian dialects. Hilalian dialects preserve the gender differentiation of the singular second person.
Person Past Present Singular Plural Singular Plural 1st - t - na n - n(e) - u 2nd (m) - t - tu t - t - u 2nd (f) - ti - tu t - i t - u 3rd (m) - - u i/y(e) - i/y(e) - u 3rd (f) - t - u t(e) - i/y(e) - u
Example with the verb kteb "To write":
Person Past Present Singular Plural Singular Plural 1st (m) ktebt ktebna nekteb nekketbu 2nd (m) ktebt ktebtu tekteb tekketbu 2nd (f) ktebti ktebtu tekketbi tekketbu 3rd (m) kteb ketbu yekteb yekketbu 3rd (f) ketbet ketbu tekteb yekketbu
Person Past Present Future Present continuous Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural 1st (m) ktebt ktebna nekteb nekketbu Rayeḥ nekteb Rayḥin nekketbu Rani nekteb Rana nekketbu 1st (f) ktebt ktebna nekteb nekketbu Rayḥa nekteb Rayḥin nekketbu Rani nekteb Rana nekketbu 2nd (m) ketbt ktebtu tekteb tekketbu Rayeḥ tekteb Rayḥin tekketbu Rak tekteb Rakum tekketbu 2nd (f) ktebti ktebtu tekketbi tekketbu Rayḥa tekketbi Rayḥin tekketbu Raki tekketbi Rakum tekketbu 3rd (m) kteb ketbu yekteb yekketbu Rayeḥ yekteb Rayḥin yekketbu Rah yekteb Rahum yekketbu 3rd (f) ketbet ketbu tekteb yekketbu Rayḥa tekteb Rayḥin yekketbu Raha tekteb Rahum yekketbu
Future tense