Darija

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Darija (الدارجة; also transcribed (ad-)dārija (standard), derija or darja) is a term used by Maghrebi Arabic speakers to refer to their dialect. This dialect is characterized by an abundance of loan-words from the languages of the historical colonial occupiers of the Maghreb (French, Spanish and Turkish), and also from the native Berber languages. It is only used for oral communication, with Modern Standard Arabic (الفصحى (al-)fuṣ-ḥā) used for written communication. In Eastern Arab countries the term (العامية (al-)`āmmiyya) is more commonly used for the colloquial varieties of Arabic there.

Darija can refer to:

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