Algerian Arabic - Variations Within Algerian Darija

Variations Within Algerian Darija

Within Algerian Arabic itself, there are significant local variations. Algerian Arabic changes from place to place and town to town. Even two towns near one another may not speak the same accent. It gets more extreme as you head towards the Moroccan and Tunisan borders. These are the major local variations of Algerian Darija:

  • West Algerian dialects, for instance, are particular in pronouncing the third singular masculine objective pronoun as h,

example, /ʃʊfteh/ شُفتـَه, I saw him that would be /ʃʊftʊ/ in the other dialects.

  • Tlemcen is noticeable for more than two dialects, mainly

/qʊlt/ قلت dialect and /ʔʊlt/ ألت dialect, q is pronounced as a hamza, glottal stop.

  • Jijel Arabic, in particular, is noteworthy for its pronunciation of qaf as kaf and its profusion of Berber loanwords.

Certain ports' dialects show influence from Andalusi Arabic brought by refugees from al-Andalus. Algerian Arabic is part of the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum. It fades with Tunisian Arabic at the extreme borders, while on the other hand Moroccan Arabic spoken near the Algerian border tend to resemble the Algerian Arabic variety.

Algerian Arabic vocabulary is pretty much similar throughout Algeria.

The Berber languages (Tamazight) are also used in and nearby countries.

Read more about this topic:  Algerian Arabic

Famous quotes containing the word variations:

    I may be able to spot arrowheads on the desert but a refrigerator is a jungle in which I am easily lost. My wife, however, will unerringly point out that the cheese or the leftover roast is hiding right in front of my eyes. Hundreds of such experiences convince me that men and women often inhabit quite different visual worlds. These are differences which cannot be attributed to variations in visual acuity. Man and women simply have learned to use their eyes in very different ways.
    Edward T. Hall (b. 1914)