Jebli Arabic

Jebli
Jebli
جبلية
Native to	Morocco
Ethnicity	Jebala people, Ghomaras
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Maghrebi Arabic Pre-Hilalian Jebli; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	(included in Moroccan Arabic [ary])
Glottolog	jebl1238

Jebli (Arabic: جبلية, romanized: Jebeliyyah; lit. 'of/from the mountain') is a pre-Hilalian Arabic dialect spoken in the mountains of northwestern Morocco.^[1]^[2]

It is mainly spoken in the western Rif by tribes of Sherifian, Berber and Morisco descent, including by the Jebala people and eight Ghomara tribes, seven out of whom are fully Jebli-speaking. Three of the twelve Senhaja Srair tribes (Targuist, Aït Bouchibet and Aït Gmil)^[3] and four out of twenty Riffian tribes also speak Jebli Arabic. Although not belonging to the same ethnolinguistic group, the pre-Hilalian dialects spoken by the tribes of Zerhoun (Zerahnas) and Sefrou (Kechtala, Behalil and Yazgha) are sometimes classified as belonging to the same macro-family (westernmost pre-Hilalian village dialects) as Jebli.

The dialect developed out of the Arabisation of Berber tribes in the region during the 10th century AD.^[4] Jebli vocabulary and grammar is influenced by Berber;^[4] most of the words are Arabic but the vocabulary is highly influenced by Spanish.

Vocabulary examples

Jebli	English translation	Source language/etymology
trawzez	blue jeans	trousers (English)
assallas	darkness	asellas "darkness" (Berber)
karretēra	car road	carretera "paved road/highway" (Spanish)
ntina	you	(Classical Arabic)
âyyəl, ṭfel	boy	عائلة "family" (Classical Arabic); cf. Egyptian Arabic: ˤayyel "child" Or i3eyallen iyyalen in (Berber)
sṭiṭu	little	(Berber)
ħami	warm	حام "feverish" (Classical Arabic); cf. Iraqi Arabic: ħɑ̄mi "warm"
qayla	sun	قائلة "resting" (spec. at noon time); due to the time of rest when the sun was at its highest point at noon (Classical Arabic)
jjro	dog	jaru "puppy" (Classical Arabic)
yəmma	mom	(Berber)

References

^ Fernández, Montserrat Benítez; Guerrero, Jairo (1 November 2022). "The Jebli speech between the media and the city: exploring linguistic stereotypes on a rural accent in Northern Morocco". International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 2022 (278): 181–202. doi:10.1515/ijsl-2022-0015. hdl:10261/288467. ISSN 1613-3668.
^ Laaboudi, Daouia (1 August 2021). "Discourse Marking Variation in Moroccan Arabic: Requests as a Case Study". International Journal of Arabic Linguistics. 7 (2): 109–122. ISSN 2421-9835.
^ Les Tribus Du Rif. p. 19.
^ ^a ^b Lévy, Simon (1996). "Repères pour une histoire linguistique du Maroc" (PDF). EDNA (in French). 1: 127–137. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 January 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2026.

[1] Fernández, Montserrat Benítez; Guerrero, Jairo (1 November 2022). "The Jebli speech between the media and the city: exploring linguistic stereotypes on a rural accent in Northern Morocco". International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 2022 (278): 181–202. doi:10.1515/ijsl-2022-0015. hdl:10261/288467. ISSN 1613-3668.

[2] Laaboudi, Daouia (1 August 2021). "Discourse Marking Variation in Moroccan Arabic: Requests as a Case Study". International Journal of Arabic Linguistics. 7 (2): 109–122. ISSN 2421-9835.

[3] Les Tribus Du Rif. p. 19.

[:0-4] Lévy, Simon (1996). "Repères pour une histoire linguistique du Maroc" (PDF). EDNA (in French). 1: 127–137. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 January 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2026.

[1]

Vocabulary examples

See also

References