Algerian Arabic

Algerian Arabic, a Maghrebi dialect of the Arabic language (a Derja of Arabic), is a cover term for varieties of Arabic dialects spoken in northern Algeria. (Cf. Algerian Saharan Arabic.) Like other varieties of Maghrebi Arabic, Algerian dialects have a mostly Arabic vocabulary with significant Berber substrates, and numerous loanwords from French and Spanish.

Variants

Algerian Arabic includes several distinct dialects belonging to two genetically different groups : pre-Hilalian and Hilalian dialects.

Hilalian dialects

Hilalian dialects of Algeria belong to three linguistic groups:^[4]

• Eastern Hilal dialects:^[5] spoken in Hautes Plaines around Sétif, M'Sila and Djelfa ;
• Central Hilal dialects:^[6] of central and southern Algeria, south of Algiers and Oran (particular in replacing [ʁ] by [q]) ;
• Mâqil dialects:^[7] spoken in the western part of Oranais (particular in the third singular masculine objective pronoun as h, for example, /ʃʊfteh/ (I saw him) that would be /ʃʊftʊ/ in the other dialects).

Modern Koiné languages –urban and national– are mainly based on Hilalian dialects.

Pre-Hilalian dialects

Pre-Hilalian Arabic dialects are generally classified in three types: Urban, "Village" sedentary and Jewish dialects. Several Pre-Hilalian dialects are spoken in Algeria:^[4][8]

• Urban dialects of all of Algeria's big cities. Urban dialects were formerly also spoken in other cities such as Azemmour and Mascara, where they are no longer spoken nowadays ;
• Lesser Kabylia dialect (or Jijel Arabic) : spoken in the –triangular– area north of Constantine, including Collo and Jijel (noteworthy for its pronunciation of [q] as [k] and characterised –such as other Eastern pre-Hilalian dialects– by the preservation of the three short vowels) ;
• Traras-Msirda dialect : spoken in the area north of Tlemcen, including the eastern Traras, Rachgun and Honaine (noteworthy for its pronunciation of [q] as [ʔ]) ;
• Judeo-Algerian Arabic is no longer spoken after Jews left Algeria in 1962, following its independence.

Phonology

List of IPA phonemes & as transliterated in this article: 24 consonants:

The consonant /q/ has different allophones depending on the dialects: /q/ in all dialects, [ɡ] in some rural Tizi Ouzou dialects, [k] in Lesser Kabylia dialect and [ʔ] in Traras-Msirda dialect. Similarly, the consonant /dʒ/ also has different allophones depending on the dialects: [ɡ] in Western Algeria dialects, and [ʒ] in Eastern Algeria dialects, and finally, /ʁ/ is pronounced as [q] in Central Hilal dialects.

vowels Arabic phonology

long vowels:

• /aː/ /sˤɑːħəb/ friend
• /iː/ (as in "ski") e.g. قريت /qriːt/ I read, in the past
• /uː/ (as in "flu") e.g. تِلِفون /tilifuːn/

and short vowels, esp in initial position

• /a/ (as in "man") [æ], e.g. سامح /sæməħ/ forgave
• /e/ (as in "men") e.g. قَهوَة, or a shorter version of a as in father [ɑ]

e.g., rɑbbi my God

• /i/ (as in sit) e.g. هِيَ /hijjɑ/ she
• /u/ (as in foot) e.g. قُبَّة /qu:bɑ/ dome

plus the schwa which replaces /e/ in some positions e.g. انتَ /ənte/

Arguably one of the most notable features of Maghrebi Arabic dialects, including Algerian Arabic, is the collapse of short vowels in some positions. Standard Arabic كِتاب kitab (book) is /ktæb/

kalam كَلام (speech) is /klæm/

This feature is also present in Levantine Arabic to a lesser extent. Standard Arabic words containing three syllables are simplified

/ħɑdʒɑrɑ/ حَجَرة is /ħɑdʒrɑ/.

Note that Algerian Arabic is particularly rich in uvular, pharyngeal, and pharyngealized ("emphatic") sounds. The uvular and emphatic sounds are generally considered to be q, x and ṣ, ḍ, and ṭ respectively.

Non-emphatic /r/ and emphatic /rˤ/ are two entirely separate phonemes, almost never contrasting in related forms of a word.

e.g. /ərrɑmle/ الرَّملة (sand), as in arrive

/jədʒri/ يجري (he runs), as in free

Original /q/ splits lexically into /q/ and /ɡ/ in some rural Tizi Ouzou dialects; for all words, both alternatives exist.

Grammar

Nouns and adjectives

Conjunctions and prepositions

Some of them can be attached to the noun, just like other Arabic dialects. The word for in "fee" can be attached to a definite noun. For example, the word for house's definite form is "eddar" (الدار) with "fee" (في) becomes "feddar" (فالدار). The same with behind the door is (مورالباب) or just (مور الباب) Murr-elbab.

Gender

Algerian Arabic has two genders, Masculine and Feminine. masculine nouns and adjectives generally end with a consonant, while the feminine nouns generally end with an a (there are however some exceptions).

Examples:

• [ħmɑr] "a donkey", [ħmɑrɑ] "a female donkey".
• [tˤfal] "a little boy", [tˤoflɑ] "a little girl".

Pluralization

Hilalian dialects, on which modern koinés are based, often use regular plural, while the wide use of broken plural is characteristic to pre-Hilalian dialects.

Unlike Classical Arabic's use of the suffix -un for the nominative, Algerian Arabic uses for all cases the suffix -in, used in Classical Arabic for the accusative and the genitive:

mumen مومن (believer) → mumnin مومنين

For feminine nouns, the regular plural is obtained by psotfixing -at:

Classical Arabic: bint (girl) → banat

Algerian Arabic: bent → bnat

Broken plural can be found for some plurals in Hilalian dialects, however it is mainly used –for the same words– in pre-Hilalian dialects:

Regular plural: ṭabla → ṭablat ("Table") ;

Broken plural: ṭabla → ṭwabəl.

Article

The article el is indeclinable and expresses 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 solar letters and lunar letters rules of Classical Arabic, i.e.: if the word starts with one of these consonants, el is assimilated and replaced by the first consonant :

t, d, r, z, s, š, ṣ, ḍ, ṭ, l, n.

Examples:

rajel → errajel "man" (assimilation)

qmar → elqmar "moon" (no assimilation)

Conjugations and verbs

Conjugation is done by adding affixes (prefixes, postfixes, both or none), these suffixes change according to the tense.

In all Algerian Arabic dialects, there is no gender differentiation of the 2nd and 3rd person in the plural forms. However, there is no gender differentiation of the 2nd person in the singular form in pre-Hilalian dialects, unlike Hilalian ones where it has been preserved.

• Example with the verb kteb "To write":

Future tense

In Algeria speakers generally do not use the future tense as you see above, using instead the present tense or present continuous.

To add going to... just add (رايح) between the pronoun that makes the verb for example I'm writing become by adding this behind "I'm" or "راني" and before "I write" or "نكتب" I'm going to write. The plural form is done as (رايحين). This could be used for past tense as well.

Also, as is used in all of the other Arabic dialects there is another way of showing active tense. This form changes the root verb into an adjective. For example, "kteb" he wrote will become "kateb" writing, كتب became كاتب.

Negation

Like all North African Arabic varieties (including Egyptian Arabic) along with some Levantine Arabic varieties, verbal expressions are negated by enclosing the verb with all its affixes, along with any adjacent pronoun-suffixed preposition, within the circumfix ma... š (/ʃ/):

• « lεebt » ("I played") → « ma lεebtš /ʃ/ » ما لعبتش ("I didn't play")
• « ma tţabbaεniiš » ("Don't push me")
• « ma yšaddu-lekš haaðu l-qraε » ("Those bottles won't last you long")
• « ma şaħħeet-liiš plaaşa » ("I couldn't get a seat / parking place")

Other negative words (walu...etc.) are used in combination with ma to express more complex types of negation. ʃ is not used when other negative words are used

• ma qolt walu ماقلت والو ("I didn't say anything")
• ma šuft ħetta waħed ما شفت حتى واحد ("I didn't see anyone")

or when two verbs are consecutively in the negative

• ma šuft ma smeεt ما شفت ما سمعت ("I neither saw nor did I hear")

Verb derivation

Verb derivation is done by adding suffixes or by doubling consonants, there are two types of derivation forms : Causative, Passive.

• Causative: is obtained by doubling consonants :

khrej "to go out" → kherrej "to make to go out"

dkhel "to enter" → dekhkhel "to make to enter, to introduce"

• Passive:It is obtained by prefixing the verb with t- / tt- / tn- / n- :

qtel "to kill" → tneqtel "to be killed"

šreb "to drink" → ttešreb "to be drunk".

The adverbs of location

Things could be in three places hnaya (right here), hna (here) or el-hih (there).

Pronoun

Personal pronouns

Most Algerian Arabic dialects have 8 personal pronouns, since they have not conserved gender differentiation of the 2nd and 3rd person in the plural forms. However, pre-Hilalian dialects only retain 7 personal pronouns since gender differentiation of the 2nd person in the singular form is absent.

Example : « Ana tani. » — "Me too."

Example : « Rani hna. » — "I'm here." and « Wech raki. » or « Ki raki(western dialect). » — "How are you." to a woman.

Possessive pronouns

Dar (دار) is the word for house

Example : « dar-na. » — "Our house." (House-our), these possessive are frequently combined with « nteε or teε (تاع)» "of" and « dial » "property" : « dar nteε-na » — "Our house.", « dar dial-kum » ...etc.

SINGULAR تاعي = my or mine (pronounced ta'ee) تاعك = your or yours (m) (pronounced ta'ak) تاعكِ = your or yours (f) (pronounced ta'ik) تاعه = his (pronounced ta'u) تاعها = hers (pronounced ta'ha) PLURAL تاعنا = our or ours (pronounced ta'na) تاعكم = your or yours (m) (pronounced ta'kum) تاعكن = your or yours (f) (pronounced ta'kun) تاعكُ = your or yours (pronounced ta'ku) تاعهم = their or theirs (m) (pronounced ta'hum) تاعهن = their or theirs (f) (pronounced ta'hun)

Our house can be "Darna" (دارنا) or "Dar ta'na" (دار تاعنا) which is more like saying 'house of ours'. Ta' can be used in other ways just like of is used in English or more like in Spanish. You can say "Dar ta' khuya" (دار تاع خويا) which means 'house of my brother' or 'my brother's house'.

Interrogatives

Pronouns of the verb

Examples:

« šeft-ni. » — "You saw me." (You.saw-me)

« qtel-u. » — "He killed him." (He.killed-him)

« kla-h. » — "He ate it." (He.ate-it)

Demonstratives

Unlike classical Arabic, Algerian Arabic do address two things and more exactly the same. These are pretty much all of the demonstratives used in Algerian Arabic. The demonstrative (hadi) is also used for "It is".

Sample text

The text below was translated from Kabylie, In. MOULIERAS (Auguste), les fourberies de si Djeh'a.

See also

• Varieties of Arabic
• Maghrebi Arabic
• Moroccan Arabic
• Tunisian Arabic
• Hassaniya Arabic
• Libyan Arabic
• Languages of Algeria

References