Jebli Arabic

Jebli
Jebelia
Native to	Morocco
Ethnicity	Jbalas, Ghomaras, Sanhajas de Srayr
Native speakers	(this article does not contain any information regarding the number of speakers)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Maghrebi Arabic Pre-Hilalian Jebli
Language codes
ISO 639-3	(included in ary)
Glottolog	jebl1238[1]
Ethnolinguistic map of northern Morocco: purple represents Jebli-speaking areas, blue represents other pre-Hilalian Arabic-speaking areas (old Urban, Zerhoun and Sefrou area)

Jebli (Jebelia) is a pre-Hilalian Arabic dialect spoken in the mountains of the north of Morocco.

The word jebli means "of/from the mountain". It is mainly spoken in the western and southern Rif by tribes of Berber descent that were Arabicized from the 9th to the 15th centuries:

• Jbalas: all the forty-four tribes speak Jebli Arabic ;
• Ghomaras: out of nine tribes, seven are fully Jebli-speaking, the two remaining are partially Jebli-speaking with a significant Ghomara Berber-speaking community ;
• Sanhajas de Srayr: one Jebli-speaking tribe –Ketama– out of ten tribes, the remaining (nine) speak Sanhaja Berber ;
• Riffians: out of twenty tribes, six are fully or partially Arabophone; among them, five speak Mountain Arabic −Targuist, Aït Itteftf, Aït Boufrah, Mestasa and Metioua− while the last one –Settout– speak Hilalian Arabic ;
• Ghiatas, Maghraouas and Meknassas: the three tribes –that aren't part of any larger confederacy– are fully Jebli-speaking ;
• Tribes of Zerhoun (Zerahnas) and the neighborhood of Sefrou (Kechtala, Behalil and Yazgha): although not belonging to the same ethno-linguistic group than Jebalas, their pre-Hilalian dialects are sometimes classified as belonging to the same macro-family