# Moroccan Arabic / MSA



## linguist786

I wanted to ask this question since I am travelling to Morocco (Marakesh) this Summer (hehe.. can't wait!)

Is Moroccan Arabic very different to MSA? Could you, for example, learn phrases from an MSA phrase book and use them and be understood in Morocco?

Also, can somebody tell me what the "main tendencies" are of people speaking Arabic in Morocco? (As in, what kind of things do they often say that is different from other types of Arabic)

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated


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## Anatoli

I posted somewhere that there is a book and CD's "*A Basic Course in Moroccan Arabic with MP3 Files*", if you have some knowledge of MSA, this will definitely help you to see the difference but you don't need any previous experience. The book teaches the spoken Moroccan, doesn't use the Arabic script, all romanised, unfortunately.
Can't comment on the quality, haven't read it yet.


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## linguist786

Thanks for that! Very helpful. I might consider buying that actually.


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## SofiaB

Marhaba Linguist,
see this post:http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=161066
The best part: the information is all free.


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## linguist786

Thank you so much!!
Thanks for digging that out for me.
and yes- it's free. héhé


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## lama

linguist786 said:
			
		

> Is Moroccan Arabic very different to MSA?


umm just a little bit,the accent is a bit difficult because they speak very rapidly and lots of french words come up during conversation


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## linguist786

oh! french words - even better!! héhé i speak French you see. Don't worry -I'm only learning bits for conversation for when I go. After that, it'll be MSA. (well, "Qur'aanic Arabic")


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## lama

i recommand french because msa can only help you when the person you are talking to can understand your msa with your english accent and pronounciation problems(letters in arabic need a big effort )


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## linguist786

I think my pronunciation is fine - I _have_ been reading the Qur'aan since I was small!


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## J.F. de TROYES

السلام عليك  (Salaam 3alaik)

I know a good booklet which can be useful with many  words and sentences,a small grammar, a vocabulary English-Moroccan / Moroccan-english :*"Moroccan Arabic Phrasebook" (Lonely planet*).Sentences are written in Arabic and also romanised. You can get some idea of the difference between Moroccan and MSA.
Hope it helps.


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## linguist786

Wonderful! That's exactly what I was wanting if I'm honest - thanks so much!


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## Ayazid

lama said:
			
		

> umm just a little bit,the accent is a bit difficult because they speak very rapidly and lots of french words come up during conversation


 
Well, I think that this "intoxication" of language by French borrowings is rather a case of urban Middle Class which has some francophone education and doesn´t apply so much to peasants in Moroccan country-side. I don´t think that lower comprehensibility of Moroccan dialect for Eastern Arabs is caused just by rapidity of speech and French borrowings. The Moroccan dialect is considerably different from Classical Arabic (or MSA) as all Arabic dialects but this is one is certainly the most distinct one.


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## lama

no,as you know french is used by moroccans algerians and tunisians spontaniosly because they were occupied by the french


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## Ayazid

You forgott that not all Maghrebis speak French. Of course big part of city dwelers has some knowledge of this language, but I am talking about many peasants, for example in Moroccan Atlas, who have only little knowledge of foreign languages. Occasional use of French words like ca va or tres bien doesn´t make the language considerably more difficult. This difficulty is caused by geographical distance of Maghrebi dialects and separate language evolution. Influences of another languages, especially Berber and French also took a share in evolution of Maghrebi dialects, but this influence was limited.


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## MarcB

I agree with Lama that the speed of speech makes a big difference. When people speak in a slow and deliberate way and avoid local vocabulary they can understand each other regardless of where they come from. When speaking at a normal pace as to a fellow country person there is less comprehension. As for the use of French expressions most people can use code switching i.e. used by bilingual people with each other not generally used when two languages are known by both parties.

If we compare colloquial Arabic we see the following:
All colloquial Arabic variants contain foreign words: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Greek, Farsi, Turkish/Turkic and Amazigh (Berber). Obviously different words are used in different countries, although some overlap. Pronunciation may vary Northern Egypt and Aden, Yemen pronounce ج as g in go. Many Gulf Arabs pronounce it as y in yes.
These letters ث,ض,ذ,ظ have pronunciations that vary by region from MSA.
Most of Tunisia, Iraq and some Gulf areas use MSA pronunciation.
ق is as MSA in most of Africa east of Libya and in the Gulf or g; as ء in Levantine and Northern Egypt. As g in Chad, Libya, Southern North West Africa, Sudan, Southern Egypt and most of Arabia.
ك as ch in the Eastern Gulf and Iraq. See resources sticky for more information.


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## Hemza

I know that the thread is very old but I want to reply to your post:

French, as someone said you, is used almost only by urban people, and it's to sound cooler, because everything which is French is seen cooler than Moroccan. I will give you an example, what about Lebanese Arabic? Some Lebanese too, use a loooot of French words and some English words (my Lebanese friend's mother is in this case). It's not because of some Lebanese who use French words that ALL Lebanese use French words. It depends of the area, the background of the person, etc.

I hope it helped you to understand .


lama said:


> no,as you know french is used by moroccans algerians and tunisians spontaniosly because they were occupied by the french



I know that the thread is very old but I want to reply to your post:

French, as someone said you, is used almost only by urban people, and  it's to sound cooler, because everything which is French is seen cooler  than Moroccan. I will give you an example, what about Lebanese Arabic?  Some Lebanese too, use a loooot of French words and some English words  (my Lebanese friend's mother is in this case). It's not because of some  Lebanese who use French words that ALL Lebanese use French words. It  depends of the area, the background of the person, etc.


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## merquiades

J.F. de TROYES said:


> السلام عليك  (Salaam 3alaik)
> 
> I know a good booklet which can be useful with many  words and sentences,a small grammar, a vocabulary English-Moroccan / Moroccan-english :*"Moroccan Arabic Phrasebook" (Lonely planet*).Sentences are written in Arabic and also romanised. You can get some idea of the difference between Moroccan and MSA.
> Hope it helps.


I've taken note of what you all have said above.
The Moroccan Arabic Phrasebook looks great.
I just want to reopen the old thread a bit to reframe the topic.

For someone with absolute no knowledge of Arabic going to Morocco find it more beneficial to just learn some Moroccan Arabic from a guide book and bypass standard modern Arabic completely or learn SMA because it is, of course, the official language?  For example, what about signs? If I go into a market will I see words like "fish" written in SMA or Moroccan dialect?
If you greet a Moroccan would they expect you to say "hello" in SMA or Moroccan dialect?  Would there be a bad connotation to use one or the other?

Thanks for the imput


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## WadiH

Better to learn Moroccan Arabic.  The type of vocabulary in signs will usually be the same whether it's Moroccan or standard.  It's the grammar, phonology and "base"/everyday vocabulary that's different.


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## I.K.S.

merquiades said:


> For someone with absolute no knowledge of Arabic going to Morocco find it more beneficial to just learn some Moroccan Arabic from a guide book and bypass standard modern Arabic completely or learn SMA because it is, of course, the official language? For example, what about signs? If I go into a market will I see words like "fish" written in SMA or Moroccan dialect?
> If you greet a Moroccan would they expect you to say "hello" in SMA or Moroccan dialect? Would there be a bad connotation to use one or the other?


Inside crowded urban areas and tourist destinations the lack of speaking Arabic, berber or MA is not an issue, You will meet many helpful people willing to try their best to communicate using the cocktail of vocabulary and  body of words they know, Moroccans aren't really conservative and introvert when it comes to speaking foreign languages, in places such as the Marrakesh's medina quarter you will find shopkeepers who can even tell whether sb is from Portugal or Brazil just by their accent, if you speak French; most of Moroccans don't fluently speak it but most of them can catch-up with you by recognizing the words they are already familiar to them e.g : autoroute, rond-point, marche, pharmacie, etc...
but knowing some MA to start off would be much better as can make you converse with a larger mass of citizens around the country.


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