Jewish And Muslim Dialects Of Moroccan Arabic

This is a comprehensive study of the Jewish and Muslim dialect networks of Morocco in its traditional boundaries, covering twenty-two Muslim and some thirty Jewish dialects of Moroccan Arabic.

This is a comprehensive study of the Jewish and Muslim dialect networks of Morocco in its traditional boundaries, covering twenty-two Muslim and some thirty Jewish dialects of Moroccan Arabic.

This volume undertakes a linguistic exploration of the endangered Arabic dialect spoken by the Jews of Gabes, a coastal city situated in Southern Tunisia. Belonging to the category of sedentary North African dialects, this variety is now spoken by a dwindling number of native speakers, primarily in Israel and France. Given the imminent extinction faced by many modern varieties of Judaeo-Arabic, including Jewish Gabes, the study's primary goal is to document and describe its linguistic nuances while reliable speakers are still accessible. Data for this comprehensive study were collected during fieldwork in Israel and France between December 2018 and March 2022. The volume's primary objective is a meticulous comparative analysis of Jewish Gabes, with a special emphasis on syntax, aiming to discern unique linguistic features through comparison with other North African dialects. The results of the study suggest that the Jewish dialect of Gabes emerged in the first wave of the Arab conquest of the Maghreb, thus exhibiting features that set it apart from its Muslim counterpart. This old variety therefore has the potential to provide invaluable information on the formation of Maghrebi Arabic and the mechanisms of language contact in the pre-Islamic Maghreb. The volume is organised in three main sections: phonology, morphology, and syntax, with the syntax section adopting historical and typological perspectives to shed light on this linguistic terra incognita.

The present study is a grammatical description of the Arabic dialect of the Jews of Tripoli (Libya). Jews in North Africa adopted Arabic as their native speech during the first (pre-Hilalian) period and their dialects therefore preserve archaic features no longer present in the dialects of their Muslim neighbours. The Jewish dialects are also distinguished by the use of many words of Hebrew and Aramaic origin. In Tripoli the difference between the Jewish and Muslim vernaculars manifests itself not only in the vocabulary but also in the language type: The Jewish dialect represents the sedentary type while the Muslim dialect belongs to the Bedouin type. After the immigration of Tripolitanian Jewry to Israel the use of the Arabic dialect has become reduced, and it is estimated that the youngest generation who can still speak it is in their forties. It is obvious, therefore, that in a few decades the Arabic dialect of the Jews of Tripoli, like other Judaeo-Arabic vernaculars, will cease to exist. The present study which also contains texts and a glossary may contribute to preserving a vanishing Arabic dialect.

The book will appeal to anyone interested in language contact, the Arabic language, and North Africa. It uses sociohistorical information and a wide range of data sets, including electronic communication, to provide a comprehensive picture of the past and present language situation in the region.

A first-hand account of Romanelli's adventures during the four years he was stranded in Sharifan Morocco between 1787 and 1790. His story makes engaging reading and has been recognized as a significant primary source on Morocco and Moroccan Jews.