Diversity of Judeo-Arabic Dialects in North Africa: Eqa:l, Wqal, kjal and ʔal Dialects

Abstract

This study presents the diversity of North African Judeo-Arabic dialects documented in an extensive course of fieldwork concerning some one hundred and thirty Moroccan Jewish dialects, both urban and rural. Dozens of additional dialects from Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria complete the global repartitioning of these dialects into four distinct groups:Eqa:l,Wqal,kjal, andʔaldialects. The different dialects in each set share common phonetic, phonological, morphological, and grammatical features. All of them preserve the unvoiced realization of the stop /q/ and articulate it as a uvular [q] (Eqa:landWqal), a palato-velar [kj] (kjal), or a glottal [ʔ] (ʔal).Eqa:ldialects developed in Libya, Tunisia, and Eastern Algeria; they distinguish between long and short vowels.Wqaldialects developed in Western Morocco.Kjaldialects developed in northwestern Algeria and in southeastern Morocco.ʔaldialects developed in Moroccan cities, where Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal settled among native Jews.