Abstract
The aim of this paper is to review the classification of the southern Moroccan dialects, advancing on the general description of these varieties. Recent descriptive studies provided us with new sources on the linguistic reality of southern Morocco, shedding light on the status of dialects commonly classified as Bedouin or ‘Hilāli’ within the Maghrebi context. To do so, the paper highlights conservative and innovative features which characterize the dialects of the area, focusing mainly—but not exclusively—on the updated data for two distant localities in southern Morocco: Essaouira and its rural outskirts—the Chiadma territory (Aquermoud and Sīdi Īsḥāq)—and Tafilalt, in south-eastern Morocco. The southern dialects have been situated in an intermediary zone between pre-Hilāli and Hilāli categories for a long time. Discussing their situation may contribute to understanding what distinguishes them as a dialectal group and also the validity of the ‘Hilāli’ category in the Moroccan context.
Highlights
Dialectologists have divided the Maghrebi dialects into two categories—pre-Hilāli and Hilāli—within a diachronic perspective which associates linguistic features to the waves of Arabization in North Africa, from the works of W
According to the traditional classification of Moroccan dialects, the southern dialects belong to the Hilāli or Bedouin type, given that they spread from the Atlantic plains—in the area of Mogador—to the eastern part of the country, the Mouloya basin and the Moroccan
That was the case of the southern Moroccan dialects, which were thought not to exhibit
Summary
Pre-Hilāli and Hilāli—within a diachronic perspective which associates linguistic features to the waves of Arabization in North Africa, from the works of W. pre-Hilāli and Hilāli—within a diachronic perspective which associates linguistic features to the waves of Arabization in North Africa, from the works of W Marçais, such as the seminal text Comment l’Afrique du Nord a été arabisée (Marçais [1938] 1961), to more recent scholarship (cf Aguadé 2018). Based on these two types, Colin ([1937] 1945, 1986) proposed a sub-classification to Western Maghrebi dialects, or Moroccan dialects precisely, grouping them into: parlers citadins, parlers montagnards, parlers bédouins and parlers juifs.
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