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Jebli Arabic

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

It is mainly spoken in the western Rif by tribes of , Berber and Morisco descent, including by the Jebala people and eight Ghomara tribes, seven out of whom are fully Jebli-speaking. Three of the twelve Senhaja Srair tribes (Targuist, Aït Bouchibet and Aït Gmil) and four out of twenty Riffian tribes also speak Jebli Arabic. Although not belonging to the same ethnolinguistic group, the pre-Hilalian dialects spoken by the tribes of Zerhoun (Zerahnas) and Sefrou (Kechtala, Behalil and Yazgha) are sometimes classified as belonging to the same macro-family (westernmost pre-Hilalian village dialects) as Jebli.

The dialect developed out of the Arabisation of Berber tribes in the region during the 10th century AD. Jebli vocabulary and grammar is influenced by Berber; most of the words are Arabic but the vocabulary is highly influenced by Spanish.

Vocabulary examples

See also

References