Fessi dialect

Fessi dialect
Fessi Darija
Native to	Morocco
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic North Arabian Arabic Maghrebi Moroccan Fessi dialect
Writing system	Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	fezm1238

The Fessi dialect (Moroccan Arabic: هضرة أهل فاس) is a dialect of Moroccan vernacular Arabic, or Darija, associated with the city of Fes, especially with the old elite families of the city.[1]

It is considered pre-Hilalian and some of its distinguishing phonological features are the pronunciation of rāʾ ( ر ) as a postalveolar approximant (like the American pronunciation of /ɹ/ in the word "red") instead of a trilled [r] and of qāf ( ق or, traditionally, ڧ ) as a pharyngealized glottal stop or voiceless uvular plosive instead of a voiced velar plosive ([g]).

The Fessi dialect has traditionally been regarded as a prestige dialect over other forms of Moroccan Darija, as a function of the historic social and economic power of its speakers.

History

Like other urban Moroccan dialects, it is considered pre-Hilalian.[1] 'Pre-Hilalian' in this context refers to dialects believed to descend from the Arabic spoken in the region prior to the arrival of the Banu Hilal and the Banu Ma'qil tribes that began in the 12th century. After this event, "Hilalian" dialects became dominant in the rural regions of central Morocco and are a major component of wider Moroccan Arabic today.[2]: 2–10 

Due to social and demographic changes that started in the 20th century such as mass rural migration into the city and the departure of most of the city's old urban elites to Casablanca, the traditional linguistic features are no longer dominant in the speech of Arabic speakers in Fes today.[3][2]: 5, 24 

Jewish Fessi dialect

The Jewish community in Fes, prior to the departure of most of the city's Jewish residents in the second half of the 20th century, also spoke an Arabic dialect similar to the rest of city.[2]: 24 [a]

Linguistic features

Phonology

It has traditionally had distinctive linguistic features, many of which were shared with other pre-Hilalian dialects in the region:[2]: 5, 24  on the phonological level, these include the stereotypical use of a postalveolar approximant (like the American pronunciation of /ɹ/ in the word "red") in the place of a trilled [r] for /ر/, or a pharyngealized glottal stop or voiceless uvular plosive in the place of a voiced velar plosive ([g]) for /ق/.[1]

Morphosyntax

On the morphosyntactic level, gender distinction in pronouns and verb inflections is neutralized in the second person singular.[1]

Sociolinguistic features

The Fessi dialect has traditionally been regarded as a prestige dialect over other forms of Moroccan Darija—particularly those seen as rural or 'arūbi (عروبي "of the rural Arabs")—due to its "association with the socio-economic power and dominance that its speakers enjoy at the national level," in the words of Mohammed Errihani.[1][4]

Notes

1. There are competing theories about the historical roots of Moroccan Jewish dialects of Arabic. Some scholars argue that they were strongly influenced by Andalusi Arabic dialects (which were similar to North African dialects) brought by Jewish refugees from Spain after 1492, while other scholars argue that these same refugees mostly spoke Judeo-Spanish when they arrived and eventually adopted existing Arabic dialects in the cities.[2]: 10–12 

References

1. Hachimi, Atiqa (2012-05-23). "The urban and the urbane: Identities, language ideologies, and Arabic dialects in Morocco". Language in Society. 41 (3): 321–341. doi:10.1017/s0047404512000279. ISSN 0047-4045. S2CID 144607607.
2. Heath, Jeffrey (2002). Jewish and Muslim Dialects of Moroccan Arabic. Routledge. ISBN 9780415567787.
3. Hachimi, Atiqa (2011). "The story of old urban vernaculars in North Africa". In Mc Laughlin, Fiona (ed.). The Languages of Urban Africa. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781441158130.
4. Errihani, Mohammed (2016-07-28). "Language and social distinction: speaking Darija* with the right accent". The Journal of North African Studies. 21 (5): 741–764. doi:10.1080/13629387.2016.1212706. ISSN 1362-9387. S2CID 147855077.