Languages of Morocco..?

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Maiwenn
Orange Belt
Posts: 243
Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2016 11:26 am
Location: Grand Est, France
Languages: English (N) & French
focusing on: MSA & Moroccan Arabic
backburner: German
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7321
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Re: Languages of Morocco..?

Postby Maiwenn » Wed May 03, 2017 8:07 am

I see you speak French and Spanish already, which means you have triple the number of resources available to you. In addition to those already mentioned, I can recommend the following for Moroccan Arabic:

[English source]
I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet, but the Peace Corps Darija Textbook is (1) free and (2) pretty decent. http://friendsofmorocco.org/Docs/Darija/Moroccan%20Arabic%20textbook%202011.pdf Given that it's geared toward people who are supposed to integrate into communities, it covers a lot of day-to-day living language (rather than just touristy language).

arabicpod101 -- I think you can still get a month free? It has three "courses" available in Moroccan Arabic. They're not really courses as such, but more like an audio phrasebook series. The intro music is pretty annoying, but you can avoid that by only listening to the review versions of audio. If you do this, make sure to cancel auto-renewal straight away. The written notes include Arabic script and a romanised transcription. You can download everything you want within a month's subscription. ما كاين مُشكِل ma kayn mushkil -- It's no problem.

[Spanish source]
Muñoz-Cobo, Bárbara Herrero. ¡Habla Árabe Marroquí!: Método para principiantes. Universidad de Almería, 2010. -- If you can find this, it's a pretty decent course (I actually prefer it to Chekayri's Introduction to Moroccan Arabic and Culture and I don't speak Spanish), though it uses very little Arabic script. It isn't geared to people who already speak Fusha, so things are explained as its own entity, rather than as a variation of Fusha. It comes with 3 CDs and is decidedly the Moroccan Arabic of the Tangiers area (but is still accurate and understandable elsewhere). An example of this is in the this sentence meaning "and you (sing. fem.), what did you do yesterday?"
In Muñoz-Cobo's book: و انتِ شنو عَملتِ البارح؟
wa anti shnoo 3amelti albareh?
In other parts of Morocco: و انتِ شنو\آش دَرتِ البارح؟
wa nti shnoo/ash darti albareh?
Other parts of Morocco will likely use "darti" rather than "3amelti", but both would likely be understood (esp. as 3amelti comes directly from literary Arabic).
In the same series, there's also a dictionary (transcription only) and grammar book for hispanophones.

[French sources]
Harrap's Parler l'arabe en voyage is for Moroccan/Tunisian/Algerian Arabic. Where these Arabics differ, the phrasebook makes a note of it. It includes a fairly comprehensive glossary. I'm not sure how it compares to the Lonely Planet's Moroccan Arabic phrasebook.

Harrap's L'arabe avant de partir. This is out of print, so you might not be able to find it (I got it at a library, but you're not in France, so a French-language Arabic source seems less likely). If you do, though, it's a great audiocourse for getting started. It's written by Jane Wightwick & Mahmoud Gaafar (it's actually exactly the same as their Teach Yourself Arabic Conversation with one crucial difference -- TY Arabic Conversation is in Egyptian Arabic -- with comically slow speech -- and L'arabe avant de partir is in Moroccan/Tunisian/Algerian Arabic -- with their differences clearly stated).

If you have questions about any other resources, feel free to ask. There's a good chance I've already checked them out. ;)
3 x
SC reading: 3819 / 10000 AR
SC reading: 3334 / 5000 FR
SC reading: 65 / 2500 DE :?

Corrections are always welcome. :)


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