Algerian Arabic

It is an Arabic dialect group attached to the Arab Maghreb , with the Moroccan Arabic , the Arab Tunisian and Maltese. Its morphology , its syntax , its pronunciation and vocabulary are quite different from the literal Arabic. Moreover, it is hardly intelligible to speakers of Arabic in the Middle East. Algerian Arabic is established on a substrate Berber and was influenced by different languages or who populated the area administered during history including Turkish, the Arabic Andalusian , the Spanish force and the French .

The number of speakers of this language is estimated at 35 million in Algeria and 2 million abroad , and around 37 million worldwide , mainly in France , Belgium , Germany , United Kingdom , and Canada , although these figures appear today strongly undervalued.

Algerian vocabulary is almost similar in all Algeria, while Algeria's focus is to have the closest of Tunisians, but some nuances may occur between regions.

The Arabization of Algeria today was in two main stages and two major population movements from the Middle East:

- The first step directly following the Islamic conquest of the ^seventh and ^eighth centuries, this Arabization is only superficial, affecting only cities where Arabs conquered and settled and formed a ruling class and imposed his aristocratic language to the rest of the inhabitants of these cities. Campaigns and the vast majority of remaining countries for their purely Berber language. The dialects of this wave of Arabization are called pre-hilialiens.

- The second step follows from the invasions of Arab Bedouin tribes from the eleventh ^{and twelfth} centuries, especially the Banu Hilal, Banu and Ma'aqil. This Arabization there was much stronger and deeper than the first, since it affects not only cities but also the highlands, plains and some oases, after that a good half of the country was Arabized, Berber only maintained more than in the mountains and in some oases of the south. The dialects that are called Arabization Hilalian.

- Finally, it should be noted that the influx of population from the Middle East has never been important enough for a majority of Algerians Arabize, the most of these Middle Eastern immigrants and their descendants can form 15% to 20% Algerian population, linguistic Arabization was mainly done so through zaouias and religious brotherhoods, who used Arabic as a liturgical language and language teaching, and by the political powers of the various kingdoms that ruled Berber the Maghreb to the Middle Ages, and all used Arabic as sole official language.

• Prhilaliens dialects: spoken in regions that have undergone the first but not the second Arabization, exist in two different regions in Algeria, one to the east which includes the wilaya of Jijel, the wilaya of Mila and part of the wilaya of Skikda (with local variations: Taher, Jijel, Mila, Collo, El-Milia .. etc), and concentrated in the West in the wilaya of Tlemcen (local variants: Tlemcen Nedroma, Ghazaouet .. etc).

• Dialects mixed blend of ancient dialects and dialects prhilaliens Hilalian are spoken in the cities and regions that have undergone two waves of Arabization and dialects have therefore a mixture of both genres, this group includes the dialects of Constantine, Algiers, Blida, Annaba, Skikda, Mitidja, Cherchell Dellys, large coastal plains of north-eastern and north-central.

• Hilalian dialects: spoken in regions that have known only the second Arabization and not the first in all the highlands, particularly in central and west, to Oran, except the wilaya of Tlemcen, in the Arabic-speaking oasis, east to west: Tebessa, Batna, Biskra, Msila, BBA, Setif, Djelfa, Relizane, Mostaganem, Oran, Mascara, Saida, Tiaret, Chlef, Ouargla ... etc..

A good way to classify between a dialect and pre-Hilalian Hilalian is to see the pronunciation for the letter "q", pronounced "g" in the dialects Hilalian but pronounced "q", "k" or "a" in the pre dialects Hilalian-course one can find both forms in the mixed dialects.

Over the centuries, these two types of Arabic considerably mixed together, especially in vocabulary, at least in the pronunciation of letters, so that one can speak today of Algerian Arabic singular, and today ' Today even the mixed form is spreading increasingly throughout the country especially in major cities, chief towns of wilaya and their surroundings.

It must of course do not forget the Turkish influence on Arabic and French and Algerian especially in large cities, and the bottom Berber present in almost all dialects of the country.

In its current form, the Algerian Arabic reflects the different stages he went through during its history. At the lexical point of view, we note the presence of words such as Berber areuj ("passthru"), aghhtal ("snail") asselwan ("soot"), khemmal ("clean"), etc.. And a large number other words drawn from the vocabulary of agriculture, livestock and place names. Words like Tebsi ("plate"), ma'adnous ("parsley") braniya ("eggplant"), bekraj ("Maker"), etc.. Testify to the influence of Turkish in Arabic Algeria. Before the arrival of French, Spanish words have entered the language, for example, Fechter ("festival") sperdina ("sneaker"), bodjado ("Counsel"), kanasta ("Basket"), essekouila (" primary school), etc..

Obviously, the French left a good fund lexical illustrates the adaptability of the Algerian Arabic: foulara ("scarf"), Zert ("he has abandoned"), etc.. For an Algerian, all these words "foreigners" are Arabs as well as the target words (<German), weird (<Spanish), etc.., The words seem very French to a francophone.

The famous comedian and actor Algerian Mohamed Fellag, described his language: "The Algerian street is a trilingual language, a mixture of French, Arabic and Berber." In an interview, he also declared: "C This is my language mixing three languages is my language, that's what I'm talking of course, and it is understood of course, because the audience is like me, whether in contract, in the street, the bus or in scientific circles, people talk like that! Varieties

Algerian Arabic is characterized by four major regional varieties, and urban dialects called "beldi" in the cities of Arab-Andalusian tradition and Turkish :

• The Algiers: covering the entire central area of the country, influenced by Turkish and Kabyle.
• The Oran : west with the words of Iberian origin influenced by Zenata.
• The variety of the east: spoken in parallel with Chaoui in some regions.
• The variety of the South.
• Urban dialects are present in Algiers , Tlemcen , Annaba , Constantine , Nedroma , Bejaia , Mostaganem , Cherchell , Blida ... etc.

The accents are in practice many more, and without a barrier for communication are more often a way to recognize the origin of the speaker, while the other Arabic-speaking Arab countries are struggling to understand the spoken Algerians. Because of the profound movements that occurred in the population since independence, a standard variety of that language tends to emerge, amplified music and popular television series, Algerian Arabic has also influenced the dialect Oujda (Morocco) .

Status and Practice

Although this language is dominant in the exchanges at all levels, the literal Arabic remains the official language of Algeria, so that used in written correspondence with the administration. It is also used in presenting news on national channels and in major newspapers such as El Khabar Arabic and Echourouk, which somewhat limits the audience.

Written forms of Arabic are found by Algerian cons in poetry, and numerous tabloid newspapers mainly sports. Because of its non-coding, writing rules of the language may vary depending on who writes a text.

But the Algerian Arabic is generally not very popular with power. It is often described as a "dialect" unable to convey a "superior culture". Obviously this is not reality. In 1993, the critic Egyptian Taha Husain would have written about the Algerian Arabic: "The dialect does not deserve the name of language and not suitable to the objectives of intellectual life.."

Even the head of state said today in a speech : "I can not determine what language speak Algriens.Ce is neither Arabic nor French nor the Amazigh (Berber) ... this is a bad mixture, about hybrids that we understand to peine.Prenons mayixistiche example the term (it does not exist), which can only be understood by the Algeria in the 21st century. ".

However with the trend of linguistic homogenization of local dialects and the failure of the policy of Arabization , the linguistic future of Algeria is the Algerian Arabic .

Reflections

Language and Culture

Taking into account the invaluable cultural heritage, consisting of poems, stories and songs, which is dependent on the language, the ubiquity of other languages most prevalent in the Algerian media only accentuates the disappearance of terms and their replacement by others of foreign origin. This constitutes a certain danger for a culture that ultimately will end up losing its popular base and fall into disuse.

Ubiquitous and underground