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Algerian Arabic Dza:jri جزائري
Spoken in:	Algeria
Total speakers:	35,000,000
Language family:	Afro-Asiatic  Semitic   West Semitic    Central Semitic     South-Central Semitic      Arabic       Algerian Arabic
Writing system:	Arabic alphabet
Official status
Official language in:	none
Regulated by:	none
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	none
ISO 639-3:	(Algerian Saharan Arabic) 'aao' (Algerian Saharan Arabic)
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Algerian Arabic is the dialect or dialects of Arabic spoken in Algeria. In Algeria, as elsewhere, spoken Arabic differs from written Arabic; Algerian Arabic has an essentially Berber phonetic , a vocabulary with many new words and some loanwords from Turkish, Spanish, and French, and like all Arabic dialects, has dropped the case endings of the written language. In Algeria, Algerian Arabic or Darija isn't used in schools, television or newspapers, which usually use Arabic or French, but is more like heard in music like Raï if not just heard in Algerian homes and on the street , and there is no real motivation among algerians to write it and make of it the official language of the country.

Contents 1 Variations within Algerian Darija 2 Phonology 3 Grammar 3.1 Nouns and adjectives 3.1.1 Conjunctions & Prepositions 3.1.2 Gender 3.1.3 Pluralization 3.2 Article 3.3 Conjugations and Verbs 3.4 Future Tense 3.5 Negation 3.6 Verb derivation 4 Pronoun 4.1 Personal pronouns 4.2 Possessive pronouns 4.3 Interrogatives 4.4 Pronouns of the verb 4.5 Demonstratives 5 Sample text 6 See also 7 External links

Within Algerian Arabic itself, there are significant local variations. Algerian Arabic changes from place to place and town to town. Even two town near one another may not speak the same dialect or accent. It gets more extreme as you head towards the Moroccan and Tunisan borders. The eastern half of Algeria has a more softer accent while the western half has a bet more of a harsher accent. These are the major local variations of Algerian Darija;

• West Algerian dialects, for instance, are particular in pronouncing the third singular masculine objective pronoun as h,

example, /ʃʊfteh/ شُفتـَه, I saw him that would be /ʃʊftʊ/ in the other dialects.

• Tlemcen is noticeable for more than two dialects, mainly

/qʊlt/ قلت dialect and /ʔʊlt/ ألت dialect, q is pronounced as a hamza, glottal stop.

• Jijel Arabic, in particular, is noteworthy for its pronunciation of qaf as kaf and its profusion of Berber loanwords.

Certain ports' dialects show influence from Andalusi Arabic brought by refugees from al-Andalus. Algerian Arabic is part of the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum, and fades into Moroccan Arabic and Tunisian Arabic along the respective borders.

According to the Ethnologue, there are two forms of Algerian Arabic:

Algerian Spoken Arabic: Currently spoken by an estimated 33 million people roughly (as 2007) in Algeria (among whom 27 million speak it as their mother tongue), and by an estimated 2 million in other countries where Algerians have emigrated. These include Belgium, France, Germany, UK, Canada, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.

Algerian Arabic vocabulary is pretty much similar throughout Algeria, although the Easterners sound closer to Tunisians while the Westerners speak an Arabic closer to that of the Moroccans.

Algerian Saharan Spoken Arabic: Spoken by an estimated 100,000 people in Algeria, predominantly along the Moroccan border with the Atlas mountains range. It is also spoken by about 10,000 people in neighbouring Niger. It is structurally different to Arabic.

The classification of both of these is Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic.

The Berber languages (Tamazight) are also used in and nearby countries.

List of phonemes as transliterated in this article: 24 consonants:

b

t

j

g

ḥ

ε

d

p

r

z

s

š

ṣ

ḍ

ṭ

γ

f

q

k

l

m

n

h

x

w

y

ب‎

ت‎

ج‎

g

ح‎

ع‎

د‎

p

ر‎

ﺯ‎

ﺱ‎

ش‎

ص‎

ض‎

ط‎

غ‎

ف‎

ق‎

ك‎

ل‎

م‎

ن‎

ﻫ‎

خ‎

و‎

ﻱ‎

Some pronounce the consonant q differently : g, k, or ' (hamza).

vowels[1]

long vowels:

• /a/ (as in "man") [æ]eg. سامح /sæməħ/ forgave

/a:/ /sˁɑːħəb/ friend

• /i:/ (as in "ski") eg. قريت /qri:t/ I read, in the past
• /u:/ (as in "flu") eg. تِلِفون /tilifuːn/

and short vowels, esp in initial position

• /e/ (as in "men") eg. قَهوَة, or a shorter version of a as in father [ɑ]

eg, rɑbBi my God

• /i/ (as in sit) eg. هِيَ /hijJɑ/ she
• /u/ (as in foot) eg. قُبَّة /qʊbBɑ/ dome

plus the schwa which replaces /e/ in some positions eg. انتَ /ənte/

Arguably one of the most notable features of Maghrebi Arabic dialects, including Algerian Arabic, is the collapse of short vowels in some positions. Standard Arabic كِتاب kitab (book) is /ktæb/

kalam كَلام (speech) is /klæm/

This feature is also present in Levatine Arabic to a lesser extent. Standard Arabic words containing three syllables are simplified

/ħɑdʒɑrɑ/ حَجَرة is /ħɑdʒrɑ/.

Note that Algerian Arabic is particularly rich in uvular, pharyngeal, and pharyngealized ("emphatic") sounds. The emphatic sounds are generally considered to be ṣ, ḍ, and ṭ.

Non-emphatic /r/ and emphatic /rˁ/ are two entirely separate phonemes, almost never contrasting in related forms of a word.

eg. /ərRɑmle/ الرَّملة (sand), as in arrive

/jədʒri/ يجري (he runs), as in free

Original /q/ splits lexically into /q/ and /g/; for some words, both alternatives exist.

English	Pronunciation	Algerian Arabic
drink	shreb	شرب
sky	sma'	سماء
water	mâ'	ماء
woman, women	mra	مرة (مرأة)
fire	nâr; 3âfya	عافية، نار
big	kbir	كبير
man, men	rajel \ rajal	راجل (رجل)
day	nhâr, yom	نهار، يوم
moon	gamr	قمر
night	lila, lil	ليل
bread	khoubz	خبز
small	ṣghir	صغير
sand	remla	رملة
toilet, bathroom	twalit; beit el ma'; beit er-râHa	بيت الماء، بيت الراحة

Conjunctions in Algerian Darija are used almost like conjunctions in English are used, but they have more tricks to them.

English	Conjunctions	Algerian Arabic	Notes of Usage
But	beṣṣeh	بالصح	Also used is ولكن
If	ila	إيلا	Used for impossible conditions and comes just before the verb
If	loukan	لوكان	For possible conditions, Also used is لو ,لاكون and إذا
So that, that	bash	باش
That	beli	باللي
As if	shgol	شغل	Also used is كي اللي
Because	paṣko	باصكو	Also used is على خاطر and على جال
When	ki	كي	Comes before a verb
Before	gbel ma	قبل ما	Used before verbs
Without	bla ma	بلا ما	Used before verbs
Whether	kash ma	كاش ما	Used before verbs

Prepositions act just like any other noun or just like English prepositions.

English	Conjunctions	Algerian Arabic	Notes of Usage
under	teht	تحت
over, on top of	fuq	فوق
after	beεd	بعد
before	gbel	قبل	Used only for time
next to, beside	godam	قدام
at	εend	عند
with	ma'	مع
among, between	been, beenat (plural)	بين، بينات
same as, as much as	ged	قد	amount
oh, oh so much	ya, ah	يا، آه

Some of them can be attached to the noun, just like other Arabic dialects. The word for in "fee" can be attached to a definite noun. For example the word for house's definite form is "eddar" (الدار) with "fee" (في) becomes "feddar" (فإلدار). The same with behind the door is (مورالباب) or just (مور الباب) Murr-elbab.

Algierian Arabic has two genders, Masculine and Feminine. masculine nouns and adjectives generally end with a consonant, while the feminine nouns generally end with an a (there are some exceptions, however). Note that most feminine nouns are in fact feminized versions of masculine nouns.

Examples:

• ħmɑr "a donkey", ħmɑrɑ "a female donkey".
• tˤfʊl "a little boy", tˤʊflɑ "a little girl".

Similar to Classical Arabic, Algierian Arabic uses broken plural for many masculine words

classical Arabic; radjul → ridjal / Alg. Arabic; radjel → rdjel "men"

Regular plural is used too, but like all other Arabic dialects, suffix un used for the nominative in Classical Arabic is no longer in use. Suffix in used in Classical Arabic for the accusative and the genitive is used for all cases

mumen مومن(believer) → mumnin مومنين

3aqel عاقل(wise) →3aqlin عاقلين

For feminine nouns, the plural is mostly regular ie, obtained by psotfixing "-at",

Classical Arabic; bint(girl)→ banat/ Alg. Arabic; Bent → Bnat

broken plural is used for some words;

Ṭabla → Ṭwabel "Table" [Broken plural].

The article el is indeclinable and expresses definite state of a noun of any gender and number. It is also prefixed to each of that noun's modifying adjectives.

It follows the the solar lettersand lunar letters rules of Classical Arabic, ie: if the word starts with one of these consonants, el is assimilated and replaced by the first consonant :

t, d, r, z, s, š, ṣ, ḍ, ṭ, l, n.

Examples:

rajel → errajel "man" (assimilation)

qmar → elqmar "moon" (no assimilation)

Conjugation is done by adding affixes (prefixes, postfixes, both or none), these suffixes change according to the tense:

Person	Past		Present
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st	- t	- na	n -	n(e) - u
2nd (m)	- t	- tu	t -	t - u
2nd (f)	- ti	- tu	t - i	t - u
3rd (m)	-	- u	i/y(e) -	i/y(e) - u
3rd (f)	- t	- u	t(e) -	i/y(e) - u

• Example with the verb kteb "To write":

Person	Past		Present
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st (m)	ktebt	ktebna	nekteb	nekketbu
2nd (m)	ketbet	ktebtu	tekteb	tekketbu
2nd (f)	ktebti	ktebtu	tekketbi	tekketbu
3rd (m)	kteb	ketbu	yekteb	yekketbu
3rd (f)	ketbet	ketbu	tekteb	yekketbu

Person	Past		Present		Future		Present continuous
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st (m)	كتبت	كتبنا	نكتب	نكتبوا	غنكتب	غنكتبوا	راني نكنب	رانا نكتبوا
2nd (m)	كتبت	كتبتوا	تكتب	تكتبوا	غتكتب	غتكتبوا	راك تكتب	راكم تكتبوا
2nd (f)	كتبتي	كتبتوا	تكتبي	تكتبوا	غتكتبي	غتكتبوا	راكي تكتبي	راكن تكتبوا
3rd (m)	كنب	كتبوا	يكتب	يكتبوا	غيكتب	غيكتبوا	راهو يكتب	راهم يكتبوا
3rd (f)	كنبت	كتبوا	تكتب	يكتبوا	غتكتب	غيكتبوا	راهي تكتب	رامن تكتبوا

In Algeria most of the time they don't use the future tense as you see above. They'll rather just use the present tense or Present continuous. The future tense Gh+verb, as you see above, is used more in the west as you get closer to Morocco the same goes with Ghadi or just Ghad for a future tense.

To add going to... just add (رايح) between the pronoun that makes the verb for example I'm writing become by adding this behind "I'm" or "راني" and before "I write" or "نكتب" I'm going to write. The plural form is done as (رايحين). This could be used for past tense as well.

Also, as is used in all of the other Arabic dialects there is another way of showing active tense. This form changes the root verb into an adjective. For example "Kteb" he wrote will become "Kateb" writing, كتب became كاتب.

Like Egyptian Arabic and some Levatine Arabic dialects Algerian Arabic usually expresses negation in two parts, with the particle ma attached to the verb, and one or more negative words that modify the verb or one of its arguments. For example, simple verbal negation is expressed by ma before the verb and the particle š /ʃ / after the verb:

• « Lεebt » ("I played") → « ma lεebtš /ʃ/  » ما لعبتش ("I didn't play")

Person	Past		Present		Future
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st (m)	ماكتبتش	ماكتبناش	مانكتبش	مانكتبواش	ماغنكتبش	ماغنكتبواش
2nd (m)	ماكتبتش	ماكتبتواش	ماتكتبش	ماتكتبواش	ماغتكتبش	ماغتكتبواش
2nd (f)	ماكتبتيش	ماكتبتواش	ماتكتبيش	ماتكتبواش	ماغتكتبيش	ماغتكتبواش
3rd (m)	ماكنبش	ماكتبواش	مايكتبش	مايكتبواش	ماغيكتبش	ماغيكتبواش
3rd (f)	ماكنبتش	ماكتبواش	ماتكتبش	مايكتبواش	ماغتكتبش	ماغيكتبواش

Other negative words (walu...etc.) are used in combination with ma to express more complex types of negation. ʃ is not used when other negative words are used

• ma qult walu ماقلت والو ("I didn't say anything")
• ma šuft ħetta waħed ما شفت حتى واحد ("I didn't see anyone")

or when two verbs are consecutively in the negative

• ma šuft ma smeεt ما شفت ما سمعت ("I neither saw nor did I hear")

Verb derivation is done by adding suffixes or by doubling consonants, there are two types of derivation forms : Causative, Passive.

• Causative: is obtained by doubling consonants :

xrej "to go out" → xerrej "to make to go out"

dxel "to enter" → dexxel "to make to enter, to introduce"

• Passive: This derivation is similar to berber and does not exist in classical Arabic (the passive voice in classical Arabic uses vowel changes and not verb derivation), it is obtained by prefixing the verb with t- / tt- / tn- / n- :

qtel "to kill" → tneqtel "to be killed"

šreb "to drink" → ttešreb "to be drunk".

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	ana / anaya	ḥna / ḥnaya
2nd (m)	nta / ntaya	ntuma
2nd (f)	nti / ntiyya	ntuma
3rd (m)	huwa	huma
3rd (f)	hiya	huma

Example : « Ana tani. » — "Me too."

Person	Algerian Arabic	Pronunciation
I am	راني	rani
You are (m)	راك	rak
You are (f)	راكي	raki
He is	راهو	rahu
She is	راهي	rahi
We are	رانا	rana
You or Y'all are	راكُ	raku
You or Y'all are	راكم \ راكن	rakum (m) \ rakun (f)
They are	راهم \ راهن	rahum (m) \ rahun (f)

Example : « Rani hna. » — "I'm here." and « Ki raki. » — "How are you." to a woman.

Dar (دار) is the word for house

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	i, ya (داري, داريا)	na (دارنا)
2nd	(e)k (دارك)	kum (داركم)
3rd (m)	u (داره)	hum (دارهم)
3rd (f)	ha (دارها)	hum (دارهم)

Example : « dar-na. » — "Our house." (House-our), these possessive are frequently combined with « nteε or teε (تاع)» "of" and « dial » "property" : « dar nteε-na » — "Our house.", « dar dial-kum » ...etc.

SINGULAR تاعي = my or mine (pronounced ta'ee) تاعك = your or yours (m) (pronounced ta'ak) تاعكِ = your or yours (m) (pronounced ta'ik) تاعه = his (pronounced ta'u) تاعها = hers (pronounced ta'ha) PLURAL تاعنا = our or ours (pronounced ta'na) تاعكم = your or yours (m) (pronounced ta'kum) تاعكن = your or yours (f) (pronounced ta'kun) تاعكُ = your or yours (pronounced ta'ku) تاعهم = their or theirs (m) (pronounced ta'hum) تاعهن = their or theirs (f) (pronounced ta'hun)

Our house can be "Darna" (دارنا) or "Dar ta'na" (دار تاعنا) which is more like saying 'house of ours'. Ta' can be used in other ways just like of is used in English or more like in Spanish. You can say "Dar ta' khuya" (دار تاع خويا) which means 'house of my brother' or 'my brother's house'.

Interogatives	Other ways of saying it	Algerian Arabic	Pronunciation
What?	اش، شنو، واشنو	واش	wash
When?	وقتاه، فاين، إمتى	وقتاش	wagtash
Why?	علاه، وعلاش، لاه، ليه,	علاش	alash
Which?	اشمن	أمي	ami
Where?	فين	وين	ween or wein
Who?	أشكون	شكون	shakoon
How?	كيفاه، كي	كيفاش	kifash
How many?	أشحال، قداش، قداه	شحال	shaHal
Whose?	ديالمين	تاعمين	ta'meen

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	ni	na
2nd (m)	(e)k	kum
3rd (m)	u (after a consonant) / h (after a vowel) / hu (before an indirect object pronoun)	hum
3rd (m)	ha	hum

Examples:

« šeft-ni. » — "You saw me." (You.saw-me)

« qetl-u. » — "He killed him." (He.killed-him)

« kla-h. » — "He ate it." (He.ate-it)

These are pretty much all of the demonstratives used in Algerian Arabic. The demonstrative (hadi) is also used for "It is".

Interogatives	Emphasized	Algerian Arabic	Pronunciation
This	هذا (m), هذه (f), هاديا	هاد (m), هادي (f)	had (m), hadi (f)
That	هداك (m), هديك (f)	داك (m), ديك (f)	dak (m), dik (f)
These	هدوما	هدو	hadu
Those	هدوك	دوك	duk

The text below was translated from Kabyle, In. MOULIERAS (Auguste), les fourberies de si Djeh'a.

Buzelluf

Sheep Head

Waḥed nnhar, jeḥḥa med-lu baba-h frank, baš yešri buzelluf. šra-h, kla geε leḥm-u. bqa γir leεḍam, jab-u l baba-h. ki šaf-u qal-lu: "wešnu hada?" qal-lu: "buzelluf". -A ššmata, win rahum wedni-h? -Kan ṭreš. -Win rahum εini-h? -Kan εwer. -Win rah lsan-u? -Kan εeggun. -U jeldet ras-u, win rahi? -Kan ferṭas.

One day, Jehha's father gave him one cent, so that he buys a sheep head. He bought it, and ate all of it's meet. Only an empty carcass was left, he brought it to his father. Then, when he saw it he said: "what is that?" Jehha said: "a sheep head". -You vile, where are its (sheep) ears? -It was deaf. -Where are its eyes? -It was blind. -Where is its tongue? -It was dumb. -And the skin of its head, where is it? -It was bald.

• Varieties of Arabic
• Maghrebi Arabic
• Moroccan Arabic
• Tunisian Arabic
• Hassaniya Arabic
• Libyan Arabic
• Languages of Algeria

• Online Dictionary of Algerian Arabic
• [2]

v • d • e Varieties of Arabic
Pre-Muslim conquests	Ancient North Arabian† (Safaitic†, Lihyanitic†, Thamudic†, Hasaitic†) · Classical Arabic
Modern Standard Variety	Literary Arabic
Maghrebi Arabic	Moroccan Arabic · Algerian Arabic · Tunisian Arabic · Andalusian Arabic† · Libyan Arabic · Jebli Arabic · Jijel Arabic · Saharan Arabic · Hassānīya · Maltese language · Siculo-Arabic†
Levantine Arabic	Lebanese Arabic · Syrian Arabic · North Syrian Arabic · Palestinian Arabic · Cypriot Maronite Arabic
Arabian Arabic	Gulf Arabic · Bahrani Arabic · Najdi Arabic · Hejazi Arabic · Shargi Arabic · Yemeni Arabic (Hadhrami Arabic)
Iraqi Arabic	Baghdad Arabic
Egyptian Arabic	Cairene Arabic · Sa'idi Arabic
Sudanese Arabic	Sudanese Arabic · Nigerian Arabic . Chadian Arabic
Peripheries	Khuzestani Arabic · Shirvani Arabic† · Central Asian Arabic
Judeo-Arabic	Judeo-Moroccan · Judeo-Yemenite · Baghdad Arabic (Jewish)
Creoles	Nubi language · Babalia Creole Arabic · Juba Arabic