A-Dictionary-Moroccan-Arabic-Moroccan-English-and-English-Moroccan

521 Pages·2021·17.45 MB·English

A Dictionary of

Moroccan Arabic:
Moroccan-English

edited by

Richard S. Harrell

compiled by
Thomas Fox

Mohammed Abu-Talib

with the assistance of
Ahmed Ben Thami

Allot Chreibi

Habiba Kanouni

Ernest Ligon

Mohammed Mekaaui

The Richard Slade Harrell Arabic Series

General Editor: Richard 5. Harrell

Georgetown University Press, Washington, D.C. 20007

THE ARABIC SERIES

INSTITUTE OF LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

As an adjunct to its teaching and research program in the
field of modern Arabic

studies, Georgetown University’s Institute of Languages and Linguistics inaugurated

a publication
series
in Arabic studies
in
1962.
The present volume
represents the

ninth of the series. A list of currently available and forthcoming publications
is to

be found on the back cover of this book.

Inquiries
as
to
prices,
details
of
subscription,
etc.,
should
be
sent
to
Director

of
Publications,
Institute
of Languages and
Linguistics, Georgetown
University,

Washington, D. C. 20007.

THE ARABIC RESEARCH PROGRAM

INSTITUTE OF LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

The Arabic Research Program was established
in June
of
1960
as
a
contract

between Georgetown University and the United
States Office of Education under

the
provisions
of
the Language Development Program
of
the
National
Defense

Education Act.

The
first two years of the research program, 1960-62
(Contract number SAE-

8706), were devoted
to
the production
of
six books,
a
reference grammar and
a

conversational English-Arabic dictionary in the cultivated spoken forms of Moroccan,

Syrian, and Iraqi Arabic. The second two years of the research program, 1962-64

(Contract number OE-2-14-029)

, have been devoted to the further production of

Arabic-English dictionaries in each of the three varieties of Arabic mentioned above,

as well as comprehensive basic courses in the Moroccan and Iraqi varieties.

The eleven books of this series, of which the present volume
is one, are designed

to serve as practical tools for the increasing number of Americans whose lives bring

them into contact with the Arab world. The dictionaries, the reference grammars,

and the basic courses are oriented toward the educated American who
is a layman

in linguistic matters. Although it is hoped that the scientific linguist and the specialist

in Arabic dialectology will find these books both of interest and of use, matters of

purely scientific and theoretical importance have not been directly treated
as such,

and specialized scientific terminology has been avoided as much as possible.

As
is usual, the authors or editors of
the
individual books bear
final
scholarly

responsibility for the contents, but there has been a large amount of informal coopera-

tion
in our work.
Criticism, consultation, and
discussion have gone on constantly

among the senior professional members of the staff. The contribution of more junior

research assistants, both Arab and American,
is also not to be underestimated. Their

painstaking assembling and ordering of raw data, often
in manners requiring con-

siderable creative intelligence, has been the necessary prerequisite for further progress.

In most cases the books prepared by the Arabic Research Program are the first of

their kind in English, and in some cases the
first in any language. The preparation

of them has been a rewarding experience.
It
is hoped that the public use of them

will be equally so. The undersigned, on behalf of the entire staff, would like to ask

the same indulgence of the reader as Samuel Johnson requested in his first English

dictionary: To remember
that although much has been
left
out, much has been

included.

Richard
S. Harrell

Professor of Linguistics
Georgetown
University

Director,

Arabic Research Program

Before his death in late 1964, Dr. Harrell had done the major part of the work

of general
editor for
the
last
five books of the Arabic
Series, and
to him
is due

the credit for
all
that may be found of value
in
that work.
It remained
for me

only
to make some minor
editing
decisions, and
to
see
these books through
the

process of proofreading and printing;
for any
errors
or
inadequacies
in
the
final

editing, the responsibility is mine alone.

Wallace M. Erwin

Assistant
Professor
of

Linguistics and Arabic
Georgetown University

INTRODUCTION

This dictionary
is designed to serve the practical needs of Americans whose lives

bring them into contact with Morocco and Moroccans. The aim of the compilers

has been to present the core vocabulary of everyday life. No attempt has been made

to cover
dialect variations or specialized vocabularies,
as
for example the
detailed

terminology of the various handicrafts, of commerce, or of industry. The average

Moroccan is no more familiar with such terms himself than
is the average American

with
similar terms
in
English.
The
entries
are based on the speech
of educated

Moroccans from the cities of Fez, Rabat, and Casablanca.
Except for minor varia-

tions, their usage may be taken as typical of urban speech in general.
This standard

urban
usage
is
understood
throughout Morocco,
including
the
villages and
the

countryside.

Although a variety of reference works were consulted
in the compilation of this

dictionary, the material presented
is wholly primary.* No single entry
is a simple

reworking or translation of previously published material.
Every entry
is a critically

evaluated reflection of a native Moroccan’s judgment as to the meaning of his own

speech.
In a few rare cases secondary reference works have been relied on for limited

terminological
purposes.
An example
is
the
entry
organ, which
is
translated
as

‘argan
tree’.
The Moroccan members
of our
staff were
familiar with
the word

organ as well as the plant which
it represents, but none of them knew the English

equivalent.
None of the American members
of our
staff were
familiar with
the

plant. A comparison
of
various
French
and
English
dictionaries
convinced
the

editor
that
‘argan
tree’ was
the proper
entry.
No
other
use
has
been made
of

secondary sources.

The word
list of Ferre’s Lexique Marocain-Frangais ** was taken as a point of

departure.
Entries not directly familiar to our Moroccan staff members were deleted

and various additions were made from their own knowledge.
In no case were Ferre’s

•Constantly in
use for matters
of
detail were such standard works
as:
Webster's
Third

New International Dictionary
(Springfield: G. and
C. Merriam Company,
1961), Le
Petit

Larousse
(Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1959), J. E. Mansion,
ed., Mansion’s Shorter French and

English Dictionary (D. C. Heath and Company, no date). The French reference works were

indispensable
in view
of
the
French
education
of
our Moroccan
staff members
and
the

consultation
of
various
French language
works
on Moroccan
Arabic.
Particularly
useful

among the latter were: Louis Brunot, Textes arabes de Rabat
(Paris: Librairie
Orientaliste

Paul Geuthner, Vol.
I Textes 1931, Vol. II Glossaire 1952)
; Daniel Ferre, Lexique Marocain-

Franqaxs and Lexique Franqais-Marocain
(Editions Nejma, Imprimerie de Fedala, Maroc, no

date or place); Henry Mercier, Dictionnaire Arabe-Frangais
(Rabat: Les editions
la
porte,

1951) and Dictionnaire Francois-Arabe (Rabat: Les editions la porte, 1959).

• Cf. the preceding footnote.

definitions used otherwise than
as a stimulus
for
arriving
at our own
definitions.

In the process of
criticism and
revision each
of the
entries
finally arrived
at has

been read at least four times.

The use of the dictionary presupposes a familiarity with the
basic grammatical

structure
of Moroccan
Arabic.*
Except
for
a
sprinkling
of
illustrative
items,

regularly
predictable
forms have
been
omitted.
For example,
it was
considered

unnecessary to enter regular diminutives such as ktiyyeb from ktab ‘book’ or regular

participles
such
as mesnut
from
snat
‘to
make,
to
manufacture’.
Participles,

diminutives, and other such derived words are, however, entered if they are irregular

in form or specialized in meaning.
Entered participles are listed alphabetically but

referred back to the parent verb for definition.
For example, sanet
is regular both

in form and meaning
as
the
active
participle of
snat.,
but
it
has
the
additional

specialized meaning ‘craftsman,
artisan’. The information
‘a.p. of snat.’ given
for

the alphabetically entered sanet
is a signal that the word should be looked up as a

sub-entry under the parent verb snat. The same
is true of the participles beginning

with m-, irregular
diminutives, and
in general
all
other semantically or formally

irregular or unpredictable items.

A large number of FettaL pattern adjectives and nouns as well as medio-passive

verbs
(i.e. Measures la, Ila(V), Illa(VI), and the derived quadriliteral measure)

were found to be fully predictable in meaning and have been cross referenced rather

than translated independently.
For example, the entry for wezzat
is simply ‘ag. n.

of wezzat

'

since
its meaning
is
totally predictable from
the meaning of wezzat

‘to
distribute,
to hand
out’.
For similar reasons nebbaZ.
is entered
as
‘ag.
n. and

adj. of nbeZ.’ , ttekteb is entered as ‘m.p. of kteb’

,

etc.

Necessary grammatical
information
(e.g.
irregular
plurals)
is
given
with
the

entries.
Verbs
are entered
in the
third person
singular masculine
of
the
perfect.

The imperfect form
is written immediately
after the perfect form
for those verbs

which are irregular or which have an unpredictable imperfect vowel.
The verbal

noun
is
given
for Measure
I
verbs and
elsewhere
if
irregular.
In
idioms and

expressions which require a variable pronoun
(cf.
‘I—my’,
‘he—his’,
etc.
in
‘I ate

my
fill’, ‘He ate his
fill’,
etc.), the pronoun,
like the verb, has been entered
in the

third person singular masculine with
the symbol
<£
after
it
to
indicate
that
the

pronoun varies according to meaning.
For example,
the entry fda deqqttufs
‘to get

revenge’
is conjugated
fdit
deqqti
‘I
got
(my)
revenge’,
fditi
deqqtek
‘you
got

(your)
revenge’,
etc.
The symbol ~
after
a pronoun
indicates
it
is
invariable,

e.g. bih~ fih~ ‘immediately’.

* Cf. Richard
S. Harrell, A Short Reference Grammar of Moroccan Arabic (Washington:

Georgetown
University
Press,
1962), A
Basic
Course
in Moroccan Arabic
(Washington:

Georgetown University Press, 1965), and Harvey Sobelman,
ed., A Dictionary of Moroccan

Arabic: English-Moroccan (Washington: Georgetown University Press, 1963).

There
are numerous
cases where Moroccan and
English meanings
correspond

precisely but with differing constructions in the two languages.
This circumstance

is indicated by the symbol =7^ placed directly after the English
definition, followed

by an example which shows the construction.
For example, under msa
‘to
go’, the

sub-entry msa
l-
is translated
‘to
lose=7^’, with the illustration msa-li sebbati
‘I
lost

my shoes’,
d he illustration shows that the thing
lost
is the subject of the verb
in

Moroccan while the person losing the object in question
is placed
as the object of

the preposition
/-.

In those cases where the Moroccan usage or structure
is not immediately clear

from the English definition, supplementary information such as ‘v.i.’ for ‘intransitive

verb’ or
‘v.t.’ for ‘transitive verb’
is given. An indented paragraph mark,
H,
is used

to set off sub-entries,
e.g. the sub-entry msa
f-’Calutb
‘to go away’ under the main

entry msa
‘to go’. An indented double asterisk, **, preceding a sentence or a group

of sentences at the end of an entry or a sub-entry indicates idiomatic uses, e.g. under

ras ‘head’ the sentence
£.ad fag b-rasu ‘He’s finally realized what’s going on’.

In order to be as clear as possible and to give a wider range of information about

the
entries, numerous
illustrative sentences have been included.
For example, one

of the equivalents given
for the verb bqa
is
‘to keep on,
to continue,
to remain,
to

persevere
(in)’, which
is then
clarified by
the appended
illustrative
sentence
bqa

ka-ikteb-lu modda twila ‘He kept on writing him
(regularly)
for quite
a while’.

The transcription differs in only two respects from that given in the works cited

in the footnote referred to immediately above. The e and the short a are consistently

distinguished, and a new symbol, the short
i, has been added.
There
is considerable

variation between e and a from speaker to speaker. Some speakers almost exclusively

have a rather than
e in the neighborhood of C and
£..
Other speakers reverse
this

pattern.
Other speakers have a in some words and e in others in the neighborhood

of C and
L.
The transcription adopted
represents an attempted consensus of our

Moroccan
staff.
In
the
final
analysis, however,
there
is no escaping the
fact that

some speakers say C efla while others say Cdfla ‘ceremony,
party’, and
as might be

expected each speaker prefers his own pronunciation.

The symbol
i
represents
a shorter
version
of
the
i, which
represents
a sound

similar to the
‘i’ of English ‘machine’. The short
1 occurs in
relatively few words,

mostly classicisms.
Less well educated people usually use
i instead of
i, but there are

a few words in which
/
is apparently the only acceptable educated usage,
e.g. Lamil

‘governor’.

The entries are arranged alphabetically according to the following sequence:

a b(b) ddfgghik
1 ( 1 ) m(m)
n q r(r) sssttuwxy z(z)
z C t

Because of the limited and variable
role they play
in word formation,
the
glottal

stop,
®

,

and the variable vowels
a,
e,
i, and
0 have been disregarded in the alpha-

XI

betization. Thus such a word as xobz ‘bread’
is alphabetized as x-b-z, fLawd ‘horse’

is alphabetized as L-w-d, and ?eddeb
‘to educate’
is alphabetized as d-d-b, etc. The

secondary emphatic consonants b,
1, m,
r, and z have likewise been disregarded for

purposes
of
alphabetization,
for
similar
reasons.
This scheme
of arrangement
is

essentially that of
Ferre, and
familiarity has convinced the
editor of
its practical

usefulness.

In those cases where differing pronunciations of a word
require
different alpha-

betizations, both have been
listed,
usually with
a
cross
reference.
There
are
five

generalized variations which require attention:

( 1 ) The alternation between q and
g.
In various
dialects of Moroccan, the q
is

regularly replaced by
g.
For example, many speakers
say gal
instead
of
qal

‘to say’.
For words in which q
is the standard pronunciation, the alternatives

with g have not been listed.
For words where the alternate with g is the more

widely accepted pronunciation, the word
is entered twice, the translation under

the form with g and
a cross reference under the form with
q.
For example,

under the entry bger one
finds
the note ‘same
as bger, and under the entry

bger the translation
‘cattle’
is given
.

(2) The change of initial r (or r)
to s under the influence of a s or z further on

in the word. The procedure has been to
list both forms with cross references.

For example, entry serzem gives the information ‘same as serzem
, and the entry

serzem gives the meaning ‘window’.

(3) The change
of
initial
z
to
z,
parallel
to
the
alternation
between
r
and
s

discussed
in
(2)
above.
The
alternation
is handled
similarly,
e.g.
zellez
is

entered ‘same as zellez , and
zellez
is translated
‘to cover with mosaic’.

(4) The variation between ay and
i after C and
£.. Where this variation occurs

the meaning
is usually given under the form with
i and
a cross reference
is

given under the form with ay.
For example, the entry under Cayt
is ‘same as

Cif and the entry under C it is ‘wall’.

(5) The variation between aw and
u
after C and
The
variation
is
exactly

parallel to the variation between ay and
i discussed in (4)
above,
e.g. Cawma

‘same asZ.uma’ and c uma
‘quarter, section
(of a
city)’.

In closing the
editor would
like
to express
his gratitude and warm
feelings
to

all
those who
participated
in
the
production
of
this
dictionary.
Ernest
Ligon

deserves a
final salute
for undertaking the proofreading.

Richard
S.
Harrell

Washington, D. C.

August,
1964

xii

PRONUNCIATION

1 • Table of Sounds: Moroccan Arabic has thirty-one consonants and six vowels.*

The symbols for them are
listed
in the
table below.
Most
of the consonants are

classified according
to
the
kinds
of movements and
positions
of
the
lips,
tongue,

throat, and nasal passages which produce them.

CONSONANTS

Labial
Dental
Palatal
Velar
Pharyngeal
Glottal

Stops
bb
1 1 d d
k gq
?

Fricatives
f
s s z z
si
**
C t
h

Nasals
m m
n

Resonants
I
/
l r r <w y

VOWELS

a d e
i o u

Stops are those sounds which
involve, momentarily,
a complete blocking of the

air stream
in speech.
For example,
notice the complete closure of the
lips
in
the

pronunciation of the
‘b’
in English
‘bed’. A
fricative
is a sound
in which the
air

stream
is partly blocked but not completely stopped, with a
resulting noisy
effect.

For example, in the
‘f’ of English ‘foot’ note the way the air stream escapes through

the partial closure of the lower lip against the upper front teeth.
Nasals are sounds

which involve a flow of air through the nasal passage, e.g. ‘m’ as in ‘mad’.

The terms
‘labial’,
‘dental’,
‘palatal’,
‘velar’,
‘pharyngeal’, and
‘glottal’
refer,
in

going from front to back, to the parts of the mouth in which sounds are formed.

‘Labial’ refers to sounds which involve the lips,
e.g. m.

‘Dental’
refers
to sounds which involve
the
tip
of the tongue
in the area around

the back of the upper front teeth, e.g., d.

* No account
is taken of the vowel
i in
this description.

xni

‘Palatal’
refers to sounds formed with the upper surface of the tongue against the

roof of the mouth,
e.g.
s.

‘Velar’ refers to sounds involving the rear part of the tongue against the rear portions

of the roof of the mouth, e.g. g.

‘Pharyngeal’
refers
to sounds formed
in
the area of
the
throat above
the
larynx

(‘adam’s apple’), e.g. C.

‘Glottal’ refers to sounds formed in the larynx, e.g. ? .

For practical teaching and learning purposes, the sounds listed as ‘resonants’ are

not usefully classifiable according to the system described above. The sounds repre-

sented by letters with dots under them,
e.g.
t, are referred to as ‘emphatics’.
They

are discussed below.
-

There are six vowels, represented by the symbols
a, a,
e,
i,
o, and
u.
Each one

of these vowels has various pronunciations depending on the consonants they occur

with.
There
is no
single
isolated
pronunciation which can
be learned
for
them.

They are discussed individually in relation to the consonants in the following sections.

2.
Consonants Similar to'English:
Fifteen of the thirty-one Moroccan consonants

are, for practical purposes, identical with consonants which occur in English. These

are b, /, m,
t, d
s, z, n, s
(like the ‘sh’ in ‘ship’), z
(like the
‘s’ in ‘pleasure’), k, g,

w, y, and h.

For the student who wishes to be
fully accurate, there
is a small
difference
of

detail to be noted between the Moroccan
t, d, and n as opposed to the corresponding

English sounds.
In Moroccan these sounds are formed with the
tip of the tongue

against the back of the upper front teeth instead of against the gum ridge immediately

above them.
Note the
tip of the tongue against the gum ridge above the teeth
for

English
‘t’,
‘d’, and
‘n’, as in
‘tea’, ‘day’, ‘no’.

A word about w and y
is also necessary. The English speaker
is familiar with

them
before vowels,
as
in words
like
‘well’ and
‘yes’.
Moroccan w and y occur

after vowels as well as before them.
After vowels, the Moroccan w sounds to the

English speaker somewhat like the vowel
in ‘who’ and the y sounds somewhat like

the vowel in
‘he’. The occurrence of h in the middle and at the end of words may

also cause the student some difficulty.
^

3. Vowel Sounds with Familiar Consonants

:

This section has
to do with
the

pronunciation of some of the Moroccan vowels in combination with the consonants

listed
in
2
above.
The
descriptions
below
are
accurate
only
for
the
vowels
in

combination with those Moroccan consonants which are similar to English.
Else-

where the vowels are pronounced differently.

XIV

(1) The e:
Like the
‘e’ in English
‘glasses’, but always very short.

(2) The o

:

Like the
‘u’ in English
‘put’,
brut always very short.

(3) The a:
Like the
‘a’ in English ‘mad’ except at the end of words. At the end

of words, Moroccan a
is pronounced about half-way between the
‘a’

of ‘mad’ and the
‘a’ of ‘father’.

Similar to the vowel of ‘be’ but without any gliding effect. By listening

carefully the English speaker will note that from the beginning to the

end of the vowel
of
‘be’
there
is a
sort
of
gliding change
in vowel

quality.
This
gliding
effect must be avoided
in Moroccan.
For the

student who knows French,
Italian, or Spanish,
it may be helpful to

point out
that
the
‘i’
in
these languages
is exactly equivalent
to the

Moroccan
i,
as
in French
vite
‘quickly’,
Spanish mi
‘my’,
or
Italian

vino
‘wine’.

Similar to the vowel of ‘do’ but without any gliding effect.
Compare

the
discussion
of the
i immediately
above.
The Moroccan
u
is
like

the French W,
as
in fou
‘insane’, or Spanish and
Italian
‘u’,
as
in

Spanish luna ‘moon’, Italian luce
‘light’.

4. The Emphatic
Consonants

:

The
easiest way
for
the
English
speaker
to

distinguish the emphatic consonants from the corresponding non-emphatic consonants

is by the great difference in the sound of the vowels when they occur next to these

consonants
(see the discussion
of the emphatic vowels below).
By paying careful

attention
to
the vowel
differences, which
he
hears
relatively
easily,
the
English

speaker
will
arrive
at an
acceptable pronunciation
of
the
difference between
the

plain and emphatic consonants, even
if he
feels that he can hear no difference
be-

tween them.

The emphatic consonants are written with a subscript dot under the symbol for

the corresponding plain consonants.
There are eight emphatic consonants,
b, m,
t,

d,
s,
Zj
l, and
r. The
first seven
are
discussed
here, while
the
r
is considered
in

section 6 below.
These sounds are lower in pitch than their non-emphatic counter-

parts. They are pronounced with greater muscular tension in the mouth and throat
and with a raising of the back and root of the tongue toward the roof of the mouth.
The English speaker can notice
this contraction
of the throat very easily by pro-

longing the
‘1’ in
‘full’, since this English
‘1’
is exactly like the Moroccan
l except

that in the Moroccan sound the tip of the tongue
is against the back of the upper

front teeth instead of against the gum ridge above the teeth.
After having acquired

conscious control of the movement of the back and root of the tongue with
l, the

English speaker can proceed
to
practice combining
it with
the
other
articulatory

features of b, m,
t, d, s, z, and r.
In addition to lower pitch and the contraction of

the
throat,
t
differs from
t by being
released without any
friction
noise whereas

the
t usually has some,
as in English.
...

(4) The i:

(5) The u:

XV

The emphatics
t,
d, and
s
are quite common, with or without other emphatic

consonants in the words in which they occur. The
r also occurs widely
in words

without
the
presence
of any other emphatic consonants,
but
it
is
limited
to
the

neighborhood of the vowels e and a unless a
t, d, or s also occurs in the word. The

occurrence of
b, m,
z, or
l
in words where no
t,
d,
r, or r occurs
is
quite
rare.

Contrariwise, there
is no occurrence of a plain b or m
in a word
in which one of

the other emphatics occurs.
In order to avoid the
repetition of subscript
dots, the

transcription employed here
is to write b and m only
if no other emphatic occurs

in the word.
Otherwise only b and m are written although they are to be interpreted

as b and m if another emphatic consonant occurs in the word where they are found.

5.

The Emphatic
Towels:
The Moroccan vowels have
special
pronunciations

in the neighborhood of the emphatic consonants. The emphatic pronunciations are:

(1) Thee:

(2) The a:

(3) Thei:

(4) The u

:

(5) The o

;

Like the ‘u’ in English ‘nut’, but always very short.

Like the
‘a’ in
‘father’.

Similar to the vowel of ‘they’, but without any gliding effect.

Similar to the vowel of ‘blow’, but without any gliding effect.

Like the emphatic u, but always very short.

6. The Sounds l, r, and r: A minor difference between English
‘1’ and Moroccan /

is that, like the other Moroccan dentals,
it is pronounced with the tip of the tongue

against the upper front teeth instead of against the gum ridge above them. A more

serious
difference
is
that
the
usual American
English
‘1’
is
like
the Moroccan

emphatic
l. The Moroccan plain
l
is like the French, Spanish, or Italian
l in that

it
is pronounced with
the tongue further forward
in
the mouth and without the

back part of the tongue being raised toward the roof of the mouth.

The plain r is a flap of the tongue past the gum ridge above the upper front teeth,

like the
‘r’ in Spanish para
‘for’ or the
‘t’
in the usual American pronunciation of

such words as ‘water’ and
‘butter’.
Emphatic r bears exactly the same relation to

plain r as the other emphatic consonants to the corresponding plain consonants.
See

the discussion of the emphatic consonants above.

*

The vowels next
to
r
are pronounced
the same
as around
the other emphatic

consonants.
Around plain
l and r the vowels
are pronounced
the same
as
in the

neighborhood of the various consonants which are similar
to English, such
as m,

j, etc.

7. The
Consonants
q, x, and g: The q
is
similar to the k but
is pronounced

further back in the mouth.
English
‘k’ ranges over a fairly wide area in the back

XVI

of the mouth, and the English speaker must be careful to keep k more to the front

part and q more to the back part of the rear of the mouth in order not to confuse

them and pronounce q when he means k or vice versa.

The x and g are fricatives pronounced in approximately the same position as the

q, with the rear of the tongue raised toward the roof of the mouth in the neighbor-

hood of the uvula. The g
is similar to the French V and the x
is the same sound

as the
‘ch’ of German Bach or Scotch
loch.
If these sounds seem
difficult to the

English speaker he can approximate them by gargling gently. The g
is similar to a

light gargle accompanied by a musical buzz from the adam’s apple
(‘voice’
is the

technical term for this musical buzz) whereas the x
is the same sound without the

musical
buzz.

The vowels in the neighborhood
of the consonants
q,
x, and g are pronounced

approximately the same as the vowels in the neighborhood of the emphatic consonants.

This equivalence
is only approximate, and
the student’s prime concern should be

with exact imitation of native speakers of Moroccan Arabic.

8. The
consonants C and £:
The
C. and £
are
different from
anything
in

English.
Careful
practice with
a native
speaker
or with
recordings
is
necessary

for
the
English
speaker
to
acquire
a
proper
pronunciation
of
these
consonants.

These sounds are articulated by a simultaneous raising of the larynx and a movement

of the root of the tongue toward the back wall of
the throat. The compression of

the
throat
in
this way
gives
rise
to
the
particular
sound
quality
of
these two

consonants.

The C
is somewhat similar to an English
‘h’ pronounced in a loud stage whisper,

as opposed to Moroccan h, which is more like an English
‘h’ in ordinary conversation.

The English speaker must exercise extreme care in learning to distinguish h and C
from each other, both in hearing and in pronunciation.

The £
is unlike any English sound, and
a proper pronunciation
of
it can
be

acquired only by careful imitation. A useful articulatory description of the way to

pronounce £ is difficult to give briefly in simple terms. The student may approximate

it by practicing a loud, prolonged stage whisper English
‘h’,
as for C. He should

note the tension
in
his throat and the exact position of the adam’s apple during

the stage whisper
‘h’. Then, with his adam’s apple and throat in the exact position

as for the stage whisper
‘h’, the student should try pronouncing the
‘a’ of
‘father’.

The result should be an acceptable approximation of £. The student may contrast

it with the normal pronunciation of the
‘a’ in ‘father’.

9. The Vowels with C and £:
In
the neighborhood of C and
£,
the vowels

a,
i,
u, and o are approximately the same
as
in the neighborhood
of the emphatic

consonants. The vowel a
is almost never found anywhere except next
to C or
£.

xvii

It
is pronounced about halfway between the
‘a’ of ‘mad’ and the
‘a’ of ‘father’, but

always very
short.
It
is
especially important to note the shortness of
a.
If
it
is

lengthened,
it will be confused with a. The only difference between a and a
is that

a
is held longer than
a.
The vowel
e next
to C and C
is
similar
to
the
‘e’
of

English
‘bet’.

10. The Glottal Stop: The
glottal
stop
is represented by
the symbol
?.
This

sound
is as rare
in Moroccan
as
it
is in English.
It
is the break between vowels

as heard
in
the exclamation
‘uh
oh’.
The
‘tt’
in such
a word
as
‘bottle’
is
also

commonly pronounced
as
a
glottal
stop
in some
varieties
of New York
English

(‘Brooklynese’) or Scotch English.
This sound offers no difficulties for the English

speaker.
The vowels around
the
glottal
stop
are pronounced
the same
as
in
the

neighborhood of such plain consonants as f, s, n, etc.

11.
The Diphthongs ay and aw: These two diphthongs occur almost exclusively

after C or C. The English speaker’s principal difficulty in pronouncing them
is to

remember that they are always very short.
Except for being pronounced much more

quickly,
the ay
is similar
to the
‘i’
in English ‘night’ and the aw
is similar
to the
W
in English
‘about’.

,
*

12. The Sequences ay and aw: The a in these sequences
is pronounced as usual,

i.e. similar to the
‘a’ of ‘father’ after the emphatics and the consonants
q, x, g, C,

and £, and similar to the
‘a’
of ‘mad’ after other consonants.
In these sequences,

the y
is
similar
to
the
‘ee’
of
‘feed’
and
the w
is
similar
to
the
‘oo’
of
‘food’.

The sequences aye and awe,
i.e. with an e after the ay and aw, are very common.

The pronunciation
of
the
e
in
these sequences
is very
fleeting,
similar
to
the
‘e’

of ‘towel’ or the
‘a’ of
‘trial’. An exception
is
that before C or I
the
e
is
fully

pronounced.

13. Double Consonants

:

Double consonants are an important feature of Moroc-

can pronunciation.
In
English
the double writing of a consonant,
as
the
‘dd’
in

‘middle’,
is simply a meaningless
piece
of
spelling.
In Moroccan, such
a writing

as mm
as opposed to m or dd as opposed
to d indicates an important difference
in

pronunciation. The writing of a consonant symbol twice indicates that the consonant

is to be held twice as long as a single consonant. Genuine double consonants never

occur in English in the middle of words, but they are very common from the end

of
one word
to
the beginning of
another.
Compare
the
difference between
the

single
‘d’ in ‘lay down’ and the double “dd’ in
‘laid down’. Many similar examples

for other consonants can be found
in English.

Medial double consonants are not particularly
difficult for the English speaking

student. More difficult
is the occurrence of double consonants both at the beginning

and the end of words.
Careful attention and practice are necessary for the mastery

of initial and final double consonants.

xviii

14.
Triple
Consonants:
Double
consonants
are
held
twice
as
long
as
single

consonants.
There are
also cases of
triple consonants, which are held even longer

than double consonants.
If the student has exercised the pronunciation
of double

consonants properlv, learning to contrast them with triple consonants should not be

difficult.

15. Sequences and
Clusters'. The preceding sections have
discussed the various

consonant and vowel sounds of Moroccan Arabic.
Some of them are very similar

to sounds which occur
in
English, others
are
quite
different.
Mastering the new

sounds
is only a
first step
for the student.
There remains the task of learning to

pronounce unfamiliar sequences.
Sequences such at bt- at the beginning of of a word

or -hd
at the end of a word
strike the English speaking student
as
quite strange.

Moroccan has a large number of such
clusters, and the student must be prepared

to deal with them,
especially
at the beginning and in
the middle of words.
Such

sequences are actually not at all difficult, and they are easily mastered with attention

and
practice.
As a matter of
fact,
similar
clusters occur
in
rapid
conversational

English,
for example
the
‘gb’
in
rapid
pronunciations
of
‘good-bye’;
the
spelling

‘g’bye’ is sometimes used to represent this initial cluster in writing. A further example

is the initial cluster ‘tm’ in casual pronunciations of ‘tomorrow.’ A close examination

of
spoken
English
at
ordinary
conversational
speed
reveals many
such
clusters.

These can serve as a basis on which the student can build in mastering the pronuncia-

tion of seemingly unfamiliar Moroccan
clusters.

XIX