Le parler arabe des Aït Mâad (Kabylie orientale, Algérie)

Abstract

The Aït/Bni Mâad are a bilingual Arabic-Berber confederation, predominantly Arabic-speaking, whose territory is in Eastern Kabylia (north-eastern Algeria). Their country has been crossed by trade routes since antiquity and was a dynastic vacation spot in the Middle Ages. Witness the Punic-Roman port of Chobae Municipium and the ruins of the Hammadite palace of the Mansouriah. During the last century, the region was ruined by wars, leaving it practically uninhabited to this day. In this descriptive draft, I will try to present the most interesting phonetic and morphosyntactic features of this endangered Arabic dialect, emphasizing the variation observed with the only other “pre-Hilalian villageois dialect” of Eastern Kabylia described: Jijel Arabic variety.