Two Waves of Berber Influence on Moroccan Arabic

The influence of Berber syllabification and phonotactics on Maghrebi Arabic is palpable. However, its influence on Moroccan Arabic (MA) specifically is best divided into two stages: (1) during the brief formative period of archaic MA, and (2) its spread over the succeeding centuries – and still ongoing. In the first stage, the key event was the local interaction of Arabized Berber troops with speakers of Late Latin in the Roman triangle defined by Tangier, Salé, and Volubilis. This combination produced a vocalic system of three full vowels {u a i}, phonemic stress, schwa in unstressed final syllables, limited syncope, and absence of vowel length, which are still observable in northern Morocco. In the second stage, initially in Algeria, and then spread into Morocco, Berber influence led to the vocalic system of the familiar MA koiné: three full (or long) vowels, short vowel(s) schwa, and marginally short ǔ, expanded syncope and absence of stress.