It is mainly spoken in the western Rif by tribes of Sherifian, Berber and Morisco descent, including by the Jebala people and eight Ghomara tribes, seven out of whom are fully Jebli-speaking. Three of the twelve Senhaja Srair tribes (Targuist, Aït Bouchibet and Aït Gmil)[3] and four out of twenty Riffian tribes also speak Jebli Arabic. Although not belonging to the same ethnolinguistic group, the pre-Hilalian dialects spoken by the tribes of Zerhoun (Zerahnas) and Sefrou (Kechtala, Behalil and Yazgha) are sometimes classified as belonging to the same macro-family (westernmost pre-Hilalian village dialects) as Jebli.
The dialect developed out of the Arabisation of Berber tribes in the region during the 10th century AD.[4] Jebli vocabulary and grammar is influenced by Berber;[4] most of the words are Arabic but the vocabulary is highly influenced by Spanish.
Vocabulary examples
Jebli
English translation
Source language/etymology
trawzez
blue jeans
trousers (English)
assallas
darkness
asellas "darkness" (Berber)
karretēra
car road
carretera "paved road/highway" (Spanish)
ntina
you
(Classical Arabic)
âyyəl, ṭfel
boy
عائلة "family" (Classical Arabic); cf. Egyptian Arabic: ˤayyel "child" Or i3eyallen iyyalen in (Berber)
