MOROCCO
Language
Language
Cities in MOROCCO
| Marrakech |
Language
The official writing language is Arabic. The spoken language is in many ways different from the standard Arabic Moroccan Arabic, which is spoken by 60% of the population. 30 to 40% speak to the ancient Egyptian Berbers. As a second language, French has always held an important place in public life. Furthermore, Spanish is spoken in the former Spanish north.
Moroccan Stop sign in ArabicPhoto:Escondites CC 3.0 Unported no changes made
Some pronunciation rules of Arabic:
- -all letters are pronounced
- -a "means that a letter is spoken very briefly
- -de r is a rolling r
- -de y is pronounced sj
- -de sh is pronounced sj
- -the gh is pronounced as a brew-r or French r
- -the kh is pronounced like a hard g
- -de ou is pronounced oe
There is no fixed spelling for Arabic words. The names are written as they are pronounced. So Aqaba can be spelled just as well as Aqaba.
The Arabic script is written from right to left and consists of 28 consonants. Vowels are not written, which results in different Latin spellings for one and the same word. Arabic numerals are written from left to right.
Words and questions:
| English | Arabic |
| One | wahed, female: wahda |
| Two | etnen |
| Three | talata |
| Ten | ‘ashra |
| Hundred | meyya |
| Thousand | ‘alf |
| Sunday | yom el had |
| Woednesday | yom el ’arba’ |
| Yes | ‘aywa |
| No | la’ |
| Summer | sef |
| Winter | sheta |
| Where is the hotel? | fen el fondok? |
| What time is it? | essa’a kam? |
| What is your name? | ‘esm-ak ‘ak? (man) |
| What is your name? | ‘esm-ek ‘eh? (woman) |
| Do you have change? | ‘andokom fakka? |
Sources
Encarta Encyclopedia
Lehmann, L. / Marokko
Van Reemst
Macguinness, J. / Morocco handbook
Passport Books
Wilkins, F. / Morocco
Chelsea House
CIA - World Factbook
BBC - Country Profiles
Copyright: Team The World of Info