ABSTRACT
Maghrebi Arabic (MA) is a linguistic term that covers the Arabic vernaculars spoken in the North African region, especially in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, along with Arabic vernaculars spoken in western Egypt. Historically, the Arabization of North Africa is related to the Muslim conquest from the east. From a historicolinguistic perspective, there are correlations between the two Arabization waves and types of vernaculars. Following Ibn Khaldoun's categorization, distinguishing between sedentary and Bedouin varieties, MA may be divided into two main groups: the pre-Hilali sedentary hadari varieties and the Bedouin badawi varieties. Christophe Pereira offers an overview of some of the most significant linguistic features distinguishing pre-Hilali vernaculars from Bedouin ones, and the main bibliography references on MA. Concerning MA, studies in urban dialectology and sociolinguistics have emerged; indeed, socio-history and human geography were considered to explain the developments and evolutions such as urban varieties.
