The historical development of this Moroccan dialect is unclear.
The word jebli means "of/from the mountain". It is mainly spoken in the western Rif by tribes of Sherifian, Berber and Morisco descent over the past ten centuries.
Ghomaras: out of nine tribes, seven are fully Jebli-speaking, the two remaining are partially Jebli-speaking, with a significant Ghomara Berber-speaking community;
Sanhajas de Srayr: two Jebli-speaking tribes – Ketama and Aït Seddat – out of ten tribes, the remaining (eight) speak Sanhaja Berber;
Riffians: out of twenty tribes, six are fully or partially Arabophone; among them, five speak Mountain Arabic − Targuist, Aït Itteftf, Aït Boufrah, Mestasa and Metioua − while the last one (Settout) speak Hilalian Arabic;
Tribes of Zerhoun (Zerahnas) and the neighborhood of Sefrou (Kechtala, Behalil and Yazgha): although not belonging to the same ethno-linguistic group than Jebalas, their pre-Hilalian dialects are sometimes classified as belonging to the same macro-family (westernmost pre-Hilalian village dialects) as Jebli.
Jebli is influenced by Berber; most of the words are Arabic but the vocabulary is highly influenced by Spanish.
Examples of Jebli
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)
