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Moroccan dialect

  • YāssīnʿAdnān (1970-, Morocco) – Hūt Mārūk (2016, English trans. Hot Maroc, 2021). A dark comedy, this novel paints a detailed picture of contemporary Moroccan society through the anonymous blog of its main character, who describes the changes taking place around him and criticizes Moroccan’s intellectuals and politicians (reference). Although the novel is written in fuṣḥa, it contains many dialogue in the Moroccan dialect (see also in C: Cities: Morocco: Marrakesh and S: Social Issues and Societal Change: Globalization and Consumerism).
  • ʿAbd al-Karīm Ghallāb (1919 – 2017, Morocco) – Dafannā al-Māḍī (1966, English trans. We Have Buried the Past, 2018). This novel was the first written in the Moroccan dialect. It is the story of two generations of the al-Tihami family and their life during late colonial times and after independence. It reflects on the profound social changes that took place in this period through the disobedience of the three sons of the family patriarch (reference) (also in F: Family Life: Children and Adolescents: Bildungsroman and 1956 Independence Morocco).
  • al-Ṭayyib al-Ṣiddīqī’s (1939 – 2016, Morocco) plays use the Moroccan dialect. An example is his play Maqāmāt Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī Bisāṭ Tarfīhī (‘The Maqamat of Badi al-Zaman al-Hamadhani: An Entertaining Bisat’, 1971), which uses the maqāmāt style in retelling the story of Badīʾ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī, but set in present-day Morocco and using the Moroccan dialect (reference) (also in L: Cultural and Literary Heritage: Classical Arabic Literature: Maqāmāt). al-Ṣiddīqī also adapted foreign plays to the Moroccan dialect and context, including Volpone by English playwright Ben Jonson (1572 – 1673).

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