I understand ‘Darija’ means Moroccan Arabic?
My question: What is the Moroccan Arabic for ???
Could the surname ‘Seban’ or ‘Saban’ be derived from this?
If this is not possible in ‘standard’ Moroccan Arabic then could it be true for any local version of the ‘dialect’? (I am focusing particularly on the area of eastern Morocco).
Welcome aboard, Sabon :).
Yes. Darija basically means “dialectal”. In Tunisia also they call Tunisian Arabic “Darja”.
It’s… !!! It’s the same word used both in Moroccan Arabic and MSA (Modern Standard Arabic).
I think that I already heard of this family name in Morocco.
And yes, Seban could be derived from Sabon. Note tSbîn ??? means “washing cloths”. So Seban could possibly mean the person (male) who washes cloths. But that’s not often used in Morocco. I hope someone else can clarify this part.
I hope this helps :).
Thank you, SimplyMoroccan. Much better than the previous suggestions…
I understand ??? is pronounced Sabon in Morocco whereas in MSA it’s pronounced Sabun.
Notice this is quite an international word, as for instance ‘savon’ in French and ‘jabon’ in Spanish.
I said Sabôn, the ô is for long o, pretty much the equivalent of u. It’s the very same word in Darija as in MSA.
I guess that you do speak MSA, right?
Regretfully I do not speak MSA. But I speak Hebrew, which is close (at least compared to European languages).
Thank you for the help.
I thought you spoke Arabic since you wrote in Arabic letters.
You’re welcome :).
It’s easy to write Arabic in this internet age: all you need to know is how to copy and paste! 
But the truth is I can read the letters, which is really fun, since it’s a beautiful alphabet. And many words are similar to Hebrew (??? in Hebrew is ???, pronounced Sabon – but this is a bad example since it’s an international word originating, so it seems, from the Gallic word for hair-dye).
Anyway, Darija is part of my heritage. But, alas, I know none.
its ok you’ll eventually learn here
[quote=sabon]It’s easy to write Arabic in this internet age: all you need to know is how to copy and paste!
But the truth is I can read the letters, which is really fun, since it’s a beautiful alphabet. And many words are similar to Hebrew (??? in Hebrew is ???, pronounced Sabon – but this is a bad example since it’s an international word originating, so it seems, from the Gallic word for hair-dye).
Anyway, Darija is part of my heritage. But, alas, I know none.[/quote]
Hebrew letters are interesting as well, I wish I could learn.
So you have Moroccan origins? Have you ever been to the country?
Hi SimplyMoroccan,
No I have never been to Morocco.