What are words worth

Darija, Moroccan Arabic Forums - Forums de darija, Moroccan Arabic (Darija) Exercises - Exercices d'a
#1

What are words worth?

Difficult question eh? Fortunately the Tom Tom Club answered it for us in the absolute classic Wordy Rappinghood.

Finding the right words is not easy. I already have trouble expressing myself clearly in my maternal language, so you can
imagine how difficult it is to make myself understood when speaking darija. I have difficulty distinguishing the dental and velar consonants; I already learned a long time ago that it’s not necessarily a romantic thing to say ‘mon coeur’ in darija to someone you feel strongly about if your ‘qaaf’ sounds like a ‘kaaf’.

Here is a pronounciation drill which helps you to choose your words wisely.

kal qal
kas qas
fik fiq
fluka fluqa
kelb qelb !
dar Dar
din Dim
n-dir nDiR
tab Tab
tub Tub
7it 7iT
sif Sif
snan Snan
seff Seff
s7ab S7ab
zina Zina
rzama RZana
rezza ReZZa

#2

oooh, a fellow initiate in the mysteries of velarization… Sad and sin still are hard for me to distinguish, sometimes

#3

shukran, maarten.

I can’t remember in which book it was, that I read the advice to concentrate on the way the vowel sounds change with the emphatic consonants D, T, S -(that is very clear in this recording, I think) - personally, I found that a very helpful suggestion.

Are there emphatic R and Z in darija ? I haven’t come across these before.