Arabic (Moroccan)

Afro-Asiatic family · Semitic branch · Africa

Within the Semitic branch, all 4 other languages coded for Ordinal Numerals have the value “First, two-th, three-th”; Arabic (Moroccan) has “First, second, three-th”.

On Indefinite Articles, WALS codes Arabic (Moroccan) as “Indefinite affix on noun”, a value held by 24 of the 534 languages coded, Tashlhiyt and Lango among them.

The order Arabic (Moroccan) uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Arabic (Moroccan) with Hebrew (Modern) or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Arabic (Moroccan), rarest first.

Coding of Nominal PluralityMorphological plural with no method primary60 of 1,066

Inside the Afro-Asiatic family

Arabic (Moroccan) matches the most frequent Afro-Asiatic value on 28 of the 43 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (65%). Among the 24 Afro-Asiatic languages profiled here, that rate ranks 11th from the top.

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with Arabic (Moroccan); the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

Hebrew (Modern) Afro-Asiatic27 of 43
Russian Indo-European25 of 42
Spanish Indo-European23 of 41
French Indo-European23 of 42
Greek (Modern) Indo-European22 of 40

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Arabic (Moroccan) for 43 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 40 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Arabic (Moroccan) shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469

Word structure 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Moderate preference for suffixing	123 of 969

Nouns and pronouns 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Definite Articles	Definite affix on noun	92 of 620
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers	Formally different	40 of 116
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive suffixes	355 of 902
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400

Noun phrases 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Adjectives without Nouns	Adjective may occur without noun, and without marking	73 of 124

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
The Prohibitive	Special imperative + normal negative	55 of 496
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Combination of tense-aspect strategies with none primary	146 of 1,131
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	Imperative	29 of 193
Epistemic Possibility	Verbal constructions	65 of 240
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for either possibility or necessity	66 of 207
The Morphological Imperative	Second singular and second plural	292 of 548
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system	201 of 375
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234
Verbal Number and Suppletion	No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples	159 of 193
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject follows verb (VS)	194 of 1,496
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at beginning of sentence	129 of 884
Order of Genitive and Noun	Noun-genitive (NGen)	468 of 1,249
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg)	192 of 481
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN)	542 of 1,225
Order of Object and Verb	Object follows verb (VO)	705 of 1,518
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Initial subordinator word	398 of 659
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)	879 of 1,367
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause follows noun (NRel)	579 of 824

Simple clauses 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Negative Morphemes	Double negation	119 of 1,157
Nominal and Locational Predication	Identical	117 of 386
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding	132 of 386
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is possible	175 of 386
Comparative Constructions	Locational Comparative	78 of 167
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs	437 of 711

Vocabulary 2

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Hand and Arm	Identity: a single word denotes both 'hand' and 'arm'	228 of 617
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593

Other 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks	Clicks may express logical meanings ('yes' and/or 'no')	47 of 143