Algerian Arabic

Algerian Arabic
Algerian Arabic
Darja, Derja, Dziria
الدارجة الجزائرية
Native to	Algeria
Region	Central Maghreb
Ethnicity	Algerian Arabs, also used as a second language by other ethnic groups in Algeria
Speakers	L1: 36 million (2022); L2: 5.7 million (2022) ; Total: 42 million (2022)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Maghrebi Algerian Arabic; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Western Algerian Arabic; Eastern Algerian Arabic;
Writing system	Arabic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	arq
Glottolog	alge1239

Algerian Arabic (Arabic: الدارجة الجزائرية, romanized: ad-Dārja al-Jazairia), natively known as Dziria, Darja or Derja, is a variety of Arabic spoken in Algeria. It belongs to the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum and is mostly intelligible with the Tunisian and Moroccan dialects. Darja (الدارجة) means "everyday/colloquial dialect".

Like other varieties of Maghrebi Arabic, Algerian Arabic has a mostly Semitic vocabulary. It contains Berber, Punic, and African Romance influences and has some loanwords from French, Andalusi Arabic, Ottoman Turkish and Spanish. Berber loanwords represent 8% to 9% of its vocabulary.