Methods of Lexical Explanation in the Moroccan Darija Dictionary

Abstract

The "Dictionary of Moroccan Darija" (henceforth referred to as DMD), was published in 2017 by the Zakoura Center for the Development of Darija (El-Manbehi, 2019).

This dictionary presents itself as the first serious and academic lexicographical work concerned with explaining the vocabulary of Moroccan Darija in "Moroccan Arabic," meaning it is a monolingual dictionary, unlike other dictionaries that provide the meaning of Moroccan Darija words sometimes in Standard Arabic ("Dictionary of the Dialect of Northern Morocco, Tetouan and its Surroundings," by Abdelmonaim Abdel-Aal), and sometimes in a foreign language (French, Spanish, or English), such as the dictionaries of Orientalists.

Given that lexical explanation is a fundamental pillar in the process of lexicography, we will endeavor through this article to shed light on the methods of lexical explanation found in the "Dictionary of Moroccan Darija," where we will trace the ways in which the compilers of this dictionary followed in explaining the entries and clarifying their meanings.