{"id":272422,"date":"2020-05-03T07:00:30","date_gmt":"2020-05-03T10:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=272422"},"modified":"2020-05-11T13:29:32","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T16:29:32","slug":"many-languages-in-one-brazilian-studies-moroccan-dialect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/many-languages-in-one-brazilian-studies-moroccan-dialect\/","title":{"rendered":"Many languages in one: Brazilian studies Moroccan dialect"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 The multiplicity of the Arab culture is one key point of the research developed by doctor of letters Felipe Benjamin (pictured above, right<\/em>). Since 2010, the young professor has focused his studies on the Moroccan dialect of Arabic, specifically of South Morocco. \u201cThe Arabic are many languages in one. The written Arabic is the standard language. When a journalist talks, for example, he uses the standard Arabic. But in everyday life, the change in the Arabic is huge. Each country has a multitude of dialects. Inside the Moroccan Arabic, you have several dialects. In older cities you hear one, in rural areas another. This is related to different waves of Arabization in each country,\u201d the scholar explains.<\/p>\n

Such is the case of the city of Essaouira in South Morocco, which is Benjamin\u2019s object of study, that saw different Arabization waves, with tribes encountering different peoples over the years. But, to get there, the researcher had to start a pioneering work.<\/p>\n

At the end of his undergraduate degree in Letters from the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP), the young man, who\u2019s not an Arab descendant, got an unprecedent scholarship to study in Morocco. \u201cI was there for six months studying Arabic. The call provided for five scholarships across the world. I was the only one in Latin America; the others came from the UK and the United States,\u201d he says. His first travel ended in early 2011.<\/p>\n

When he returned, the student pursued a master\u2019s degree at USP, and the experience made him focus on the dialect spoke at Moroccan region of Essaouira. It was a groundbreaking study in the country, where most of the contact with the Arab culture is with Syrians and Lebanese. \u201cIn Brazil, nobody studied Moroccan literature and history. And you find nothing on dialects. It\u2019s a new field, as nobody studies dialects of Arabic in Brazil, what is spoken in the daily life. It\u2019s a new field of research. We’ve started something new,\u201d he stressed. The admission of the Brazilian to the Moroccan institution even opened doors to other students, who started going to the country with a scholarship too.<\/p>\n

In addition to the country itself, other points draw attention to Benjamin\u2019s work. Considered an example of tolerance because of the coexistence of different religions, the studies on the dialect of Essaouira are few and far between. \u201cWhen I started this study about the urban and rural Arabic, I began bringing data for an atlas made by German authors about Arabic dialects, which didn\u2019t mention the city yet. It was a way for Brazil to cooperate with this field, which is dominated by the Europeans,\u201d the researcher said.<\/p>\n