Moroccan Arabic and Jewish‑Arabic in Hebrew as Spoken by Israelis of Moroccan Origin: The Case of the TV Show Zaguri Imperya

Abstract

This study discusses the influence of Moroccan Arabic on the Hebrew spoken by the characters of the Israeli TV Show Zaguri Imperya. This show was created by Maor Zaguri and broadcast for the first time in 2014. It takes place in the Israeli city of Beersheba, in a neighborhood inhabited by a majority of Israelis of Moroccan origin. The characters of the show speak the variety of Hebrew of the social, economical and geographical peripheries of the State of Israel. This variety of Hebrew (Peripheral, Oriental, Mizrahi) has been historically influenced by Moroccan Arabic as well as by the other languages of the new immigrants. But the “Moroccans” were probably the largest community of immigrants in those peripheries, which makes their language very likely to be the most influential substrate for that variety of Modern Hebrew. Zaguri Imperya is a fiction whose main purpose is to introduce the audience to the Moroccan aspects of those neighborhoods; therefore, those aspects are probably exaggerated.