Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

This study seeks to divulge the meaning and popular usage of two phonetically similar yet reportedly distinct dysphemisms spoken and understood in the Marrakchi dialect of Moroccan Arabic (Darija). Darija speakers across the North African lingua-space use the term qlawi to denote testicles. In Morocco, speakers utter qlawi to express negation or pejorative notions of being, the term commonly wielded to disparage or vituperate a frustrating person or object—drawing connections to the subaltern, the lowly, the destitute, the stupid, the possession- less, and potentially to the racialized (non)object. The word itself can stand as a syntactic substitute for “nothing” in certain grammatical constructs, linking meaning confined within the phrase to theories of ‘illegality,’ ‘subaltern-ness’ and hogra (a North African concept which conveys lived realities influenced by injustice, contempt, and degradation). In Marrakech, the
word qellawi—with a marked emphasis on the “ell”—is used to identify and distinguish people with darker skin, those whom society associates with ‘Blackness.’ Marrakchis relate the word to familiar notions of Black identity, not differentiating much between variations in origin, language, religion, occupation, or prior social status. This thesis was written based on context gleaned from ethnographic interviews conducted in the city of Marrakech during the Spring of 2024. It investigates both popular dysphemisms, questioning prevalent denotation, examining interrelated language practices, and theorizing hypothetical linguistic origins. Cumulatively, these investigations hope to provide a lens from which to examine not only their correspondences but also their dissimilitude.