The Morphological Specificity of the Passive Voice in the Jbala–Wazzani Dialect

This study examines the phenomenon of the passive voice in the Jebli Wazzani dialect, highlighting it as a distinctive linguistic feature within the broader comparison between Classical Arabic and Moroccan dialects. Unlike Standard Arabic, where the passive voice is formed through vowel alternation, the Wazzani dialect does not employ this construction systematically. Instead, it replaces it with specific morphological patterns such as “infaʕal” (e.g., inɣhaz, inḥraq), “tfaʕal / tfaʕlal” (e.g., trma, tqazdr), or the verb form conjugated with the plural marker “-u” (e.g., ksru-h, ṭḥnu-h). These forms convey a variety of semantic functions, ranging from causative reciprocity and reflexivity to effort, avoidance, and transformation. The analysis shows how the Wazzani dialect has preserved its morphological creativity by providing functional alternatives to the passive voice in Standard Arabic, thereby illustrating the dynamic adaptability of Moroccan dialectal systems.