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Jijel Arabic is an Algerian dialect spoken specifically in the Jijel Province in the North East of the country but traces of it reach parts of the neighboring provinces of Skikda and Mila. It is quite different from all the other Arabic dialects spoken in eastern Algeria and has probably survived this long because of the geographic enclavement of that mountainous area and the difficulty of terrestrial connections with the rest of the country for centuries.
It is a relic of the pre-Hilalian Arabic dialects (resulting from the first Arabic invasion in the 7th and 8th centuries) that were once spoken in all the north of Constantine but which were later replaced by Hilalian Bedouin Arabic that was brought by the second wave of Arab invasions during the 11th century. Pre-Hilalian Arabic dialects remained intact only in a small area around Jijel while they were heavily mixed with bedouin dialects in the areas of Constantine, Mila, Collo and El Milia. These pre-Hilalian Arabic dialects have survived also in the Algerian region of Tlemcen as well as in northern Morocco and to this day Northern Moroccan Arabic, Tlemcen Arabic, and Jijel Arabic are still very close to one another.
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