The poetic genre known as ʿarūbī (coll. Ar. ʿarōbī) is popular throughout the Maghreb. Its language is dialectal but somehow refined and affected. Text and melody are closely combined in a creative process that derives its components from a traditional formulary stock but allows a margin of freedom to the performer. The melody is more or less stable, whereas the texts usually change and therefore must obey the accents of the melody. A scientific approach to this type of creativity has to consider the importa…