Saïd BENNISMohammed V University

Center for Cross Culture Learning (CCCL) Rabat- Tuesday, Nov 4th  2014

Mapping Languages can represent many aspects

of the linguistic situation in a certain territory

It usually draw particular views of the language setting as seen from

outside, i.e. by linguists or scholars in general.

The starting point for every kind of mapping language is the language border

(and its defiŽnition): thus a perceptual language mapping needs a

definition of border from the point of view of the speaker.

.

Moroccan population The present population of Morocco is composed of

Four groups:

Amazigohones Arabophones

Arabized Amazighed

In fact, the Moroccan linguistic history has been shaped by a hybrid logic

linked to two concomitant movements :

- Arabization - Amazighization

Provinced'ERRACHIDIA

Province deKHENIFRA

TADLA : Groupes linguistiques .

Province de KHOURIBGA

Province d'AZILAL

0 10 km

T A D L A

Province deSETTAT

Arabes

Arabisés

Chleuhs

Amazighisés.

N

Arabs Amazighs

Arabized

Amazighed

- Moroccan Amazigh: Amazighs & Amazighed

- Moroccan Arabic : Arabs & Arabized

2. Official languages

Standard Arabic / Standard Amazigh

The Moroccan government policy is extremely influential in encouraging

the spread of English

Moroccan policy makers realized that international communication between

Morocco and the rest of the world could not be achieved in French alone

Highly valued (generally associated with the upper class, i.e. the rich

and educated people).

The language of the Koran A liturgical language Learnt only through formal

education

Practiced mainly by the educated elite.

A large amount of borrowed or newly adapted

lexical items from French.

Closely associated with the policy of Arabization.

Aims at replacing French, which still represents

the modern lifestyle.

Lacks the vitality of Moroccan Arabic(not a mother tongue and not used in

everyday life) “High variety”, socially valued

Moroccan Amazigh

North Africa, and especially Morocco have the largest number of Amazigh speakers. In Morocco the distribution of the language seems to be the most uniform

1. Tashelhit (High Atlas, Anti-Atlas Mountains in the South western parts of

Morocco, Agadir, Marrakech, Ifni, etc.).

Political rather than linguistic issue

Hard to give any exact estimation of the number

and percentage of the Amazighs in Morocco,

especially in the urban centres.

-Change in the authorities’ attitudes since August 1994, progressively from

repression, to neutrality and finally to support.

An official recognition of the Amazigh language, culture and

identity in 2011

Negative attitudes towards Amazigh prevail

Amazighs refuse to transmit the language to their children

The mother tongue of the majority of the population in Morocco (language of

the home, intimacy and of oral communication).        

Mother tongue of even people from an Amazigh origin.

The Lingua Franca of Morocco: used not only between the Arabs and Amazighs but also between the Amazighs who are from different and non-intelligible Amazigh

areas.

written and non-codified language. Moroccan Arabic: the “Low variety”, socially valued.

The vehicle of oral popular literature, new forms of mass-media (political

newspapers, recent radio channels, and youth Moroccan music (rap, rai…))

The Mdini variety (imperial towns such as Rabat, Tangiers, etc.)

The 3roubi variety (Atlantic plains) The Jebli variety (used in Northern

Morocco) The Bedouin Variety (used in Eastern

Morocco: Figuig, Oujda and its regions) The Hassani Variety (used in Southern

Morocco : Laayoune, Dakhla, Essmara Lagouira)

From mapping languages to mapping multilingualism?

Mapping multilingualism of Morocco by assuming that it constitutes a dynamic tension generated by the

opposition between homogeneization and heterogeneization.

Homogenization

It is the tendency in which only one language is considered in the

relation with certain features like the purity and the origin. Within

this tendency, there is exclusion of the other and its language and the

confirmation of the unicity and the singularity of oneself.

The prestige of Arabic comes from an extrinsic valorization which emanates from

the statute of Arabic as official language, language of the school, and

language of the communication.

Principle of personality

The state yields with the language of the individual. The Moroccan state

must serve its citizens in one or the other

of the two official languages: Arabic or Amazigh.

What supposes that Morocco is not defined any more as Arab state but as an African northern state. The language of the state does not

depend on a particular language or race (Arabic) but on

those which occupy the territory

(Amazighs, Arabs, …).

Morocco is a multilingual society where many

languages are in use

Arabs and Amazighs have coexisted for so long

Some Amazigh tribes got arabized

Some Arab tribes got amazighed

The adequate description of the Moroccan linguistic mapping, has to be tackled inclusively and interactively within a

principle of territoriality and personality