Competing varieties of French and Arabic in Morocco.

Abstract

Morocco’s official language is ‘Arabic’ and language policy over the half century since Independence has sought to promote this language, which is actually Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Despite this, the languages most widely used in Morocco remain Moroccan Dialectal Arabic and French. Amazigh, or Berber languages, are also widely spoken in certain regions, and for several years have enjoyed official recognition. The language contact situation in Morocco is usually seen as a classic case of diglossia, or even triglossia, involving the dominant variety, MSA, and the non-dominant variety, Moroccan Dialectal Arabic, with French seen as a second ‘H’ language. This paper presents an overview of the current changing relationships between Moroccan Dialectal Arabic, MSA and French. It first looks briefly at language policy and language attitudes in Morocco, focusing on changes over the last decade. It then looks at a number of areas within contemporary Moroccan society where the anguages are in contact, and explores the changing attitudes towards them.

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