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Sociolinguistic aspects of Moroccan Arabic
Abderrazzaq Msellek University of Fès/Morocco
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Status of Moroccan Arabic (MA) Communicative function of MA Domains of use and realization forms of MA Sociolinguistic and linguistic features of MA The future of MA
During my talk, I attempt to give a systematic sociolinguistic description of Moroccan Arabic as a non-dominant variety of Arabic in Morocco. The status, communicative function, and the domains of use of Moroccan Arabic in Moroccan society will be especially accentuated. The main hypothesis is that MA is a spoken language that is used in informal communicative situations of all communicative domains, in opposite to some available descriptions leading us to believe that MA is used just in some domains. Before giving how MA is used by native speakers for different kinds of communicative purpose, I want first of all to show which languages co-exist in Morocco. The linguistic situation in Morocco is often characterized as complex. Then, as has been pointed out, there are four languages used: Standard Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Berber, and French; in addition to other foreign languages that know a positive Evolution in Education, Business and Tourism like English, Spanish and German. This complexity can be interpreted as a linguistic diversity or simply as multilingualism that is a major characteristic of Moroccan society1. Concerning the communicative function of each language, Ennaji wrote the following sentences: “These Languages (SA, MA, and Berber) do not fulfill all the linguistic functions, since each one covers only a limited number of domains. For instance, MA and Berber cover the domains of home and street, while SA is used in education, public administration, and the media. French is utilized to complement the picture, as it hat functions and domains with overlap with those of SA, in addition to covering the private sector, science, and technology.”2 1
Ennaji, Moha : Multilingualism, cultural identity, and education in Morocco. 2005 Springer Science+Business Media, New York, p: 2 2 Ennaji, Moha : Multilingualism, cultural identity, and education in Morocco.
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Is it true that MA is a just language of home and street? Or there are other communicative domains that MA also covers? I’ll give The answer of this questions , when I first illustrate the status of MA. 1. Status of Moroccan Arabic In opposite to Standard Arabic that is the official Language of Morocco since the independence and Berber that become official Language as SA in the last constitution, Moroccan Arabic is considered as an unofficial Language. Then MA is a language of everyday conversation which is neither codified nor standardized, in contrast to SA that is codified, standardized and a written language. Additionally, MA” is not a homogeneous language in form, as various Moroccan Arabic dialects are spoken in various geographical areas of Morocco.”3 2. Communicative function of Moroccan Arabic Moroccan Arabic is usually used to express basic needs and everything the Moroccan people every day does: bay something, make a reservation, change money at the bank etc. This means that MA is only the expression side of language used. The other side is the side of the content expressed. Thus, Moroccan Arabic builds the social and geographic dimension of Arabic in Morocco. Coupled with functional dimension it gives us that what we can call Moroccan Arabic for every day or Moroccan everyday-language. Everyday life can be also dialectal expressed. Moroccan Dialects are spoken in cities, villages, and in mountains. They are local and too limited, in Opposite to Moroccan Arabic that is regional and considered as lingua franca. This means that Moroccan Arabic is not only everyday-Language, but it expresses various contents from other domains like domain of literature, business, religion, sport etc. 3. Domains of use and realization forms of Moroccan Arabic The domains of use of MA, as has been pointed out, are many and different: a wide spectrum that begins with everyday life and ends with economy, science, philosophy, religion, literature, and law. The following diagram can explain this fact very clearly:
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2005 Springer Science+Business Media, New York, p: 2 Sadiqi, Fatima: Women, Gender, and language in Morocco. Brill, Leiden – Boston 2003, p: 48
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This Diagram shows us particularly two things: 1. Moroccan Arabic is not only used in everyday life, but it is used in almost all communicative areas. We can therefore speak from Moroccan everyday language, Moroccan religious language, Moroccan literary language etc as realization forms of Moroccan Arabic. 2. Because Moroccan Arabic is a spoken and not official language, there are only some text types written of Moroccan Arabic using the Arabic script, particularly some literary texts, media texts with satire content, and of course texts expressing everyday life.
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4. Sociolinguistic and linguistic Features of Moroccan Arabic Sociolinguistic characteristics of Moroccan Arabic can be summarized as follows: -
MA is the low variety of Arabic It is a not prestigious Language It is the predominant spoken Language in Morocco It is used in informal communicative situations It is associated with day-to-day activities It is not codified, not institutionalized and not standardized. Although it is particularly used at home and in the street, Moroccan Arabic can also express the contents of different domains of use.
Now if we want to treat the linguistic Features of Moroccan Arabic, we can say that MA has, compared with Standard Arabic, great differences that we would like to explain as follows: According to Ennaji’s study, MA has a regular phonology, a simple morphology, an abundant lexicon, and a great variety of styles.4 Phonology The sound system of MA differs from that of SA in that MA has five short vowels and three long ones, while SA has only three short vowels and three long ones. The influence of foreign language, especially French, on MA is here visible. Then the two vowels /e/ and /o/ are to find in French loan as /militer/ or /gome/. In contrast to SA, MA has the consonants /p, v, g/ which shows once more the result of language contact between MA and French. Otherwise, SA and MA have generally the same inventory of phonemes and distinctive features.5 Morphology MA lacks the dual and the feminine dual and plural forms that SA contents. MA is less complex in inflection Than SA. Syntax SA has basically a Verb-Subject-Object order. MA has a dominant SubjectVerb-Object order. The word order in MA is not so restricted as in SA. 4 5
Ennaji, Moha : Multilingualism … P : 60. Ennji p : 61
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Lexicon MA is much influenced by SA lexicon. The structure of a lot of words in MA shows clearly the influence of Berber. For example, a number of MA nouns take the Berber feminine discontinuous affix t…t or ta….t as in taxaddart, tabaqqalt. These terms express a state, an action or an occupation.6 MA uses also many Berber loan words. 5. The future of Moroccan Arabic Is MA in fact “ eine Sprache im Werden”? Is it envisaged and possible that MA one day became a Standard language that we will speak from Standard Moroccan? Or has MA really no chance against Standard Arabic? There are two reasons for the negative answer to these questions: 1. The diglossial situation in Morocco implicates that we have a high variety and a low variety from Arabic. SA is the high variety und MA is the low variety. I don’t see und also understand how and why the low variety will be standardized und codified. I think SA and MA are structural different, but they are in the same time communicative value equivalent. 2. SA that embodies a great literary tradition and is always associated with Islam and its holy book ” is revered by rich, poor, educate and illiterate alike as the linguistic jewel in the Islamic cultural patrimony. It is regarded as the inimitable apogee of perfection, unsurpassable in beauty, an ethereal ideal of eloquence, perfect symmetry, and succinctness.7 Ennaji argue that Moroccans consider in fact SA as a prestigious language and the only form worth learning in schools, and MA a corrupt and vulgar dialect8. This strong relationship between Moroccans and SA lead me to believe that MA has really no chance to be codified and standardized. MA will stay the predominant spoken Language that is particularly used in informal settings and in everyday activities.
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Ennaji p : 86 Holes, Clive : Modern Arabic 2004, Georgetown University Press , p: 5 8 Ennaji ; p : 69 77
