Non-Dominant Varieties of Pluricentric Languages. Getting the Picture
In Memory of Michael Clyne- In Collaboration with Catrin Norrby, Leo Kretzenbacher, Carla Amorós
Series:
Edited By Rudolf Muhr
Dawn MARLEY: Competing varieties of French and Arabic in Morocco
Extract
In: Rudolf Muhr (ed.) (2012): Non-dominant Varieties of Pluricentric Languages. Getting the Pic- ture. In memory of Michael Clyne. Wien et. al., Peter Lang Verlag. p. 363-380. Dawn MARLEY (University of Surrey, UK) d.marley@surrey.ac.uk 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 considers a number of areas within contemporary Moroccan society where the lan- guages are in contact, and explores the changing attitudes towards them. 1. Introduction Morocco has a long and complex history of language contact, involving two pluricentric languages, Arabic and French. Neither of these languages is, strictly speaking, indigenous to the country, the one having been introduced by the Arab invasion of the 7th century, the other by...
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