I Talk It and I Feel It

258 Pages·2014·4.52 MB·English

"I Talk It and I Feel It":
Language Attitudes of Moroccan University Students
Carolyn Anderson
Linguistics Thesis
Swarthmore College
Thesis Advisor: Aaron Dinkin
May 2013
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Abstract
The diversity of languages in Morocco provides an interesting case study for many
sociolinguistic issues. Modern Standard Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Tarnazigbt, French, English,
and Spanish are all spoken by significant portions of the Moroccan population. The linguistic
history of Morocco weaves together language coexistence, struggles for linguistic dominance,
shifts in language policy in education, language endangerment and revitalization, and the use of
language to define national identity. This work explores these themes through surveys on
language attitudes and use completed by Moroccan students at Mohammed V University in
Rabat in the spring of 2012.
The first three chapters of this work explain the historical background of sociolinguistics
issues in Morocco in order to provide the context. The first chapter lays out the current linguistic
situation in Morocco. In the second chapter, we examine the use oflanguage policy in education
to shape language attitudes, and the third addresses the history of the Amazigb movement,
concluding with the recognition ofTamazight as an official language in the 2011 constitution.
In the remaining chapters of this work, we discuss the results of our fieldwork at
Mohammed V University in Rabat in the spring of 2012. We compare students' responses to
questions about their use and perception of Spanish, English, Moroccan Arabic, Modern
Standard Arabic, French, and Tamazight by gender, region, social class, and major. We use these
results to illustrate current patterns of thought that educated, urban youth use to reason about
language, to draw conclusions about the efficacy of the Amazigb movement, and to make
predictions about the future linguistic situation in Morocco. We end by describing a new
language ideology, shaped by the values of universal human rights, that is influencing language
values and decisions in Morocco.
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Acknowledgements
This paper would not have been possible without the hard work of those who helped me with my
fieldwork. I would like to thank Khalid Ansar, Lahoucine Amouzay, Abdellah Bouzandag, and
Meryam Demnati at the Institut Royal de Ia Culture Amazighe, who shared their time and
expertise generously; Kawtar Elalaoui, who translated the questionnaire into Arabic, edited the
French version, and helped gather participants; Said Bennis, who allowed me to observe his
French class at Mohammed V University; and the many students at Mohammed V University
who went above and beyond my expectations by not only participating in my research but
eagerly enlisting their friends and classmates as well.
In addition, I would like to thank the many people at Swarthmore College who helped me
complete this project: Ted Fernald, who guided me through the Institutional Review Board
process; Brahim El Guebli, who translated many of the Arabic language responses and provided
insight into the Tarnazight movement; K. David Harrison, whose perspective on endangered
languages was valuable; and, last but certainly not least, my thesis advisor, Aaron Dinkin, whose
patience and sage advice were invaluable. Any remaining errors are wholly my own.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Overview of Sociolinguistics in Morocco
2.1. Multiglossia
2.2. Codeswitching
2.3. Language Descriptions
3. Language Policy in Education
3.1. Pre-colonization
3.2. Colonization
3.3. Post-colonization
3.4. Overview of Current System
3. 5. Evaluation
4. Tamazight
4.1. Ancient History
4.2. Colonial Period
4.3. Post-colonial Period
4.4. The Amazighe Cultural Movement
4.5. Current Situation
5. Methods
6. Attitudes
6.1. Language Competencies
6.2. Perceptions of Language Speakers
6.3. Importance of Languages
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6.4. Growing Langnages
6.5. Langnage of the Future
7. Domains ofLangnage Use
7.1. Langnage and Technology
7.2. Formal Domains
7.3. Informal Domains
8. Issues
8.1. Multilingnalism
8.2. National Langnage Debate
8.3. Science Langnages
9. Tamazight
10. French
11. Spanish
12. Modern Standard Arabic
13. Moroccan Arabic
14. English
15. Conclusion
16. References
17. Appendix: Questionnaire
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1 Introduction
What do the languages we use reveal about us? They may show our education level, our gender,
or the region in which we were raised. They may hint at our social class, or even our profession.
Perhaps they expose how we are hoping to portray ourselves, what we want out of a
conversation, what we think of our listeners, as we use a formal register, or an informal one, as
we use a dialect to include some listeners and exclude others, or as we speak a language that we
have mastered and others have not. Or perhaps our language choices reveal more about the
society in which we live: what languages are mandated in what settings, which groups prefer
certain languages, and what languages are looked on favorably by our fellow citizens.
Consciously or unconsciously, we make decisions about language every day: to use this
register over that one, this dialect with some listeners and not others, this language here and not
there. At a larger level, of course, other agencies are making language decisions as well, as
govermnents declare official languages, schools select languages to teach in and languages to
teach about, and language planning institutions shape and standardize languages themselves.
In Morocco, the process of making language choices, both at an individual and at a
national level, is complex and influenced by many factors. Issues of religion, national identity,
and culture weigh in, as do pragmatic appeals to utility, to trade, and to politics. What languages
mean, and thus, what they convey, is constantly shifting, as languages rise and fall in prestige, as
new languages are introduced, and as the values upon which languages are judged change.
Morocco has a long history of multilingualism, from its time as a center of trade in Roman times,
to the successive waves of immigration from Egypt, from Spain, from the Sahara, and the influx
of European languages during the colonial era. Yet the history of language coexistence in
Morocco is also a history of language competition and struggle, as language is used to create
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national identities, to overcome colonization, and to assert the differences between cultures
within and without the country.
In this work, we examine the factors that go into making language decisions in the
complex linguistic setting of Morocco, both at the individual and the national level. We begin by
setting out a history of language use and policy in Morocco, first by describing the major
languages themselves, and then by narrating the national policy decisions that have created this
situation. We give a history of language policy in education and of the Tamazight movement to
provide context for our discussion, before turning to the results of our own fieldwork at
Mohammed V University in Rabat.
In our research, we first examine individual language use in order to learn about the
language decisions that our participants are making in daily life. We look at the perceptions of
speakers of different languages, at the prestige of various languages, and at which languages
students use in which situations. From looking at individual language usage and the societal role
of language, we turn to how students think about languages in specific contexts, as we examine
students' opinions about several current linguistic issues, like the role of language in education,
and the recognition of official languages. Finally, we seek to understand the values and beliefs
upon which students base their language decisions, in order to illustrate why students believe
what they believe about language, and how these beliefs are shaped.
It is our belief that without understanding the underlying values upon which language
decisions are being made, it is impossible to really understand why people use language the way
they do. While the ideological motives of officials in charge of language policy, like government
actors and language policy institutions, are important and have been examined in the context of
Morocco, the beliefs that motivate individual speakers in their reasoning about language are also
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fascinating. It is for this reason that our study incorporates qualitative as well as quantitative
data, and why, particularly in the last few chapters, we quote at length from our respondents.
Their own words about language, we found, are at times even more informative about their
beliefs and feelings about language than their use of language is. It is in speakers' descriptions of
their feelings about language that we will really learn about why they speak the way they do, for
the way they reason about language is fundamentally shaped by the way they see the world in
which they speak. Society, national policy, and the background of the speaker all influence
language usage and attitudes, but this is because these forces shape the speaker's values and
beliefs about language. In turn, the values of the society and of the shapers oflanguage policy
control language decisions as well. Ultimately, then, in order to make predictions about how
language attitudes and usage in Morocco may change in the future, we must first try to
understand how the values that lie at the root oflanguage choices are evolving. If we can
understand the values that underlie the language ideologies in Morocco, we can also understand
not only how they influence individual language decisions, but how they influence language
decisions at a societal and national level as well.
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2 Language in Morocco
The linguistic situation in Morocco is complex and diverse. Multilingualism is common in much
of the country and is the norm in urban areas and among upper class Moroccans, while rural
populations with less access to education remain largely monolingual. The languages spoken in
homes are Moroccan Arabic and the Arnazighe1 languages, while the languages used for
business, education, and other formal purposes are Modern Standard Arabic, French, and
Spanish. English is a common third language, but other foreign languages are popular as well. In
general, multilingualism is seen as an important asset for employment. It is also mandatory for
education, as the languages spoken in the home are historically unwritten, so knowledge of a
second language is necessary for literacy. In the following sections, we discuss two important
aspects oflanguage use in Morocco and then provide descriptions of the most common
languages used in the country.
2.1 Multiglossia
The linguistic situation in Morocco has been characterized by triglossic, diglossic, or
multiglossic by various authors. It is widely accepted that there is a diglossic relationship
between Moroccan Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic, as in most Arabic-speaking countries;
this situation is as old as the presence of Arabic in the country (Benmamoun 2001: 98).
However, various new intermediate forms of Arabic have also been identified in Morocco. For
instance, Y oussi describes the situation as a triglossia between Moroccan Arabic, Middle
Moroccan Arabic, and Literary Arabic (1995: 29-30). Ennaji and Sadiqi, on the other hand, posit
a quadriglossia with Moroccan Arabic, Educated Spoken Arabic, Standard Arabic, and Classical
Arabic (Ennaji 2005: 49). Ennaji describes the emerging middle variety of Educated Spoken
1 Formerly known as Berber.
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Arabic (or Modern Moroccan Arabic) as "an intermediate variety between Standard and
Moroccan Arabic ... spoken by intellectuals in informal settings" (2005: 47). However, Laroui
dissents, claiming that the distinguishing characteristic of a true diglossia is the lack of an elite
class that exclusively uses the high variety, and that Educated Spoken Arabic, used exclusively
by well-educated Moroccans, is not a true component of the multiglossia (Laroui 2011: 82).
Other descriptions of the multiglossia attempt to incorporate the colonial languages, Spanish and
French, and the pre-Arabic indigenous languages, Tamazight, into the picture as well.
Despite these disagreements, the basic traits of the multiglossia in Morocco are generally
agreed upon. Moroccan Arabic and Tamazight are the low varieties, associated with "informal
settings, illiteracy, and day-to-day activities" (Ennaji 2005: 47). The middle variety or varieties,
Modern Standard Arabic, Educated Spoken Arabic, Media Arabic, etc, are associated with "the
media, education, and literacy", while Classical Arabic is the high variety that is associated with
"religion, classical poetry, and erudition" (Ennaji 2005: 47). French is sometimes classified as a
middle variety and sometimes as a high variety, for while it is associated with culture and
intellectualism, it has no religious associations, and it is also used extensively in business and the
media. The use of each of these languages will be described in greater detail below.
2.2 Codeswitching
Codeswitching is the use of two different codes in one conversation, where codes may be
different languages, or different styles or dialects of the same language. It is different from
merely borrowing certain words or phrases from one language into another, because it assumes
that the speaker is fully competent in both languages. Codeswitching is fairly common in
Morocco, although Ennaji notes that codeswitching is the most prevalent among the upper and