LANGUAGES OF ALGERIAN DIASPORA IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: COMPARATIVE ...

183 Pages·2008·0.63 MB·English

LANGUAGES OF ALGERIAN DIASPORA IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
COMPARATIVE STUDY WITH ALGERIAN DIASPORA IN FRANCE

By

KHADIDJA ARFI

A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

2008
© 2008 Khadidja Arfi

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To the Algerian Community in the United States

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to present my thanks and gratitude to my advisor Dr. Gerald Murray and my
committee members Dr. Abdoulaye Kane and Dr. Maria Stoilkova for their mentoring, advice,
encouragement, and positive critic throughout this project. I also extend my appreciation to my
professors in the Anthropology Department at the University of Florida and Southern Illinois
University for their mentoring in anthropological knowledge in general. I am grateful to the
Algerian community in the US, specifically those who welcomed me in their homes and allowed
me to write about their lives.
I am grateful to my parents, who never stopped showing their love and compassion until
they passed away. I appreciate my brothers and sisters and family-in-law for their closeness and
respect. I am mostly thankful for my daughter Soumaya’s kindness, love and friendship. I am
pleased for having her husband Noureddine as a son-in-law. I am the most grateful for their
precious daughter, my granddaughter Mariam, a gift from God, who I hope would follow on the
footsteps of her ancestors in their love for knowledge and living in harmony. Finally, my greatest
thanks is for my husband Badredine’s love, respect, compassion, and companionship. Our
journey together has been full of cherished moments, growing together in a continuous
reciprocity of ideas and thoughts about life and science. I hope this paper is a beginning in an
endeavor in academic writing, seeking knowledge and doing good on earth.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...............................................................................................................4
LIST OF TABLES...........................................................................................................................8
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................9
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................11
Literature Review...................................................................................................................12
Methodology...........................................................................................................................17
Native Anthropology and Reflexivity.............................................................................17
Data Collection and Fieldwork........................................................................................19
Comparative Analysis.....................................................................................................21
Structure and Organization of the Thesis...............................................................................22
2 BACKGROUND AND ASSESSMENT: THE ALGERIAN IM/MIGRATION TO
FRANCE AND THE U.S.......................................................................................................26
Introduction.............................................................................................................................26
Algerian Im/migration to France............................................................................................28
Labor Migration...............................................................................................................30
War and Family Reunion.................................................................................................32
Pieds Noirs...............................................................................................................33
Algerian Jews...........................................................................................................36
Harkis.......................................................................................................................36
Algerian Migration to the United States.................................................................................40
Mission of Higher Education...........................................................................................41
Graduates Return to Serve in a Conflict-Ridden Homeland...........................................47
Second Im/migration to the U.S......................................................................................49
Migration for studies or work and the role of network............................................50
The lottery visa.........................................................................................................53
Fleeing terrorism looking for stability.....................................................................55
Fleeing hard conditions and looking for better opportunities..................................58
Escaping the national army service..........................................................................60
Marriage: Al-maktuub [Providence]........................................................................60
How do New Comers Make the Transition?...................................................................63
‘La Montagne’ Neighborhood.........................................................................................66
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................67
3 BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON ALGERIAN LANGUAGES.................................70
Genesis and Development......................................................................................................70
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Berber Languages and the First Contact with Arabic.....................................................72
Summarized Comparison between Berber and Arabic Phonology and Morphology.....74
Classical Arabic...............................................................................................................75
Modern Standard Arabic.................................................................................................76
Darja................................................................................................................................76
Dialects cline............................................................................................................77
Algerian multidiaglossia..........................................................................................79
French in Algeria.............................................................................................................79
Linguistic Conflict and Nation Building................................................................................80
Arabic/Politics and Linguistics Discourse.......................................................................80
Darja the ‘Neutral’ Tongue.............................................................................................81
Berber Reform and Ethnic Revival.................................................................................82
French: Not National but Integrated Language...............................................................82
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................83
4 CODESWITCHING AND BORROWING: CONTACT BETWEEN ARABIC AND
FRENCH VS. ARABIC AND ENGLISH..............................................................................84
Description of Codeswitching in General...............................................................................86
Matrix illustration...................................................................................................................86
French Matrix..................................................................................................................86
Arabic Matrix..................................................................................................................88
Use of (F) adverbial expressions in Arabic matrix..................................................89
Use of (F) verbial expressions in Arabic matrix......................................................89
Arabic matrix (borrowed English lexical)................................................................92
The definite article [al].............................................................................................94
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................97
5 LANGUAGE CONTACT AND CONFLICT IN THE EARLY ALGERIAN
DIASPORA: FRANCE..........................................................................................................98
Introduction.............................................................................................................................98
Linguistics Performance and Cultural Belonging on the French Soil....................................98
French competency................................................................................................100
Mother tongue teaching..........................................................................................102
The Kabyle revival in France: from oral to literary language................................104
The Paradox of Nationality and Citizenship.........................................................................109
The ‘Beurs’: An Identity Construct and a Racialized Generation........................................110
Conclusion............................................................................................................................120
6 THE ALGERIAN LANGUAGES IN THE UNITED STATES..........................................121
English Language Dominance in a Multicultural Society....................................................121
Algerians’ Perception of English vs. Migrating Languages..........................................124
Proficiency in English, Names, Citizenship and Success..............................................125
English Proficiency and Identity...................................................................................127
French (F) Maintenance among Algerian Americans..........................................................128
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French, a Language of Communication in Algerian American Families......................128
French, a Language of a Rich Literature and its Rootedness in Algerian History........130
French Neglect, Loss and Replacement in the US........................................................131
Algerian Mother Tongues in the Diaspora...........................................................................134
Tamazight/Kabyle/Berber Language in the Diaspora...................................................134
The Arabic Language and dialect Maintenance and Transmission in the Diaspora.....138
Darja, the Langua Franca among North Africans.........................................................138
Arabic FuSHa: MSA and CA........................................................................................144
Arabic and religious continuity..............................................................................145
Arabic and historical continuity.............................................................................146
Arabic and the Arab/Muslim identity.....................................................................147
The Arabic language and the American foreign policy.........................................147
Arabic Dialects Contact and Conflict...................................................................................148
Darja and the Accommodation of Other Arabic Dialects..............................................148
Dialects vs. MSA and the Dilemma of Having a Middle Eastern Arabic Teacher.......151
Conclusion............................................................................................................................153
7 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................156
Conclusion............................................................................................................................156
Recommendations.................................................................................................................164

APPENDIX
A SCHEDULE INTERVIEW..................................................................................................168
B INFORMANTS BACKGROUND.......................................................................................170
C AL-HENNA..........................................................................................................................172
Al-Henna Taqdiim/Tbughir (Songs) and Twalwiil (Ululations)..........................................172
Prayer Songs...........................................................................................................173
Songs Praising Bride’s Beauty and Clothes...........................................................173
Songs Praising Bride’s Attributes and Praying for the Groom..............................173
Songs of In-laws Praising the Bride.......................................................................174
Songs of the Bride Consent of Marriage and the Father’s Role as her Delegate...174
The Song of the Bride Close Relatives Comforting the Bride and Each Other
that the Groom is of a Good Stock.....................................................................175
Song Praising the Bride’s Family...........................................................................175
The Second Generation and the Algerian Heritage..............................................................175
D DIALOGUE BETWEEN AN ALGERIAN AND AN EGYPTIAN....................................178
LIST OF REFERENCES.............................................................................................................179
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.......................................................................................................183

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LIST OF TABLES
Table page

2-1 An Illustration of the verb ‘I write/we write’..........................................................................78
2-2 An example of (D) in comparison to MSA, E, and F, which is not yet influenced by
foreign borrowing:.............................................................................................................84
2-3 Borrowed Words from E into D among later immigrants:......................................................95
2-4 Informants background information......................................................................................170

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Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School
of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts

LANGUAGES OF ALGERIAN DIASPORA IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
COMPARATIVE STUDY WITH ALGERIAN DIASPORA IN FRANCE

By
Khadidja Arfi

August 2008

Chair: Gerald Murray
Major: Anthropology

This work explores the dynamics of the Algerian languages in contact in the United States
in comparison with the first Algerian Diaspora to France. In my case study, I specifically focus
on the changes in the perceptions of Algerians towards their languages, and on the dynamics of
adaptation in their new linguistic communities. This thesis will contribute to the field of social
sciences in that it deals with Algerian languages and their speakers, a linguistic community that
has seldom been studied in the United States.
There are five traditionally important languages in Algeria: Quranic Arabic (CA), Modern
Standard Arabic (MSA), Darja (North African Arabic dialect), Berber (Kabyle) and French.
Neither CA nor MSA are spoken in the homes or on the street in Algeria, but both are important
for religious, nationalistic, educational, and/or symbolic reasons. In the recent phenomenon of
migration to the U.S., migrating adults and their children have been forced to learn English,
thereby drastically reducing the opportunities and/or the need to learn CA, MSA, and French.
Both Darja and Berber continue to be transmitted orally to children as both are used for daily
communication in most homes. Although CA, MSA, and French are no longer functionally
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important for daily communication or survival in an American society, their loss among migrant
children generates identity tensions and concerns among the adult migrants. The thesis explores
to some depth the ensuing language struggles, successful adaptations (or lack thereof), and
losses.

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