Languages of Morocco | |
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Official language(s) | Amazigh Language, Arabic |
Vernacular(s) | Tarifit, Tachelhit, Central Morocco Tamazight, Moroccan Arabic |
Main foreign language(s) | French, Spanish |
A multitude of Languages are used in Morocco, the native languages of Moroccans are Moroccan Arabic (known as Darija) and Berber languages. The official languages are Classical Arabic and the Amazigh Language (A standardized version of the three Moroccan Berber languages).[1]
Berber languages exist in Morocco in three different -yet related- languages: Tachelhit (In the High Atlas, the Anti-Atlas and Souss), central Morocco Tamazight (in the Middle Atlas) and Tarifit (in the Rif region). Many Berbers are also established in major cities. There are 15 to 18 million Berber speakers, about 50 to 65% of the population.[2]
French remains Morocco's unofficial second language, and is taught universally and serves as Morocco's primary language of commerce and economics; it is also widely used in education and government. Spanish is spoken by some Moroccans, especially in the northern regions. English, is spoken sporadically in the business, science and education sectors. Its usage and learning has grown over the last decade, due to the introduction of an education reform in 2002, which established the teaching English since the 7th grade in public schools.
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Arabic is Morocco's official language although it is the Moroccan dialect of Arabic, namely Darija that is spoken or understood, frequently as a second language, by the majority of the population (about 85% of the total population). Many native Berber speakers, also speak the local Arabic variant.[3] In 1995 the number of native speakers in Morocco was approximately 16 million (60% of the total population), and 21 million including the Moroccan diaspora.[4]
As a member of the Maghrebi Arabic grouping of dialects, Moroccan Arabic is similar to the dialects spoken in Mauritania, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya (and also Maltese). The country shows a marked difference in urban and rural dialects. This is due to the history of settlement. Originally, Arabs established centers of power in only a few cities and ports in the region, with the effect that the other areas remained Berber-speaking. Then in the 11th century, Bedouin tribes swept through much of the unsettled areas, spreading with them their distinct Arabic dialect in the non-urbanized areas and leaving speakers of Berber in isolated areas in the more mountainous regions.
The below table presents statistical figures of speakers, based on the 2004 population census (Population aged 5 and above)[5]
Region | Moroccan Arabic | Total population | % Moroccan Arabic speakers |
---|---|---|---|
Souss-Massa-Draa | 1,694,780 | 2,775,953 | 61.05% |
Oriental | 1,487,620 | 1,739,440 | 85.52% |
Guelmim-Es Semara | 261,109 | 382,029 | 68.35% |
Meknes-Tafilalet | 1,633,122 | 1,926,247 | 84.78% |
Tadla-Azilal | 1,038,765 | 1,299,536 | 79.93% |
Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz | 2,358,910 | 2,765,908 | 85.29% |
Taza-Al Hoceima-Taounate | 1,461,182 | 1,613,315 | 90.57% |
Rabat-Sale-Zemmour-Zaer | 2,101,916 | 2,136,636 | 98.38% |
Fès-Boulemane | 1,375,766 | 1,418,475 | 96.99% |
Laayoune-Boujdour-Sakia El Hamra | 181,413 | 219,505 | 82.65% |
Oued Ed-Dahab-Lagouira | 53,988 | 64,163 | 84.14% |
Grand Casablanca | 3,292,543 | 3,306,334 | 99.58% |
Tangier-Tetouan | 2,199,093 | 2,205,457 | 99.71% |
Gharb-Chrarda-Beni Hssen | 1,653,612 | 1,655,852 | 99.86% |
Chaouia-Ouardigha | 1,476,318 | 1,478,605 | 99.85% |
Doukkala-Abda | 1,765,904 | 1,768,150 | 99.87% |
Morocco | 24,036,041 | 26,755,605 | 89.84% |
The exact population of Amazigh Language speakers is hard to ascertain, since most North African countries do not -traditionally- record language data in their censuses(An exception to this was the 2004 Morocco popultation census). The Ethnologue provides a useful academic starting point ; however, its bibliographic references are inadequate, and it rates its own accuracy at only B-C for the area. Early colonial censuses may provide better documented figures for some countries; however, these are also very much out of date. The number for each dialect is difficult to estimate.
Speakers of Riff dialect were estimated to be around 1.5 million in 1990.[6] The language is spoken in the Rif area in the north of the country, and is the smallest Berber dialect in Morocco, by number of speakers.
The tashelhit language is considered to be the most widely spoken as it covers the whole of the Region Souss-Massa-Draâ, and is also spoken in the Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz and Tadla-Azilal regions. Studies done in 1990 show around 3 million people, concentrated in the south of Morocco, speak the dialect.[6]
Central Morocco Tamazight is the second Berber language in Morocco. A 1998 study done by Ethnologue, shows that around 3 million people speak the language in Morocco.[7] The language is most used in the regions Middle Atlas, High Atlas and east High Atlas Mountains.
Other Berber dialects are spoken in Morocco, as the Senhaja de Srair and the Ghomara dialects in the Rif mountains and the Figuig Shilha in Figuig (not to be confused with Atlas Shilha).
The below table presents statistical figures of speakers, based on the 2004 population census (Population aged 5 and above)[5]
Region | Tashlhyt | Tamazight | Tarifit | Total pop | % of Amazigh speakers |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Souss-Massa-Draa | 1,717,139 | 313,284 | 3,873 | 2,775,953 | 73.28% |
Oriental | 48,076 | 85,916 | 741,913 | 1,739,440 | 50.36% |
Guelmim-Es Semara | 182,695 | 6,670 | 766 | 382,029 | 49.77% |
Meknes-Tafilalet | 37,533 | 843,595 | 33,966 | 1,926,247 | 47.51% |
Tadla-Azilal | 199,092 | 409,446 | 1,436 | 1,299,536 | 46.94% |
Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz | 969,561 | 14,170 | 2,372 | 2,765,908 | 35.65% |
Taza-Al Hoceima-Taounate | 18,923 | 111,731 | 338,083 | 1,613,315 | 29.05% |
Rabat-Sale-Zemmour-Zaer | 166,658 | 268,687 | 14,965 | 2,136,636 | 21.08% |
Fès-Boulemane | 23,138 | 217,845 | 15,275 | 1,418,475 | 18.07% |
Laayoune-Boujdour-Sakia El Hamra | 28,352 | 6,569 | 891 | 219,505 | 16.31% |
Oued Ed-Dahab-Lagouira | 6,910 | 3,214 | 296 | 64,163 | 16.24% |
Grand Casablanca | 367,558 | 25,067 | 9,036 | 3,306,334 | 12.15% |
Tangier-Tetouan | 26,783 | 11,963 | 98,780 | 2,205,457 | 6.24% |
Gharb-Chrarda-Beni Hssen | 37,162 | 13,816 | 6,105 | 1,655,852 | 3.45% |
Chaouia-Ouardigha | 40,858 | 8,308 | 1,435 | 1,478,605 | 3.42% |
Doukkala-Abda | 24,367 | 3,656 | 1,794 | 1,768,150 | 1.69% |
Morocco | 3,894,805 | 2,343,937 | 1,270,986 | 26,755,605 | 28.07% |
"Few census figures are available; all countries (Algeria and Morocco included) do not count Berber languages. Population shifts in location and number, effects of urbanization and education in other languages, etc., make estimates difficult. In 1952 A. Basset (LLB.4) estimated the number of Berberophones at 5,500,000. Between 1968 and 1978 estimates ranged from eight to thirteen million (as reported by Galand, LELB 56, pp. 107, 123–25); Voegelin and Voegelin (1977, p. 297) call eight million a conservative estimate. In 1980, S. Chaker estimated that the Berberophone populations of Kabylie and the three Moroccan groups numbered more than one million each; and that in Algeria, 3,650,000, or one out of five Algerians, speak a Berber language (Chaker 1984, pp. 8-)
In 1952, André Basset ("La langue berbère", Handbook of African Languages, Part I, Oxford) estimated that a "small majority" of Morocco's population spoke Berber. The 1960 census estimated that 34% of Moroccans spoke Berber, including bi-, tri-, and quadrilinguals. In 2000, Karl Prasse cited "more than half" in an interview conducted by Brahim Karada at Tawalt.com. According to the Ethnologue (by deduction from its Moroccan Arabic figures), the Berber-speaking population is estimated at 65% (1991 and 1995). However, the figures it gives for individual languages only add up to 7.5 million, or about 57%. Most of these are accounted for by three dialects:
This nomenclature is common in linguistic publications, but is significantly complicated by local usage: thus Shilha is sub-divided into Shilha of the Dra valley, Tasusit (the language of the Souss) and several other (mountain) dialects. Moreover, linguistic boundaries are blurred, such that certain dialects cannot accurately be described as either Central Morocco Tamazight (spoken in the Central and eastern Atlas area) or Shilha. The differences among all Moroccan dialects are not too pronounced: public radio news are broadcast using the various dialects; each journalist speaks his or her own dialect with the result that understanding is not obstructed, though most southern Berbers find Riff requires getting used to to understand it.
Hassānīya, is spoken by about 0.7% of the population mainly in the southern regions and the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Communities of speakers exist elsewhere in Morocco too, especially in the metropolitan areas of Agadir, Marrakech, Rabat and Casablanca.
The below table presents statistical figures of speakers, based on the 2004 population census (Population aged 5 and above)[5]
Region | Hassaniya | Total pop | Hassniya speakers |
---|---|---|---|
Souss-Massa-Draa | 13,349 | 2,775,953 | 0.48% |
Oriental | 573 | 1,739,440 | 0.03% |
Guelmim-Es Semara | 68,597 | 382,029 | 17.96% |
Meknes-Tafilalet | 983 | 1,926,247 | 0.05% |
Tadla-Azilal | 470 | 1,299,536 | 0.04% |
Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz | 3,248 | 2,765,908 | 0.12% |
Taza-Al Hoceima-Taounate | 186 | 1,613,315 | 0.01% |
Rabat-Sale-Zemmour-Zaer | 2,781 | 2,136,636 | 0.13% |
Fès-Boulemane | 370 | 1,418,475 | 0.03% |
Laayoune-Boujdour-Sakia El Hamra | 86,926 | 219,505 | 39.60% |
Oued Ed-Dahab-Lagouira | 13,501 | 64,163 | 21.04% |
Grand Casablanca | 1,778 | 3,306,334 | 0.05% |
Tangier-Tetouan | 329 | 2,205,457 | 0.01% |
Gharb-Chrarda-Beni Hssen | 526 | 1,655,852 | 0.03% |
Chaouia-Ouardigha | 617 | 1,478,605 | 0.04% |
Doukkala-Abda | 508 | 1,768,150 | 0.03% |
Morocco | 194,742 | 26,755,605 | 0.73% |
At the time of the French protectorate of Morocco, French was the official language of administration and education. Since independence, Morocco, like other countries of the Maghreb, has undertaken a policy of Arabization. Nonetheless, French remains an important language in Morocco, where it competes with/complements Standard Arabic as the language of written expression and of higher education.
About 20,000 Moroccans in the northern part of the country speak Spanish. English, while still far behind French and Spanish in terms of the number of speakers, is rapidly becoming the second foreign language of choice among educated youth, after French. As a result of national education reforms entering into force in late 2002, English will be taught in all public schools from the fourth year on.
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