The Moroccan triglossia:

facts and implications

ABDERRAHIM YOUSSI

Introduction

The multilingual and multidialectal situations prevailing throughout the

strata of Moroccan society seem to be quite unique, even by comparison,
for example, with äs geographically close societies äs the other neighbor-
ing North African countries. On the surface, these countries display a
homogeneous use of what can be considered äs one large, regional,
dialectal variety (i.e. Maghrebi Arabic, in Opposition to Middle Eastera
varieties.) This homogeneity results partly from the Berber substratum
(Br) and, no less importantly, from the French adstratum (Fr). However,
one would rather actually talk of a continuum throughout North Africa,
both Atlantic and Mediterranean Strips. Within this large entity, in fact,
there exist distinct hard cores of national varieties, with structural äs well
äs sociolinguistic specifities.
These brief introductory remarks purport to emphasize the need for
an approach that would at least try to determine a maximum number of
features and to assess their relevance to whatever interrelated phenomena
there may be at work. Intended äs a summary only, the following elements
of the Moroccan Situation draw on structural and sociolinguistic research
that this author has carried out over the last 15 years or so. It has been
established that the Moroccan Situation is characterized by especially
intricate interrelations, which involve the following:

I. Triglossia, that is, the alternative use of

1. one variety of the spoken, regionally quite well marked continua of
vernacular Moroccan Arabic (MÄ) spoken by over 90 percent of the total
population for intimate and informal, everyday life purposes;1
2. 'educated,' exclusively spoken, Middle Moroccan Arabic (MMA)
used between strangers for formal, official purposes; it is estimated that
about 40 percent have a functional command of this variety; the rate of
those with a passive knowledge is of course higher;

0165-2516/95/0112-0029 Int'l. J. Soc. Lang. 112 (1995), pp. 29-43

© Walter de Gruyter
Brought to you by | University of Michigan
Authenticated
Download Date | 6/22/15 8:31 AM
30 A. Youssi
3. basically written, Literary Arabic (LA). It is estimated that about 20
percent of the population can read and write it. Among them, a minority
of highly educated users can speak it relatively spontaneously in very
formal or official settings.

II. Trilingualism, that is, the alternative but also concurrent use of the
following:
First, Berber, which is referred to by its native Speakers äs Tashelhiyt
or Tamazight, has innumerable regional varieties. It is exlusively spoken,
and has an estimated 40 percent of users, about one-fourth of whom
(women and small children in the countryside) have only this medium.
It is not learned by MA Speakers (see directions of arrows in
Figurel).
Second, Arabic äs described in (I) above; and
Third, French, used by an estimated 10% of well-educated people for
reading, writing, and speaking purposes. Fr is also used by over half the
population, who have a command of a more or less pidginized form,
spoken mainly for communication with tourists, European employers,
etc. Spanish is used in and around Ceuta and Melilla, the two Spanish
presidios on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco, and with strangers in
the former zone of the Spanish protectorate in the north. Some English
is also spoken with tourists in the cities. However, the roles of these two
languages are marginal in comparison with the dissemination and the
functions of the others. Figure l sums up the uses and relations between
languages and varieties.
All of the relations shown in Figure l, in fact, reflect the complexity
of the sociocultural bases of Moroccan society. Naturally enough, these
bases are themselves underlain by the composite nature of the population
and by the historical and the socioeconomic levers of social dynamics.
In some cases, these levers have constituted extraordinary factors of
sociocultural and linguistic change. The most obvious among these factors
are due to the Integration of contemporary advanced technologies, the
adoption of some Western norms of social behavior, and patterns of
modern living in general. In other cases, however, the levers of the
dynamics of historical and socioeconomic change crystallized äs forces
of inertia (e.g. the anachronistic or paradoxical acceptance of a state of
endemic illiteracy for nearly two-thirds of the population.) The aim of
this paper, therefore, is twofold: while it endeavors to present a synthesis
of the interrelations between the diverse constitutive features and vari-
ables of the Moroccan linguistic Situation, it purports to discuss, in their
light, some of the implications for formal education in particular, for the

Brought to you by | University of Michigan

Authenticated
Download Date | 6/22/15 8:31 AM
 The Moroccan triglossia 31
Bilingualism for everyday life purposes

TAMAZIGHT 40% MOROCCAN ARABIC 90%

spoken <—ii- spoken

l MIDDLE MOROCCAN ARABIC 40%

spoken formally
S

FRENCH 10% LITERARY ARABIC 20%

spoken, read, written read, written, spoken, officially

Bilingualism of power and intellection

Figure 1. Relationships between the languages and the dialects (revised from Youssi 1983:
77 and 2989: 111)

modes of transmission of Information, and for the satisfaction of various

communicative needs in general.

Facts and terminologies

It ought to be pointed out at the outset that the ways in which, for
example, a term such äs diglossia and the concept underlying it have been
used refer to the most dissimilar or unlikely situations. Their discussion
would need substantial elucidation, which the limits of this paper do not
permit. It should be noted, however, that ever since the French grammar-
ian Psichari (1928) first introduced it to define the Greek Situation, and
since Mar$ais (1930-1931) used it with reference to the linguistic situa-
tions prevailing throughout the Arabic-speaking communities (ASCs),2
the term la diglossie äs the alternative use of two varieties of the same
language has imposed itself on linguists, and on social scientists after
them, äs a special defining and analytical concept. This concept, however,
has not often been used felicitously. Margais, for example, erroneously

Brought to you by | University of Michigan

Authenticated
Download Date | 6/22/15 8:31 AM
32 A. Youssi
argued that the two varieties of Ar were in competition for communicative
functions. In fact, the diglossic varieties have always been in complemen-
tary distribution for the various communicative functions throughout the
social strata. Ferguson (1972 [1959]) rectifies this conception. He provides
a more accurate typological analysis underlying this principle, along with
the features of historical affiliation and the non-existence of a continuum.
These criteria provide elements that strictly and rigorously distinguish
multilingualism from this specific type of multidialectism. Ferguson failed,
however, to perceive — along with other regional and local characteristics
— the role and impact, for example, of Fr in North Africa (by contrast
with the Middle Hast). The majority of Ferguson's critics (particularly
in the 1970s and most of the 1980s) indulged in a kind of atomistic
approach: adherents of and opponents to the analysis alike would isolate
one or the other among Ferguson's defining features, to the exclusion of
the others, in order to argue for or to invalidate the existence of diglossia
(see, e.g., Jardel 1979; Bentolila and Garni 1981; Drettas 1981; Prudent
1981; Gardy and Lafont 1981; Valdman 1979; etc.) Another tendency
(see Fishman 1972: 82) has been the attempt to enlarge the scope of
diglossia to include bilingual or multidialectal situations in which the
languages or varieties are each used for special purposes.

The limits of prospective linguistics

There is, however, one aspect that went almost unnoticed in Ferguson's
analysis that was somehow forced among the concluding remarks (1972
[1959]: 249), that is, a prognosis about the evolutionary tendencies two
centuries thence. Basing bis argumentation apparently on empirical evi-
dence, Ferguson (1972 [1959]: 240) argues that the 'communicative ten-
sions which arise in the diglossia Situation may be resolved by the use of
a relatively uncodified, unstable, intermediate form of the language.' In
this respect, the premises of the evolutionary tendency in every one of
the defining languages were clearly pinpointed and defined by the users
themselves, who had a term to refer to this dynamic phenomenon. For
Ar, the expression al-lugah al-wusta 'the middle language' was already in
use (mikhti 'mixed' for Greek, creole de salon in Haiti, etc.). These
similarities in relation to dynamic synchrony, however, and stränge
though this may seem, render the differences between the Tates' of the
four languages significantly manifest.
For if in the case of the other three diglossic settings, some or most of
the required elements conditioning the promotion of one variety to the
higher Status of the Standard national language were met, those conditions

Brought to you by | University of Michigan

Authenticated
Download Date | 6/22/15 8:31 AM
 The Moroccan triglossia 33
were not filled for Arabic, äs I show below. The raising of the Status of
one language variety could be implemented in more than one manner,
be it concensual or decree-ruled. What one eventually fails to see in
Ferguson's argumentation, in other words, are the levers of the change
he foresaw for the ASCs. His prognosis seems to have been elaborated
not only without taking into consideration any of the contemporary
forces of ideological and sociopolical inertia (which are tremendous), but
also in almost total neglect of the determining historical factors of conser-
vatism. Synchronically, all the four defining languages are under the
control of more or less similar, purely sociolinguistic factors, and they
share a set number of functional features. The Greek, Haitian, and Swiss
situations differ quite significantly from those of Ar, äs indeed they differ
from each other in more than one respect. The obvious limitations on
the length of this paper do not permit an elaborate discussion of the
factors underlying the Situation, but one has only to consider, for exam-
ple, the impact of the extralinguistic factors alone, in relation to religion,
to the history of the Arab Empire, and to the myths attached, in general,
to the lost original language, to realize the weight of the forces of inertia.

The impact of contemporary linguistic nationalism

a. Institutionell illiteracy

Very briefly, the mainspring of the Aräb nationalism of the last Century
and its contemporary linguistic form has äs one of its bases the conception
that, following almost a millennium of the caesura of the so-called
'decadence,' the dialects epitomized the fidecay' and 'divergence' from the
stable, pure, classical norm. In parallel way, it has been well accepted
that only a few members of the Community (those who may have shown
mental predispositions in the confrontation of the long, arduous process
of the acquisition of classical culture) would get the appropriate formal
education and training for clerical and religious tasks.

b. Cultural democracy äs a nationalist claim

As much, however, äs the other causes of decadence, the former accep-

tance of the repartition of functional roles would be questioned, äs a
matter of principle, äs early äs the emergence of the renascent movements
of the last Century, partieularly in the Middle East. Ever since then, the
advocacy for the generalization of education with the use of the classical

Brought to you by | University of Michigan

Authenticated
Download Date | 6/22/15 8:31 AM
34 A. Youssi
form and the progressive eradication of the vernaculars were permanently
made into a credo.

The question of illiteracy

The impact of the extralinguistic elements of the Situation discussed above

can be adequately understood only if related to the question of literacy.
Succinctly, the phenomenon of illiteracy, indeed, provides a more than
plausible, highly relevant factor for the Interpretation of the other related
phenomena. It must be borne in mind, therefore, if one is to understand
at all the source of its alarmingly anachronistic rate today, despite the
financial Investments, the eiforts in terms of time, energies, and planning
strategies elabrated in the ASCs in general and in Morocco in particular.
Illiteracy must be assessed particularly in order to determine the causes
of its permanence in an environment where, not so long ago, formal
education guaranteed the prospect of good Jobs and conferred prestige
pn those who had acquired it.3
Societal illiteracy, in brief, has been the lot not only of those children
who — for any one of the various societal or economic reasons — never
get registered in a school or who drop out quite early, but also of those
who, even after they have spent many years in the schools, are unable to
acquire even a minimal functional proficiency in the written medium,
because the diglossic varieties are so far apart structurally and semanti-
cally.4 Between one-half and two-thirds of the population in the ASCs
today, depending on the cultural traditions in each Arab country, are
illiterate or semiliterate. What is more, considering the conjunction of
the bündle of extralinguistic factprs hinted at above, this state of affairs
is likely to remain stable for quite some time to come, particularly äs,
given the weight of the forces of inertia mentioned above, it seems
unlikely even in the medium ränge that there will be any significant action
to introduce the appropriate changes.5
It is a quasi-certitude now that the paralyzing inhibitions, nay the
ASCs' material inability to alter any of the specific elements of the
Situation, is the most characteristic feature of these communities. The
phenomena hinted at above in terms of the historical and/or ideological
forces of inertia, combined with the present inability to have any notable
influence on the Situation, explain to a great extent the uniqueness of the
Arabic diglossia. It should not be surmised from the discussion above,
however, that things are doomed to remain eternally stable or frozen. As
Ferguson could observe, in the systematic articulation of its endeavor to
confront those 'communicative tensions' in the 1950s in the form of

Brought to you by | University of Michigan

Authenticated
Download Date | 6/22/15 8:31 AM
 The Moroccan triglossia 35
4
al-lugah al-wustaa the middle language' (and äs Lecerf [1932] had noted
even two decades earlier) there were at work, in the Arabic situations,
those sociolinguistic factors of dynamic synchrony that could be neither
bypassed nor confronted with the sole means of either of the components
of diglossia. The obligatory maintenance of the classical form of the
language äs the official means in a Situation of substantial, endemic
illiteracy could only be carried out via recourse to a pragmatic attitude.
This has consisted in the spontaneous setting up of the oral variety to
serve official and formal oral purposes, that is, the transformation of
diglossia into triglossia.

The features of triglossia

At this point of the presentation, I ought to point out that I have

investigated elsewhere many of the formal sociolinguistic and sociocultu-
ral factors in general underlying this phenomenon (Youssi 1983, 1984,
1991b, 1992), and I will not — due to the many obvious constraints —
discuss them in detail in what follows. Furthermore, it is also worth
pointing out that the analysis of these factors has been found to be
interesting from a dual point of view. First, most of them contribute,
from a general linguistic angle, to the characterization of a typologically
interesting Situation, because it is one whose dynamics are very much
active. Second, and consequently, their study disentangles a Situation
that is in the making, thus permitting observation of the living agents of
this phenomenon. The features of the Arabic Situation undoubtedly also
illustrate the typologically unique Situation of the permanence of what I
have referred to above, for lack of a better term, äs a multiglossic
Situation.

a. Triglossia defined structurally

Resulting basically from the 'mixing' of aspects of the phonic and the
grammatical structures of both the literal variety and the vernacular, the
middle variety is by the same token distinct from both. As this is implicit
in the cover term, these processes came about virtually naturally. Even
if one accounts for the phenomena of mimetism across ASCs via film,
TV series, and direct contact, these alterations did not provoke any
reactions worthy of mention in any one of the ASCs. Attempts to establish
a 'compromise,' a 'middle of the road' between the complex, exclusively
written variety of Arabic in the upstream direction and the particularistic,

Brought to you by | University of Michigan

Authenticated
Download Date | 6/22/15 8:31 AM
36 A. Youssi
exclusively spoken vernacular in the downstream direction came about
äs results of objective causes.
Thus the structural continuum sought between the diglossic varieties
(easily made possible due to the formal proximity of the two varieties)
consists principally in preserving a maximum of the phonological habits
of the Speakers. For example, the phonology of the middle variety
(MMA) is basically that of the vernacular, with the exception of (1) the
(re-)incorporation of the glottal stop in the same occurrences äs in LA;
for example,
MA MM A LA
fi
käs -> kdPs +-ka?sun a glass'
tiyara -»taPira *-taaPiratun 'an airplane', etc.
(2) the transformation of certain schwas into füll vowels, for example,
td$ban -> tufban <- eu$baanun 'snake or python'
(3) the reduction of heavy consonantal clusters (so typical of Maghrebi
Arabic) via the (re-)insertion of füll vowels seeking to approximate the
phonematic (or templatic) structures of LA in terms of the sequences of
consonants and vowels, thus making the syllabic structures better "aired,"
for example,
mst(d) -»mustefmilin «- mustafmilüna 'using'
gdns Pl gnus -> zins Pl Pdznas<- zinsun Pl Paznaasun 'race(s)5 or fisex(es)'
The MA lexemes above refer to the 'ethnic origin' or 'race' (for which
MMA and LA use zinsiya 'nationality,' Pl. zinsiyaat), while the MMA
and LA lexemes mean fisex'. Incidentally, these examples illustrate also,
though äs extreme cases of semantic readjustments, what happens in the
lexis of MMA, the main bulk of which, structurally äs well äs semanti-
cally, is of LA origin, after undergoing the necessary morphophonemic
adaptation to MMA phonematic structures in terms of C and V
sequences.
As for the morphosyntactic features of MMA, let's briefly point out
that, generally speaking, MMA is characterized by two types of processes:
1. almost all the affixed grammatical morphemes constituting person
indices (affixed personal pronouns functioning äs subjects or objects), the
modalities of aspect, future, continuous, reciprocity, passive, causative,
etc., which have an 'intimate' relationship with the head lexical items
onto which they are agglutinated, are of vernacular origin;
2. by contrast, the free morphemes, äs members of virtually all the
grammatical categories (auxiliary verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions,

Brought to you by | University of Michigan

Authenticated
Download Date | 6/22/15 8:31 AM
 The Moroccan triglossia 37
etc.), tend to be of LA origin after undergoing the necessary morphopho-
nemic 'nativization' transformations.
It should be stressed, however, that the structural features of this
variety are to be viewed äs wide arrays of continua. Because they are
noncodified (and, therefore, abiding by the sole communicative compe-
tence of the Speakers, äs well äs by the subject of their discourse and the
communicative competences of their audiences), the kind of 'gradation'
in the continuum between the maximally opposed positions of LA and
MA can be relatively diversified. If a simple, factual — but nonetheless
formal — exchange between strangers is involved, the forms would tend
to be closer to the intimate variety. If on the contrary the exchange
involves the communication of 'intellectual' and sociocultural phen-
omena, the forms would tend more toward LA. But in either of the two
types of largely defined settings above, MMA (äs substantial research
has established; see Youssi 1992) remains distinct by Opposition to both
MA and LA. The core of these features has been circumscribed in
substantial corpuses of data collected in the light of clearly determined
and defined sociolinguistic criteria. What fluctuations or alternations
there may be in the up- or downstream direction (if it be considered äs
one of the normal expressions of dynamic synchrony) and whether and
to what extent this Situation will stabilize is yet another question that
will be viewed briefly below. As for the triglossia sociolinguistic features
proper they involve the following.

b. Triglossia definedfunctionally

The sociolinguistic functions of triglossia can be determined and defined

by reference to two criteria. On the one band, there are the causes of the
emergence of the 'tripartition'; on the other band, there are the aims or
the societal judgments or 'prospects.' As this has been hinted at in various
places in the discussion above, the most obvious among these causes are
communicative. Thus, Speakers who have been initiated into the elements
of contemporary technology and modern living through European lan-
guages such äs French or English, when discussing scientific, literary,
philosophical, or whatever sociocultural concepts or phenomena in
formal or official settings (i.e. outside the restricted circle of bilingual
Speakers like themselves) suddenly experience difficulties or embarrass-
ment getting across to their monolingual fellow-countrymen, due to the
following reasons:
a. Nationalistic attitudes involving self-imposed 'censorship' dictate
resistance to the language of colonial or 'Imperialist cultural domination.'

Brought to you by | University of Michigan

Authenticated
Download Date | 6/22/15 8:31 AM
38 A. Youssi
Table l. Domains of use of various languages and varieties

Domains of use Languages and varieties

Br ΜΑ ΜΜΑ LA FR

1. Intimate, informal relations

family, friends, inferiors χ χ (χ)
every day, practical street life, etc. (χ) χ
colleagues, peers, inferior strangers (χ) χ χ
strangers of equal/superior Status χ (χ)
foreigners from Maghreb countries χ
foreigners from the Middle East χ χ
2. Formal spoken communication
office colleagues with each other χ χ
functionaries with educated citizens χ χ
functionaries with uneducated citizens (χ) χ (χ)
shop assistants with educated clients (χ) χ
doctor/chemist with educated patients χ
political Speeches (χ) (χ) χ χ
political and union discussibns χ
discussions following university lectures and χ χ
teaching
prayer and religious practices χ
3. Written communication \
administering social and religious affairs χ
administering economic and technical affairs
secondary-level teaching of science and χ
technology
teachers College (ENS) teaching of science and χ (χ)
technology
university-level teaching of science and χ
technology
family correspondence χ
love letters of young people χ χ
4. Language use in the media
radio news bulletins χ χ χ χ
television news bulletins* χ χ χ
informative television programs χ χ χ
live Interviews and reports χ χ χ
current affairs panels, round tables χ χ (χ)
cultural and literary programs χ χ χ
national series and films (χ) χ
foreign non-Arab productions (χ) χ
Middle Eastern productions χ χ

Source: Adapted and updated from Youssi (1983, 1984, 1989, 1991).
Key: An "x" indicates an ordinary occurrence, while an "(x)" indicates only an
occasional or rather infrequent one.
Notes: All the languages and varieties listed above are used in the media. TV programs in
French (Fr) on the two channels take up over two-thirds of broadcasting time; the rest is

Brought to you by | University of Michigan

Authenticated
Download Date | 6/22/15 8:31 AM
 The Moroccan triglossia 39
b. There is a lack of appropriate terminologies in Arabic.
c. Concurrent with (b), there is a lack of the habit for concept formation
and spontaneous oral expression in the literal form of Arabic.
It should be noted that there has been a constant 'dwindling' in the
degree of proficiency in Fr itself among the new generations. The use of
MMA in those cases also is more directly 'natural,' äs it can be resorted
to in order to hide inadequacies in the foreign language and thus to 'save
face' for both protagonists.
d. At the level of the individual, the use of MMA implies educational
and modernistic potential and therefore, in face-to-face communication,
contributes to identity display or projection vis-ä-vis the interlocuter
e. The need to communicate with larger audiences than the educated
minority — particularly at formal or official gatherings involving the
transmission of formal elements of Information, at political or trade-
union meetings, in the mass media such äs radio and television, etc. —
forces the use of MMA rather than LA; in all of these settings, compre-
hension by the majority is sought, not just formality (see Table 1).
f.. Communication settings involving non-intimate formal exchanges
between strangers are underlain by strongly marked tendencies at courte-
ous büt non-committal attitudes, etc.
g. No less important than all of the above is the criterion of the prestige
that MMA carries äs the variety used by educated, well-to-do Speakers.
Bearing in mind the distribution of the communicative functions of
the languages ancl/or varieties in Morocco, it will now be easier to sum
up the correlations between these languages and varieties along the lines
of the famous correlative question in Fishman (1965), 6Who speaks or
writes what language or variety to whom for what purpose(s) and where?'

(footnotefor Table l continued)

shared by Literary Arabic (LA); Middle (Egyptian) Arabic (MA) in series; Middle
Moroccan Arabic (MMA) in plays, series, films, live interviewe, etc.; and occasional
vernacular Moroccan Arabic; but no Berber (Br). The National Radio broadcasts mainly
in LA, occasionally in MMA. One specialized Station broadcasts in the three major
varieties of Br (see Youssi 1991). The State-owned international Station TM broadcasts
mainly in Fr, with slots for Spanish and English offered mainly to the diplomats and the
foreign communities at large. The fourth, a private Station run with European capital,
broadcasts alternatively in Fr and LA; sometimes the switch even occurs at sentence
level.
* Since this paper was submitted for publication, an historical proclamation by the King
of Morocco was made (Aug. 20, 1994) permitting the teaching of Berber in the State
Schools and its use on the national TV channel. A news bulletin of three to five minutes
is broadcast daily in each of the three dialects of Berber at 13:30; the teaching has not
yet been implemented.

Brought to you by | University of Michigan

Authenticated
Download Date | 6/22/15 8:31 AM
40 A. Youssi
It should also be borne in mind that the statistics provided in Figure l
above (provided mainly äs indicative of tendencies) stress most of all the
fact that no one of the linguistic media exists in the practice of the whole
population (monolingual vs. multilingual Berber Speakers, city vs. country
dwellers, educated vs. illiterate Speakers), etc. If, for example, among the
Moroccan elite, a very small proportion of native Br Speakers may have
adequate communicative competence in all of the janguages and varieties,
the great majority can satisfy the correlations in only a few of the domains
of use.

Ciosing remarks

It should not be corisidered äs a mere idiosyncrasy to end this article by

saying that one would really be hard put to offer a conclusion to a
discussion that has attempted to relate structural and functional factors
and features in the grip of a vigorous dynamic synchrony. Quite a few
of these factors either have their roots deep only in the subconscious of
the Speakers or, being on the contrary still under the control of the
machinery of dynamic synchrony, may be doing one of two things: (l)
they may be only transitory, taking different turns than the ones expected,
or (2) they may reinforce the tendencies initiated in the relatively recent
past. What remains a central fact is the extremely weighty nature of the
forces of inertia and their strong conservational impact on everything
eise, which must adjust to their dictates.
The most pressing question, one should think, is just how long the
Moroccan communities (äs well äs the other Maghrebi, and all the ASCs
for that matter) will go on with this multiglossic societal pattern. How
long will they endure paying its extremely high price in terms of time
and effort spent on education, only to end up with the frustrations and
the deeply feit social deprivation by all those who are statistically con-
demned to illiteracy and to the resultant reduced sociocultural rights and
Privileges? The Situation described above, naturally enough, is not static,
even in the case of LA, which has been adapting to the semantico-stylistic
interferences from European languages through grappling with modern
concepts and techniques. MMA is now part of the repertoires of children
and adolescents who have been exposed to it äs a component of oral
practices in the classroom. They have, more particularly, 'grown up with
it' in the media, and they have been observed to shift to it with extraordi-
nary ease and spontaneity in the appropriate formal settings.
Considering all these aspects, therefore, and even armed with a maxi-
mum number of objectively determined relations established between the

Brought to you by | University of Michigan

Authenticated
Download Date | 6/22/15 8:31 AM
 The Moroccan triglossia 41
various elements of linguistic and sociocultural features, one can in no
way foresee the directions of the evolution ä la Ferguson. If at present
one were to venture a counter-prognosis to Ferguson's, äs a second
scenario for the Ar diglossic situations, a gradual 'upgrading' of the
vernacular toward LA would be more realistic. This shift would involve
regional minor phonic and lexical (not morphosyntactic) variations,
which would be resolved in the total merging of the Low and Middle
varieties into a single language, having all the characteristics of the High
variety, that is, the total eradiction of diglossia. Such a prognosis, in fact,
would have been more in the order of things in the 1950s, when Ferguson
was carrying out bis research. Were not the extralinguistic Symptoms of
Arab nationalism, sustained by then-progressive revolutionary ideas and
the prospects of financial power from the new oil wealth, lurking high
and holding fabulous promises for the Implementation of those societal
ideals and ambitions?
A third, more plausible, prospective scenario would have it that, con-
sidering the forces of inertia described above, on the one band, and
sociocultural evolution, including significant progress in the educational
system, on the other band, there would be a gradual blending of the
Middle and the Low varieties into a new diglossia, much on the
Schwyzertütsch model. This new diglossia will display fewer divergencies
between the two varieties. More importantly, the users will be a lot more
comfortable with it, functionally äs well äs psychologically.
Be this äs it may, what the descriptive linguist and the sociolinguist
are left with now are the elements of the Situation, of which I have
attempted to provide an overview in this paper, relating the underlying
features of those elements to their historical causes, viewing their present
implications for certain societal functions like education and communica-
tion in general, and interpreting in their light the factors of dynamic
synchrony. What the investigation ofthose factors reveals is an extremely
complex and blocked Situation. As one of these dramatic societal conse-
quences, more than 65 percent of the population in Morocco, for example,
are incredibly entangled in the web of illiteracy and the inadequacy of
part of their communicative tools due to past and present rigid norms
and to forces of inertia weighing heavily on the institutions.

Mohammed V University, Rabat

Notes
1. These rates are only indicative, not being based on any rigorous census or substantiated
investigation. In the absence of any official statistical data, the figures were obtained by

Brought to you by | University of Michigan

Authenticated
Download Date | 6/22/15 8:31 AM
42 A. Youssi
cross-examining demographic elements of Information provided in the censuses of 1961,
1971, and 1982, and in the statistics provided by research only indirectly related to the
linguistic phenomena. The first census was the only one to have included linguistic
rubrics, the linguistic question having been considered politically too sensitive to be
addressed in subsequent censuses (see Gallagher 1964; Nyrop 1972; Leveau 1976).
2. These initials will refer, therefore, to the communities of the Arab World at large when
the phenomena discussed are general. In the Maghreb, however, Libya (with no French
influence) and Mauritania (whose population includes ethnic groups with Black African
languages) constitute special though closely related situations.
3. The now saturated state Job market used to be the main provider of positions at all
levels of the administrative machine. For over ten years now, including for those univer-
sity degree-holders with all kinds of specialties, unemployment has changed the outlook
on education. The disappointment is perhaps more dramatically feit by the school-
leavers who had pursued their education in Ar instead of Fr (the language of economic
power and intellectuality), who feel somehow cheated for having been channelled
through the Arabized school System by those very decision makers and political leaders
who, while vehemently advocating Arabization, send their own children to the French
mission schools in all of the major cities. There, Ar has no more importance than any
foreign language and is often snobbishly shunned by the pupils.
4. This is not to mention either the children of the estimated 40% of Br Speakers whose
training also involves the simultaneous acquisition, starting from first grade, of the
diglossic varieties of Ar, both of which are totally alien to their experience.
5. Among the research results (Youssi 1981) based on questionnaires (intended to assess
the level of awareness among educated Arabs, with at least university education, about
linguistic problems and their implications for everyday life äs well äs in education, and
what possible Solutions could be implemented to solve these problems) it was found that
the majority of the subjects did spot and describe the problems straightforwardly. They
also associated with each type the solution called for. Paradoxically, however, reactions
changed to total rejection, in the same questionnaires, the moment the subjects tested
realized that those Solutions would necessitate changes in relation to the present forms
or entail alterations in the functions.

References
Bentolila, Alain; et Gani, Leon (1981). Langues et problemes d'education en Haiti. Langages
66, 117-127.
Drettas, Georges (1981). La diglossie: un pelerinage aux sources. Bulletin de la Societe
Linguistique de Paris 76(1), 61-98.
Ferguson, Charles A. (1972 [1959]). Diglossia. In Language and Social Context, Pier Paolo
Giglioli (ed.), 232-251. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Fishman, Joshua A. (1965). Who speaks what language to whom and when? La Linguistique
2, 67-88.
—(1972). The Sociology of Language: An Inter-disciplinary Social Approach to Language
in Society. Rowly, MA: Newbury House.
Gallagher, C. F. (1964). North African problems and prospects: language and identity.
AUFS Report: North African Series 10/5, 84-104.
Gardy, Philippe; et Lafont, Robert (1981). La diglossie comme conflit: l'exemple occitan.
Langages 61, 75-91.

Brought to you by | University of Michigan

Authenticated
Download Date | 6/22/15 8:31 AM
 The Moroccan triglossia 43
Jardel, Jean-Pierre (1979). De quelques usages des concepts de bilinguisme et de diglossie.
In Plurilinguisme', norme, Situation, Strategie, P. Wald and G. Manessy (eds.), 26-37.
Paris: L'Harmattan.
Lecerf, Jean (1932). Litterature dialectale et renaissance arabe moderne. Majallat al-majma
al-'ilmii al-'arabii (Damascus) 32, 1-14.
Leveau, Remy (1976). Lefellah marocain defenseur du tröne. Paris: Presse de la Fondation
Nationale.
Mar$ais, William (1930-1931). La diglossie arabe. LEnseignementpublic 97,401-409; 105,
20-39 and 120-133.
Nyrop, R. F. (1972). Area Handbook of Morocco. Washington, D.C.: GPO.
Prudent, L.-Felix (1981). Diglossie et interlecte. Langages 61, 13-38.
Psichari, J. (1928). Un pays qui ne veut pas sä langue. Mercure de France (Oct.), 63-121.
Valdman, Albert (1979). La diglossie francais creole dans Funivers plantocratique. In
Plurilinguisme; norme, Situation, Strategie, P. Wald and G. Manessy (eds.), 173-185.
Paris: L'Harmattan.
Wald, Paul; et Manessy, Gabriel (1979). Plurilinguisme', norme, Situation, Strategie. Paris:
L'Harmattan.
Youssi, Abderrahim (1983). La triglossie dans la typologie linguistique. IM Linguistique
19/2, 71-83.
— (1984). Mawqifu al-mustacmili mina al-lughati al-9arabiyyati: $alaa haamisi stibyaanin
[The Speakers' attitudes to Arabic: Comments on a questionnaire]. In Proceedings of
the Conference: Recherches Linguistiques et Semiotiques. Serie Colloques et Seminaires
no 6. Rabat: Publications de la Faculte des Lettres.
— (1989). Changements socio-culturels et dynamique linguistique. In Langue et societe au
Maghreb: bilan et perspective, A. Youssi (ed.). Serie: Colloques et Seminaires. Rabat:
Faculte des Lettres.
— (1991 a). Lexical processes in the Berber of the media in Morocco. In Maghreb Linguistics,
J. Pleines (ed.), 265-281. Rabat: Okad.
— (1991b). Langues et parlers: un trilinguisme complexe. In L'Etat du Maghreb, Camille
and Yves Lacostes (eds.), 272-277. Paris: La Decouverte.
— (1992). Grammaire et lexique de l'arabe marocain moderne, Preface de David Cohen.
Casablanca: Wallada.

Brought to you by | University of Michigan

Authenticated
Download Date | 6/22/15 8:31 AM
Brought to you by | University of Michigan
Authenticated
Download Date | 6/22/15 8:31 AM