A Sociolinguistic Study of the Algerian Language

Journal of Sociolinguistics, 2020

The book Sociolinguistique du Maghreb by Ibtissem Chachou is the outcome of the author's extensive career as a researcher and teacher in the field of sociolinguistics in the Maghreb-specifically, Algeria. The book gathers teaching material for a course, written, elaborated, and used by the author from 2013 to 2018 in the field of the Sociolinguistique du Maghreb, which she teaches within the framework of the Master of Language Studies and Linguistics at the University of Mostaganem in Algeria. The main novelty is that the book is designed as a practical and applied manual addressed to students studying for a Master's degree and postgraduate researchers involved in research in the field of linguistics in general and Maghrebi sociolinguistics in particular. Thus, the aim of the book is to introduce students to the analysis and interpretation of the main phenomena that are of most importance to the field of sociolinguistics in the Maghreb. The specific aim of the book is to help young researchers to acquire theoretical and methodological tools that will enable them to understand and interpret the complexity of linguistic practices in the Maghrebi context, which is characterized by multilingualism, historical ideological struggles, impasses, and power relations. In addition to the acquisition of key concepts related to the field of sociolinguistics, the book enables young researchers to reflect epistemologically and critically, leading them to redefine their aims and ethical-ontological and epistemic positions in their sociolinguistic research. This allows readers to find different modes of approaching and acting on issues in sociolinguistics and identity that have generated and continue to generate debates and controversies in the Maghreb, mainly in the three countries that the book deals with: Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. The main questions that Chachou endeavours to answer from the beginning of the book are: (1) What is understood by sociolinguistics of the Maghreb? and (2) What are its basis and rationale? In order to provide a number of answers to these questions, the author first establishes the main grounds that account for the choice of the book's title and contents: the space and the frameworks in common to the three countries. In the same vein, she claims that the Maghreb is historically configured as a geographic entity characterized by socio-anthropological, historical, and linguistic continua shared by the countries in the zone. Her second argument is mainly concerned with post-colonial language policies that contributed to creating a social and political scenario characterized by ambiguities and which often do not reflect the reality of local everyday linguistic practices and local multilingualism. So, Maghrebi independent nation-states felt obliged to reserve what they considered authentic by their populations, through the selection of Arabic as the only official language, as well as aiming at complying with the requirements of a modern nation-state, through the maintenance of French in the institutional, media, and economic spheres, but without any juridical status. This fostered historical relations of subordination among languages and, thus, the creation of social, economic, and political inequality within Maghrebi societies (see Moustaoui, 2017). Thirdly, and taking into account her two previous arguments, the author explains how, in both linguistic studies and in Maghrebi

Traduction et Langues , 2015

This article attempts to describe the linguistic situation in Algeria from the perspective of language contact as Algerians use languages that are genetically unrelated. The language situation in Algeria is an open issue. Even if it is agreed that Arabic is the mother tongue of almost all Algerians (except for Berbers), the contact situation has imposed the implantation of borrowings and expressions from other languages, mainly French, the legacy of the colonizer. The method of investigation is based on short recordings from daily life. The data obtained illustrate the language dynamics among Algerian speakers and reveal, on the other hand, estimation on the parts of speech that are most borrowed.

Contemporary Educational Researches Journal

Nedromi speakers, especially the new generation, tend to correct some mistakes that they believe are stigmatised features in their speech and thus they try to shift to Modern Standard Arabic. This research paper aims at examining the impact of education on language use, which highlights the sociolinguistic variable, mainly that of education and age, and how it may affect the linguistic behaviour in Arabic. A Nedroma speech community is the sample population. This study emphasises phonological, morphological and lexical levels of analysis, trying to make use of both quantitative and qualitative methods. Such an analysis is viewed to help us understand some of the reasons behind such a change in linguistic behaviours essentially motivated by the influence of education. The results show that the choice of certain linguistic features by the individual is determined by the speaker’s age category, his level of education and, most importantly, his attitude towards certain linguistic charac...

2019

The paper aims to present a critical review of language policy development in Algeria since independence (1962) to present time. It takes the policy of Arabization, an important turning point in Algerian history that was troubled with serious problems, as an example of language planning in the country. Data was gathered from policy documents, Laws and media reports. It was then coded into themes before it was analyzed employing a documentary research method. To provide a systematic discussion, three issues will be covered. The first part of the paper explores the impact of Arabization on Algerian current state of language policy development in light of the debates over national educational reforms. The second part highlights the quandary that language planners face during the processes of language planning and policy making. Finally, the paper concludes with an evaluation of the process of language policy development in Algeria. The paper argues that in order to foster sustainable multilingualism and achieve effective educational reforms, a keener recognition of Algerian linguistic diversity by the government is imperative.

The objective of this paper is to present an under-resourced language related to Arabic. In fact, in several countries through the Arabic world, no one speaks the modern standard Arabic language. People speak something which is inspired from Arabic but could be very different from the modern standard Arabic. This one is reserved for the official broadcast news, official discourses and so on. The study of dialect is more difficult than any other natural language because it should be noted that this language is not written. This paper presents a linguistic study of an Algerian Arabic dialect, namely the dialect of Annaba (AD). In our knowledge, this is the first study made on Algerian dialect. It also presents the methodology used for building a parallel corpus: modern standard Arabic versus Arabic Dialect in order to achieve a machine translation for this pair of languages. This preliminary work is presented to try to attract the attention of the scientific community to this difficul...

Global Journal of Sociology: Current Issues

As Facebook has tremendously evolved into one of the best-liked ways of communication on the Internet, language has also been enticed in terms of its use and practices. This paper aims to raise its issue in the multilingual Arabic–French–English Facebook posts and comments from three purposely selected groups, comprising 40 participants each. The data were collected via an online questionnaire to explore the language(s) or language varieties used by the members in concordance with code-switching as a sociolinguistic phenomenon and the reasons behind such behaviour in online written discourse. The data were analysed through a mixed methods approach. The findings revealed that the participants of each selected group use a specific language or language that varies depending on the group membership, the language of the posts and the language they master best. Additionally, it was detected that most of the participants code-switch on Facebook either due to lack of fluency or to facilitat...

2011

DEDICATION To my parents The dearest persons to my heart. Thank you for all your encouragement, and above all your love. I dedicate my work to my family Thank you for your patience and support. 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Ahmed Moumene for his constant help. I thank all my friends who help me. Acknowledgements and thanks go also to all my teachers. Abstract The purpose of this research work is to check whether students are familiar with the use of grammatical cohesive devices in writing essays. It also aims at finding the importance of using cohesive devices to create cohesive discourse. Thus, it hypothesizes that the use of grammatical cohesive devices would strength students' writing. The hypothesis is evaluated by a descriptive study inferred from the results of the students' test. They show that the use of grammatical cohesive devices by Second-Year Students of enough. However, some inappropriate uses of grammatical cohesive devi...

Arab World English Journal, 2022

This research paper attempts to examine the impact of education on language use, i.e., highlighting the sociolinguistic variable, mainly that of education and age, and how it may affect the linguistic behavior in the Arabic Nedroma speech community as a sample population. Nedromi speakers, especially the new generation, tend to correct mistakes; they look at them as stigmatized features in their speech and thus, try to shift to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). In this regard, the researcher attemps to determine the reasons behind such a change in linguistic behaviors essentially motivated by the influence of education. Methodological triangulation was used in this study. Data were collected through observation, questionnaire, and interview. Based on both quantitative and qualitative methods, the findings reveal that the choice of specific linguistic features by the individual is determined by the speaker's age category, his level of education, and most importantly, his attitude towards specific linguistic characteristics.