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Arabic vs. French in former colonies | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Surtalnar Tetraglot Groupie Germany Joined 4397 days ago 52 posts - 67 votes  Speaks: German*, Latin, English, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), Arabic (classical) | Message 1 of 15 22 May 2015 at 2:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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This topic is in general about the language French's former colonies. In the colonies where most of the normal population speaks Arabic, French was often introduced as the language of government, education and the economy.
I'm interested how is it today, for example in Algeria, Morocco, Tunesia and other ex-French colonies. Which language wins the battle, is French gaining ahead of Arabic, or the other way around. Is Arabic able to save itself and get back his position in the elite, or not? I am also interested in answers with people that have especially to do with those countries. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4666 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 2 of 15 23 May 2015 at 5:29am | IP Logged | |||||
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In the Maghreb, Arabic is used in primary education and often mostly French in higher education. As far as daily life, everything is pretty much done in Arabic (or Berber for a minority), other than work for some people, which can involve lots of French usage if it is more international in nature or in certain fields (e.g. computer science). But the role of French as a language of administration has generally weakened since these countries became independent, and there are movements toward "Arabization" of education as well.
This is just what I have gleaned from conversations with residents of these countries. Edited by tastyonions on 23 May 2015 at 5:30am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4652 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 3 of 15 23 May 2015 at 7:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My Tunisian friends, when posting on FB, often mix Arabic with French (it's rare to see a post which does not involve code-switching). They usually use Arabic chat alphabet instead of Arabic script, even though they can use the latter ;P
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| daisydaisy Newbie Joined 3107 days ago 5 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 15 27 May 2016 at 9:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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'Arabic chat alphabet'
Please, Zireael, what is that? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5321 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 5 of 15 30 May 2016 at 9:06am | IP Logged | |||||
Arabic chat alphabet BTW, this site is pretty much dead; the new site is here 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| hp230 Tetraglot Newbie TunisiaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3694 days ago 30 posts - 63 votes Speaks: German, Arabic (classical)*, French, English | Message 6 of 15 18 June 2016 at 1:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
Here in Tunisia (I think it's similar in the other Maghreb countries) Arabic is the administrative language (by default), but I think that every law for example has an official french translation. In universities, arabic is not a scientific language (unfortunately). However, in middle school (after primary school), maths, physics and natural science are taught in arabic (for 3 years), then in high school, these subjects are taught in french. You used the word "battle" to describe the situation. I can say we are more likely in a period of amnesty. In our daily life, we have no problem mixing both languages and even making some french words sound arabic (weird but common: we use the core of a french verb for example and make the termination arabic-like). There are attempts to "resurrect" the arabic language not only in the Maghreb countries, but in the whole arabic world. Everyone is convinced that our language is a precious inheritance that we should keep and promote. Lately, there was a great TV show called "Fassaha" (eloquence in English) that grouped a set of arabic eloquent people from all over the arabic world in a linguistic contest. I really liked the show, and it proved to many people the importance of arabic in our countries. The champion of the show was a syrian gyu, the second, a Quatari lady and the third was a Tunisian lovely young lady, which proves how rooted this language is in every inch of the arabic world. This is a link for the show for anyone who is interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMCShRqSiBM In other news,English is gaining more and more field in the arabic world. Apart from former English colonies, here in the Maghreb countries for example, many people prefer learning English over Frensh. This is obviously one of the globalisation's deeds, but also because of the retreat of the french language in the world. The French themselves are fully aware of that.
Well, since we have french computer keybords, we usually use Roman alphabet in our chats on social media, so we just write the french sounds of the arabic words. (generally in dielects obviously, not in MSA) Edited by hp230 on 18 June 2016 at 2:27pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| daisydaisy Newbie Joined 3107 days ago 5 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 15 18 June 2016 at 2:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you for the explanation. Now I understand.
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| Monox D. I-Fly Senior Member Indonesia monoxdifly.iopc.us Joined 5136 days ago 762 posts - 664 votes Speaks: Indonesian* | Message 8 of 15 18 June 2016 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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By "Maghreb", do you guys mean Morocco? Because everytime I saw that word in my Arabic learning sources the country Morocco tended to show up. And from its triletteral base, I would interpret "Journey to the West" as "Journey to Morocco", then.
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