Sociolinguistic in Algeria "Summary"
Several factors have been responsible for the complexity reflected in today’s linguistic situation in Algeria, some being historical, others political and still others socio-cultural. It is undeniable that, as a consequence of the diverse events that the country has gone through, the Algerian society has acquired a distinctive identity whose particular dynamic intra-and inter-lingual variation can clearly be attested in the way(s) people speak in comparison with the two countries, morocco and Tunisia (these latter are said to have lived through quite similar episodes, but for more shorter periods). Indeed, colonised for more than 130 years (1830-1962), Algeria was considered by the French government as a province of France which never be autonomous and separated from the « metro pole ».
The impact of the French language and its culture was so powerful that it started to reflect in many Algerians’ speech and soon led ton sort of dual identity. The influence resulted in the usual linguistic phenomena that occur when two or more languages get in contact: the use of bilingualism and consequent code-switching, code mixing and borrowing pervading the mother tongue in addition to the well-established phenomenon of diglossia.
Arabic and French co-existent in Algeria led to some kind of bilingualism, results from a double aspiration: maintenance of the mother tongue; one of the symbols of the Algerian socio-cultural personality, with Arabic and Berber as components of this identity that he Algerian wish to preserve, and openness to the world of modernity and technology through the French language. Indeed French is ‘strongly implanted at the lexical level’ as bouhadiba (1998:1-2) says. That is, a great number of French borrowing, both adapted and non-adapted, can be frequently attested in everyday speech, particularly in urban areas where French got hold more firmly than in rural ones. As a matter of fact, the Algerian society has been deeply influenced by French that we
The impact of the French language and its culture was so powerful that it started to reflect in many Algerians’ speech and soon led ton sort of dual identity. The influence resulted in the usual linguistic phenomena that occur when two or more languages get in contact: the use of bilingualism and consequent code-switching, code mixing and borrowing pervading the mother tongue in addition to the well-established phenomenon of diglossia.
Arabic and French co-existent in Algeria led to some kind of bilingualism, results from a double aspiration: maintenance of the mother tongue; one of the symbols of the Algerian socio-cultural personality, with Arabic and Berber as components of this identity that he Algerian wish to preserve, and openness to the world of modernity and technology through the French language. Indeed French is ‘strongly implanted at the lexical level’ as bouhadiba (1998:1-2) says. That is, a great number of French borrowing, both adapted and non-adapted, can be frequently attested in everyday speech, particularly in urban areas where French got hold more firmly than in rural ones. As a matter of fact, the Algerian society has been deeply influenced by French that we