French language in Morocco

French is one of the languages spoken in Morocco. The use of French is a colonial legacy of the French protectorate (1912–1956).[1] French has no officially recognized status in Morocco,[2] but is considered a prestige language,[3] and is often used for business, diplomacy, and government,[4] serving as a lingua franca with non-Moroccans and non-Arabs.[5] Aleya Rouchdy, author of Language Contact and Language Conflict in Arabic, said that "For all practical purposes, French is used as a second language."[6] In recent years the influence of French has been challenged by that of English.[7][8] Nevertheless, French continues to serve as a means of bridging the country "not only to Europe but also to Francophone Africa."[9].

French and Arabic coexist in Moroccan administration and business.

Estimates of French speakers in Morocco vary by sources. According to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, 33% of Moroccans spoke French in 2007, 13.5% being fully francophone (fluent speakers) and 19.5% partially francophone.[10]

History
The Treaty of Fes of 1912 created the French protectorate in Morocco, which imposed French in Morocco.

The 1912 Treaty of Fes, which established the French Protectorate in Morocco, was negotiated in French, with Abdelqader Ben Ghabrit interpreting and translating for Sultan Abd al-Hafid, who spoke Arabic.[11] French colonial authorities in Morocco introduced the French language to the country, making it the language of government administration, educational instruction, and the media; therefore Modern Standard Arabic was only used for traditional activities and religious services. The French government had intended for the French culture and the French language to be viewed as "civilization and advancement".[3]

The French authorities forbade Moroccans from publishing newspapers in Arabic, especially if covering politics.[12][13] Due to these restrictions, the Moroccan journalist Muhammad Ibn al-Hassan al-Wazzaani published L'Action du Peuple (The Work of the People), the first francophone newspaper published by the Moroccan Nationalist Movement in the area under the control of the French Protectorate in Morocco, in Fes on August 4, 1933.[14] The decision to publish in French was controversial; al-Wazzaani, who had studied in France, was one of the few who supported the use of French to address the colonial apparatus in its own language, and influence French popular opinion, both in Morocco and in France.[15]

In 1956 Morocco declared independence, and in the government declared Modern Standard Arabic as the official language. In the early 1960s the Moroccan government began the Arabization process, in which the Istiqlal leader Allal al-Fassi played a major role.[3][16] After independence, to facilitate economic growth and to increase its ties to Europe, the Moroccan government decided to strengthen its ties with France, resulting in the promotion of French.[17]

Under Hassan II, Arabization of the humanities was instrumentalized to suppress critical thought—replacing the subject of "Sociology" with "Islamic Thought," for example[18]—in a move which Susan Gilson Miller described as a "crude and obvious attempt to foster a more conservative atmosphere within academia and to dampen enthusiasm for the radicalizing influences filtering in from Europe."[19]

By 2005 Morocco engaged in economic liberalization and privatization; Moha Ennaji, author of Multilingualism, Cultural Identity, and Education in Morocco, said that these activities, in many sectors, reinforced the usage of French.[17]

In 2014, 75% of Facebook users in Morocco posted in French.[20]

Role and purpose

French is mainly used in administration, banking, commerce, education, and industry. Rouchdy said that within Morocco, French "is the vehicle of science, technology, and modern culture."[3] Rouchdy further explained that the language had been "maintained for instrumental purposes and for building contacts with the West in general."[3] The French language became entrenched in various aspects of Moroccan society, including education, government, the media, and the private sector due to the French colonial authority enacting a policy to spread the French language throughout Morocco during the colonial era.[6] As of 2005, trade with France made up over 75% of Morocco's international trade. Ennaji wote, "In this context, one can understand the important status of French, whose colonial connotations have been erased or at least drastically reduced by independence."[17]

Moroccans learn the French language at school. Secondary school graduates tend to achieve French fluency, and many Moroccans become fluent in French in addition to Moroccan Arabic and use French as their second language. Most Moroccans who are bilingual in French and Arabic live in urban areas where they have strong contact with the French language and where there are high literacy rates. Many Moroccans learn French to conduct business with French tourists; gain access to information, science, and technology; and to attend French-speaking educational facilities. Ennaji said that Moroccans learn French for educational, pragmatic, and sociocultural reasons.[21] Ennaji said "The degree of mastery of French depends on the bilingual's level of education and socio-economic background, for the higher the level of education and the wealthier the family background, the bigger the frequency of speaking French and the more frequent the alternative use of French and Moroccan Arabic by a bilingual. These factors determine the bilingual's ability to choose one or the other language in a particular speech situation."[21]

Abdelâli Bentahila, the author of the 1983 book Language Attitudes Among Arabic–French Bilinguals in Morocco, wrote that Moroccans who were bilingual in both French and Arabic commonly spoke French when they discuss matters related to reading, are at a pharmacy, discuss matters with a doctor or employer, and discuss scientific and technical topics.[22] In Morocco, French has connotations of formality; Ennaji said that Moroccans tended to use French to discuss matters at work or at school,[21] and therefore French is commonly spoken in offices and schools.[23] If the other party in a conversation is French educated, Moroccans often speak in French or a mixture of Moroccan Arabic and French.[21] French has a prestigious status in Moroccan society, so many bilingual Moroccans mix French and Moroccan Arabic in conversation or use French words in informal Moroccan Arabic conversations.[21] According to Ennaji, in writing bilingual Moroccans only use French, and bilingual Moroccans tend to discuss scientific and technical topics only in French.[21]

Rouchdy said, "The predominance of French implies that the chances of strengthening the place of Classical Arabic are reduced."[3]

Attitudes toward French

Despite the legacy of colonialism, according to Rouchdy, "French is still widely appreciated by both the ruling elite and the general public."[3] Ennaji said "most Moroccans know that Standard Arabic does not meet all their societal needs and that a European language is necessary for the transfer of ideas and technology, and for communication with the world at large."[17] Rouchdy added that Classical/Modern Arabic and French are constantly in conflict with one another, but that most Moroccans believe that the bilingualism of Classical Arabic and French is the most optimal choice to allow for Morocco's development.[3]

French in art

Within academic arts, French is the main language used. Academic art discourse had been conducted in French within a five decade period until 2010. Reviews of artwork and art journal articles mostly were published in French, while some newspaper coverage of gallery exhibits was in Arabic. Katarzyna Pieprzak, author of the 2010 book Imagined Museums: Art and Modernity in Postcolonial Morocco, attributes this to the fact that "modernist or academic visual art is a language that was learned in art schools in Europe, that the use of French reflects a desire to be heard and to participate in a Western-controlled international art sphere and market, and that audiences for both the museum and its artwork tend to be imagined as Francophone."[9] French has been the main language of art museums in Morocco; the Oudaya Museum, a national art museum, had many object labels in Arabic and French, although the object histories were only available in French in 2010.[9]

See also

References
  1. Miller, Susan Gilson (2013). A History of Modern Morocco. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 139. ISBN 978-1-139-62469-5. OCLC 855022840.
  2. "Constitution". Maroc.ma. 2013-04-11. Archived from the original on 2018-11-10. Retrieved 2020-03-14.
  3. Aleya Rouchdy (2002). Language Contact and Language Conflict in Arabic: Variations on a Sociolinguistic Theme. Psychology Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-7007-1379-0. Archived from the original on 2017-01-06. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  4. "Morocco". CIA World Factbook. Archived from the original on 2021-01-09. Retrieved 2021-06-03. French (often the language of business, government, and diplomacy)
  5. "Bitter Fruit: where Donegal's jobs went". Irish Independent. January 16, 1999. Archived from the original on March 14, 2020. Retrieved October 15, 2012. Behind the locked gates and the sign saying `Interdit au Public' (forbidden to the public) French is the lingua franca in Morocco)[...]
  6. Aleya Rouchdy (2002). Language Contact and Language Conflict in Arabic: Variations on a Sociolinguistic Theme. Psychology Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-7007-1379-0. Archived from the original on 2020-01-26. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  7. "Moroccans want English to replace French as country's first official foreign language". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  8. "Asma Invest Puts Its Weight Behind English Education In Morocco". Morocco World News.
  9. Pieprzak, Katarzyna (2010). Imagined Museums: Art and Modernity in Postcolonial Morocco. University of Minnesota Press. p. xxvii (Introduction). ISBN 978-0816665181. Archived from the original on 2021-06-03. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
  10. La Francophonie dans le monde, 2006–2007 [La Francophonie in the world, 2006–2007] (PDF) (in French), Paris: Nathan (for the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie), 2007, p. 16, ISBN 978-209-882177-4, archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-12-24, retrieved 15 October 2012
  11. Mohammed Al-Arabi Al-Shawesh (1985). "Daewat alhaqi – 'asrar ean mawqif almawlaa eabd alhafiz min mueahadat fas" دعوة الحق – أسرار عن موقف المولى عبد الحفيظ من معاهدة فاس [The Right Call – Asrar on the position of Mawla Abdul Hafeez on the Treaty of Fez]. Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs. Archived from the original on 2018-09-28. Retrieved 2020-03-14.
  12. "تاريخ الصحافة العربية – المغرب". الجزيرة الوثائقية (in Arabic). 11 May 2016. Archived from the original on 21 June 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  13. Miller, Susan Gilson. (2013). A history of modern Morocco. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 124. ISBN 9781139624695. OCLC 855022840.
  14. "صدور أول صحيفة وطنية باسم عمل الشعب". مغرس. Archived from the original on 2016-12-05. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  15. "صدور أول صحيفة وطنية باسم عمل الشعب". مغرس. Archived from the original on 2016-12-05. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  16. "تاريخ.. عندما وجه علال الفاسي نداءا من أجل التعريب عام 1973" (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 2019-04-11. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  17. Ennaji, Moha (2005). Multilingualism, Cultural Identity, and Education in Morocco. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 163. ISBN 978-0-387-23980-4. Archived from the original on 2018-02-14. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  18. "هكذا قضى الحسن الثاني على الفلسفة". تيل كيل عربي (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 2021-04-15. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  19. Miller, Susan Gilson, A History of Modern Morocco, Cambridge University Press, p. 170, ISBN 978-1-139-04583-4
  20. Citizen Engagement and Public Services in the Arab World: The Potential of Social Media (PDF) (6th ed.), Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government., June 2014, p. 31, archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-06-16, retrieved June 28, 2016
  21. Ennaji, Moha (2005). Multilingualism, Cultural Identity, and Education in Morocco. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-387-23979-8. Archived from the original on 2020-01-26. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  22. Stevens, Paul B. (1985). "Language Attitudes among Arabic–French Bilinguals in Morocco (book review)". Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 4 (1): 73. doi:10.1177/0261927X8500400107.
  23. Ennaji, Moha (2005). Multilingualism, Cultural Identity, and Education in Morocco. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 162–163. ISBN 978-0-387-23980-4. Archived from the original on 2020-01-26. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
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