French is a lingua franca of Algeria according to the CIA World Factbook. [1] Algeria is the second largest Francophone country in the world in terms of speakers. [2] In 2008, 11.2 million Algerians (33%) could read and write in French. [3] Despite intermittent attempts to eradicate French from public life, by the 2000s the proportion of French speakers in Algeria was much higher than on the eve of independence in 1962. [4]
During the French colonisation from 1830 to 1962, according to Benrabah, French "symbolized foreign exploitation and was thus to be resisted" but that "it served as a tool to raise the population's awareness and support in favour of such resistance" because French conveyed "universal values" of liberty, equality, and fraternity. [5] During the colonial period, about one million French native speakers lived in Algeria. The pieds-noirs developed a distinctive dialect, termed Pataouète. [6] In 1963, of the 1,300,000 literate people in Algeria, 1 million read French. Of the total population, 6 million spoke French. [5]
In the 1960s, post-independence Algerian politicians intended to carry out an Arabization campaign to replace the usage of French with Modern Standard Arabic. [7] The Algerian government taught French as the first mandatory foreign language for students beginning in the fourth grade in the primary cycle, from the end of the 1970s to the early 1990s. In September 1993 the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education made French and English two separate choices for the first mandatory foreign language; students were required to pick one over the other; the great majority of students selected French as their first mandatory foreign language. [5] Opponents of French-Arabic bilingualism in Algeria argued that French was a colonialist and imperialist language. [5] A report for the High Council of Francophonie in Paris stated in 1986 that in Algeria, 150,000 people spoke French as a first language and 6.5 million spoke French as a second language. The total population of Algeria at the time was 21 million. [8]
Benrabah said that "[f]rom a quantitative point of view, today's Algeria is the second largest French-speaking community in the world" and that "Arabization, or the language policy implemented to displace French altogether, failed." [5] In 1990, 6,650,000 people in Algeria spoke French, with 150,000 being native speakers and 6,500,000 being second-language speakers.[ citation needed ] In 1993, of 27.3 million people in Algeria, 49% spoke French. At the time, studies predicted that 67% of the Algerian population would speak French by 2003. [5] The Abassa Institute polled 1,400 Algerian households in April 2000 about their language use. Of them, 60% spoke and/or understood the French language. The institute used its findings to represent the 14 million Algerian citizens who were of the age 16 or older. [5] Benrabah said that the polls confirm the trend of French increasing in Algeria. [5]
Maamri said that in 2009, due to the advent of satellite television channels that carry Francophone entertainment, the language "is now enjoying something of a revival." [9] She added that "Also over the years, the Algerian government has pushed back, reintroducing French." [9]
Between 2017 and 2018, Arabic for the first time overtook French as the most used language in Algeria in two of the most used websites in the country: Facebook and Wikipedia.
In 2014, 76% of Facebook users in Algeria posted in French, while 32% posted in Arabic; in 2016 68% used Facebook in French, while 43% used it in Arabic. [10] [11]
In 2016, the French-language Wikipedia was the most consulted version of Wikipedia in Algeria, accounting for 45% of page views, surpassing those in Arabic (39%) and English (14%). Two years later, in 2018, Arabic had surpassed French, with the Arabic-language Wikipedia accounting for 43% of the page views in Algeria, ahead of French-language Wikipedia, with 38%. [12]
The 1963 and 1976 constitutions do not mention Berber and French. The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use (PCGN) states "In reality, French is the lingua franca of Algeria", [13] and that despite government efforts to remove French, it never stopped being the lingua franca. [14] The PCGN stated "official attitudes towards both Berber and French have been largely negative". [13] In spite of its widespread use of French, Algeria has not joined the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie , an international organization of French-speaking countries. [15]
The choice of language of Algerian leaders in public reflects their language policy: Houari Boumédiène, second president of Algeria from 1965 to 1978, was strongly against French and never used it publicly. [4] Chadli Bendjedid, third president of the country, used only classical Arabic in his speeches, as did Liamine Zéroual. Other political leaders, such as Mohamed Boudiaf and Abdelaziz Bouteflika, had a more favourable attitude towards French. Bouteflika in particular believed that the Francophone dimension of Algeria was evident in the impact of thinkers such as Descartes and the parallels between the French and Algerian revolutions. [4]
As of 2009 [update] some two-thirds of Algerians have a "fairly broad" grasp of French, and half speak it as a second language. [16] Ethnologue estimates indicate that 10,200 people in Algeria speak it as their native language. [17] Malika Rebai Mammri, author of "The Syndrome of the French Language in Algeria," said "French continues to be the dominant language in business and professional circles" and that "certain aspects of formal education and research are still carried in the French language and a great part of the economic and industrial sectors and press still use French extensively." [9] French and Berber are the two languages commonly used in the Kabylie region. [13]
According to Mohamed Benrabah, "[t]he attitude of Algerians towards the French language is a complex one mainly because of recent history." [5] In Algeria Arabo-Islamists are supportive of monolingual Arabic while "modernists" which mostly consist of Francophone and secular members of the Algerian elite and the general population favor bilingualism in Arabic and French. [18]
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in North Africa. Algeria is bordered to the northeast by Tunisia; to the east by Libya; to the southeast by Niger; to the southwest by Mali, Mauritania, and Western Sahara; to the west by Morocco; and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. It is considered part of the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has a semi-arid climate, with most of the population living in the fertile north and the Sahara dominating the geography of the south. Algeria covers an area of 2,381,741 square kilometres (919,595 sq mi), making it the world's tenth largest nation by area, and the largest nation in Africa, more than 200 times as large as the continent's smallest country, The Gambia. With a population of 44 million, Algeria is the tenth-most populous country in Africa, and the 32nd-most populous country in the world. The capital and largest city is Algiers, located in the far north on the Mediterranean coast.
The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight, are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related but mostly mutually unintelligible languages spoken by Berber communities, who are indigenous to North Africa. The languages are primarily spoken and not typically written. Historically, they have been written with the ancient Libyco-Berber script, which now exists in the form of Tifinagh. Today, they may also be written in the Berber Latin alphabet or the Arabic script, with Latin being the most pervasive.
Demographic features of the population of Algeria include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects.
Zenaga is a Berber language on the verge of extinction currently spoken in Mauritania and northern Senegal by a few hundred people. Zenaga Berber is spoken as a mother tongue from the town of Mederdra in southwestern Mauritania to the Atlantic coast and in northern Senegal. The language is recognized by the Mauritanian government.
Kabyle or Kabylian is a Berber language (tamazight) spoken by the Kabyle people in the north and northeast of Algeria. It is spoken primarily in Kabylia, east of the capital Algiers and in Algiers itself, but also by various groups near Blida, such as the Beni Salah and Beni Bou Yaqob.
African French is the generic name of the varieties of the French language spoken by an estimated 167 million people in Africa in 2023 or 51% of the French-speaking population of the world spread across 34 countries and territories. This includes those who speak French as a first or second language in these 34 African countries and territories, but it does not include French speakers living in other African countries. Africa is thus the continent with the most French speakers in the world, and African French speakers now form a large and integral part of the Francophonie.
The official languages of Algeria are Arabic and Tamazight (Berber), as specified in its constitution since 1963 for the former and since 2016 for the latter. Berber has been recognized as a "national language" by constitutional amendment since 8 May 2002. In February, 2016, a constitutional resolution was passed making Berber an official language alongside Arabic. Algerian Arabic and Berber are the native languages of over 99% of Algerians, with Algerian Arabic spoken by about 90% and Berber by 10%. French, though it has no official status, is still used in media and education. due to Algeria's colonial history. Kabyle, the most spoken Berber language in the country, is taught and partially co-official in parts of Kabylie.
Tunisian Arabic, or simply Tunisian, is a variety of Arabic spoken in Tunisia. It is known among its 12 million speakers as Tūnsi, "Tunisian" or Derja to distinguish it from Modern Standard Arabic, the official language of Tunisia. Tunisian Arabic is mostly similar to eastern Algerian Arabic and western Libyan Arabic.
Egyptians speak a continuum of dialects. The predominant dialect in Egypt is Egyptian Colloquial Arabic or Masri/Masry, which is the vernacular language. Literary Arabic is the official language and the most widely written. The Coptic language is used primarily by Egyptian Copts and it is the liturgical language of Coptic Christianity.
Education in Algeria is free and compulsory for Algerians from the ages of 6 to 15. However, only half of Algerian students are enrolled in secondary schools. As of 2015, Algeria has 92 post-secondary institutions, which includes 48 universities.
Chadian Arabic, also known as Shuwa Arabic, Western Sudanic Arabic, or West Sudanic Arabic (WSA), is a variety of Arabic and the first language of 1.6 million people, both town dwellers and nomadic cattle herders. Most of its speakers live in central and southern Chad. Its range is an east-to-west oval in the Sahel. Nearly all of this territory is within Chad and Sudan. It is also spoken elsewhere in the vicinity of Lake Chad in the countries of Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger. Finally, it is spoken in slivers of the Central African Republic. In addition, this language serves as a lingua franca in much of the region. In most of its range, it is one of several local languages and often not among the major ones.
Kouloughlis, also spelled Koulouglis, Cologhlis and Qulaughlis, but the translation of the word "kul" as slave is misleading since in the Ottoman context, it referred to one's special status as being in the special service of the sultan. It was a term used during the period of Ottoman influence in North Africa that usually designated the mixed offspring of Ottoman officials and janissaries, and local North African women.
A world language is a language that is geographically widespread and makes it possible for members of different language communities to communicate. The term may also be used to refer to constructed international auxiliary languages such as Esperanto.
There are a number of languages in Morocco. De jure, the two official languages are Standard Arabic and Standard Moroccan Berber. Moroccan Arabic is by far the primary spoken vernacular and lingua franca, whereas Berber languages serve as vernaculars for significant portions of the country. The languages of prestige in Morocco are Arabic in its Classical and Modern Standard Forms and sometimes French, the latter of which serves as a second language for approximately 33% of Moroccans. According to a 2000–2002 survey done by Moha Ennaji, author of Multilingualism, Cultural Identity, and Education in Morocco, "there is a general agreement that Standard Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, and Berber are the national languages." Ennaji also concluded "This survey confirms the idea that multilingualism in Morocco is a vivid sociolinguistic phenomenon, which is favored by many people."
Benin is a diverse country linguistically. Of those, French is the official language, and most of the indigenous languages are considered national languages.
The official languages of the Central African Republic are French and Sango. In total there are about 72 languages in the country.
The languages of Mauritania include the official language, Arabic, three national languages, Pular, Soninke and Wolof, and French, a former official language which is still the language of working language, education and administration.
Of the languages of Tunisia, Arabic is the sole official language according to the Tunisian Constitution.
Arab-Berbers are a population of the Maghreb, a vast region of North Africa in the western part of the Arab world along the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Arab-Berbers are people of mixed Arab and Berber origin, most of whom speak a variant of Maghrebi Arabic as their native language, some also speak various Berber languages. Many Arab-Berbers identify primarily as Arab and secondarily as Berber.
The French language became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the language of European diplomacy and international relations.