Verbal Code and the Francophone World (Morocco)

Morocco is a traditional Muslim country located in the North-west of Africa. It has a Mediterranean climate with generally 2 seasons, Hot and dry and Cool and wet. Thus, from the time of the Berbers to the Romans and to the French, these peoples have sought to overcome these environmental challenges. This was achieved primarily through irrigation, terracing, and other forms of effective water management. It’s wealth in land and resources have provoked many conquest of the land, most notably, the Romans and the French in order to exploit these resources for their own gain. To be sure, Morocco has succeeded in maintaining their own cultural identity to some degree and in recent years has sought to bring it back. For the purpose of this discussion, I will be focusing on the French influence of the language, and thereby the culture of this diverse population. French as a second language for native English speakers proves and especially challenging endeavor. From my own experience, being exposed to “pigeon” French from my maternal Grandmother and Mother’s time spent living and growing up in (what was then) French Morocco they acquired a very interesting (to say the least) blend of predominantly French but also Arabic, and other native dialects that had worked their way into the language spoken by the masses outside of the formal government. (Halima El-Glaoui, XXV). Suffice it to say when I started learning “classical French” in grade school; I was very much at a loss even though I knew what most of the words meant and the basic sentence structure. Getting my meaning across however, proved difficult.
Morroco is a country with an extensive oral tradition elucidated by the fact that The overall literacy rate in Morocco today stands at about 50 percent. (Dawn 26) This leads to the need for a very explicit verbal code (along with many non-verbal emblems, and other cues from body language). Even by virtue of its geography and multilingualism, Morocco stands at the crossroads of two distinct cultures, East and west. This idea is further elucidated by the fact that some intellectuals express themselves exclusively in Arabic, others in French, and still others in both Arabic and French. “Thus the need for an exchange among these different voices.” As stated earlier nearly everyone in Casablanca speaks French, although the level of fluency and the Arabic influence vary with the level of education achieved. The French spoken here seems to be a dialect however, the more educated one is, the more French he or she sounds (Dawn, 36) which is perhaps a vestage of the French’s attempt to make the natives more French, thereby spreading French ideas and thus, power in their huge campaign of “mission civilitrice”. Some characteristics of Moroccan French: R's are usually rolled, like Spanish and Provençal R's, rather than apical (pronounced in the throat) like the Parisian French which I often encountered and sought to emulate thinking it more “sophisticated” and hoping others would see me that way. An important note reflecting the culture can be seen in the drop of the use of the formal “You”- “Vous” in Morroco. In France, It was always a very big insult to “tutuyer” (call someone with the informal “tu” usually reserved for friends, children or people in the same social strata as oneself rather than “vous”). Hallama points out that virtually everyone uses “tu” no matter whether they are talking to a friend or someone they just met In Morocco. Perhaps the main reason for this she points out is that vous for one person doesn't really exist in Moroccan Arabic. The exception to this is very highly educated and/or upper-class Moroccans, who tend to have a better all-around grasp of the French language. “Store owners, my dance teacher, and the owner of the gym I go to all tutoient me”. (Hallama, 121) In summary, there is definitely a correlation between quality of French and the frequency of the word “vous”: the better the person speaks French, the more likely they are to “vouvoient” someone. (Enaji, 134) Furthermore, This use of the French language serves to designate or distinguish the social strata from which one is associated. It is Important to note that in recent years there has been a push by the social left to lessen the French influence; to disrupt the social stratification of Moroccan society with which it has been plagued since the time on colonialism and the sieges from the French, Spanish and to a much lesser extent, the Portuguese. A few years ago, the street names were "Arabicized" - they were officially changed from the names of famous French writers, politicians, and the like, to the names of famous Moroccans. Some of the streets are still known by the old name, so it can be a chore to look at a map or ask for directions. In our Casablanca map book, the streets on the map are labeled with the old names, and there is a chart in the book of the old names and their new equivalents. Even with that, it is very confusing. Dawn (45-46) Although officially Morocco is a bilingual country, but the linguistic reality is very complicated. The official languages are Arabic and French, but Arabic is what "commoners" speaks and French is taught in schools, so the latter is more common in government and business and among upper-class Moroccans. In addition, there are three main dialects of Berber spoken all over the country. But even so, the climate is rapidly changing since the early 1970’s to a predominantly Arabic language although it will be impossible to tell what lasting French influenced will remain both in the language and the culture.

Works Cited

Contributing to a Culture of Debate in Morocco ,Halima, El-Glaoui, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999

“Language Attitudes In Morocco Following Recent Changes In Language Policy”, Marley Dawn, 2004, Vol.3(1), pp.25-46

Multilingualism, Cultural Identity, And Education In Morocco, Mohna Enaji, Springer publishing, 2005