Contact of languages and populations in Morocco

Between linguistic ideal and ideal identity. The case of the plain of Tadla

Abstract

The objective of this dissertation is language and populations contact in the plain of Tadla, situated in central Morocco around the city of Beni Mellal. This language contact setting presupposes common human and linguistic facts made up of heterogeneity, mixing, variation both within the same language, the same group of people as well as within different human groups. The languages concerned in this study are mainly Amazigh and Arabic and, to some extent, French. The groups investigated are the Chleuh, the Arabized, the Arabs and the Amazighized. The contact between the languages and groups concerns the linguistic ideal parallelism and the ideal identity.

This research falls within a larger scope: that of the regionalisation and decentralisation in Morocco and could be introduced as an element for territory planning of the area investigated. This work could be a preliminary initiative study of the region of Tadla from a historical, demographic, geographical, linguistic and anthropological point of view. A good knowledge of the Moroccan territory and populations requires knowledge of the distribution of the languages and the populations and their point of contact. The study of the language and populations contact will help to apprehend the mixing and consequently predict the human and linguistic evolution and changes (i.e. the emergence of a mixed language) and lead to a redefinition of regionalisation on the basis of the linguistic and cultural particularities based on the findings of fieldwork research.

From this perspective, our research has the advantage of dealing with a rural micro-structure, which will be described on the basis of the characteristic of the Arabic lect of Tadla, the linguistic features of the contact between Amazigh and Arabic, the impact of the socio-cultural interpenetration between the groups present, the maps of the linguistic boundaries which set the limits of isoglosses, the regional atlases of the lects and populations of the so-called contact areas, i.e. the plain of Tadla. The originality of the research consists in the investigation of both the languages and their populations on the basis of epilinguistic speech. Former works on the region have dealt with either one or the other.

The study does not limit itself to the description of the phenomena but it also aims at accounting for and explaining the convergences between the populations and languages thanks to the consideration of all the elements which could influence variation. Our aim, indeed, is not to pre-categorize the range of manifestations of language and populations contact but to apprehend its modes. The general tendency is to show that the different human groupings in Tadla do in no way differ since they have the same representation of the world. The only difference lies in the modes of expression they use i.e. either Amazigh or Arabic to express their perception of the world. The goal is thus to give a general view about the lects in use, to provide a large corpus of epilinguistic speech and to propose a model for its categorization and interpretation. We aim at revealing that what appears to be different and dissimilar on the surface is nothing but the incarnation of the facets of the same and unique, profound and inherent characteristic, i.e. the Moroccan character.

Given the dimension and nature of the language and populations contact data in the area of Tadla, we had to opt for an eclectic theoretical and methodological model that would include different models and disciplines such as geography, history, dialectology, sociolinguistics, sociology of language, anthropology, psychology, discourse analysis and linguistics. Thus, on the theoretical and methodological level, we have made use of an eclectic model including different perspectives that allow for the analysis of one or many aspects of the issue. The research methods used in this study (i.e. the indirect interview, participatory observation, direct “in vivo ” testimonies…) and the multi-disciplinary approach initiates a perspective that focuses on the group and the subjectivity of the discursive speech.

The description of the language and population context that characterizes the area of Tadla led us to organize the study into two main parts: a descriptive and an interpretative part. This is mainly based on a methodological principle which aims at satisfying both the descriptive and the prescriptive levels. The practices and /or usages and the general theoretical model are raised and described in the first part. The epilinguistic speech is presented, discussed and interpreted in the second part. Since the speech is conceived as a causality that can modify the practices, the speech and practices are not considered at the same level of analysis.