【学术分享】阿尔及利亚的语言政策：政治选择还是社会语言学策略？

1  Introduction

The sociolinguistic landscape in Algeria is characterized by the coexistence of several languages. It consists of modern standard Arabic, the official and national language reserved for official use. The French language tends, as best as it can, to impose itself timidly without being official, but it retains its status as the language of the Serail used by senior elites occupying higher positions in several sectors of the Algerian State such as health and scientific research.

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2  The linguistic situation during French colonization

During the colonial period, French was introduced to Algeria by the French administration because it was supposed to play an important role in the conquest of the country. For one hundred and thirty-two years, the official objective of the policy of French colonialization in Algeria was “a civilizing mission” . Thus, the French identity was imposed through various policies for the Francization of education, administration, and even daily practices by denying the right of Algerians to their own identity (linguistic and cultural). The Arabic and Tamazight languages are considered foreign languages by the French proclaiming the French language as the only official language.

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3  The linguistic situation in post-independent Algeria

In the aftermath of Algeria’s independence, one of Algeria’s essential linguistic objectives was to restore Arabic back to the position it had lost.

Therefore, Algerian authorities proclaimed Arabic as the national and official language and decided to generalize its use in education even if human and educational resources were not always available. To compensate for this lack of supervision and teaching in Arabic, they appealed to Egyptian and Syrian teachers.

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3.1　Arabization as a political decision

The colonial policy was marked by great hostility towards the identity elements of the Algerians, which nourished their feeling of being oppressed and deprived of enjoying their linguistic and cultural belonging.

Since the acquisition of independence, the Algerian state has insisted on defining itself as a part of Arab and Muslim community. The linguistic and cultural policy implemented by the National Liberation Front (FLN), the Algerian Socialist Party which has controlled power since independence, as well as by the various successive governments constantly promotes Arabization and Islamization of Algerian society. This idea, presenting among the majority of Algerians, has been forged for a long time and conveyed by the movement of the Ulemas of the 1930s. It is amplified among the Algerian population during the National Liberation War by the saving slogan: “A people united by religion and language fight the impious colonizers .”

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3.2　Language planning

After the massive departure of the colonists, young Algeria solicited the former metropolis to help it with teaching staff. The refusal or indifference of the former metropolis to this request had the effect that Egypt, then other Arab countries, seize this opportunity to “provide” Algeria with Arabized teaching staff.

We witnessed the arrival of an armada of teachers and pseudo-teachers of Arabic, some of whom have never taught, but speak “Arabic” . These “Arabic masters” came with different, if not contradictory, political visions and convictions, rudimentary teaching methods, and a flagrant lack of pedagogy in some cases. All of this was done in the absence of a national education program.

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3.3  The Algerian linguistic landscape

Despite the initiation in 1968 of the formal process of Arabization of the public service and all administrative documents, the fact remains that French is maintained in most administrations. Also, Algerian government’s attempt of giving the country “an Arab face” remains unsuccessful, and until now most street signs, store signs, and billboards in the northern towns are bilingual (Arabic/ French) or even, in some towns in Kabylie, trilingual (Arabic/Berber/ French). There are also many signs and many billboards in French only.

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3.4  The resistance of French in the linguistic practices of Algerian speakers

In the linguistic practices of Algerian speakers, French has been maintained in a variable way according to social backgrounds and regions. Its presence is manifested first of all by massive borrowings in different fields. These borrowings can be either direct or more often integrated (i.e., the borrowed unit adapts either at the phonic level or at the morphosyntactic level to the system of the borrowing language). These are not necessarily borrowings of necessity, i.e., cases where during the transfer from one language to another, the sign is accompanied by its referent which does not exist in the borrowing language (i.e., the case, for example, when French borrows the word “mektoub” from Arabic). The two units coexist very often, one in Arabic and the other in French, the second seeming to double or even oust the first. The cases of borrowings from French to Arabic are numerous. We cite an example: /lamiri/ a for “the town hall” with the integration of the determiner to respect the model of the generally triliteral root of Arabic and the replacement of /E/ by /i/ next to /lbaelae dija/.

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4  The linguistic situation in Algeria since the 2000s

Since the 2000s, the policy of progressive regression in the teaching of French has been somewhat tempered. It is explained by the fact that the French language is no longer a taboo for the former President of the Algerian Republic, Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The declaration made before the National Assembly in Paris on June 16, 2000 bears witness to this: “French language and the high culture it conveys remained for Algeria have important and precious achievements that the rehabilitation of Arabic, our national language, cannot ostracize. This is a richness capable of fertilizing our own culture and this is why French, like other modern languages, and even more because of its intrinsic virtues and its seniority in our country, will keep a place that no complex, no resentment or any conjuncture whatsoever can dispute over it” (Le Monde, 2000).

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5  Linguistic management after the popular movement of February 22, 2019

After the popular movement of February 22, 2019, that refused the fifth term of former President A. Bouteflika and demanded a radical reform in the life of Algerian citizens, the situation seems to be changing linguistically. Several voices, mainly from the Arabizing clan, take hateful positions against French, a language for them overtaken by the changes of the current world advancing English as the language of exchange, technology, and international trade. Official directives are sent to various departments of state institutions to encourage the use of English instead of French in correspondence, on electronic sites, etc. This is the case, for example, of the former Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research Bouzid Tayeb, who applauded this approach and announced on July 8, 2019, that he would work to put necessary mechanisms in position to consolidate the use of English at universities and in research, adding that French leads to nowhere. The language of Shakespeare is essential for scientific publications, international trade, and tourism, and his teaching should, according to Bouzid Tayeb, make it possible to offer scientific visibility to Algerian research work and attract foreign students. On July 21, 2019, the same minister ordered the Algerian faculties to use only Arabic and English in the headers of correspondence and official documents, a gesture presented as the first step in replacing French with English in education.

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6  Consequences of the unilingualism policy

Amazighs have always claimed their Amazigh identitya. They repeatedly take to the streets demanding recognition of Berber identity, language and culture. The first uprising demanding recognition of the Amazigh identity in Algeria took place in Kabylia in 1980. Students at the University of Tizi-Ouzou demonstrated to denounce the oppression and injustice towards the Amazigh language and culture. The events were triggered following the refusal of the Algerian authorities to allow writer, poet and linguist Mouloud Mammeri to give a conference on Berber poetry. Demonstrations were multiplying throughout Kabylia. The event is known as “The Berber Spring”.

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7  Conclusion

In Algeria, as in the whole of the Maghreb, the question of language is always more easily dealt with in terms of politico-historical and nationalist decisions than in sociolinguistic or economic terms. In fact, no survey and no statistical study has been undertaken in Algeria as to the attitude of the users (the citizens) vis-à-vis such a decision concerning their languages. This is the direct consequence of a rigid linguistic policy which strives—through decrees and other political decisions—to support the untenable idea of the homogeneity of a language.

However, the success of a language plan essentially depends on a consensus between the citizens and the State or nation which is considering to take an action on the language. Such an action sets a whole human framework, language workshops, and appropriate logistics in motion to ensure the success of the development in question.

As for the French language, it has long been an object of both desire and hatred in Algeria because at the same time, it represents a means of “opening up to a different world, certainly a world of modernity and technical, but also a world of emancipation and moral liberation” (Grandguillaume, 1983: 25), and the residue of colonial domination. This ambivalence means that the French language, although placed in a conflicting relationship with Arabic, is still there officially with the status of a foreign language.

It is true that shortly after independence, Algeria may have missed the opportunity to build itself into a new nation with a hybrid identity that is proud of its ancestral heritage and jealous of its cumulative millennial achievements of all civilizations that have trodden its land. Moreover, in the future, we can only join the point of view of Grandguillaume who says that “there is no shame in using a foreign material if it is to build his/her own house” (1983: 159) .

版权说明

本文作者费里亚尔·菲拉利（Férial Filali），阿尔及尔二大翻译研究所教授；主要研究领域：翻译理论、语篇分析；邮箱：filaliferial@yahoo.fr。本文发表于《非洲语言文化研究（第四辑）》。

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