The Berber Language: Officially Recognized, Unofficially Marginalized?
Tamazight is the
standardized version of the Amazigh languages. An estimated 25 to 30
million speakers of Tamazight and other Berber dialects are spread
throughout the North African countries, from the Atlantic Ocean to
Egypt.
Amazigh languages (there
are three main regional variants) are spoken by an
estimated 35 to 40
percent of Morocco’s population. But North African political discourse,
whether nationalist or Islamist, has long been hostile to the Amazigh
language, perceived as a threat to national cohesion. For decades,
giving children Amazigh names was forbidden in Morocco. Not recognizing
the language spoken in the country’s poor rural interior was an
effective means of discrimination that shut the Berbers out from
participating politically, socially and economically in Moroccan
society.
In 1994, King Hassan II
came out in favor of teaching Tamazight in schools. In 2003, his son, now King Mohamed VI, put the
initiative into practice. In the new constitution he helped create in
2011, Tamazight was recognized as one of Morocco’s official languages.
Tamazight writing now adorns the facades of most public buildings.
For many speakers of
Tamazight, teaching their language is a question of social justice. His
mother and grandmother only spoke Tamazight, says Khalafi. “It was their
only opening on the world. Their whole life they couldn’t watch TV,
listen to the radio, or make themselves understood if they went to a
hospital.” Today there are some media in the Amazigh language. But
courts, hospitals and other parts of the public administration still
operate exclusively in Arabic.
Silverstein doubts that the new education policy will stem the ongoing decline in Tamazight speakers. The language competes with English, French and Arabic, and when young people think about what they will need in the future, Tamazight often takes second place, he says.
Berber identity is more recognized than ever before in the country’s history, but this recognition is unlikely to stem the language’s decline.
(adapted from https://www.al-fanarmedia.org/2015/07/the-berber-language-officially-recognized-unofficially-marginalized/)
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