The Language Context in Modern Morocco

The article describes the current language situation in Morocco. The authors point out its distinctive features and focus upon the existing main languages used in the country: Arabic, Berber, French, English and Spanish. Attention is also drawn to the status of these languages within the language context of the country and their role in public life at different levels of Moroccan society. The article considers the historical changes that have affected the language system and led to the present language situation. As a corollary, the authors define the position of the French language as against the other languages in use in Morocco and describe the position of the Francophone in relation to the international community. They elaborate upon the French language in Morocco as a territorial variant. The authors note the significance of language interference in Morocco and take into account the development of multilingualism in the linguistic situation within the overall communicative processes in different contexts of language use in society.

language contexts, multilingualism, language interference, communicative processes, territorial variant