Labyrinthine Linguistics in al-Maghrib

Ahlan w sahlan! La bas? Ma lish? Ça va? How’s it going?

I’ve entered another linguistic maze this summer, and compared to my trip to Niger last year I have to say it doesn’t necessarily get easier to navigate. In Niger there are dozens of indigenous languages with which I had no familiarity. French was the language of colonial administration and of formal secular education, so it was different from what most Nigeriens spoke in their daily lives and was also the second, third, fourth, etc. language for most speakers; its usage was, for the most part, clearly delineated once I became familiar with the sound of West African French.

In Morocco, it gets tricky because the spoken language in daily life and the written and more formal language of media, etc. are closely related forms of Arabic: one, the local dialect known as Darija, and the other, Fus’ha, often referred to in English as Modern Standard. It’s hard to know in which language someone is speaking, and, in fact, it seems like this is not only due to my own confusion but also due to uncertainty by others about what I’ll understand. (In truth, I’ve probably misunderstood some of the linguistic relationships I’m about to describe.) Darija blends standard Arabic with vocabulary derived from French and from indigenous Amazigh (Berber) languages, which are related to Tamasheq (the Tuareg language I studied a bit while in Niger). But beyond simply drawing new vocabulary there are completely different expressions, greetings, patterns for verb conjugations, etc. Further complicating the picture is that not all Moroccans have studied Fus’ha. In other words, the little Arabic I have studied so far—Fus’ha, in my coursework—has limited utility at this stage.

Each day I am speaking a blend of Fus’ha, Darija, French, and English with members of my host family in order to be understood. Remarkably, we’re getting by, and it’s an absolutely exhausting but rewarding experience. The other students are at a variety of levels of Arabic; I am among those with the least amount of training, so it can sometimes be frustrating as I can’t always keep up with everyone else, even though almost none of us arrived familiar with Moroccan Darija. On Monday we’ll resume classes in Fus’ha but will also begin studying Darija, which will make communicating in Morocco infinitely more enjoyable and rewarding. [Note: I wrote this on Saturday but didn’t get a chance to post until Monday…I’ve done the Darija class, it’s great; I’ve also just met my Moroccan language partner, Younnes, with whom I’ll be meeting at least 3 hours a week to talk, explore Meknes, etc.]

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