Twenty-First-Century North Africa: Nationalism, Globalization, and the Struggle for Tamazight Language

Abstract

Sociolinguists and academics have recognized the centrality of ideology as one of the hidden agendas of language policies that aim at selecting one dominant language over others in multilingual societies. Looking principally at the post-independence era in North Africa, this chapter discusses the evolution of the sociolinguistic situation of Morocco from the nationalist ideology to the era of twenty-first-century global phenomenon. While the chapter focuses mainly on Morocco, its insights are relevant to the countries of the Maghreb in general because of their common use of French and their similar language planning policies. The chapter provides a working definition of the concept of globalization and discusses the emergence of the signs of globalization and its impact on Morocco’s multicultural and multilingual landscape.