Languages of Morocco

[kanewai]

I recently returned from a two-week trip to Morocco, with our time split between Rabat, Marrakech, and a week-long tour of the southern oases. Here are some stray non-scientific observations regarding the languages we heard:

French, as expected, is the main language in the cities and towns. For this round of study I focused on using CLE's Grammaire progressive du français, and it really paid off. No one, ever, switched to English with me. Half our group spoke no French, and in theory the folks at the hotels and camps spoke some English, but they would still always rely on me to translate for the group. That felt good.

I would guess there would be a lot more English spoken in the more touristic places ... but I usually avoid those places.

I didn't put much effort into studying standard Arabic this round, thinking it wouldn't be common. I was wrong. People appreciated the little bit I knew, and more effort would have paid off on my part. This was a contrast to Tunisia, where no one was interested in hearing my low-level Arabic. As we approached the desert Arabic (not Derija) actually became more common. Our guide was of the Sahrawi culture, and they speak a dialect of Arabic, so that might have influenced the people we met.

I was still surprised how often we met people who didn't speak any French or Arabic. In the working-class town of Salé, across the river from Rabat, kids would come up to us chattering away in Derija. They had no French, and no Arabic. So of course, we had no idea what they were saying. Even some of the small shopkeepers didn't speak much French.

I was told that each city and region has it's own version of Darija, and they are not always mutually intelligible.

A lot of people in the smaller non-touristic towns in the Drâa Valley only spoke Berber languages.

I know that "Tamazight" is the official, correct term - but "Berber" is the word we heard 100% of the time. I was actually called out by a friend (American) on social media for using that offensive and colonial-era term. I asked around, and was told that "Tamazight" was more of a general, over-arching term.

I was corrected by Moroccans, however, when I asked about the Berber culture. They explained that Berber was an ethnicity that included many different cultures or religions.

There are so many variations of the Berber language that I think it would be hard to learn much ahead of a trip. I learned a few basic phrases from people we met, but they never matched anything I would find in any "top Tamazight phrases" articles I read.

[willcouchman]

This is delightful - Morocco is next on my list of places to visit, so I enjoyed reading your post

In terms of the Arabic you encountered as you neared the desert, was it easy to understand if you have a background in (presumably Standard) Arabic? I speak a basic conversational Levantine Arabic, so wondering if that would be of any use to me in Morocco.

Will

[Ogrim]

Great post, very interesting!

I was in Marrakesh some two and a half years ago, and there I heard a lot of French but also Spanish was quite common as a second (or third) language. The only ones I heard speaking English were hotel staff.

I knew very basic MSA when I went there but found that people often changed their attitude to me when I spoke some phrases and greetings in MSA, they really appreciated my effort and interest in the language. (I experienced the same thing in Dubai some years ago.)

[kanewai]

In terms of the Arabic you encountered as you neared the desert, was it easy to understand if you have a background in (presumably Standard) Arabic? I speak a basic conversational Levantine Arabic, so wondering if that would be of any use to me in Morocco.

At my very basic level it was easy to exchange greetings & do all the social niceties one does in Arabic (peace be upon you, and upon you, how are you, I hope you are well, I am well, thanks be to Allah ... ). I think at a higher level the dialects are very different.