Sunday, 31 March 2013

Spanish


The Spanish language is spoken especially in the west side of the country, in fact the west side of the country like Oran has a strong Spanish influence to their daridja (Algerian Arabic).



Its development can be explained by social and economic factors as well as geographical proximity with Spain and the mixing of populations between the Algerians and Pied-Noir (European settlers) which had the phenomena of linguistic borrowing from the Spanish language to their daridja (Algerian Arabic).

English


English, because of its status as a global lingua franca (working language), is taught from the middle school years onward. However, only a tiny number of the Algerians speak English, most of them are younger people.


According to the Algerian envoy to India, only five percent of the population are able to speak "Good English". That led the Government of Algeria to invite Indian teachers to teach the language in the Algerian universities in 2012.

Some 100 institutes affiliated to 13 Algerian universities needed nearly 250 English teachers in early 2012. The Minister of Education said that English was to be promoted because it was "the language of scientific knowledge".


French


French Language is the lingua franca (working language) of Algeria, despite government efforts to remove French language, it never stopped being the lingua franca of Algeria.



French language is a part of the standard school curriculum, and is widely understood by 18 million Algerians who can write and read French which is 50% of the population, there are 111 000 people in Algeria that speak it as their native language mostly pied-noirs who stayed behind and people raised in French-speaking households.

French is the most widely studied foreign language in the country, and a majority of Algerians can understand it and speak it, though it is usually not spoken in daily life. Since independence, the government has pursued a policy of linguistic Arabization of education and bureaucracy in the country, all scientific and business university courses are still taught in French language. International Organization of the Francophonie has quoted in 2012 that Algeria has the second largest French speakers in world after France with 18 million speakers.


Tamazight


Tamazight languages are spoken in many parts of Algeria, but mainly in the Kabylie, Aurès, and in the Sahara (by Tuaregs). Until the Phoenicians' arrival, Berber was spoken throughout Algeria, as later attested by early Tifinagh inscriptions. Despite the growth of Punic, Latin, and later Arabic, Amazigh remained the main language of Algeria until well after the French invasion in 1830.

Arabic remains Algeria's only official language, although Tamazight has recently been recognized as a national language.

The Tamazight languages/dialects spoken in Algeria include:

Kabyle (Taqbaylit), about 5 million speakers mostly in Kabylie and surrounded regions, due to Kabyle migration outside of the Kabyle region in Algeria and Europe, some estimates are as high as 8 million.

Chaouia (Tachawit) in the Aurès, maybe 2 million speakers.

Mzab (Tumzabt) is spoken by the Mozabite in the northern Sahara and there are about 200,000 speakers.

Tuareg (Tamahaq) there are about 62,000 speakers in the Sahara of Algeria


Arabic


Standard Arabic is the official language in the country which is understandable by 73% of Algerian Population, but the majority of the population speaks the dardja (Algerian Arabic) which is an Arabic dialect but also it borrows words from Tamazight, French and Turkish languages, it is  spoken by 85% of the population.


Within the Algerian Arabic itself, there are significant local dialects like the Jijel Arabic, in particular, is noteworthy for its pronunciation of qaf as kaf and its profusion of Berber loanwords, and the dialects of some ports show influence from Andalusi Arabic brought by refugees from al-Andalus. Algerian Arabic is part of the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum, and fades into Moroccan Arabic and Tunisian Arabic along the respective borders between the countries.

In the Sahara, more conservative Bedouin dialects, grouped under the name Saharan Arabic, in addition, the many Sahrawi refugees at Tindouf speaks Hassaniya Arabic.

After Algeria became independent in 1962, it tried to improve fluency by importing Arabic teachers from Egypt and Syria to teach the Standard Arabic language in schools and universities.