From emotion to politics: A sociolinguistic analysis of the Moroccan Ultras’ chants

Abstract

In 2011, the political events of the “Arab Spring” that spread in almost all Arab countries shed light on what were perceived as new actors, new forms, and new voices of youth political expression. Among the new actors, groups of football fans, known as Ultras, came to the forefront. The sociolinguistic aspects of their cultural productions have so far attracted little academic attention apart from a few papers dealing with emblematic songs that recently became popular protest chants. This paper aims at investigating a few characteristic linguistic features present in numerous Moroccan Ultras songs, such as language mixing and affrication, and comparing them with more general youth language practices. Do Ultras’ performances contribute to the generalization of certain youth traits as well as to the diffusion of a more global aesthetic and masculine ethos? The emotional aspect of the Ultras’ culture makes them “natural” candidates for expressing the people’s discontent, thus pointing to similarities between political slogans and Ultras songs.