From private dialect to public language: Transforming Moroccan Arabic through the voices of sub-Saharan African immigrants

Abstract

Over the past few decades, Morocco has witnessed a surge of activity related to colloquial Moroccan Arabic, or Darija ( dārija), a vernacular variety of Arabic that is unstandardized and officially unrecognized. Darija has become increasingly present in domains that were previously reserved for standard Arabic ( fuṣḥā), and there has been a tangible shift in how Moroccans think about their “mother tongue.” Largely unremarked, though, is the fact that this linguistic shift has coincided with another major transition: the transformation of Morocco from a “sender” country to a “receiver” country, i.e., from a mere transit point for irregular Mediterranean migration to a sought-after destination for cosmopolitan African immigration. This article investigates the intersection of these two shifts by looking at the use of Darija by sub-Saharan African immigrants in Morocco. Based on fieldwork in two urban centers, Casablanca and Tetouan, it argues that Darija has become a key site for sub-Saharan African immigrants to negotiate their place in Moroccan society. It also argues that their growing audibility in the Moroccan soundscape is challenging commonplace assumptions about the limited and provincial nature of Darija. Ultimately, I contend that Darija is transitioning toward what Woolard (2016) has called a public language, and that this shift is due not only to Moroccan language activists but also to sub-Saharan African immigrants.