The Politics of Language and Identity in Lebanon and Morocco: Similarities and Differences*

Abstract

Taking a comparative approach, this study seeks the historical trajectories which shaped the language situations and identity in Lebanon and Morocco in so far as these language situations involve conflict between Arabic and other languages (French and Berber/Amazigh) or Arabic and its dialectal variants. There are endogenous and exogenous forces that set the stage for the appearance of new identities in both countries. The major conflict in Lebanon is fundamentally two notions of self-definition, the one based on religion and the other based on language. The battle of religiously and linguistically constructed identities is fought on many fronts. In Morocco, however, the main conflict is mainly about language. The Arabization policy stimulates oppositional identity that rejected pan-Arabism as a focal point for national pride. The new dynamics of political and cultural transformations that Morocco has recently experienced have also led to the revitalization of new definitions of national identity..