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French is a
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
of
Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...
according to the
CIA World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is availabl ...
.Algeria
"

CIA World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is availabl ...
. Retrieved on 13 October 2012. "French (lingua franca)"
Algeria is the second largest
Francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...
country in the world in terms of speakers. In 2008, 11.2 million Algerians (33%) could read and write in French. Despite intermittent attempts to eradicate French from public life, by the 2000s the proportion of French speakers in Algeria was much higher than on the eve of independence in 1962.


History

During the French colonisation from 1830 to 1962, according to Benrabah, French "symbolized foreign exploitation and was thus to be resisted" but that "it served as a tool to raise the population's awareness and support in favour of such resistance" because French conveyed "universal values" of liberty, equality, and fraternity. During the colonial period, about one million French native speakers lived in Algeria. The pied-noirs developed a distinctive dialect, termed Pataouète. In 1963, of the 1,300,000 literate people in Algeria, 1 million read French. Of the total population, 6 million spoke French. In the 1960s, post-independence Algerian politicians intended to carry out an Arabization campaign to replace the usage of French with Modern Standard Arabic. The Algerian government taught French as the first mandatory foreign language for students beginning in the fourth grade in the primary cycle, from the end of the 1970s to the early 1990s. In September 1993 the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education made French and English two separate choices for the first mandatory foreign language; students were required to pick one over the other; the great majority of students selected French as their first mandatory foreign language. Opponents of French-Arabic bilingualism in Algeria argued that French was a colonialist and imperialist language. A report for the High Council of Francophonie in Paris stated in 1986 that in Algeria, 150,000 people spoke French as a first language and 6.5 million spoke French as a second language. The total population of Algeria at the time was 21 million. Benrabah said that " om a quantitative point of view, today's Algeria is the second largest French-speaking community in the world" and that "Arabization, or the language policy implemented to displace French altogether, failed." In 1990, 6,650,000 people in Algeria spoke French, with 150,000 being native speakers and 6,500,000 being second-language speakers. In 1993, of 27.3 million people in Algeria, 49% spoke French. At the time, studies predicted that 67% of the Algerian population would speak French by 2003. The Abassa Institute polled 1,400 Algerian households in April 2000 about their language use. Of them, 60% spoke and/or understood the French language. The institute used its findings to represent the 14 million Algerian citizens who were of the age 16 or older. Benrabah said that the polls confirm the trend of French increasing in Algeria. Maamri said that in 2009, due to the advent of satellite television channels that carry Francophone entertainment, the language "is now enjoying something of a revival." She added that "Also over the years, the Algerian government has pushed back, reintroducing French." In 2014, 76% of
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
users in Algeria posted in French, while 32% posted in Arabic. In 2016 68% used Facebook in French, while 43% used it in Arabic.


Status

The 1963 and 1976 constitutions do not mention Berber and French. The
Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN) is an independent inter-departmental body in the United Kingdom established in 1919. Its function is to establish standard names for places outside the UK, for the use of the British governme ...
(PCGN) states "In reality, French is the ''lingua franca'' of Algeria",ALGERIA Language & Toponymy How politically driven language policies have impeded toponymic progress
"
Archive
Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN) is an independent inter-departmental body in the United Kingdom established in 1919. Its function is to establish standard names for places outside the UK, for the use of the British governme ...
. p. 2. Retrieved on 12 March 2013. "Yet Arabic is rarely heard in Kabylie, where Berber and French are spoken"
and that despite government efforts to remove French, it never stopped being the lingua franca.ALGERIA Language & Toponymy How politically driven language policies have impeded toponymic progress
"
Archive
Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN) is an independent inter-departmental body in the United Kingdom established in 1919. Its function is to establish standard names for places outside the UK, for the use of the British governme ...
. p. 7. Retrieved on 12 March 2013.
The PCGN stated "official attitudes towards both Berber and French have been largely negative". In spite of its widespread use of French, Algeria has not joined the ''
Organisation internationale de la Francophonie The (OIF; sometimes shortened to the Francophonie, french: La Francophonie , but also called International Organisation of in English-language context) is an international organization representing countries and regions where French is a ...
'', an international organization of French-speaking countries.Cohn, Martin Regg. "Algeria's other 'civil war' - on the French language." ''
Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...
''. July 29, 1997. Insight p. A11. Available on
LexisNexis LexisNexis is a part of the RELX corporation that sells data analytics products and various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper search, and consumer informa ...
.
The choice of language of Algerian leaders in public reflects their language policy:
Houari Boumédiène Houari Boumédiène ( ar,  ; ALA-LC: ''Hawwārī Būmadyan''; born Mohammed Ben Brahim Boukherouba; 23 August 1932 – 27 December 1978) was an Algerian politician and army colonel who served as Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of A ...
, second president of Algeria from 1965 to 1978, was strongly against French and never used it publicly.
Chadli Bendjedid Chadli Bendjedid ( ar, الشاذلي بن جديد; ALA-LC: ''ash-Shādhilī bin Jadīd''; 14 April 1929 – 6 October 2012) was the third President of Algeria and an Algerian Nationalist. His presidential term of office ran from 9 February 1 ...
, third president of the country, used only
classical Arabic Classical Arabic ( ar, links=no, ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ, al-ʿarabīyah al-fuṣḥā) or Quranic Arabic is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notab ...
in his speeches, as did Liamine Zéroual. Other political leaders, such as
Mohamed Boudiaf Mohamed Boudiaf (23 June 1919 – 29 June 1992, ar, محمد بوضياف; ALA-LC: ''Muḥammad Bū-Ḍiyāf''), also called Si Tayeb el Watani, was an Algerian political leader and one of the founders of the revolutionary National Liberat ...
and
Abdelaziz Bouteflika Abdelaziz Bouteflika (; ar, عبد العزيز بوتفليقة, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Būtaflīqa ; 2 March 1937 – 17 September 2021) was an Algerian politician and diplomat who served as President of Algeria from 1999 to his resignation in 201 ...
, had a more favourable attitude towards French. Bouteflika in particular believed that the Francophone dimension of Algeria was evident in the impact of thinkers such as Descartes and the parallels between the French and
Algerian revolution The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...
s.


Usage

some two-thirds of Algerians have a "fairly broad" grasp of French, and half speak it as a second language. "Mais tous les arabophones d'Algérie parlent l'arabe dialectal ou l'arabe dit algérien (ou ses diverses variétés) pour communiquer entre eux. Autrement dit, à l'oral, c'est l'arabe algérien qui sert de langue véhiculaire, mais à l'écrit, c'est l'arabe classique." Ethnologue estimates indicate that 10,200 people in Algeria speak it as their native language. Malika Rebai Mammri, author of "The Syndrome of the French Language in Algeria," said "French continues to be the dominant language in business and professional circles" and that "certain aspects of formal education and research are still carried in the French language and a great part of the economic and industrial sectors and press still use French extensively."Maamri, Malika Rebai.
The Syndrome of the French Language in Algeria
"
Archive
'' International Journal of Arts and Sciences''. 3(3): 77 - 89 (2009) CD-ROM. p. 10 of 13
French and Berber are the two languages commonly used in the
Kabylie Kabylia ('' Kabyle: Tamurt n Leqbayel'' or ''Iqbayliyen'', meaning "Land of Kabyles", '','' meaning "Land of the Tribes") is a cultural, natural and historical region in northern Algeria and the homeland of the Kabyle people. It is part of the ...
region. According to Mohamed Benrabah, " e attitude of Algerians towards the French language is a complex one mainly because of recent history." In Algeria Arabo-Islamists are supportive of monolingual Arabic while "modernists" which mostly consist of Francophone and secular members of the Algerian elite and the general population favor bilingualism in Arabic and French.


See also

*
Geographical distribution of French speakers French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...


References


Further reading

* * * {{Geographical distribution of French speakers French
Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...
fr:Langues en Algérie#Français