The

official language An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...

s of

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

are

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

and

Tamazight The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight,, ber, label=Tuareg Tifinagh, ⵜⵎⵣⵗⵜ, ) are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related languages spoken by Berber communi ...

(Berber), as specified in its constitution since 1963 for the former and since 2016 for the latter. Berber has been recognized as a "

national language A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a nation. There is little consistency in the use of this term. One or more languages spoken as first languages in the te ...

" by constitutional amendment since 8 May 2002. In February, 2016, a constitutional resolution was passed making Berber an official language alongside Arabic.

Algerian Arabic Algerian Arabic (natively known as Dziria) is a dialect derived from the form of Arabic spoken in northern Algeria. It belongs to the Maghrebi Arabic language continuum and is partially mutually intelligible with Tunisian and Moroccan. Like ...

and Berber are the

native language A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

s of over 99% of Algerians, with Algerian Arabic spoken by about 90% and Berber by 10%."Aujourd'hui, la majorité des Algériens sont arabophones dans une proportion de 72 %. Parmi les Arabophones, c'est l'arabe algérien qui dominent nettement avec 60 % de la population totale et 83,2 % des arabophones. Les autres arabophones parlent le hassaniyya (11,3 %), l'arabe marocain (0,4 %), l'arabe du Sahara (0,1 %), l'arabe égyptien, voire l'arabe irakien. Toutes les variétés d'arabe appartiennent au groupe sémitique de la famille chamito-sémitique. 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." French, though it has no official status, is still used in media (some newspapers) and

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

(from

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

), due to Algeria's colonial history. Kabyle, the most spoken Berber language in the country, is taught and partially co-official (with a few restrictions) in parts of

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 ...

. Malika Rebai Maamri, author of "The Syndrome of the French Language in Algeria," said "The language spoken at home and in the street remains a mixture of Algerian dialect and French words."Maamri, Malika Rebai.
The Syndrome of the French Language in Algeria
"
Archive
''

International Journal of Arts and Sciences International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

''. 3(3): 77 - 89 (2009) CD-ROM. p. 10 of 13 Due to the number of languages and complexity involving those languages, Maamri argued that " day the linguistic situation in Algeria is dominated by multiple discourses and positions."

Currently spoken languages

Arabic

According to

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

ethnolinguist Ethnolinguistics (sometimes called cultural linguistics) is an area of anthropological linguistics that studies the relationship between a language and the nonlinguistic cultural behavior of the people who speak that language. __NOTOC__ Example ...

(*1943), 72% of Algerians in 2008 spoke

: 60% spoke

(83% of Arabic speakers); 11.3% of Arabic speakers spoke Hassaniyya; 0.4% spoke

Moroccan Arabic Moroccan Arabic ( ar, العربية المغربية الدارجة, translit=al-ʻArabīya al-Maghribīya ad-Dārija ), also known as Darija (), is the dialectal, vernacular form or forms of Arabic spoken in Morocco. It is part of the Maghrebi ...

; 0.1% spoke

Saharan Arabic Algerian Saharan Arabic (also known as Saharan Arabic, Tamanrasset Arabic, Tamanghasset Arabic) is a variety of Arabic indigenous to and spoken predominantly in the Algerian Sahara. Its ISO 639-3 language code is "aao," and it belongs to Maghrebi ...

; a smaller number spoke

Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and o ...

Iraqi Arabic Mesopotamian Arabic, ( ar, لهجة بلاد ما بين النهرين) also known as Iraqi Arabic ( ar, اللهجة العراقية), or Gilit Mesopotamian Arabic (as opposed to North Mesopotamian Arabic, Qeltu Mesopotamian Arabic) is a contin ...

. Non-native speakers learn Literary Arabic at school, and as such a relative majority of the population understands

Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of standardized, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; occasionally, it also refe ...

or the Algerian Arabic dialect.

(or ''darija'') is spoken by 60% of the total population (83% of Arab speakers). The 1963 constitution of Algeria made Arabic the official language, and this was retained in the 1976 constitution. The 1976 constitution states in Article 3 "Arabic is the national and official language". Neither constitution mentions Berber. 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) stated "Arabic was chosen at the outset as the language which was to represent Algeria’s identity and religion, and official attitudes towards both Berber and French have been largely negative."ALGERIA Language & Toponymy How politically driven language policies have impeded toponymic progress
"
Archive

. p. 2. Retrieved on 12 March 2013. "Yet Arabic is rarely heard in Kabylie, where Berber and French are spoken" The PCGN stated that French, not Arabic, is the actual

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. Arabic is not commonly used in the

region. In Algeria, as elsewhere, spoken Arabic differs very substantially from written Arabic; Algerian Arabic has a much-simplified vowel system, a substantially changed vocabulary and does not have the

case ending A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomina ...

s of the written Arabic. Algerian Arabic does not necessarily stem from written Arabic. Within Algerian Arabic itself, there are significant local variations;

Jijel Arabic Jijeli, or Jijel Arabic, is a variety of Arabic spoken specifically in the Jijel Province in northeastern Algeria, but traces of it reach parts of the neighboring Skikda and Mila Provinces. It is quite different from all the other Arabic dialec ...

, in particular, is noteworthy for its pronunciation of ''qaf'' as ''kaf'' and its profusion of Berber

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...

s, and the dialects of some ports show influence from

Andalusi Arabic Andalusi Arabic (), also known as Andalusian Arabic, was a variety or varieties of Arabic spoken mainly from the 9th to the 17th century in Al-Andalus, the regions of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal) once under Muslim rule. It b ...

brought by refugees from

al-Andalus Al-Andalus DIN 31635, translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label=Berber languages, Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, ...

. Algerian Arabic is part of the

Maghrebi Arabic Maghrebi Arabic (, Western Arabic; as opposed to Eastern or Mashriqi Arabic) is a vernacular Arabic dialect continuum spoken in the Maghreb region, in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Western Sahara, and Mauritania. It includes Moroccan, Alger ...

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

, and fades into

and

Tunisian Arabic Tunisian Arabic, or simply Tunisian, is a set of dialects of Maghrebi Arabic spoken in Tunisia. It is known among its over 11 million speakers aeb, translit=Tounsi/Tounsiy, label=as, تونسي , "Tunisian" or "Everyday Language" to distingu ...

along the respective borders. In the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

, more conservative

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...

dialects, grouped under the name

, are spoken; in addition, the many Sahrawi refugees at

Tindouf Tindouf (Berber: Tinduf, ar, تندوف) is the main town, and a commune in Tindouf Province, Algeria, close to the Mauritanian, Western Saharan and Moroccan borders. The commune has population of around 160,000 but the census and population ...

speak Hassaniya Arabic. Most

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

s of

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

once spoke dialects of Arabic specific to their community, collectively termed

Judeo-Arabic Judeo-Arabic dialects (, ; ; ) are ethnolects formerly spoken by Jews throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Under the ISO 639 international standard for language codes, Judeo-Arabic is classified as a macrolanguage under the code jrb, encomp ...

. After Algeria became independent in 1962, it tried to improve fluency by importing Arabic teachers from

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. Martin Regg Cohn of the ''

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 part ...

'' said that many of the instructors were unqualified.Cohn, Martin Regg. "Algeria's other 'civil war' - on the French language." ''

''. 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 ...

. In 1963, of the 1,300,000 literate people in Algeria, an estimate of 300,000 read literary Arabic. Mohamed Benrabah, author of "Language maintenance and spread: French in Algeria," said that during that year, "linguistic competence in Standard Arabic was relatively low."Benrabah "Language maintenance and spread: French in Algeria" p. 194. Malika Rebai Maamri, author of "The Syndrome of the French Language in Algeria," said that as of 2009, "classical Arabic is still not mastered even at higher educational levels" and that "dialectical Arabic cannot express things in writing." As of 2012, remaining generations educated under the French colonial system are unable to read or write Arabic.Arnold, Chloe.
Algeria: A nation yearning for change
" ''

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesAlgerian Sign Language is used in Algeria by the deaf; it has sometimes been used on national TV.

Formerly spoken languages

Phoenician

Phoenician, particularly in its North African

Punic The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of t ...

form, was brought to Algeria by

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...

's influence, it was an influential language in the region;

Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berbers, Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia (Roman pr ...

learned it, and quotes occasional phrases. However, by his time the language was losing ground to Latin, and no trace of it survives now (apart from occasional names of places).

Latin

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

(which later developed into the brief-existent, little-known African Romance language) was the language of the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

occupation; it became widely spoken in the coastal towns, and

attests that in his day it was gaining ground over

. However, it gave way to

and Berber after the

Umayyads Umayyads may refer to: *Umayyad dynasty, a Muslim ruling family of the Caliphate (661–750) and in Spain (756–1031) *Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) :*Emirate of Córdoba (756–929) :*Caliphate of Córdoba The Caliphate of Córdoba ( ar, خ ...

' conquest, leaving only a few

s in those two languages.

Ottoman Turkish

Ottoman rule after the 16th century brought a

dominant minority A dominant minority, also called elite dominance is a minority group that has overwhelming political, economic, or cultural dominance in a country, despite representing a small fraction of the overall population (a demographic minority). Domi ...

of Turks to Algeria, particularly concentrated in the large cities; for a while, Ottoman Turkish became a major governmental language. However, over time these Turks gradually assimilated, and, while many families of partial Turkish descent remain in Algeria, none speak the language.

Other

Ladino Ladino, derived from Latin, may refer to: * The register of Judaeo-Spanish used in the translation of religious texts, such as the Ferrara Bible *Ladino people, a socio-ethnic category of Mestizo or Hispanicized people in Central America especi ...

was formerly spoken by some Algerian

s, particularly around

Oran Oran ( ar, وَهران, Wahrān) is a major coastal city located in the north-west of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria after the capital Algiers, due to its population and commercial, industrial, and cultural ...

, in the Tetuani dialect; however, most shifted to French during the colonial period. *The

Mediterranean Lingua Franca The Mediterranean Lingua Franca, or Sabir, was a pidgin language that was used as a lingua franca in the Mediterranean Basin from the 11th to the 19th centuries. Etymology ''Lingua franca'' meant literally "Frankish language" in Late Latin, a ...

, a mixture of many

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

languages, was once widespread as a means of communication with foreigners in the ports, including the slaves of the

bagnio Bagnio is a loan word into several languages (from it, bagno). In English, French, and so on, it has developed varying meanings: typically a brothel, bath-house, or prison for slaves. In reference to the Ottoman Empire The origin of this sens ...

s and the European

renegade Renegade or The Renegade may refer to: Aircraft *Lake Renegade, an American amphibious aircraft design *Murphy Renegade, a Canadian ultralight biplane design *Southern Aeronautical Renegade, an American racing aircraft design Games *'' Comman ...

s that joined the

Barbary pirates The Barbary pirates, or Barbary corsairs or Ottoman corsairs, were Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, Libya, Tripoli. This area was known i ...

; after 1830, it gradually disappeared, its functions taken over by French. *

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

has a long history in

, which was occupied by Spain for long periods between 1509 and 1790; it has left some traces in that city's dialect. It was also spoken by pied-noirs immigrating from the Spanish Mediterranean. Spanish is also spoken by the Sahrawis living in refugee camps in the area of

. As of 2020, there are two

Instituto Cervantes Instituto Cervantes (the Cervantes Institute) is a worldwide nonprofit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991. It is named after Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616), the author of ''Don Quixote'' and perhaps the most important figur ...

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

and

, promoting the study and the teaching of

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

and

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

Languages used in the Algerian government

Mohamed Benrabah, author of "Language maintenance and spread: French in Algeria," said that as of 2007, "Arabization is either complete or almost complete" in the

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and registry offices in Algerian town halls.Benrabah "Language maintenance and spread: French in Algeria", p. 195 He also said that the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

had been affected to a "lesser extent." Official documents of ministries which had not been affected partially or fully to Arabization are often written in French, and Arabic translations of these documents are provided when needed. Benrabah said that as of 2007 "the use of French in a number of higher domains has diminished since the colonial era when the language held an unassailable position in the media, education, government, and administration."Benrabah "Language maintenance and spread: French in Algeria", p. 194-195. In 1968 the Algerian government decreed that all civil positions use the Arabic language. In 1990 the government ruled that Arabic is the only language to be used in institutions and public service, and imprisonment was a penalty for violating this law.Berger, p
52
Around 1997 the Algerian government had passed laws prohibiting officials from speaking any language other than Arabic publicly. The government laws called for a fine for officials who prepared government documents not in Arabic. The government mandated that all textbooks and lectures must be Arabic, with French ones being phased out. The laws also stated that all television broadcasts must be in Arabic only. In 1997, Slimane Chikh, the Minister of Education, said that French needed to be phased out because it was preventing Arabic from reaching prominence and because it was leading Algerians away from English, the primary international language of commerce, computers, and science. Of the documents submitted by the Algerian government to the sessions of the

United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) is one of the nine expert groups of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and deals with the national and international standardization of geographical names. Ev ...

and the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, all were in French, and the government used French in its participation in almost all of the conferences associated with these groups.

Languages used in Algerian education

As of 2007, Arabization has mainly affected primary and secondary education, while in university education French retained a higher social prestige and class and is the language used in scientific studies. As of 2002, French was taught as a foreign language from the fourth year of primary school until the final year of secondary school. French is used in the high school level in the exact sciences, the medical sciences, and technology studies. Some specialized fields offer courses in French and courses in Arabic. Almost all students prefer the French courses in those fields. Over 60% of university students in Algeria are educated in French. In graduate programmes in social sciences, French is used.

History of languages in Algerian education

The first

President of Algeria The president of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is the head of state and chief executive of Algeria, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Algerian People's National Armed Forces. History of the office The Tripoli Program, whi ...

Ahmed ben Bella Ahmed Ben Bella ( ar, أحمد بن بلّة '; 25 December 1916 – 11 April 2012) was an Algerian politician, soldier and socialist revolutionary who served as the head of government of Algeria from 27 September 1962 to 15 September 1963 an ...

, introduced Arabization in the education system in 1962. The Arabic language was introduced in all levels and all programmes in the 1963-1964 period. As time passed, the time in the educational system spent on French gradually declined.Benrabah, Mohamed "Language-in-Education Planning in Algeria: Historical Development and Current Issues", p. 229 In 1964-1965 primary grade one was fully Arabized with all other levels each receiving ten hours of Arabic per period.Benrabah, Mohamed "Language-in-Education Planning in Algeria: Historical Development and Current Issues", p. 229-230 The plans were complicated by the flight of 25,000 European teachers from Algeria and the illiteracy rate of 90%. The demographics also complicated the plans. Of 10 million Algerians, about 300,000 were fluent in

Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of Standard language, standardized, Literary language, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th ...

while 1 million were able to read French and 6 million were able to speak French. To remedy this, the Algerian government hired 10,988 academic monitors. C. F. Gallagher, author of "North African problems and prospects: Language and identity", said that the monitors' "intellectual horizons ereat times only slightly less limited than their pupils".Benrabah, Mohamed "Language-in-Education Planning in Algeria: Historical Development and Current Issues", p. 230 In 1963 the government recruited 1,000 Egyptians as Arabic teachers. Mohamed Benrabah, author of "Language-in-Education Planning in Algeria: Historical Development and Current Issues", said "Most of these teachers turned out to be unqualified for teaching and totally ignorant of the Algerian social reality" and that "Their spoken

was incomprehensible to Algerians in general and

-speaking populations in particular and their traditional pedagogy (learning by rote and class recitation, physical punishment and so on) proved inadequate". In addition the teachers were members of the Muslim Brotherhood and introduced Islamist thought in Algeria. In September 1967 Minister of Education

Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi Dr. Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi ( ar, أحمد طالب الإبراهيمي) (born 5 January 1932) is an Algerian politician and intellectual. He is the son of Islamic theologian and renowned scholar Bachir Ibrahimi, and served in multiple ministerial ...

completely Arabized primary level two, so many parents delayed registration of their children in school until grade three when they could have a higher educational quality and where the French language was still dominant.Benrabah, Mohamed "Language-in-Education Planning in Algeria: Historical Development and Current Issues", p. 230-231 The Algerian government had plans to totally Arabize the university sector effective December 1980. In all levels of education, bilingual education ended in 1985.Berger, p. 70. "Standard Arabic became the language of schooling up to the university level, where French still holds sway in some sectors. (Officially the university was to be entirely Arabized as of December 1980. In 1985 an end was put to bilingual education at all levels, while President Chadli officially barred Algerian nationals from attending all-French schools; yet the elite and the powerful, most often educated in French, continued to send their .. In that period many Algerian elites practiced "elite closure" by sending their own children to schools controlled by the French government while promoting Arabization for the masses, so their own children would learn French and have access to jobs open to those with French knowledge.Benrabah, Mohamed "Language-in-Education Planning in Algeria: Historical Development and Current Issues", p. 232 Since most young Algerians had a poor command of French and were in Arabized school streams, they enrolled in Arabic-language university departments such as Islamic law and Arabic literature and were exposed to Islamist point of views.Benrabah, Mohamed "Language-in-Education Planning in Algeria: Historical Development and Current Issues", p. 232-233 Algiers had many unofficially bilingual primary and secondary schools and Benrabah said that the elite closure practice was "most visible in Algiers". The Algerian government, in 1988, officially prohibited Algerian nationals and children of mixed Algerian and French people from attending "French Mission of Algeria" schools. President

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 19 ...

ruled that Algerian nationals were not permitted to attend all-French schools. The Algiers French lycée moved from one neighbourhood to another. The '' Lycée Cheikh Bouamama'' ( ar, ثانوية الشيخ بوعمامة), originally called the ''Lycée Descartes'', took in students from the ''tchitchi'' (children of wealthy) backgrounds instead of ''bohi'' ("rejects"). When it was nationalized it served members of the educational, military, and political elites. After Chadli's decree, the school had a secret program which placed higher emphasis on French than other Algerian secondary schools did. Many students in the programme attended universities abroad after graduation. In 1999 the Algerian authorities conducted a survey which stated that 75% of the population supported teaching scientific school subjects in the French language.Benrabah, Mohamed "Language-in-Education Planning in Algeria: Historical Development and Current Issues", p. 228 In the middle of March 2001 the National Commission for the Reform of the Educational System (CNRSE according to its French name) proposed that French would be reintroduced in grade two of the primary cycle, serving 6-7 year olds, instead of grade four, serving 8-9 year olds, and that scientific subjects in secondary school should be taught in French. Therefore, students would be biliterate in French and Arabic instead of having French as a subject. In 2002 the opponents to the bilingual educational proposal declared a '' fatwa'' against the pro-bilingual supporters. The reforms were intended to be implemented in September 2001 but the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

suspended them on 3 September 2001.Benrabah, Mohamed "Language-in-Education Planning in Algeria: Historical Development and Current Issues", p. 227 By 2008 the Algerian government began reintroducing French in the school system.Slackman, Michael.
In Algeria, a Tug of War for Young Minds
" ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. 23 June 2008. Retrieved on 11 March 2013.

References

* Benrabah, Mohamed. "Language maintenance and spread: French in Algeria." '' International Journal of Francophone Studies''. Intellect Ltd. Volume 10 Numbers 1 and 2. p. 193-215. English language. Accessible on

EBSCOHost EBSCO Information Services, headquartered in Ipswich, Massachusetts, is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a private company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. EBSCO provides products and services to libraries of very many types around the ...

. * Benrabah, Mohamed. "Language-in-Education Planning in Algeria: Historical Development and Current Issues." '' Language Policy'', June 2007. Volume 6, Issue 2. p. 225-252. . Available at

Springer Link Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 i ...

. * Berger, Anne-Emanuelle. ''Algeria in Others' Languages'' (Cornell French studies series).

Cornell University Press The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University; currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, making it the first university publishing enterprise in th ...

, 2002. , 9780801488016.

Notes

External links

Langues d'Algérie
" ''

Université Laval Université Laval is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university was founded by royal charter issued by Queen Victoria in 1852, with roots in the founding of the Séminaire de Québec in 1663 by François de Montm ...

''.
PanAfriL10n page on Algeria
*http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/country/Algeria {{Authority control

Currently spoken languages

Arabic

Berber

In the north

In the extreme northwest

In the Sahara

French

English

Korandje