The Arabic Language
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| Bureaux d’arabisation
, whose express aim was to support and guard Arabicisation, continued to use French among themselves when discussing the language problems of the country! It is small wonder, then, that the outward appearance of the larger cities, at least as far as the ‘European parts’ are concerned, remains French to a large degree. Bookshops still sell French newspapers and books, signs and advertisements are in French, and in the French-style cafés one orders one’s coffee in French. The third Maghreb country, Algeria, knew the longest period of French presence and harboured the largest number of French colons . The country was virtually a French province from 1830, and independence was fought for in a bitter war that ended in 1962. The situation of Arabic in French Algeria was precarious. There was constant pressure to prohibit instruction in Classical Arabic, culminating in the edict of 1936 that declared Arabic a foreign language. Whatever education existed in a language other than French was in dialectal Arabic or in Berber. When, in 1961, de Gaulle made Arabic compulsory again in the écoles du 1er degré , this was much too late to change the situation. Like the other Maghreb countries, after independence Algeria made Arabic the national language and Islam the national religion, but this did not change the fact that many Algerians were not profi- cient in Standard Arabic, and sometimes not even in dialectal Arabic. In 1963, for instance, there was a proposal in the National Assembly to translate the proceed - ings of the meetings into Arabic. Apparently, most of the debates were held in French, since many of the delegates would have been unable to speak in any kind of Arabic. The proposal met with general approval, but, as the prime minister pointed out, it would be impossible to find enough trained translators to do the job, so for the time being the proceedings had to remain in French! Benrabah (2007: 112) estimates that in 1990 there were still around 150,000 monolingual speakers of French in Algeria. Right from the start, it was recognised that Arabicisation should begin in education; but the beginnings of the Arabicisation programme were altogether modest (7 hours in Arabic in primary education). Because of the almost total absence of teachers, 1,000 Egyptian teachers were imported right away, later to be followed by another 1,000 from Syria. After the coup d’état of 1965, in which Boumediene became president, Arabicisation and Islamisation became cornerstones of a centralised policy. In about ten years, most primary education had been Arabicised, there had been a lot of progress in secondary education, and even at the universities the pressure to switch to Arabic became more intense. 264 The Arabic Language In the period just before independence, the French had created a corps of Algerian state employees to take over the administration when they had to leave. These 100,000 or so employees jealously guarded their privileged position and were loath to accept any change in the linguistic situation. In 1968, the govern - ment decreed that state employees had to take an exam within three years to prove their proficiency in Arabic, but this measure turned out to be futile. In 1980, the edict was repeated, however, and this time it was enforced, aiming at total Arabicisation by 1985. The introduction of Arabic in the Algerian mass media and in the public domain was very much connected with the dominant Islamic movement. In fact, some people believe that the forced total Arabicisation was one of the causes of the growth of fundamentalism and the present polarisation in Algeria, with large numbers of people opposing Arabic–French bilingualism, and other people opposing, just as vehemently, total Arabicisation. Whereas in Morocco Islamic feelings were usurped by the monarchy, and Tunisia chose a largely secularist way, in Algeria the Islamic movement was eventually co-opted by the socialist government, and supported by a popular movement, which actively supported the struggle for the replacement of French with Arabic. In 1976, within the course of one night, all French street names, billboards, advertisements and so on disap - peared from the streets of Algiers, and other towns followed suit. Probably these measures were not always taken by officials, and in some cases the popular movement acted autonomously. In the civil war that tore the country apart in the 1990s the language question was not an issue. When, in 1991, complete Arabicisation in all domains was prescribed in a law that forbade the use of any language other than Arabic, it looked like monolingualism was there to stay. Yet there were some cracks in this apparent success. The Arabicisation campaign in public life and education had been successful, but it had led to a deterioration in educational standards. The Arabicisation in administration was certainly not complete: Benrabah (2007: 101) estimates that about 70 per cent of all written interaction between local adminis - tration and the public is still in French; at higher levels of government documents are often written first in French and then translated into Arabic. Things took a different turn in the late 1990s, when the new president Boute- flika started to use French in public and to project an image of Algeria as a bilin- gual country. In his view, modernising and opening up the country economically meant that educational standards had to be improved drastically. New reforms aim at the re-introduction of French as the most important foreign language. With these reforms the pressure of strict Arabicisation has been eased and it now appears that French or a combination of French and Arabic will remain the language of instruction in most higher education in Algeria. For some Algerian writers who had opted for French in their literary work, the new direction in language policy in the 2000s felt like a liberation, which removed the guilt they Bilingualism 265 felt when using French (Benrabah 2007: 65, 114–15). Recent surveys among secondary school students show that for the younger generation the new future quite naturally includes French (Benrabah 2007: 55). Thus far, we have spoken only about the linguistic situation in North Africa. In the eastern Arab world, Lebanon and Syria also belonged to the French sphere of influence. In Syria, most traces of French presence have been wiped out. Lebanon is a special case because of the presence of a large number of Arab Christians (Maronites). From a very early date onwards, Lebanese Christians established contact with the Christian Church in Europe: Maronites studied in the Vatican, and later in Paris, thereby strengthening the ties between Eastern Christianity and Europe. After the troubles of 1860 between Maronites and Druze, the European powers intervened and signed an agreement with the Ottoman Porte on the status of Lebanon, which was to become a mutasarrifate (a district with a special admin - istrative status in the Ottoman Empire) rather than belong to the province of Syria. In this area the Maronites were in the majority, and Christian missionaries became highly active (in 1866 the Syrian Protestant College was founded, later to become the American University in Beirut, and in 1875 the Catholic Université Saint Joseph). The interference of the Western powers, especially France, led to the adoption of French as a cultural language by educated Christians before the turn of the century. In the turmoil of the Mandate period in which France dominated Lebanon (1918–43), the Maronites were constantly striving to establish a Greater Lebanon, independent of the Arab nation. When France finally conceded independence, Maronites continued to dominate in spite of the fact that they no longer constituted the majority due to the inclusion of large Muslim areas, such as the Biqāʿ and the south. Their only chance was, therefore, a special form of Lebanese nationalism, which emphasised the bicultural and bilingual character of the Lebanese nation. In pre-civil war publications by Lebanese Maronites, the coexistence between French and Arabic in Lebanon used to be viewed in a favourable light. Abou (1961, 1962), for instance, published a survey of language use and a study in which he showed himself to be an enthusiastic proponent of the bicultural entity that Lebanon should remain. In such publications, the historical role of Lebanon as an intermediary between Europe and the Levant was emphasised and the advantages of bilingual education in general were extolled. At the same time, the statistics in Abou’s book demonstrate the difference between the Muslim and the Chris- tian population with regard to proficiency in French. It goes without saying that, since the civil war, much has changed, and it is safe to say that the linguistic landscape will never be the same again. Unfortunately, nothing much is known about the present situation, but so much is certain: French has lost a great deal of its dominant position. In Beirut itself, there is a growing contrast between east Beirut, where French is still used, and west Beirut, where it has been replaced to some extent by English in its role as a channel to the international community. 266 The Arabic Language The American University in Beirut has always used English as the language of instruction. The recent popularity of English may perhaps be explained in the same way as in Tunisia by its more neutral position between the factions. The civil war in Lebanon has rearranged the linguistic market, especially in the media. One of its effects may be a greater public presence of dialect Arabic. We have seen above that in political discourse the Hezbollah leadership alternates between Standard Arabic and Lebanese Arabic in a way that is highly reminis - cent of the Egyptian President Nasser’s political speeches (p. 250). The largest television channel in the country, LBCI, uses a mix of Standard and Lebanese Arabic that seems to be quite unique in the way that it combines the two varieties rather than alternating them (Al Batal 2002). Yüklə 2,37 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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