Languages of Algeria
Encyclopedia
Official language
An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
of Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
is (literary) Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, as specified in its constitution since 1963. In addition to this, Berber
Berber languages
The Berber languages are a family of languages indigenous to North Africa, spoken from Siwa Oasis in Egypt to Morocco , and south to the countries of the Sahara Desert...
has been recognized as a "national language
National language
A national language is a language which has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a people and perhaps by extension the territory they occupy. The term is used variously. A national language may for instance represent the national identity of a nation or country...
" by constitutional amendment since May 8, 2002. Between them, these two language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
s are the native languages of over 99% of Algerians, with Arabic spoken by about 72% and Berber by 47%. French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, though it has no official status, is widely used in government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
, culture, media (newspapers) and education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
(since primary school), due to Algeria's colonial history
French rule in Algeria
French Algeria lasted from 1830 to 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. From 1848 until independence, the whole Mediterranean region of Algeria was administered as an integral part of France, much like Corsica and Réunion are to this day. The vast arid interior of Algeria, like the rest...
and can be regarded as being a de facto co-official language of Algeria. The Kabyle language
Kabyle language
Kabyle or Kabylian is a Berber language spoken by the Kabyle people north and northeast of Algeria. Estimates about the number of speakers range from 5 million to about 7 million speakers worldwide, the majority in Algeria.-Classification:The classification of Kabyle is Afro-Asiatic, Berber and...
, the most spoken Berber language in the country, is taught and partially co-official (with a few restrictions) in parts of Kabylia.
Arabic
ArabicArabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
is the language of 73% of Algeria's population; in addition to this, non-native speakers learn Arabic at school, as such the majority of the population understands Standard Arabic or the Algerian Arabic dialect. Algerian Arabic
Algerian Arabic
Algerian Arabic is the variety or varieties of Arabic spoken in Algeria. In Algeria, as elsewhere, spoken Arabic differs from written Arabic; Algerian Arabic has a vocabulary mostly Arabic, with significant Berber substrates, and many new words and loanwords borrowed from French, Turkish and...
(or darija) is spoken by 85% of the total population and 83% of Arab speakers.
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 has dropped the case endings of the written language. Within Algerian Arabic itself, there are significant local variations; Jijel Arabic
Jijel Arabic
Jijel Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken specifically in the Jijel Province in northeastern Algeria, but traces of it reach parts of the neighboring provinces of Skikda and Mila...
, in particular, is noteworthy for its pronunciation of qaf as kaf and its profusion of Berber loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s, and the dialects of some ports show influence from Andalusi Arabic
Andalusi Arabic
Andalusian Arabic was a variety of the Arabic language spoken in Al-Andalus, the regions of the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim rule...
brought by refugees from al-Andalus
Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation and territorial region also commonly referred to as Moorish Iberia. The name describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492, although the territorial boundaries...
. Algerian Arabic is part of the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum
Dialect continuum
A dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...
, and fades into Moroccan Arabic
Moroccan Arabic
Moroccan Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken in the Arabic-speaking areas of Morocco. For official communications, the government and other public bodies use Modern Standard Arabic, as is the case in most Arabic-speaking countries. A mixture of French and Moroccan Arabic is used in business...
and Tunisian Arabic
Tunisian Arabic
Tunisian Arabic is a Maghrebi dialect of the Arabic language, spoken by some 11 million people. It is usually known by its own speakers as Derja, which means dialect, to distinguish it from Standard Arabic, or as Tunsi, which means Tunisian...
along the respective borders.
In the Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
more conservative Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
dialects, grouped under the name Saharan Arabic
Saharan Arabic
Algerian Saharan Arabic is a structurally distinct variety of Arabic spoken by an estimated 100,000 people in Algeria, predominantly along the Moroccan border with the Atlas mountains range. It is also spoken by about 10,000 people in neighbouring Niger.-External links:**...
, are spoken; in addition, the many Sahrawi refugees at Tindouf
Tindouf
Tindouf is the main town in Tindouf Province, Algeria, close to the Mauritanian and Moroccan borders. The region is considered of strategic significance, and it houses Algerian military bases. Since 1975, it also contains several Sahrawi refugee camps operated by the Polisario Front a guerrilla...
speak Hassaniya Arabic
Hassaniya
Hassānīya is the variety of Arabic originally spoken by the Beni Hassān Bedouin tribes, who extended their authority over most of Mauritania and the Western Sahara between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. It has almost completely replaced the Berber languages spoken in this region...
.
Most Jews of Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
once spoke dialects of Arabic specific to their community, collectively termed "Judeo-Arabic"; however, .
Berber
Berber languages
The Berber languages are a family of languages indigenous to North Africa, spoken from Siwa Oasis in Egypt to Morocco , and south to the countries of the Sahara Desert...
are spoken in many parts of Algeria, but mainly in Kabylia, in the Aurès, and in the Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
(by Tuaregs). Until the Phoenicians' arrival, Berber was spoken throughout Algeria, as later attested by early Tifinagh
Tifinagh
Tifinagh is a series of abjad and alphabetic scripts used by some Berber peoples, notably the Tuareg, to write their language.A modern derivate of the traditional script, known as Neo-Tifinagh, was introduced in the 20th century...
inscriptions. Despite the growth of Punic, Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, and later Arabic, it remained the main language of Algeria until the invasion of the Banu Hilal
Banu Hilal
The Banu Hilal were a confederation of Arabian Bedouin tribes that migrated from Upper Egypt into North Africa in the 11th century, having been sent by the Fatimids to punish the Zirids for abandoning Shiism. Other authors suggest that the tribes left the grasslands on the upper Nile because of...
in the 11th century.
Algerians speak one of the various dialects of Berber (native name: Tamazight), which add up to around 38%–45% of the population. Arabic remains Algeria's only official language
Official language
An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
, although Berber has recently been recognized as a national language
National language
A national language is a language which has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a people and perhaps by extension the territory they occupy. The term is used variously. A national language may for instance represent the national identity of a nation or country...
.
The Berber languages/dialects spoken in Algeria include:
In the north
- KabyleKabyle languageKabyle or Kabylian is a Berber language spoken by the Kabyle people north and northeast of Algeria. Estimates about the number of speakers range from 5 million to about 7 million speakers worldwide, the majority in Algeria.-Classification:The classification of Kabyle is Afro-Asiatic, Berber and...
, about 4.5 million speakers mostly in Kabylia (some estimates are as high as 8 million). - ChaouiaChaouia languageShawia or Chaouïa also known as th Numidian Berber is the eponymous Zenati-Berber spoken by the Shawia people of eastern Algeria around Batna, Khenchela, Sétif, Oum El Bouaghi, Souk Ahras, Tébessa and the north part of Biskra...
(also called Tachawit, Chawi) in the Aurès, about 3,000,000 speakers. - ChenouaChenoua languageChenoua or Shenwa is the Berber language of Jebel Chenoua in Algeria, just west of Algiers near Tipasa and Cherchell. The speech of Jebel Chenoua proper is mutually comprehensible with that of the nearby Beni Menacer, and the two are thus treated as a single language...
, in Tipaza ProvinceTipaza ProvinceTipaza or Tipasa is a province on the coast of Algeria, Its capital is Tipasa, 50 km west of the capital of Algeria.-Administrative divisions:...
, estimated 56,300 speakers. Two dialects: Beni Menacer, west and south of Mount ChenouaChenouaJebel Chenoua is a mountain group between Cherchell and Tipasa on the coast of Algeria, just west of Algiers, and a village on that mountain. A majority of its inhabitants speak a Berber language, the Chenoua language....
area, in Mount Chenoua area, 55,250 speakers.
In the Sahara
- Tumzabt languageTumzabt languageMozabite, or , is a dialect of the Berber language spoken by the Mozabites, an Ibadi group inhabiting the seven cities of the M'zab in the northern Saharan Algeria. It is also spoken by small numbers of Mozabite emigrants in the cities of Algeria and elsewhere...
in the Mzab - language of Touat and Gourara (called "Taznatit" by the Ethnologue, but that name is used for most of the Zenati languages)
- language of TouggourtTouggourtTouggourt is a city in Ouargla Province, Algeria, built around an oasis in the Sahara. It is notable for its date trees. It was formerly surrounded by a moat, which the French filled up. The surrounding oasis is very fertile. From Touggourt a road 61 miles long leads across the desert north-east...
and Temacine - TamahaqTamahaq languageTamahaq is the only known Northern Tuareg language, spoken in Algeria, western Libya, and northern Niger. It varies little from the southern languages of Ayr, Azawagh or Adagh, with the differences mostly being substitution of sounds, for instance Tamahaq instead of Tamajaq or...
, among the Tuareg of the Hoggar (see Tuareg languagesTuareg languagesTuareg is a Berber language or family of very closely related languages and dialects spoken by the Tuareg Berbers, in large parts of Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso, with a few speakers, the Kinnin, in Chad.- Description :Other Berber languages and Tamashaq are quite mutually...
)
French
FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
is a part of the standard school curriculum, and is widely understood; Ethnologue
Ethnologue
Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...
estimates indicate that 111 000 people in Algeria speak it as their native language,http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=DZ mostly pied-noir
Pied-noir
Pied-Noir , plural Pieds-Noirs, pronounced , is a term referring to French citizens of various origins who lived in French Algeria before independence....
s who stayed behind and people raised in French-speaking households; other sources estimate much larger populations. Some two-thirds of Algerians have a "fairly broad" grasp of French, and half speak it as a second language. French is widely used in media and commerce. French is widely used and spoken in everyday life in Algeria's larger cities, in diglossic combination with Algerian Arabic.
French is the most widely studied foreign language
Foreign language
A foreign language is a language indigenous to another country. It is also a language not spoken in the native country of the person referred to, i.e. an English speaker living in Japan can say that Japanese is a foreign language to him or her...
in the country, and a majority of Algerians can understand it and speak it, though it is usually not spoken in daily life. Since independence
Independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....
, the government has pursued a policy of linguistic Arabization of education and bureaucracy, which has resulted in limiting the use of Berber
Berber languages
The Berber languages are a family of languages indigenous to North Africa, spoken from Siwa Oasis in Egypt to Morocco , and south to the countries of the Sahara Desert...
and the Arabization of many Berber-speakers. The strong position of French in Algeria was little affected by the Arabization policy. All scientific and business university courses are still taught in French. Recently, schools have begun to incorporate French into the curriculum as early as children are taught written classical Arabic. French is also used in media and business. After a political debate in Algeria in the late 1990s about whether to replace French with English in the educational system, the government decided to retain French. English is taught in the first year of middle schools.
During the French colonisation, about one million French native speakers lived in Algeria. The pied-noirs developed a distinctive dialect, termed Pataouète. French was also the mother tongue for many of the Algerian Jews.
English
EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, because of its status as a global lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
, is taught from the first year of Middle School. However, only a tiny number of Algerians speak English, most of them younger people.
Sub-Saharan African languages
The Korandje languageKorandje language
Korandje is by far the most northerly of the Songhay languages. It is spoken around the oasis of Tabelbala by about 3000 people; its name literally means "village's language"...
of the Saharan oasis
Oasis
In geography, an oasis or cienega is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source...
of Tabelbala
Tabelbala
Tabelbala is an oasis between Béchar and Tindouf in southwestern Algeria, notable for being the only town in Algeria to speak a language neither Arabic nor Berber, Korandje.Tabelbala is divided into four settlements...
is a heavily Berber-influenced variety of Songhay
Songhay languages
The Songhay, Songhai, or Songai languages are a group of closely related languages/dialects centered on the middle stretches of the Niger River in the west African states of Mali, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria. They have been widely used as a lingua franca in that region ever since the...
, a language more widely spoken far to the south in Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
. Another northern Songhay language, Tadaksahak
Tadaksahak language
The Dawsahak language, Tadaksahak is a Songhay language spoken by the pastoralist Idaksahak of the Ménaka area of Mali. Its phonology, verb morphology, and vocabulary has been strongly influenced by the neighboring Tuareg languages, Tamasheq and Tamajaq.-Vowels:-Consonants:-References:*Niels and...
, may be spoken in parts of the far south; its nomadic speakers range over a wide area centered in northern Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
.
There are also a few thousand Hausa
Hausa language
Hausa is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers, spoken as a first language by about 25 million people, and as a second language by about 18 million more, an approximate total of 43 million people...
speakers in the south.
Sign languages
Algerian Sign LanguageAlgerian Sign Language
Algerian Sign Language Algerian Sign Language Algerian Sign Language (French: Langue des signes algérienne (LSA),Tamazight: Tamslayt Tadugamt n Lezzayer, Arabic: لغة الإشارة الجزائر...
is used in Algeria by the deaf; it has sometimes been used on national TV.
Phoenician
PhoenicianPhoenician languages
Phoenician was a language originally spoken in the coastal region then called "Canaan" in Phoenician, Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic, "Phoenicia" in Greek and Latin, and "Pūt" in Ancient Egyptian. Phoenician is a Semitic language of the Canaanite subgroup; its closest living relative is Hebrew, to...
, particularly in its North African Punic form, was brought to Algeria by Carthage
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
's influence, and was widely spoken in its east for a time; Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
grew up speaking 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
LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
itself was the language of the Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
occupation; it became widely spoken in the coastal towns, and Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
attests that in his day it was gaining ground over Punic. However, it gave way to Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
and Berber
Berber languages
The Berber languages are a family of languages indigenous to North Africa, spoken from Siwa Oasis in Egypt to Morocco , and south to the countries of the Sahara Desert...
after the Umayyads' conquest, leaving only a few loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s in those two languages.
Ottoman Turkish
OttomanOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
rule after the 16th century brought a dominant minority of Turks
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
to Algeria, particularly concentrated in the large cities; for a while, Ottoman Turkish
Ottoman Turkish language
The Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...
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 was formerly spoken by some Algerian Jews, particularly around OranOranOran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...
, in the TetuaniTetuaniTetuani is a dialect of Judaeo-Spanish, a Jewish Romance language spoken in the Algerian city of Oran. The probable origin of the name is the city of Tetouan in Morocco, from where some of the Jewish residents came from....
dialect; however, most shifted to FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
during the colonial period. - The Mediterranean Lingua FrancaMediterranean Lingua FrancaThe Mediterranean Lingua Franca or Sabir was a pidgin language used as a lingua franca in the Mediterranean Basin from the 11th to the 19th century.-History:...
, a mixture of many MediterraneanMediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
languages, was once widespread as a means of communication with foreigners in the ports, including the slaves of the bagnioBagnioA Bagnio was originally a bath or bath-house.The term was then used to name the prison for hostages in Istanbul, which was near the bath-house, and thereafter all the slave prisons in the Ottoman Empire and the Barbary regencies...
s and the European renegadeTurncoatA turncoat is a person who shifts allegiance from one loyalty or ideal to another, betraying or deserting an original cause by switching to the opposing side or party...
s that joined the Barbary pirates; after 1830, it gradually disappeared, its functions taken over by French. - SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
has a long history in OranOranOran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...
, which was occupied by Spain 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 TindoufTindoufTindouf is the main town in Tindouf Province, Algeria, close to the Mauritanian and Moroccan borders. The region is considered of strategic significance, and it houses Algerian military bases. Since 1975, it also contains several Sahrawi refugee camps operated by the Polisario Front a guerrilla...
.