In:Sociolinguistic Approaches to Arabic and Spanish in Contact
Edited by Farah Ali, Carol Ready and Sherez Mohamed
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 44] 2025
► pp. 143–166
Chapter 8The language attitudes of Moroccan Berbers and Catalan speakers
A comparative study on language use and identity formation
Published online: 17 July 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.44.08kou
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.44.08kou
Abstract
The present bibliographic study comparatively examines the formation of language attitudes and the indexing
of identities through language variation among the Berbers of Morocco and the Catalan speakers of Spain. For the
purpose of our comparative approach, several factors including social, political, demographic and cultural variables,
have been taken into account. The study demonstrates that despite some progress, negative attitudes, bias and
linguistic competition still exist in both speech communities, albeit expressed differently and to a different extent
in each case, reflecting the trauma of the past in tandem with the sociopolitical realities of the present.
Article outline
- Introduction
- The sociolinguistic theoretical context
- Language attitudes
- Language variation
- Language standardization and the construction of ethnolinguistic ‘minorities’ in Morocco and Spain: The Berbers and the Catalans in retrospect
- Arabization in Morocco
- Castilianization in Catalonia
- The status of Berbers and Catalans today
- Language contact and the formation of attitudes in Morocco and
Catalonia
- The language attitudes of the Berbers
- The attitudes of Moroccans towards Tamazight
- Language attitudes and covert prestige dynamics
- Language attitudes in Catalonia from one generation to another
- The immigrant factor
- Language variation, language loyalty and identity politics
- Concluding comparisons
Notes References
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