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Article published In: Linguistic Landscape
Vol. 5:1 (2019) ► pp.80–102

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Transforming the urban public space

Linguistic landscape and new linguistic practices in Moroccan Arabic

 | Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Published online: 7 March 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.18008.mou
Abstract
This article examines the use of Moroccan Arabic (MA) in the new Linguistic Landscape (LL) in Morocco, and in particular in the city of Meknés, in a new neighbourhood known as (حمرية) Hamriya or La Ville Nouvelle. In particular, the ways in which current socio-economic transformations produce new spaces of communications are explored, highlighting the extent to which MA is used in urban public spaces as new linguistic practices. In turn, the increasing visibility of MA in the LL and its subsequent nourishing of hybrid practices are discussed. The data points to a re-semiotisation of space in a Moroccan linguistic regime historically characterized by a well-established linguistic hierarchy. Ultimately, the use of MA creates new language practices and policies that resist and transform the sociolinguistic regime which is analysed here by a close examination of linguistic variation in Arabic in the public space.
Résumé
Cet article analyse l’usage de l’arabe marocain (AM) au sein du nouveau paysage linguistique (PL) au Maroc dans la ville de Meknés, en particulier dans un quartier appelé Hamriya (حمرية) ou La Ville Nouvelle d’où proviennent les données que nous analyserons. Nous explorerons donc la manière dans laquelle les récentes transformations socio-économiques au Maroc ont créés des nouveaux espaces de communication où l’AM est fortement utilisé en tant qu’une nouvelle pratique langagière dans l’espace public urbain. Nous discuterons aussi comment la croissante visibilité de l’AM dans le PL est bien connecté à l’apparition de ses pratiques hybrides. De même, les données que nous présenterons suggèrent une re-sémiotisation de l’espace dans un régime linguistique au Maroc caractérisé historiquement par une hiérarchie sociolinguistique bien établie. Finalement, nous nous proposons d’analyser comment l’usage de l’AM dans l’espace public, dans un contexte caractérisé par la présence de la variation linguistique arabe, crée des politiques linguistiques qui résistent et transforment l’ordre sociolinguistique marocain.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Post-independence, nation-state and sociolinguistic regime in Morocco
    • 2.1New socio-political and economic context in Morocco and new communicative spaces
  • 3.LL and language policy (LP)
  • 4.Methodology
  • 5.MA in LL: The socio-political dimension of new language practices and management
    • 5.1MA in official posters
    • 5.2LL with posters from the private sector
    • 5.3Individual initiatives
  • 6.Discussion and conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
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