Moroccan Arabic in TV fiction: promoting de-localised individuals to model speakers

Jacopo Falchetta

doi:10.1515/ijsl-2022-0014

Article

Moroccan Arabic in TV fiction: promoting de-localised individuals to model speakers

Jacopo Falchetta

Published/Copyright: November 8, 2022

Published by

Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Submit Manuscript Author Information Explore this Subject

From the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language Volume 2022 Issue 278

Abstract

This paper aims at clarifying the role that TV fiction plays in the indexical redistribution of Moroccan Arabic (MA) linguistic features, and how this is connected to media’s contribution to the non-institutional standardisation of MA. First of all, it shows how six variables are employed in the composition of dialogues for two original Moroccan series and two Turkish series dubbed in MA. In the Moroccan series, the assignment of different features to different characters results in the enregisterment of a linguistic opposition between two social types, distinguished by their attachment to place of origin and attitude vis-à-vis modernity. In the dubbed series, standardisation is at issue in that the authors of the linguistic choices – be they the translators or the dubbers – usually select one single form to the exclusion of all other variants. If this selection of a MA norm is judged on the background of the enregisterment patterns identified in the dialogues of the Moroccan series, it then appears as though such norm favours a type of individual free from particularistic regional affiliations, and with a propensity for an anti-traditionalist and (western-like) modern lifestyle and way of thinking.

Keywords: Arabic sociolinguistics; enregisterment; media studies; Moroccan Arabic; standardization

Corresponding author: Jacopo Falchetta, Institut de recherches et d’études sur les mondes arabes et musulmans, IREMAM, UMR 7310, Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l’homme (MMSH), 5 rue du Château de l’Horloge, CS 9041213097, Aix-en-Provence Cedex 2, France, E-mail: jacopo.falchetta@gmail.com

Funding source: AEI/FEDER, UE

Award Identifier / Grant number: FFI2017-87533-P

Acknowledgments

I would like to warmly thank my fellow co-editors Atiqa Hachimi and Montserrat Benítez Fernández for their precious remarks on this paper. I am also grateful to my two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions. All remaining mistakes are, of course, my own.

Research funding: This article has been made possible in part by aid from the project “Variación diastrática en las variedades habladas del árabe vernáculo de Marruecos (FFI2017-87533-P)” funded by the Agencia Española de Investigación and FEDER (UE).

References

Agha, Asif. 2005. Voice, footing, enregisterment. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 15(1). 38–59. https://doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2005.15.1.38.Search in Google Scholar

Aguadé, Jordi. 1996. Notas acerca de los preverbios del imperfectivo en árabe dialectal magrebí. EDNA. Estudios de dialectología norteafricana y andalusí 1. 197–213.Search in Google Scholar

Androutsopoulos, Jannis. 2007. Bilingualism in the mass media and on the internet. In Monica Heller (ed.), Bilingualism: A social approach, 207–230. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9780230596047_10Search in Google Scholar

Barontini, Alexandrine & Karima Ziamari. 2013. Ana: parlez-vous arabe marocain? Quand les séries réconcilient avec la Darija. In Montserrat Benítez Fernández, Catherine Miller, Jan Jaap de Ruiter & Youssef Tamer (eds.), Evolutions des pratiques et des représentations langagières dans le Maroc du XXI siècle, vol. I, 119–142. Paris: L’Harmattan.Search in Google Scholar

Behnstedt, Peter. 2014. Wortatlas der arabischen Dialekte. Band III: Verben, Adjektive, Zeit und Zahlen. Leiden & Boston: Brill.10.1163/9789004248564Search in Google Scholar

Bensoukas, Karim & Safaa Blila. 2013. Dubbing into MA and language planning issues: The case of CSI: New York. In Abdelaziz Boudlal, Abdelkader Sabil & Mohammed Yeou (eds.), Proceedings of the 1st annual international conference on cultures and languages in contact, 275–319. El Jadida: Publications de la FLSH.Search in Google Scholar

Buccianti, Alexandra. 2010. Dubbed Turkish soap operas conquering the Arab world: Social liberation or cultural alienation? Arab Media & Society 10. 1–10.10.70090/AB10TSOASearch in Google Scholar

Caubet, Dominique. 1993. L’arabe Marocain. Tome I. Louvain: Peters.Search in Google Scholar

Caubet, Dominique. 2022. Revisiting the use of future in Darija: The emergence of a new a-preverb confirmed. In Guram Chikovani & Zviadi Tskhvediani (eds.), Proceedings of the 13th international conference of AIDA, held in Kutaisi from 10th June – 13th June 2019, 109-120. Kutaisi: Akaki Tsereteli State University Press. Available at: https://ejournals.atsu.ge/aida/Papers/CaubetDominique.pdf.Search in Google Scholar

Coupland, Nikolas. 2007. Style: Language variation and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511755064Search in Google Scholar

Falchetta, Jacopo. 2019a. Better sound rural or criminal? Data from a case study: The city of Temara, Morocco. In Catherine Miller, Alexandrine Barontini, Marie-Aimée Germanos, Jairo Guerrero & Christophe Pereira (eds.), Studies on Arabic dialectology and sociolinguistics – proceedings of the 12th international conference of AIDA, held in Marseille from 30th May – 2nd June 2017. Aix-en-Provence: Livres de l’IREMAM. https://books.openedition.org/iremam/4395 (accessed 27 October 2021).10.4000/books.iremam.4395Search in Google Scholar

Falchetta, Jacopo. 2019b. The social connotations of linguistic variation in a Moroccan urban context: The case of Temara. Aix-en-Provence: Aix-Marseille Université PhD thesis. https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-02571596 (accessed 27 October 2021).Search in Google Scholar

Falchetta, Jacopo. 2022. Two phonologic competitors in an evolving Moroccan city. In Guram Chikovani & Zviadi Tskhvediani (eds.), Proceedings of the 13th international conference of AIDA, held in Kutaisi from 10th June – 13th June 2019, 136–145. Kutaisi: Akaki Tsereteli State University Press. Available at: https://ejournals.atsu.ge/aida/Papers/FalchettaJacopo.pdf.Search in Google Scholar

Ferguson, Charles Albert. 1959. Diglossia. Word 15(2). 325–340. https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1959.11659702.Search in Google Scholar

Ferguson, Charles Albert. 1968. Language development. In Joshua Fishman, Charles Albert Ferguson & Jyatirindra Das Gupta (eds.), Language problems of developing nations, 27–35. New York, London, Sydney, Toronto: John Wiley & Sons Inc.Search in Google Scholar

Guerrero, Jairo. 2015. El dialecto árabe hablado en la ciudad marroquí de Larache. Zaragoza: Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza.Search in Google Scholar

Hachimi, Atiqa. 2005. Dialect leveling, maintenance and urban identity in Morocco Fessi immigrants in Casablanca. Manōa: University of Hawai‘i. PhD thesis.Search in Google Scholar

Hachimi, Atiqa. 2007. Becoming Casablancan. In Catherine Miller, Enam Al-Wer, Dominique Caubet & Janet Watson (eds.), Arabic in the city: Issues in dialect contact and language variation, 97–122. London and New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Hachimi, Atiqa. 2011. Réinterprétation sociale d’un vieux parler citadin maghrébin à Casablanca. Langage et Société 4. 21–42. https://doi.org/10.3917/ls.138.0021.Search in Google Scholar

Hachimi, Atiqa. 2012. The urban and the urbane: Identities, language ideologies, and Arabic dialects in Morocco. Language in Society 41(3). 321–341. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404512000279.Search in Google Scholar

Hachimi, Atiqa. 2018. Arabic dialect contact and change in Casablanca. Anthropological Linguistics 60(1). 60–94. https://doi.org/10.1353/anl.2018.0003.Search in Google Scholar

Harrell, Richard Slade. 1962. A Short reference grammar of Moroccan Arabic. Washington: Georgetown University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Haugen, Einar. 1966. Dialect, language, nation. American Anthropologist 68(4). 922–935. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1966.68.4.02a00040.Search in Google Scholar

Heath, Jeffrey. 2002. Jewish and Muslim Dialects of Moroccan Arabic. New York: Routledge Curzon.Search in Google Scholar

Ibrahim, Muhammad. 1986. Standard and prestige language: A problem in Arabic sociolinguistics. Anthropological Linguistics 28(1). 115–126.Search in Google Scholar

Loubignac, Victorien. 1952. Textes arabes des Zaër, Transcription, Traduction, Notes et Lexique. Paris: Librairie Orientale et Américaine Max Besson.Search in Google Scholar

Marçais, William. 1911. Textes arabes de Tanger. Paris: Leroux.Search in Google Scholar

Marjani, Issam. 2019. Le dialecte arabe de Rḥāmna. l-Andalus Magreb 26. 1–14. https://doi.org/10.25267/aam.2019.i26.3.Search in Google Scholar

Marocmétrie. 2017. Communiqué de Presse. Chiffres clés d’audience TV. https://fr.unesco.org/creativity/sites/creativity/files/periodic_reports/files/laudience_de_la_television_marocaine_en_2016.pdf (accessed 1 May 2021).Search in Google Scholar

Marocmétrie. 2018. Communiqué de Presse. Chiffres clés d’audience TV. http://www.ciaumed.ma/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Marocmetrie_Communiqu%C3%A9-de-presse_Ann%C3%A9e-2017.pdf (accessed 1 May 2021).Search in Google Scholar

Miller, Catherine. 2007. Arabic urban vernaculars. Development and change. In Catherine Miller, Enam Al-Wer, Dominique Caubet & Janet Watson (eds.), Arabic in the city: Issues in dialect contact and language variation, 1–31. London and New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780203933367Search in Google Scholar

Miller, Catherine. 2012. Mexicans speaking in Dârija (Moroccan Arabic): Media, urbanization, and language changes in Morocco. In Reem Bassiouney & Graham Katz (eds.), Arabic language and linguistics, 169–188. Washington & DC: Georgetown University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Miller, Catherine & Jacopo Falchetta. 2021. Standardization and new urban vernaculars. In Wendy Ayres-Bennett & John Bellamy (eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of language standardization, 713–740. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781108559249.028Search in Google Scholar

Milroy, James. 2001. Languages ideologies and the consequence of standardization. Journal of Sociolinguistics 5(4). 530–555. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00163.Search in Google Scholar

Moumine, Mohamed El Amine. 1990. Sociolinguistic variation in Casablanca Moroccan Arabic. Rabat: Université Mohammed V, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines PhD thesis.Search in Google Scholar

Moscoso, Francisco. 2004. Cuentos en dialecto árabe de Ceuta. Toledo: Escuela de Traductores de Toledo.Search in Google Scholar

de Prémare, Alfred-Louis. 1998. Dictionnaire arabe-français, Tome 10. Paris: L’Harmattan.Search in Google Scholar

Sánchez, Pablo. 2014. El árabe vernáculo de Marrakech. Análisis lingüistico de un corpus representativo. Zaragoza: Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza.Search in Google Scholar

Trudgill, Peter. 1986. Dialects in contact. Oxford: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2022-02-01

Accepted: 2022-05-16

Published Online: 2022-11-08

Published in Print: 2022-11-25

You are currently not able to access this content.

Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2022-0014

Keywords for this article

Arabic sociolinguistics; enregisterment; media studies; Moroccan Arabic; standardization