Le ḥassāniyya et la variation diglossique à travers WhatsApp: la Mauritanie à l’heure du Covid-19
-
Catherine Taine-Cheikh
Abstract
Malgré la résistance, voire les protestations, de la population négro-africaine ou sub-saharienne (Halpulaaren, Soninké et Wolofs), la place de l’arabe ne cesse de gagner du terrain en Mauritanie. Face au français qui a perdu son statut de langue officielle en 1991, c’est l’arabe standard qui semble le grand gagnant. Cependant le dialecte arabe ḥassāniyya se maintient comme langue maternelle de l’ensemble de la communauté maure (les Bīđ̣ân) et son usage tend même à s’étendre dans la rue comme langue de communication. Depuis les années 1970, des formes mixtes sont apparues, notamment dans les productions à visée politique, mais dans l’ensemble, les sphères d’emploi des formes non mixtes sont restées bien différenciées, aussi bien à l’oral qu’à l’écrit. L’usage des nouvelles technologies n’a pas apporté de bouleversement radical: le choix du dialecte ou de l’arabe littéraire continue à dépendre à la fois du locuteur, du thème et du point de vue énonciatif. Cependant, alors que ce choix ne concernait, auparavant, que les productions orales, il s’est étendu dorénavant à l’écrit, certains Mauritaniens n’hésitant plus à communiquer en ḥassāniyya par écrit. C’est notamment cette évolution que je me propose de montrer à travers l’étude de messages reçus par WhatsApp. Le corpus constitué au cours de l’année 2019–2020 comprend des enregistrements audio, des vidéos et des textes écrits. Ceux-ci nous ont été réexpédiés par des Mauritaniens bien informés qui les avaient sélectionnés pour leur intérêt particulier (politique, social ou esthétique). Parmi eux, une dizaine de messages concerne la crise du Covid-19 qui a donné lieu à des prises de position relativement tranchées.
Abstract
Despite resistance, and even protests, by the Black African or sub-Saharan population (Halpulaaren, Soninké and Wolofs), the use of Arabic is constantly gaining ground. After French lost its official language status in 1991, Standard Arabic seems to have filled the gap. However, the Arabic dialect Ḥassāniyya continues to be used as the mother tongue of the entire Moorish community (the Bīđ̣ân) and its use even appears to be spreading in the streets as a language of communication. Since the 1970s, mixed forms have appeared, especially in politically oriented productions, but, on the whole, the spheres of use of non-mixed forms have remained well differentiated, both orally and in writing. The use of new technologies has not led to any major upheavals: the choice of dialect or literary Arabic continues to depend at once on the speaker, the topic and the enunciative viewpoint. However, whereas this choice previously concerned only oral usage, it now extends to writing, with some Mauritanians no longer hesitating to write in Ḥassāniyya. It is this evolution in particular that I propose to illustrate through the study of messages received via WhatsApp. The corpus collected during the year 2019–2020 includes audio recordings, videos and written texts. These were forwarded to us by well-informed Mauritanians who selected them for their particular interest (political, social or aesthetic). Among them, about ten messages concern the Covid-19 crisis, evidencing relatively clear-cut positions.
Boulay, Sébastien. 2016. “Returnees” and political poetry in Western Sahara: Defamation, deterrence and mobilization on the web and mobile phones. Journal of North African Studies 21(4). 667–686. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2016.1185942.Search in Google Scholar
Caubet, Dominique. 2012. Apparition massive de la darija à l’écrit à partir de 2008-2009: sur le papier ou sur la toile: quelle graphie? Quelles régularités? In Mohamed Meouak, Pablo Sánchez & Ángeles Vicente (eds.), De los manuscritos medievales a Internet. La presencia del árabe vernáculo en las fuentes escritas, 377–402. Zaragoza: Universidad de Zaragoza.Search in Google Scholar
Caubet, Dominique. 2018. New elaborate written forms in Darija: Blogging, posting and slamming in 2015 Morocco. In Elabbas Benmamoun & Reem Bassiouney (eds.), The Routledge handbook of Arabic linguistics, 387–406. Londres/New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781315147062-22Search in Google Scholar
Dia, Alassane. 2007. Uses and attitudes towards Hassaniyya among Nouakchott’s Negro-Mauritanian population. In Catherine Miller, Enam Al Wer, Dominique Caubet & Janet Watson (eds.), Arabic in the City. Issues in dialect contact and language variation, 325–344. London/New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Ferguson, Charles. 1959. Diglossia. Word 15. 325–340. https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1959.11659702.Search in Google Scholar
Haeri, Niloofar. 2003. Sacred language, ordinary people: Dilemmas of culture and politics in Egypt. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9780230107373Search in Google Scholar
Halaoui, Nazam. 1997. Langue dominante, langue rejetée: le hassanya en Mauritanie. DiversCité Langues In En ligne, vol. I http://www.uquebec.ca/diverscite (consulté le 10 June 2020).Search in Google Scholar
Høigilt, Jacob & Gunvor Mejdell (eds.). 2017 The politics of written language in the Arab world. Leiden/Boston: Brill.10.1163/9789004346178Search in Google Scholar
Marçais, William. 1961. La langue arabe. In Articles et conférences, 83–110. Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve.Search in Google Scholar
Miller, Catherine. 2012. Observations concernant la présence de l’arabe marocain dans la presse marocaine arabophone des années 2009-2010. In Mohamed Meouak, Pablo Sánchez & Ángeles Vicente (eds.), De los manuscritos medievales a Internet. La presencia del árabe vernáculo en las fuentes escritas, 419–440. Zaragoza: Universidad de Zaragoza.Search in Google Scholar
Miller, Catherine. 2014. Juba Arabic as a written language. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 29(2). 352–384 [Arabic-based pidgins and creoles: descriptive, comparative and socio-historical issues]. https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.29.2.06mil.Search in Google Scholar
Rosenbaum, Gabriel M. 2004. Egyptian Arabic as a written language. Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 29. 281–340.Search in Google Scholar
Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 1985. Le pilier et la corde: Recherches sur la poésie maure. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies XLVIII(3). 516–535. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0041977x00038477.Search in Google Scholar
Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2002. De la variation linguistique dans le prêche populaire mauritanien. In Aleya Rouchdy (ed.), Language contact and language conflict in Arabic. Variations on a sociolinguistic theme, 177–203. London: Routledge Curzon.Search in Google Scholar
Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2004. La Mauritanie: vers une nouvelle politique linguistique. Revue d’aménagement linguistique 107. 205–226 [Aménagement linguistique au Maghreb].Search in Google Scholar
Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2012. Arabe(s) et berbère en Mauritanie. Bilinguisme, diglossie et mixité linguistique. In Gunvor Mejdell & Lutz Edzard (eds.), High vs. low and mixed varieties. Status, norms and functions across time and languages, 88–108. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Search in Google Scholar
Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2018a. Historical and typological approaches to Mauritanian and West Saharan Arabic. In Clive Holes (ed.), The historical dialectology of Arabic: Linguistic and sociolinguistic approaches, 293–315. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780198701378.003.0010Search in Google Scholar
Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2018b. Canons poétiques et poésies canoniques dans la culture maure. In Sandra Bornand & Jean Derive (eds.), Les canons du discours et la langue. Parler juste, 141–168. Paris: Karthala.Search in Google Scholar
Tauzin, Aline. 2007. Rap and rappers in Nouakchott (Mauritania). In Catherine Miller, Enam Al Wer, Dominique Caubet & Janet Watson (eds.), Arabic in the City. Issues in dialect contact and language variation, 309–324. London/New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Tauzin, Aline. 2013. Insultes rituelles chez les jeunes en Mauritanie: l’art du “sabotage”. In Littérature orale de Mauritanie. De la fable au rap, 187–208. Paris: Karthala.Search in Google Scholar
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Contextualizing the rise of vernacular Arabic in globalized North Africa
- La diglossie traversée: La littérature en tunisien et le tunisien dans la littérature
- ‘We don’t speak the same language:’ language choice and identity on a Tunisian internet forum
- Le ḥassāniyya et la variation diglossique à travers WhatsApp: la Mauritanie à l’heure du Covid-19
- “In the Middle East, it’s cool to ‘Sing Moroccan’”: ideologies of slang and contested meanings of Arabic popular music on social media
- From stigmatization to predilection: folk metalinguistic discourse on social media on the northwestern Moroccan Arabic variety
- Sociolinguistic representations of variation in Moroccan spoken Arabic: discourses, practices and internet memes
- The Jebli speech between the media and the city: exploring linguistic stereotypes on a rural accent in Northern Morocco
- Moroccan Arabic in TV fiction: promoting de-localised individuals to model speakers
- Multiple attitudes and shifting language ideologies: a case of language shift among Libyan Tuaregs
- Language attitudes in Northwestern Tunisia and their implication for speech patterns
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Contextualizing the rise of vernacular Arabic in globalized North Africa
- La diglossie traversée: La littérature en tunisien et le tunisien dans la littérature
- ‘We don’t speak the same language:’ language choice and identity on a Tunisian internet forum
- Le ḥassāniyya et la variation diglossique à travers WhatsApp: la Mauritanie à l’heure du Covid-19
- “In the Middle East, it’s cool to ‘Sing Moroccan’”: ideologies of slang and contested meanings of Arabic popular music on social media
- From stigmatization to predilection: folk metalinguistic discourse on social media on the northwestern Moroccan Arabic variety
- Sociolinguistic representations of variation in Moroccan spoken Arabic: discourses, practices and internet memes
- The Jebli speech between the media and the city: exploring linguistic stereotypes on a rural accent in Northern Morocco
- Moroccan Arabic in TV fiction: promoting de-localised individuals to model speakers
- Multiple attitudes and shifting language ideologies: a case of language shift among Libyan Tuaregs
- Language attitudes in Northwestern Tunisia and their implication for speech patterns
