Source:https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21726743-arabic-berber-french-and-hybrid-three-vie-dominance-battle-over
In Algeria, 4 languages dominate:
1. Standard Arabic: one of the official languages;
During the French colonisation, Arabic was banned in the primary school and was judged as a "backward language". After the independence in 1963, the nationalists pushed Arabisation.
In universities, law, religion and politics are studied in Arabic.
2. Berber: the mother tongue of a quarter of the population, with 6 dialects and recognized as an official language in 2016;
3. French: the language of the elite, seen as the "universal vehicle of science and culture" by its advocates.
Cabinet sessions, business meetings and literacy salons are almost in French.
4. Darija: the Algerian Arabic, the fusion of the former 3 languages and spoken by most of Algerians.
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