The official languages of Algeria are Arabic and Standard Algerian Amazigh, as specified in its constitution since 1963 for the former and since 2016 for the latter.Tamazight official in Algeria Arabic, particularly vernacular Algerian Arabic, is the most widely spoken language in Algeria, but a number of regional and foreign languages are also spoken. Standard Algerian Amazigh has been recognized as a national language by constitutional amendment since 8 May 2002. In February 2016, a constitutional resolution was passed making this Berber Language an official language alongside Arabic. Arabic is spoken by about 81% of Algerians, while Berber languages are spoken by 17%."Aujourd'hui, la majorité des Algériens sont arabophones dans une proportion de 72 %. Parmi les Arabophones, c'est l'arabe algérien qui dominent nettement avec 60 % de la population totale et 83,2 % des arabophones. Les autres arabophones parlent le hassaniyya (11,3 %), l'arabe marocain (0,4 %), l'arabe du Sahara (0,1 %), l'arabe égyptien, voire l'arabe irakien. Toutes les variétés d'arabe appartiennent au groupe sémitique de la famille chamito-sémitique.
Mais tous les arabophones d'Algérie parlent l'arabe dialectal ou l'arabe dit algérien (ou ses diverses variétés) pour communiquer entre eux. Autrement dit, à l'oral, c'est l'arabe algérien qui sert de langue véhiculaire, mais à l'écrit, c'est l'arabe classique." French, though it has no official status, is still used in media (some newspapers) and education due to Algeria's colonial history. Kabyle, with 3 million speakers, is the most spoken Berber language in the country, is taught and partially co-official (with a few restrictions) in parts of Kabylie.
The 1966 Algerian census, the last to include a question about the mother tongue, showed that 81.5% of the population spoke Arabic as a native language, with about half of the Berber population also speaking it as a second language, while 17.9% spoke Berber languages natively.
Malika Rebai Maamri, author of "The Syndrome of the French Language in Algeria," said "The language spoken at home and in the street remains a mixture of Algerian dialect and French words."Maamri, Malika Rebai. "The Syndrome of the French Language in Algeria." (Archive) International Journal of Arts and Sciences. 3(3): 77 – 89 (2009) CD-ROM. p. 10 of 13 Due to the number of languages and complexity involving those languages, Maamri argued that "[t]oday the linguistic situation in Algeria is dominated by multiple discourses and positions."
Currently spoken languages
Arabic The majority of Algerians are Arabophones. Results from 2009 showed that 72% of Algerians spoke Arabic: 60% spoke Algerian Arabic (83% of Arabic speakers); 11.3% of Arabic speakers spoke Hassaniyya; 0.4% spoke Moroccan Arabic; 0.1% spoke Saharan Arabic; a smaller number spoke Egyptian Arabic or Iraqi Arabic. Non-native speakers learn Literary Arabic at school, and as such a relative majority of the population understands Standard Arabic or the Algerian Arabic dialect. Algerian Arabic (or derja) is spoken by 60% of the total population (83% of Arab speakers).
The 1963 constitution of Algeria made Arabic the official language, and this was retained in the 1976 constitution. The 1976 constitution states in Article 3 "Arabic is the national and official language". Neither constitution mentions Berber. The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use (PCGN) stated "Arabic was chosen at the outset as the language which was to represent Algeria’s identity and religion, and official attitudes towards both Berber and French have been largely negative.""ALGERIA Language & Toponymy How politically driven language policies have impeded toponymic progress." (Archive) Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use. p. 2. Retrieved on 12 March 2013. "Yet Arabic is rarely heard in Kabylie, where Berber and French are spoken" The PCGN stated that French, not Arabic, is the actual lingua franca of Algeria. Arabic is not commonly used in the Kabylie region.
In Algeria, as elsewhere, spoken Arabic differs very substantially from written Arabic; Algerian Arabic has a much-simplified vowel system, a substantially changed vocabulary and does not have the case endings of the written Arabic. Algerian Arabic does not necessarily stem from written Arabic. Within Algerian Arabic itself, there are significant local variations; Jijel Arabic, in particular, is noteworthy for its pronunciation of qaf as kaf and its profusion of Berber loanwords, and the dialects of some ports show influence from Andalusi Arabic brought by refugees from al-Andalus. Algerian Arabic is part of the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum, and fades into Moroccan Arabic and Tunisian Arabic along the respective borders.
In the Sahara, more conservative Bedouin dialects, grouped under the name Saharan Arabic, are spoken; in addition, the many Sahrawi refugees at Tindouf speak Hassaniya Arabic. Most Jews of Algeria once spoke dialects of Arabic specific to their community, collectively termed Judeo-Arabic.
After Algeria became independent in 1962, it tried to improve fluency by importing Arabic teachers from Egypt and Syria. Martin Regg Cohn of the Toronto Star said that many of the instructors were unqualified.Cohn, Martin Regg. "Algeria's other 'civil war' – on the French language." Toronto Star. July 29, 1997. Insight p. A11. Available on LexisNexis. In 1963, of the 1,300,000 literate people in Algeria, an estimate of 300,000 read literary Arabic. Mohamed Benrabah, author of "Language maintenance and spread: French in Algeria," said that during that year, "linguistic competence in Standard Arabic was relatively low."Benrabah "Language maintenance and spread: French in Algeria" p. 194. Malika Rebai Maamri, author of "The Syndrome of the French Language in Algeria," said that as of 2009, "classical Arabic is still not mastered even at higher educational levels" and that "dialectical Arabic cannot express things in writing."
As of 2012, remaining generations educated under the French colonial system are unable to read or write Arabic.Arnold, Chloe. "Algeria: A nation yearning for change." BBC. 11 October 2012. Retrieved on 13 October 2012.
Berber The Berber languages are considered the native language of Algeria since antiquity. They are spoken in five major dialects in many parts of the territory, but mainly in Kabylia, in the Awras, and in the Algerian Sahara desert (by Algerian Tuaregs).
Before, during and after Phoenician settlers' arrival, Berber remained spoken throughout ancient Algeria (Numidia), as later attested by early Tifinagh (or Libyco-Berber) inscriptions, and as understood from Latin and Greek historical sources. Despite the presence or growth of Latin, and later Arabic, in some urban areas, Tamazight remained the majority language of Algeria since ancient times until well after the French invasion in 1830.
Arabic remained Algeria's only official language until 2002, when Berber was recognized as a second national language. – « Loi n° 02-03 portant révision constitutionnelle », adopted on 10 April 2002. And in 2016 Berber was recognized as a second official language of Algeria.
The 1963 constitution and the 1976 constitution do not mention Berber and French. The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use (PCGN) stated "official attitudes towards both Berber and French have been largely negative" and "The Algerian authorities have even at times rejected use of the very word “Berber”, either on the secular grounds that the term undermines national unity, or on the religious grounds that it is a term hostile to Identity and prefer to call it Tamazight another name for Berber." Berber and French are the two languages commonly used in the Kabylie region. +Percentage of Berber speakers in AlgeriaCensus yearPercentage190630%194817%196617.8% The Berber languages/dialects spoken in Algeria include:
In the north Kabyle, about 3 million speakers mostly in Kabylie and surrounding regions. Shawiya (also called Tachawit, Chawi) in the Aurès, with about 2 million speakers. Shenwa, in the Dahra region, particularly of Jebel Chenoua in Algeria, just west of Algiers near Tipaza province and Cherchell and the Chlef., estimated 56,300 speakers. Two main dialects: Beni Menacer, west and south of Mount Chenoua area, in the Mount Chenoua area, 55,250 speakers. The Tamazight of Blida, traditionally spoken in the wilaya of Blida. The Matmata dialect, spoken in some villages of the Ouarsenis region.
In the extreme northwest Beni Snous and Beni Said, dialects of Berber spoken in various villages of the wilaya of Tlemcen.
In the Sahara Mozabite (Tumẓabt) in the M'zab language of Touat-Gourara (called "Taznatit" by the Ethnologue, but that name is used for most of the Zenati languages) language of Touggourt and Temacine Tamahaq, among the Tuareg of the Hoggar (see Tuareg languages)
French
The CIA World Factbook states that French is a lingua franca of Algeria. The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use (PCGN) states "In reality, French is the lingua franca of Algeria", and that despite government efforts to remove French, it has never ceased being the lingua franca."ALGERIA Language & Toponymy How politically driven language policies have impeded toponymic progress." (Archive) Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use. p. 7. Retrieved on 12 March 2013. Algeria is the second largest Francophone country in the world in terms of speakers. () "L'Algérie, non membre de l'Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, comptabilise la seconde communauté francophone au monde, avec environ 16 millions de locuteurs, suivie par la Côte d'Ivoire avec près de 12 millions de locuteurs francophones, le Québec avec 6 millions et la Belgique avec plus de 4 millions de francophones." In 2022, 14.9 million Algerians, or 33% of the population were classified as Francophone by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.
The 1963 and 1976 constitutions do not mention Berber and French. The PCGN stated "official attitudes towards both Berber and French have been largely negative". French and Berber are the two languages commonly used in the Kabylie region.
French is a part of the standard school curriculum, and is widely understood (18 million Algerians can write and read French, which is 50% of the population, and the figure is higher if those who can only speak and understand it are included; Ethnologue estimates indicate that 10,200 people in Algeria speak it as their native language, mostly pied-noirs who stayed behind and people raised in French-speaking households.) Some two-thirds of Algerians have a "fairly broad" grasp of French, and half speak it as a second language. French is widely used in media and commerce. French is widely used and spoken in everyday life in Algeria's larger cities, in diglossic combination with Algerian Arabic. Malika Rebai Mammri, author of "The Syndrome of the French Language in Algeria," said "French continues to be the dominant language in business and professional circles" and that "certain aspects of formal education and research are still carried in the French language and a great part of the economic and industrial sectors and press still use French extensively."