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Algeria: Berber, Arabic or French?

Categories: Middle East & North Africa, Algeria, Language

Algerian linguist Lameen Souag [1] asks: “The key issue in Algerian linguistic politics – substantially overshadowing the question of the role of Berber – is what should be the language of bureaucracy and education: Standard Arabic (the official language, and the primary pre-colonial language of literacy for all Algeria) or French (the colonial language, and hence ironically
the language which most of the few educated Algerians at independence had studied in.)”