ABSTRACT
The linguistic situation in the Maghreb is very particular in the Arab world. In the large cities (nowadays half the population is urban), the official monolingualism ("Arabic") does not prevail; people speak their mother tongues, a dialect of Berber and/or Algerian Arabic (AA), Moroccan Arabic (MA), Tunisian Arabic (TA). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is only present in certain spheres (school, religion, politicals, television, etc.), but French is also prevalent, in the economic and technical worlds, and in the aspirations of many young people. So in fact, three or four languages (Colloquial Arabic, Berber, MSA, and French) are permanently present.
