ABSTRACT

The second half of the twentieth century has witnessed the spread of Moroccan Arabic outside of Morocco with the migratory movements of laborers and their families into Western Europe. There, it has become one of the many minority languages that, together with the local standard languages, make up the modern European "linguistic market." This article discusses the status of Moroccan Arabic in the current European context from different perspectives. It is divided into three parts. The first part provides general background information on the Moroccan communities in Europe and short descriptions of the language situation in Morocco and of the Moroccan Diaspora in Europe. In the second part we address the position of Moroccan and Standard Arabic in education in various European countries. The third part of the paper treats the linguistic development of spoken Moroccan Arabic in contact with European languages. In this part we review a number of earlier studies on language choice, the acquisition and loss of Moroccan Arabic, and codeswitching. Most empirically based linguistic studies on Moroccans in Europe have been carried out in the Netherlands, which accounts for its preponderance in our discussion of the European situation. Finally, the conclusion incorporates a discussion of the linguistic future of Moroccan communities in Europe.