Reflections of Algerian French-speaking linguists on the linguistic conflict in Algeria

Abstract

This contribution is a report from ongoing research, aiming at exploring current societal debates on language choice in Algeria and the roles of Algerian linguists who engage in the debate through their scientific reports or by taking part in public debates in the press or in social media. The societal controversies typically concern issues, like the introduction of VA in schools (2015 in the written press), the standardization of Tamazight as a school language, and a recent debate about replacing French with English.

For the purpose of the study, I have chosen two post-doctoral publications each of three different Algerian scholars, active at three different Algerian universities in the cities of Mostganem, Adrar and Tlemcen, which I had the privilege to visit in May-June of last year. In Algeria I met highly knowledgeable scholars with a passionate interest in issues of identity and language. The three chosen as research persons are the Ph. D. holders Nadia Grine, Zakaria Ali-Bencherif and Ibtissem Chachou, all in their 40s, French-trained, and prolific writers in their field.  They all had their training in linguistics at French departments of Algerian universities, including their doctoral studies. Their doctoral dissertations, published in the period of 2009-2011, are about sociolinguistic matters in Algeria. The publications include one monograph and five articles, of which two were written in collaboration with co-authors. One article was written in English. The articles are representative of each author's production and sociolinguistic orientation.