by Caitlin Becker

What I Thought I knew:

When I wanted to major in linguistics, I was consistently told two things:

1. Language change is good, healthy, natural, and beautiful, so be leery of prescriptivists and their agendas (linguists).

2. Don’t get a degree in linguistics because it’s useless (everybody else in my life).

From where I sit now, I'm inclined to disagree with both. To have audience with so many linguists today was exhilarating to a word nerd like me. It is a privilege hard to imagine in itself, but to have access to so many scholars today who live in an entirely different linguistic landscape made the lectures that much more precious. And even though I'm almost 15 years out from undergrad, I can't help but hear those two thought ringing in my ears.

What I am Coming to Understand:

• There are many languages spoken in Morocco

• There are two officially recognized

• The language of school is French and Classical Arabic as is news;

• Spanish is also widely spoken in the North;

• the language of home is Darija aka Moroccan Arabic as well as Tamaziɣt which has its own distinct dialects (Tarifit in the north and east, Tamazight in the center, Tashlhit in the south);

• English is increasingly of interest for participation in global commerce;

• Egyptian Arabic is widely understood because of its dominance in the world of cinema;

• Many languages did not make this list;

• I am told by linguists no one is “fully” literate in any of these languages (for example, no one really writes in Darija and no one really speaks Classical Arabic at home;

• I am also told (and observe on a daily basis) that Moroccans are amazing at languages and shift fluidly in and out of languages so quickly I barely have time to recognize it;

• Standardization has real implications for people’s lived lives--French and Classical Arabic mean access;

• Standardization of language (historically speaking) can also mean marginalization.

What I am Wondering:

I wonder what it means to be a linguist in this landscape and what it’s like to engage with linguists of the West who have a very different context. Are there conflicting, contested, or even incompatible ideologies. What are other linguists missing (in the West or in larger academic discourse)? What kinds of questions will the next generation of Moroccan linguists be posing?

Language is identity. Language is history. Language is political. Language is a tool for oppression. Language is a tool for liberation. Language holds the secrets of our past and the frameworks for our futures. So when it comes to language, there is a lot at stake.