What languages are spoken in Morocco? This is an interesting question, especially for foreigners who want to work here, offer a service, or who are wondering which language they should learn.
A recent Sunergia study provides an overview of the languages spoken (and written) by Moroccans. One of the interesting points is the distinction between personal and professional contexts.
Before delving into the results, it is important to consider the political issues behind the language question in Morocco.
Morocco’s languages: political issues
Darija or Standard Arabic
According to the study, 100% of Moroccans speak Darija. But for a certain number of Moroccans, Darija ‘is not Arabic’. One needs only recall the scandal caused in 2019 by an Arabic language textbook that included typically Moroccan words such as ‘baghrir’ ( بغرير ), ‘briouates’ ( بريوات ) and ‘msemens’ ( مسمن ). The PJD took offence because these were Darija words.
When I mentioned the گ and ڤ used in Morocco to transcribe the G and V, I was told on Facebook that ‘it wasn’t Arabic’. And yet, Agadir and the mineral water brand Vitalya use these letters very officially.
Morocco is the opposite of Quebec and the French-speaking world in general. While ‘French people outside France’ are full of local expressions and even accommodations with the grammar of the Académie française, no one would ever say that ‘it’s not French’.
Throughout the decolonised Arab world, Arabisation has been a political issue. It is also a religious issue, with Arabic grammar standards being set at the time of Muslim expansion to prevent new believers from misinterpreting the language.
Finally, from an educational point of view, it is an almost insurmountable challenge. We know that children learn better in their mother tongue, but we also know that the school curriculum after primary school is in standard Arabic and that young students must learn to master this language in order to understand their textbooks and pass their exams.
Despite the similarity between the languages, is it conceivable or acceptable to teach Standard Arabic as a ‘foreign language’ when it is the official language of the country? And yet, to say that Darija is not Arabic is to admit that, for many Moroccans, Arabic is a foreign language, like Italian is for French people: very similar, easily understandable, but different.
Amazigh (Berber language) place
With the official recognition of Amazigh in 2012, Morocco sent a strong signal and put a stop to separatist demands from certain Berber communities. While relations between the state and these communities have never been as tense as in Algeria, Amazigh, the mother tongue of 25% of Moroccans, is still struggling to find its place.
The Berber – or Amazigh – language, a surviving orality - The Berber language, a surviving orality and the mark of a growing cultural affirmation. Even more than with Darija, the question of different dialects is important. It was decided that the ‘local’ version would be taught in schools, whether Tarifit, Tachelhit or Tamazight.
Although IRCAM maintains a multilingual dictionary, it does not contain many words. I searched in vain for the name of the monkey, Zatout, which is nevertheless used in Tachelhit.
While motorway signs and those adorning Moroccan government buildings are now trilingual, the new version of banknotes does not include Amazigh.
In short, this language is a spoken language, a language that has literature, but cannot, in practical terms, be a working language.
French and English
The status of French in Morocco is ambiguous. Widely used as a working language by Moroccans who attended French schools, accepted in courts, and used in the Official Gazette, where the vast majority of laws are translated into French, it is also ‘psychologically’ rejected as the language of the former coloniser.
This is a topic that comes up regularly on Facebook, in groups that I would describe as ‘mixed’, where someone regularly asks ‘why don’t we speak Arabic’ and the answer is always the same: everyone speaks as they wish, some people are not comfortable writing Arabic, etc.
For several years now, there has been a movement to develop the use of English in Morocco and see it replace French. I have [my opinion on what I consider to be ‘wishful thinking”], and I’ll tell you about it one day. (I am bilingual in English, so this is not a biased opinion. But I can see the difficulties faced by foreigners who only speak English in Morocco). However, this desire to switch to English arises every time relations with France become strained.
Bilingual English-speaking or trilingual schools are growing in number.
Sunergia’s survey on language practices in Morocco
You will find the link to the survey (in French) at the bottom of the article. Simply create an account on their website to access the full text.
Selected languages
The institute preferred to limit itself to seven languages, rather than asking an open question about the languages spoken. These languages are:
- Darija,
- Classical Arabic,
- Amazigh, without distinction of dialect,
- French,
- English,
- Spanish
- and German
The 2024 census distinguishes between ‘local languages’ (Darija, Tachelhit, Tamazight, Tarifit and Hassanya) on the one hand, and Arabic, French and ‘other languages’ on the other.
The level of language proficiency and the context of use
The questionnaire included two important questions:
Level of practice:
- Mother tongue
- Language spoken fluently
- Basic knowledge
- No knowledge (or very little)
Context of use:
- Personal spoken (with friends/family)
- Personal written (text messages, WhatsApp, emails to friends/family)
- Professional spoken (at the office/work)
- Professional written (text messages, WhatsApp, emails at the office/work)
This should have resulted in a matrix with 16 possibilities (actually slightly fewer, as it is not logical to use a language that one does not know).
However, this matrix is not included in the presentation of the study results. It would have been interesting to know, for example, what percentage of Moroccans with only a ‘basic knowledge’ of classical Arabic are required to use it in a professional context (legal, for example), or what percentage of Moroccans who speak Tamazight fluently have the opportunity to use it in this professional context, in writing (and how they do it).
Darija and Berber (Tamazight)
It is in the paragraph on Darija that we see the confusion between ‘mother tongue’ and ‘level of language’.
For me, having discovered Morocco through my Berber in-laws from the south (Draa Valley) and having travelled through areas where nomads still live, it is completely wrong to say that ‘100% of Moroccans speak Darija fluently’ and that […] 94% have it as their mother tongue.
Further down, we find
21% +94% = 115% !
The definition of mother tongue is the first language learned at home during childhood and still understood by the person at the time the data is collected. If Tamazight is your mother tongue, you cannot also have Darija.
The statement that ‘100% of Moroccans speak Darija fluently’ is also not entirely accurate.
According to data from the HCP and the 2024 census:
- 24.8% of Moroccans are illiterate;
- almost the entire literate population aged 10 and over can read and write Arabic (99.2%);
- but nearly nine out of ten people (91.9%) use Darija (96.3% in urban areas compared to 84.5% in rural areas).
On the other hand, Sunergia and HCP agree on the figure of 25% of Amazigh speakers.
Darija and Classical Arabic
In its statistics, the 2024 census does not distinguish between Darija and Standard Arabic. Sunergia’s study, on the other hand, shows a very significant difference: only 2% of respondents use Standard Arabic in their personal oral communications, compared to 94% for Darija. In the workplace, Darija is used by 69% of Moroccans when speaking and 39% when writing, compared to only 8% and 10% for classical Arabic (lawyers, philosophers, etc.).
Only 12.6% of Moroccans consider themselves bilingual in these two languages.
French, English and other foreign languages
In the professional world, French takes the lion’s share with 31% of users speaking it and 32% writing it, almost the same as Darija. And there is a huge gap between spoken and written language in a personal context: 9% speak it and 22% write it, the opposite of Darija.
10% of Moroccans are bilingual or trilingual with French. This is much lower than those who use it on a daily basis in the professional sphere.
Barely 3% of Moroccans speak English fluently in addition to Arabic. And 7% use it in a professional context.
As for other foreign languages (Spanish, German, etc.), they are virtually non-existent.
What languages are spoken in Morocco, and which languages should a foreigner learn?
So, two Arabic languages are spoken in Morocco, and often French and/or Tamazight. Each of these languages is used in its own context, and most Moroccans switch from one to the other, even without being bilingual or trilingual.
Clearly, for a foreigner, between standard Arabic and Darija, the lattest is the most important of the two languages, provided that they also learn to read Arabic. They will have to juggle between the Arabic alphabet and the Latin transcription of Darija.
In a professional context, if they are French-speaking, they will be able to get by easily. They will probably have to do without the small talk that takes place in Darija, and their vocabulary will undoubtedly be limited, but they will be able to use their skills.On the other hand, if he is English-speaking, it will be much more difficult. Especially if he does not speak Arabic. Although Moroccans want to turn to English, the professional world has not yet evolved to the point where his talents are needed, and he will often be confined to teaching positions or working remotely with his country of origin or as a ‘tech nomad’.
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