Abstract:

The objective of this dissertation is language and populations contact in the
plain of Tadla, situated in central Morocco around the city of Beni Mellal. T h i s
language contact setting presupposes common human and linguistic facts made up
of heterogeneity, mixing, variation both within the same language, the same group of
people as well as within different human groups. The languages concerned in this
study are mainly Amazigh and Arabic and, to some extent, French. The gr o u p s
i nve s t i gated are the Chleuh, the A r a b i z e d, the Arabs and the Amazighized. T h e
contact between the languages and groups concerns the linguistic ideal parallelism
and the ideal identity.
This research falls within a larger scope: that of the regionalisation and
decentralisation in Morocco and could be introduced as an element for terr i t o ry
planning of the area investigated. This work could be a preliminary initiative study
of the region of Tadla from a historical, demographic, geographical, linguistic and
a n t h r o p o l ogical point of view. A good knowledge of the Moroccan terr i t o ry and
populations requires knowledge of the distribution of the languages and the
populations and their point of contact. The study of the language and populations
contact will help to apprehend the mixing and consequently predict the human andlinguistic evolution and changes (i.e. the emergence of a mixed language) and lead
to a redefinition of regionalisation on the basis of the linguistic and cultural
particularities based on the findings of fieldwork research.
From this perspective, our research has the advantage of dealing with a ru r a l
m i c r o - s t ructure, which will be described on the basis of the characteristic of the
Arabic lect of Tadla, the linguistic features of the contact between Amazigh and
Arabic, the impact of the socio-cultural interpenetration between the groups present,
the maps of the linguistic boundaries which set the limits of isoglosses, the regional
atlases of the lects and populations of the so-called contact areas, i.e. the plain of
Tadla. The originality of the research consists in the inve s t i gation of both the
languages and their populations on the basis of epilinguistic speech. Former works
on the region have dealt with either one or the other.
The study does not limit itself to the description of the phenomena but it also
aims at accounting for and explaining the convergences between the populations and
languages thanks to the consideration of all the elements which could influence
variation. Our aim, indeed, is not to pre-categorize the range of manifestations of
language and populations contact but to apprehend its modes. The general tendency
is to show that the different human groupings in Tadla do in no way differ since they
have the same representation of the world. The only difference lies in the modes of
expression they use i.e. either Amazigh or Arabic to express their perception of the
world. The goal is thus to give a general view about the lects in use, to provide a
large corpus of epilinguistic speech and to propose a model for its categorization and
interpretation. We aim at revealing that what appears to be different and dissimilar
on the surface is nothing but the incarnation of the facets of the same and unique,
profound and inherent characteristic, i.e. the Moroccan character.
Given the dimension and nature of the language and populations contact data in
the area of Tadla, we had to opt for an eclectic theoretical and methodological model
that would include different models and disciplines such as geogr a p hy, history,
d i a l e c t o l og y, sociolinguistics, sociology of language, anthropolog y, psycholog y,
discourse analysis and linguistics. Thus, on the theoretical and methodological level,
we have made use of an eclectic model including different perspectives that allow for
the analysis of one or many aspects of the issue. The research methods used in this
study (i.e. the indirect interv i ew, part i c i p a t o ry observation, direct “in vivo ”
testimonies…) and the multi-disciplinary approach initiates a perspective that
focuses on the group and the subjectivity of the discursive speech.
The description of the language and population context that characterizes the
area of Tadla led us to organize the study into two main parts: a descriptive and an
interpretative part. This is mainly based on a methodological principle which aims at
satisfying both the descriptive and the prescriptive levels. The practices and /or
usages and the general theoretical model are raised and described in the first part.
The epilinguistic speech is presented, discussed and interpreted in the second part.
Since the speech is conceived as a causality that can modify the practices, the speech
and practices are not considered at the same level of analysis.

Author: Said Bennis