To most of us, trying to attain the smallest level of communication with the natives of that country we are visiting is most often such a satisfying endeavour. Morocco has got a very large variety of languages, given the variety of the historical influences on the people of Morocco.
We thus provide a guide in the languages that you need to get ideas about in order to help you in your pursuit to communicate better. There are nine languages still being used in Morocco and communicating in one of these nine living languages that are still spoken in Morocco can surely boost your experiences in this country of the Sahara.
The moment the local people note your abilities to communicate, they will more often give you a different treatment and will become very friendly and more caring. This is when a great world of adventure will be opened to you just because of that little effort you put in to understand a different language.
One good thing with the Moroccans is that most of them are capable of speaking at least more than just one of their local languages. Half of the country's population can speak and understand French and quite a number of those within the tourism industry are at least able to speak some English and some other few foreign languages.
This surely means that you should be in position to get by in almost all parts of the country. In case you really want to open the doors or even experience a less frustrating exploration then you should really try to speak some Arabic or French because these seem to be the main languages in most areas within Morocco.
These languages however are of different forms and are spoken differently in Morocco. Here below we provide a breakdown of the languages that are commonly spoken in Morocco.
Standard Arabic – This version of Arabic is understood by most Moroccans and this is the version that is mostly spoken and written throughout the rest of the Middle East and also in North Africa. This is the version that is used in most television programs in Morocco.
Moroccan Arabic - This is the main / official language of Morocco; it is however rather different from most other types of the Arabic language. A number of most Moroccans can easily understand the conventional Arabic.
Hassaniyya Arabic – This is also known as Moor and is spoken by over 40 000 people in the Southern part of Morocco.
Judeo-Moroccan Arabic – This is only spoken by around 8,925 people in Morocco. This however is generally restricted to certain, small areas within Morocco.
Moroccan Sign Language – A language of deaf men and is mostly spoken by the deaf men in the city of Oujda. However it is not that easy to determine how many women can use the sign language because they don’t use it in the streets. There exist a few deaf schools that teach this kind of language although it is not generally used in cities like Rabat, Tangier and Casablanca. A number of people who use Moroccan Sign Language are unable to read or write the normal Arabic language. This kind of sign language is very diverse from the American Sign Language and the people acquainted in the two sign languages would find it hard to understand one other.
Spanish – This spoken by over 20,000 people in Morocco and those who speak are even capable of speaking it. Morocco was a Spanish protectorate for some time in 1912 and this explains the Spanish influence in language and culture.
Central Atlas Tamazight - This is just a dialect of Berber and is also spoken by around 3 million of the population of Morocco.
Tarifit – This is also a dialect of the Berber language but it is rather lesser used than other dialects and is spoken by just about 1.5 million people in Morocco.
Tachelhit - This is a form of Berber and is spoken by 3 to 4 million people in Morocco.
Extinct Languages
These are the languages or dialects that are no longer in use. Some of these are:
Ghomara - A dialect of Berber was used both now is generally considered to be out of use.
Senhaja de Srair - This is yet another dialect of Berber that has also been rendered to fall into disuse.
Because of the strong influence of the French between 1912 and 1956, the French language is spoken by more than half of the Moroccans. It is not seen as an indigenous language in Morocco but then a big number of citizens there are able to speak it. This influence has not only left the language but also a lot of French architecture in most parts of Morocco.
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