Sociolinguistic in Algeria "Summary"

“Our culture, our traditions, our languages are the foundations upon which we build our identity.” - Unknown. Bilingualism has many different interpretations and definitions and can cause problems in the community or unite it. The concept of bilingualism represents several different ideas, two writers, Martin Espada and Richard Rodriguez share in their essays their personal stories about being immersed into the English culture and learning the language. They share their views of what bilingualism means to them personally and make arguments about the importance of the concept. The two essayists bring awareness to the major role bilingualism plays in the communities today and highlight the effects of disagreements between cultural groups.

In America, there is a predominant growth in multiple ethnicities and cultural backgrounds; leading to the usage of multiple languages in the American culture. There is a growing need for many people to learn and utilize multiple languages within the workplace and within one 's own personal life. The importance of bilingualism and the knowledge of multiple languages is ever increasing, and therefore becoming more important for the younger generations. The push for knowing multiple languages and becoming bilingual has many potential negative and positive effects.

People try to help people when sometimes, no help is needed. During the 1800's, the more developed countries wished to expand and help to develop other nations. They did this by the process called imperialism. One of these developed countries was France, who imperialized Algeria. They did this for many reasons such as nationalism and the White Man's Burden. French Imperialism on Algeria was harmful during and after Algerian independence politically, socially and economically. It was harmful during because politically, the French took over Algeria by force and forced them to do their work. Socially harmful because the Algerians morals and way of life depleted. And economically because they were given jobs equal to lower class citizens, and did not help their economy. After independence, Algeria did not keep the changes that France had previously made politically, socially and economically. Making the whole process harmful to Algeria

Algeria, officially known as the Peoples' Democratic Republic of Algeria, is located in Northern Africa. It borders the countries of Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya, Tunisia, and the disputed land of Western Sahara. Algeria has a prominent coastline, and its capital city of Algiers is located on a bay of the Mediterranean Sea. The territorial size of the country is 2,381,740 square kilometers (919,594 square miles) which is more than three times the size of Texas (U.S. Department of State). Algeria has a population of approximately 34.8 million people, which has tripled since 1960 (Google Public Data).

Speaking two or more languages is like a country having an atomic bomb during a war. The first situation is advantageous to a person and the second situation is advantageous to a country. “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” is a memoir of Richard Rodriguez’s bilingual childhood and it was originally published in Hunger of Memory in 1981. In Rodriguez’s memoir, he discusses why he disagrees with bilingual education. His audience is bilingual or anyone that has an opinion towards bilingual education. The purpose in Rodriguez’s memoir is to inform people of the effects of bilingual education and persuade bilingual educators why bilingual education shouldn’t exist.

The French, feeling threatened by the expanding might of their British neighbor, decided it was due time for France to establish a colony close to home. This idea was highly supported by the French population due to the want of the population to increase Frances might around the time of the Napoleonic wars. Directly due to a dispute between the Dey Husayn, regional leader in Algeria and the French Consul, the colonial expansion into the area known as Algeria was started in 1830. (Brown) There was much debate within the French government and population on whether the territory should be colonized in its entirety or whether only the rich and fertile coastal region should be conquered since the establishment of a colony on the entirety of Algeria would be a long and costly endeavor for France.

Algerians were once under the rule of the Ottoman empire and a lot of Algerians ended up becoming Muslim. Although the Algerian people were happy to see the end of the Ottoman rule they did not want to be under the new rule of the French government who had helped them get rid of the Ottoman. In an Article called Algeria: What were the effects of assimilation the author describes the life of Muslim Algerian natives after the French came a drove out the Ottoman Empire and the struggles Algeria faced to become independent. “By the late 19th century, colonial policies had turned Muslims into second class citizens compared to European settlers. Laws defined Algerians as subjects rather than citizens unless they agreed…”. The French that governed

In Europe when they took over countries they sent smaller government officials to rule over the countries and teach them the mother country's language. Algeria was taken over by France and they replaced it's language and religion with it's own. Most of the cultures still exist in small groups in the countries but they are not the legal languages. Europe gave the people in the other countries education and health benefits and new technology. Most of the people probably didn't want their whole culture being

While each ethnic group had their own language, there are also over 100 inter-ethnic languages applied to allow for communication among the thousands of ethnic groups. When Europeans arrived in Africa, they manipulated the spoken language by imposing French, Spanish, English, and other European languages as a “neutral alternative” to the myriad of languages spoken across ethnic groups. African’s multilingualism clearly counters the idealist’s impression that ethnic groups in Africa were

Cultural differences, religious differences, linguistic differences, and political differences. These variations between people living in the same area are all causes of conflict. In Algeria, the quest for free-rule was very important for the people as well as every other colony that has ever fought for their independence. Citizens of a particular region do not enjoy being ruled by a far-away country that they feel doesn’t understand them or have their best interest in

Algeria, which is taken up mostly by the Sahara desert, was apart of the Ottoman Empire lead by Hussein Dey until France launched war due to a disagreement between a French consul and their leader. And also because of their desire to expand their empire. They seized Algiers in 1830 and came to have an intense impact on the area and its populations. Quickly France took control over the coastal communities, Dey went into exile and the Algerians were resistant up until about the 1840s and by 1847 Algeria was made a department of France.

Talking about “dialects”, a term often mentioned along is “standard language”. When being brought into comparison with “dialect”, “standard language” usually serves as a legitimate variant with the highest level of excellence (Bex & Watts, 1999). Though positive in nature, standardization - the procedure of standardizing a language – often raises heated controversy because of its consequences on not only linguistics field but also the society. In the second part of the essay, I will focus on the disadvantages of language standardization.

Second largest country in Africa, tenth largest country in the world, diverse culture extending from the Mediterranean coast to the dunes of the Sahara Desert...Algeria. Even with its massive size the current status of Algeria’s economy is quivering in the lofty winds of the Tell Atlas Mountains. The economy tends to remain dominated by the state, which is accordingly a legacy of the country’s socialist post-independence development model. Hydrocarbons are the backbone for Algeria, accounting for 60% of budget revenues, 30% GDP, and 95% of export earnings. Reviewing the last five years we see the government halting privatization of state-owned industries, and increasing the restrictions of imports and foreign involvement. Algeria’s

Algeria was not always been independent and has been a part of several border and authority changes. Since its independency, Algeria has struggled to define its cultural identity. Several strategies have been employed to gain ground on its identity, such as promoting a policy of Arabization, loosening up the economy, and opening their political sphere. “Today the Algerian government seeks not only to sustain the recent ebb in violence and insecurity but also to promote greater unity within the country” (Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, 2011).

In multilingual countries, diglossia occurs, which is the result of language contact and social interaction. This therefore helps shows how the patterns of social interaction between speakers of different languages predict results of language contact as diglossia is a result of this and display the countries multilingualism. Diglossia “describes societal or institutionalised bilingualism, where two varieties are required to cover all the community’s domains.” (Holmes, p.30) There are two definitions of diglossia but it is Joshua Fishman’s modification of Charles Ferguson’s definition that