[lg policy] Algeria Gives Berber Language Official Status

[Harold Schiffman]

Algeria Gives Berber Language Official Status by admin34 | February 8th,
2016


Although Arabic will remain the language of the Algerian government, the
Berber language can now appear on official documents. The Berbers were the
original inhabitants of North Africa before the seventh century Arab
invasion, and they now make up 13 million of Algeria’s 39 million people.
The Berber language – known locally as Amazigh – was recognized by Algeria
in 2002 as a national language, meaning it could be taught officially in
schools in Berber-speaking regions, but Berbers pushed for it to be awarded
official status, meaning it would also be accepted on administrative
documents.

The language policy change was included in a package of reforms aimed at
strengthening democracy that also reinstated a two-term limit on the
presidency. “This project crowns the process of political reforms promised
by the head of state,” said <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35515769>
Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal. The reforms guaranteed “democratic change
by means of free elections” and were “a bulwark against the vagaries of
political change,” he added.

It will allow “the state to dedicate more means and measures to make up for
shortcoming,” High Council of the Amazigh affairs (HCA) secretary-general
Si El Hachemi Assad said
<http://news.yahoo.com/algerian-lawmakers-vote-constitutional-reforms-105506657.html#>.
Around 25% of
Algerians speak regional variants of Amazigh, but less than 3% of students
learn it at school, the HCA says. Algeria hopes to create an Amazigh
language academy to address its standardization and transcription into one
of the Berber, Latin, or Arabic alphabets.

http://languagemagazine.com/?p=125179


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