The "epilinguistic discourse" that native Chelhaspeakers in the Tadla plain have about their own language as well as Arabic and French is analyzed. In this area in the center of Morocco, varieties of Arabic and of Chelha have contact with each other. The underlying hypothesis is that the epilinguistic discourse of vernacular speakers has two contradictory tendencies, homogenization and heterogenization. How is epilinguistic positioning achieved with respect to both these tendencies? The epilinguistic discourse has been analyzed using the assumption that epilinguistic positioning constitutes a tension arising from the opposition between these two tendencies.
Keywords
- Apartheid
- Morocco
- Chelha
- Chleuhs
- epilinguistic positioning
- sociology of language