Say what? Algeria's patois infuriates, delights

[Al-khiyal]

ALGIERS (Reuters) - As an Arabic speaker, Syrian businessman Ziad Karam thought he'd feel at home in Algeria.

How wrong he turned out to be. "I need language training to understand my Algerian brothers!" Karam, 42, told Reuters.

"It's so complex, the sound so unusual, that I've decided to use an interpreter during my stays in Algeria."

Unlike neighbours in Morocco and Tunisia, Algerians speak a dense patois, a mixture of Arabic, Berber, French and sometimes Turkish, that most Arabs cannot fathom.

This fact of Algerian life, long familiar to Algeria's Maghreb neighbours, is being discovered anew by the latest influx of expatriates, some of them Arabs from the Levant and the Gulf, drawn here as the country opens to foreign investment.

Almost five decades after independence from France in 1962 and following a decade-long Islamist insurgency, Algerians employ an everyday speaking style as mixed as their identity and history.

The linguistic jigsaw puzzle reflects the many civilisations that have occupied the North African country - Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks and French.

"When other Arabs listen to someone mixing Arabic, Berber and French, they say he's Algerian. It's become our trademark!" President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said in a recent speech.

Bouteflika, in sympathy with traditionalists, says he would like Algerians to speak better Arabic.

Understanding Algerian speech is not easy. In a single sentence, the subject might be in Arabic, the verb in French, the complement in Berber or Turkish.

Let's try this: A car hit Mohamed, who was taken to hospital. In Algerian patois: Mohamed darbattou tonobile, dattou direct el sbitar.

In this example, the verb is in Algerian dialect, the word car is in a kind of French, sbitar is Turkish, and the intonation is taken from the Berber Kabyle language.

The result may infuriate foreigners. But to many Algerians it's just normal - and certainly nothing to apologise for.

"So what? This is the way we speak in Algeria. I don't see why our president is mad at it, I don't feel ashamed of my language," university teacher Farid Fareh told Reuters.

"It's an open country - open to cultures and languages."

In the past, this openness was imposed by outsiders.

For 300 years from the early 16th century, Algeria was part of the Ottoman empire under a regency that had Algiers as its capital. Turkish was the language of government.

During this period, the modern Algerian state began to emerge as a distinct territory between Tunisia and Morocco.

Spain occupied the western town of Oran between 1509 and 1790, leaving traces of Spanish in the dialect of that city.

Algeria came under French occupation from 1830 to 1962, a period in which many Algerians lost their lands and much of their culture to colonists. French became the official language.

Eager to remove the vestiges of colonialism after a brutal independence war, Algeria made Arabic the country's official language and promoted it over French in schools.

As a result, while many elderly Algerians speak excellent French, many younger people lack the same fluency.

The status of French, which is still the language of business, remains an uneasy topic between both governments.

Unlike Morocco and Tunisia, Algeria is not a member of the Francophonie organisation, the body which promotes the learning of French around the world.

Then, there is Kabyle, a language used in the Berber Kabylie region east of Algiers. Berbers, who make up a fifth of the country's 33 million people, have long waged a tumultuous campaigned for greater rights including recognition of Kabyle.

The last big crisis began when a schoolboy in Kabylie died in police custody in 2001. The death led to clashes with police in which 126 protesters were killed and thousands were injured.

The government recognises Kabyle but it is not an official national language in which government business can be done.

For many Algerians, struggling to make ends meet, the country's linguistic diversity is the least of their problems.

"One hundred and thirty years of French occupation, 30 years of Sovietism, 13 years of terrorism and Algeria is still alive! It's a miracle, so I don't care whether the language is pure or not," Farid Fareh, the teacher, said.

Increasingly, language is a reflection of age, not region, in a country where 70 percent of the population is under 30.

Listen to Mohamed Anis, a 25-year-old dressed in Levis, Ray-Ban sunglasses and a Che Guevara T-shirt, explain his approach to life:

"Hna Kaoum El Rapid, lazam tbougi bach takoul el rougi" or "We belong to a speedy generation, you have to move fast if you want to live decently".

To most people over 60, he's talking gobbledegook.

"This is not a language. This is nothing but noisy sounds," said Khelifa Cheraiti, a 65-year-old retired Arabic teacher.

But Nacer Jabi, a sociologist, believes Algeria's mixed language is not a problem.

"Algeria's youth doesn't have any problem of communication. Those who have a problem belong to the generation over 60. We have a clash of generations, not a clash of languages," he said.

Say what? Algeria's patois infuriates, delights

[phylay]

"So what? This is the way we speak in Algeria. I don't see why our president is mad at it, I don't feel ashamed of my language," university teacher Farid Fareh told Reuters.

I 100% agree!

I don't think colonialism explains alone our rich vocabulary Tunisia and Morocco had their part of colonialists but still they use a "cleaner" arabic dialect. Our neighbours are weird

Listen to Mohamed Anis, a 25-year-old dressed in Levis, Ray-Ban sunglasses and a Che Guevara T-shirt, explain his approach to life:

"Hna Kaoum El Rapid, lazam tbougi bach takoul el rougi" or "We belong to a speedy generation, you have to move fast if you want to live decently".

The author must think the looks are linked to the sentence

[lamise]

Lol at Mohammed Anis' quote...

Perhaps employing an interpreter is a tad over the top. After all, if les chinois ta3 Messionner understand us, I'm sure this Syrian guy doesn't need to try too hard to decipher the lingo

[phylay]

Perhaps employing an interpreter is a tad over the top. After all, if les chinois ta3 Messionner understand us, I'm sure this Syrian guy doesn't need to try too hard to decipher the lingo

The Chinese are keen to learn and are very inventive.
Wonder what was the tone used by this Syrian when he talked about our way of speaking

[Al-khiyal]

Aljazeera.net published the same article on August 19th and used the following picture and caption to illustrate it:


Graffiti on a wall exemplifies the linguistic puzzle in Algeria

[nedjma95]

How interesting ,
I just had an argument with a woman from syria , about why I spoke to much french and mixt it in my algerien ?
So with algerian women my generation we mix algerian and a lots of french . and she even told me that we lost our identity
Well my response to her was :
Well I dont see it as feliure , actually it's the opposite , it's a benefit .
you know we algerians we understand egyptians , syrians ,tunisiens morrocans , and all the arabes dialekts , and no one understands us ,dont you think that's a benefit to algerians and an other richness in the culture?.
If these pepeole want to do business in Algeria they should be directed to the south of Algeria there pepeole speak a better arabic .
But for the capital ,it should be fine , that's what makes it Algiers , did you hear the morocans ? they speak almost like us or may be the different morocan frends I have are from a different planete .
But business wise pepeole in companies i Algeria deal with araic french or english how great is that ?
I never heard of companie dealing with a darrija
" assa3 ara zouj m'balgates normal ou kawkawa " car sales .
" rouh 3amarlou l'kra3 , 3la had el 3fassi ga3 li 3malnahoum fil el khadma lyoum " can you imagine if pepeole deal this way ? I would understand better why they can be upset ?

Dont you learn english when you go to the uk or usa ?
or japanese in japan or german if you have to ?

Give me a break algerian is not hard to learn , unless you dont want to .
Saha fina ou cheh fikoum

[phylay]

Saha fina ou cheh fikoum

Welli ma3ajbouche el hal kifkif
Dezzou m3ahoum I'd add