Algerian linguist Lameen Souag asks: “The key issue in Algerian linguistic politics - substantially overshadowing the question of the role of Berber - is what should be the language of bureaucracy and education: Standard Arabic (the official language, and the primary pre-colonial language of literacy for all Algeria) or French (the colonial language, and hence ironically
the language which most of the few educated Algerians at independence had studied in.)”
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The elites in Algeria, Morocco and perhaps Tunisia use French to deny their fellow citizens access to power and wealth. I think they will continue to use, or misuse, French even if it becomes extinct in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Quebec. That’s because they use French for internal purposes.