SOCIO-LINGUISTIC SITUATION OF THE ELDERLY IN MOROCCO

8/8/2019 SOCIO-LINGUISTIC SITUATION OF THE ELDERLY IN MOROCCO

1/14


2/14


3/14

Abstract:SOCIO-LINGUISTIC SITUATION OF THE ELDERLY IN MOROCCO

In this paper we shall analyze the social situation of the elderly in Moroc

traditional society and the most relevant linguistic features of this group.We have focused the attention on the fact that our yardsticks applied to st

western societies are not always operative. Concepts like ageism, marginalizadepression or powerlessness are not applicable to the Arab traditional culture.

Like in other traditional societies, in Morocco there are solid networks family,work and social contacts that endow the elderly with a strong social support ana powerful status.

Their linguistic choice is, therefore, a way to maintain this status. The m

relevant markers of the speech of the elderly in Morocco are the preferencclassical Arab words instead of neologisms (loan words from French and Spanand the more frequent use of God-invoking sentences.

Key words: age stratification, age identity, Arabic sociolinguistics, MorocArabic, age speech markers.

Word count: 2655

Brbara Herrero Muoz-CoboUniversidad de Almera (Spain)


4/14

2010 Brbara Herrero Muoz-Cobo SOCIO-LINGUISTIC SITUATION OF THE ELDERLY IN MOROCCOEn Angarmegia: Ciencia, Cultura y Educacin. Portal de Investigacin y docencia [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


5/14

SOCIO-LINGUISTIC SITUATION OF THE ELDERLY IN MOROCCO - Brbara Herrero Muoz-CoboUniversidad de Almera (Spain) - [email protected]

5

SOCIO-LINGUISTIC SITUATION OF THE ELDERLY INMOROCCO

1. INTRODUCTION: The approach, the informants and the corpus

In this paper we shall analyze the social situation of the elderly in Moroccan traditsociety and the most relevant linguistic features of this group.

The approach that we have implemented is that of sociolinguistics, ethnographycommunication or anthropological linguistics, based on oral conversations and direct observto qualify phenomena.

This sociolinguistic scope takes for granted the strong link between language, societyculture as well as the idea of concurrence of multiple variables in addition to age such as the the participants, the attitudes of the speaker and the addressee, the topic and the channcommunication.

We have avoided the psycholinguistic aspects such as loss of memory, slowness, difficuin word choice, higher levels of redundancy, repetitions, less conciseness and egocentconsidering that the subject has already been studied in depth.

The informants:

The informants are twenty healthy elderly citizens aged 60-80 from Tetun -a small cnorthern Morocco- chosen as representatives of the main different subgroups. The criteria to age groups are the sex of the speaker, his or her cultural level and their economic status.

The cultural level of the informants has been measured by the number of languagesspeak, the number of visits to other countries and their level of studies and literacy. Their economic status has been measured by factors such as having a bath in the house (traditiona public bath or "hammam" prevails), having a second house in Martil (a beach 8 km from Teand having a car.


6/14


6

The corpus:

The corpus we have based on is composed of a collection of transcribed texts of c

interviews, story telling and life stories hold in a relaxed atmosphere. The interviewer was a ffriend and, although the informants knew from the beginning they were being recorded, they forget it after a while and speech was flowing spontaneously. Interviews were often held ihouse of the old person and we have spoken not only with them but also with younger peoplehouse (their grandchildren, nephews, etc.)

Then, we have mixed these transcribed conversations with young people narratives anhave shown the texts to other informants asking them to guess who is speaking after each utt(an elderly or a young person). We have used transcribed texts of the recorded conversatioorder to avoid pre-conceptions such as the quality of the voice.

2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: The cross-cultural perspective

Sometimes we speak about ageing leading on categorizations made on the basis of oursociety in universal terms. We, unwittingly, try to transpose the criteria that are valid to ex phenomena of our own conception of reality, without taking into account the existence ofways of life, other mindsets, myths and beliefs. It is also true that, for obvious reasons, suresearch funds or technological facilities, most of the studies on this particular field have

carried out in developed countries.Coupland J, Coupland N (1990) reviewed the main theoretical paradigms implement

scholars in aging research and observed how age studies are demanding an integrative appMany papers in the fields of sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics are focused on western soand authors are frequently using terms like "ageism", depression, marginalization, powerlessness referring to the elderly. Cross cultural scope is necessary because most ofconcepts are alien to other cultures such as the Arab one.

In western societies we can speak about ageism and depression, sometimes caused by thof role, misautoperception, threatened identity and negative self-stereotyping which dete

detrimental processes, because as J. Smithers (1977: 276) states:Strong evidence exists which challenge s the presumption that physical and menta

deterioration are inevitable components of the aging process and argues:many of the symptomsof senility are caused by situational rather than organic factors.


7/14


7

When speaking, therefore, about language and age we should think in relative terms than universal, because age, as any other human trait is a very complex and hybrid, not biological but mainly social fact.

3. THE SOCIAL SITUATION OF THE ELDERLY IN MOROCCO

In social structures like the Arab one, however, the main trend is quite the opposite, thnot quite a gerontocracy; the elderly play an important role in all spheres of life.

This social role is definable in accordance with certain factors which are clo

interconnected. These factors range from the individual level to the widest framework. We rethe family network, occupational situation and social contacts of the elderly. Three key conhelp us to analyze the Arab situation, rejecting preconceptions, in these levels: the conceextended as opposed to the nuclear family, the idea of occupational subsistence versus the indeconomy, and the importance and frequency of social contact and the concept of "hshuma" (sface).2

Family networks:

The first key concept to point out when analyzing the family roles is the contrast betweenuclear family of western societies and the extended one in many traditional cultures as the

social organization.This is relevant because the extended family is not only composed by parents and their

but also by other generations like grandparents and grandchildren. They are living together, sfood and space and, what is even more important, sharing life projects. In the extended famielderly still have a strong social support and an important role in the decision-making proceother words, they are part of the family, and as a result, they are respected and their opiniontaken into account. Old age is not a negative feature but on the contrary an appreciated one. Ain fact, associated with knowledge and experience and even the lexical root to refer to an old pis "shaykh" that means both old and wise. That is a rather extended association of idetraditional societies. str, (1984: 284), for example, explains how the adjective bura in India

is not merely old but ripe, wise and powerful.Another important idea to describe the family organization is that Islamic tradition d

marriage and the fact of having children as fundamental moments in life. The percentage of sis irrelevant and age-role stereotypes for elderly singles are practically nonexistent. Remawhen one member of the couple dies -even being very old- is common and positively valusociety. It is not frequent, therefore, to remain alone -and perhaps to feel lonely- in later life.


8/14


8

Occupational networks:

In addition to family roles, the workplace provides another key concept that helps

understand the different conception of life-span in Arab countries: the principle of productivitOstor, A. (1984: 298), pointed out the urgency of cross-cultural perspective when anal

life span:

"The disciplinary problems surrounding the question of age will not be resocomparativeStudies of the elderly in Amer ica are particularly marked by unexaminedassumptions regarding generation, measurable time and linear chronology. Age is a "social factwhich is endowed with more than simple chronological meaning. The meaning of age varies cultures and over time, as the life cycle is embedded within different and changing social cont

In western society, productivity and life span are directly related. Whether an individustill productive or not is the parameter by which their usefulness in life is measured. Most pfeel as if life ends with retirement, and this can even represent a major cause of depression.

In social structures like those of Morocco -in transition between tradition and modernityidea is not so deep-rooted yet. Theirs is a commerce-based economy in which hand crafted prand agricultural produce are the main items of trade, it is a subsistence economy rather tmarket one. Both facets of the economic process, handicraft and commerce, do not reextraordinary physical or mental effort, and the elderly continue working almost until the etheir lives. As a consequence, older people still have a positive self-esteem, a certain degeconomic independence and still feeling useful and being an important piece in the social pThis is one of the reasons why the problems such as fearful responses to status changes, alteand living arrangements referred to by Smithers (1977) do not often occur.

Social contacts:

Another specific factor to bear in mind when analyzing the concept of life span in Mowould be the role of the individual socially. The market (suq) and the house for men and the only for women, are the axes of social life in Morocco. Social ties and contacts are, in this cumore intense, important and numerous than in the increasingly individualistic developed socie

For example, the number of visits received by the elderly in Morocco is far greater thwestern society for two main reasons. In western society when you visit somebody it is generaindividual interaction and you do not necessarily meet the whole family. However, this is ncase in Tetun. If you go to visit a friend there the whole family is going to be present, drinkiand chatting with you, so elderly people get to enjoy the visits of, say, their nephews friends aswell as their own. This enables them to keep in contact with the outside world even if theunable to go out for whatever reason (being a secluded woman or being ill). In addition to thhabit of visiting old people and in more general terms, younger people respect for the elderdeep-rotted principles in the Arab tradition.


9/14


9

The idea of hs huma, the priority of preserving face is another specific aspect that definessocial relations in the Moroccan society. The interest in being socially presentable is stincentive for keeping the house clean and for maintaining a dignified appearance throughout oneslife, thus avoiding the typical process of disengagement, withdrawal from social involvemeegocentricity that frequently occur in western societies.

4. THE LINGUISTIC SITUATION IN MOROCCO

Arabic, a special concept of language.

In the Arab world, and in Morocco, to be precise, not only cultural traditional values from western society, but also the concept of language of the speech community.

The linguistic situation of the Arab world is quite complex, since two specific phenooverlap: diglossia and bilingualism.

Bakalla, M.H. (1984: 83) defines diglossia as:

A situation in a speech community in which two types of or variations of the same languagecoexist side by side each of which performs a specific function. On the one hand, there is ClArabic referred to also as literary standard and written which maintains a high degree of unifo

and functions as the official standard language in all the Arabic speaking countries. In other wit's the official language which is used in formal situations including: sermons, lectures in eduand mass media. On the other hand, Colloquial Arabic is the actual language of everyday actmainly spoken, and it varies not only from one country to another but also from one aranother."

In Morocco, classical Arabic is used as a high variety with restricted outlets (mass mliterature, and liturgy), while colloquial Arabic, the lower register, is used in everyday lifeClassical Arabic is not only the language of Arab countries but also of the" Umma", an abconcept of the Moslem nation. This upper register is the language that identifies the speake

part of this community, sharing the cultural patrimony turat and the religious beliefs and values of

Islam. The usage of classical terms is, therefore, an important cohesive device for Islamic idenOn the other hand, due to the colonial presence of Spain and France, these two reg

coexist with Spanish in the north and French in the south, either separately or in the combinedof code-switching between colloquial Moroccan Arabic and Spanish or French and MorArabic.


10/14


10

5. AGE MARKERS OF SPEECH IN MOROCCAN ARABIC

The most remarkable features that characterize the speech of the elderly in Moroccorelated to both phenomena: the larger presence of Islam and tradition, evident in the frequentof God-invoking sentences as an element of identity to express their belonging to the" Ummathe preference of classical Arab words instead of neologisms as another group cohesive devic

Both speech cues which potentially differentiate between members of different age grouMorocco are related to traditional Islamic values that reflect a positive stereotype of the egranting them, as we have seen, an active and important social role, regardless of the sex speakers or his/her cultural level or socio-economic status.

The case of one of the informants named Bel-hayy is a good example of the link betlanguage and identity and more concretely a clear case of speech divergence as named by Coet al. (1988: 9). He is a conservative man seventy five years old, who considers western influethreat to the purity of Islam. He made it clear when, speaking to a foreigner (a Spaniard in thishe tried to underaccomodate, implementing distance strategies like not using any Spanish wonecessary, he will even avoid it by a long periphrasis, violating the principle of linguistic ecothat usually governs verbal communication. The aim of such a socio-linguistic behaviour isalthough unconscious: dissociating from foreign values on one hand and on the other, exprwhat Eckert, P (1984: 229-230) calls age solidarity with people who share the same tradiIslamic values. We should bear in mind that Morocco is only 15 km away from Spain, and peoTetun watch Spanish television and listen to Spanish radio broadcasts. This proximity cou

perceived as a threat to traditional values, as a new form of cultural colonialism.Old people usually prefer the classical Arabic form if it exists, while young people

considerably more neologisms in their speech. For example, to mean football an old person wouldchose the word kora rather than the word futbol or fut (an Anglicism taken from Spanish or French) that younger speakers would mostly prefer.

But that is not always the case. Khadija, another informant seventy seven years old, example of the complexity of linguistic choices because she uses more Spanish words than people her age. On a subconscious level, when she says a word in Spanish it reminds her youth during the period of Spanish colonialism, when her husband was working in the Sp

army, their children lived with them and, in her own words, "the city was alive". The peculiarKhadija is the strong link she had with Spain when she was young that led her to maknostalgic linguistic choice.

The other preferential age marker in Morocco is the more frequent use of God-nasentences. 3 and proverbs by elderly people as elements of identity, expressing both their cuand religious allegiance to the Islamic community and the shared cultural patrimony that magthe past, while at the same time rejecting the influence of western civilization in their


11/14


11

Sentences like: my God! Allah!, God knows Allah `alem, God willing in sha Allah, God blessyou tbarak Allah, thanks God al -hamd li Allah, God forbid ma sha Allah are constantly present in elderly speech and not so much in that of young people. In fact, there is a new genethat are even beginning to use Moroccan Arabic -mainly spoken- in written registers showingrejection to traditional values represented by Classical Arabic. 4

We can conclude that culture plays an important role in defining the self and languagfundamental way to express identity. The case of Arab societies is specially interesting becausare in a transition period between tradition and modernity and the main values of both tendare evident in the linguistic domain.


12/14


13/14


13

NOTES

1. For more details about the diglossic continuum consult Herrero (1996: 49-56).2. Keenan, E (1974: 127) makes reference to an analogue concept in Madagascar "another fr public censure is to speak of offensive conduct as causing "henatra" ("shame"). One who has henatra is thought to "mangalabaraka" ("steal honour") from one's family or community.

3. For more details in the presence of God in Moroccan Arabic consult Herrero 1998.

4. For more details consult El Azami 2008.

REFERENCES

Bakalla, M.H. 1984. Diglossia in Arabic. Arabic Culture Through its Language and LiterLondon. Boston. Kegan Paul International. Melbourne and Henley.

Coupland, Nikolas and Justine, Giles, Howard and Henwood, Karen. 1988. AccomodatinElderly: invoking an extended theory. Language in Society 17: 1-41.

Coupland Nikolas and Justine. 1990. Language and later life. H. In Giles and P. Robinson Handbook of Language and Social Psychology. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Coupland, Nikolas, Coupland Justine and Giles, Howard. 1991. Language Society and the EBlackwell. Oxford.

Coupland, N and Nussbaum, J.F.(eds.) 1993. Discourse and Lifespan Identity. Sage, NewburyCA.

Coupland, N and Justine Coupland. 2001. Language, ageing and ageism. In The HandboLanguage and Social Psychology. W. Peter Robinson and Howard Giles (eds). John W& Sons Ltd.

Eckert, Penelope. 1984. Age and linguistic change. D. Kertzer and J.Keith (Eds.) AgeAnthropological Theory. Itaka: Cornell. 219-233.

El Azami, Otman.2008. Lo impensado en el imaginario marroqu contemporneo. La legitimidad del dariya. Actas del cuarto congreso de rabe marroqu: estudio, ensePublicaciones de la Universidad de Vitoria-Gasteiz.


14/14


14

Giles, Howard; Coupland, Nikolas and Wiemann, John M (eds.) 1990. Communication, Healthe Elderly. Manchester University Press.

Hede, Helfrich. 1979. Social Markers in Speech. Cambridge University Press.

Herrero, Brbara. 1996. El rabe marroqu. Aproximacin sociolingstica. Universidad de AlAlmera.

1998. La presencia de Dios en el discurso rabe. Actes del Segun Congrss Internacional Traduci. Universitat. Autnoma de Barcelona, Bella Terra, 279-286.

Hutchinson, John and Jensen, Mary. 1980. "A Pragmatic Evaluation of Discourse Communiin Normal and Senile Elderly in a Nursing Home, In Obler and Albert (eds.). LanguagCommunication in the Elderly. Lexington. Lexington Books. 59-63.

Keenan, Elinor. 1974. Norm makers, norm breakers: Uses of Speech by Men and WomMalagasi Community. In J.f. Sherer & Bauman, R (eds). Explorations in the EthnograpSpeaking. Cambridge University Press. New York.

Nussbaum, J Coupland J (eds.). 2004. Handbook of Communication and Aging Research. Sedition New Jersey /London. Laurence Erlbaum Associates.

Ostor, Akos. 1984. Chronology, category and ritual. In: D.kertzer and J. Keith (eds.), AgAnthropological Theory. Itaka: Cornell. 281-304.

Obler, Loraine and Martin Albert. 1985 Language skills across adulthood In: J. Birren and k.W

Schaie (eds.) Handbook of Psychology of Aging. 2nd edition.New York, Van NostReinhold Company Inc. 463-473.

Pecchioni, Loreta Hiroshi Ota and Lisa Sparks 2004 Cultural issues in Communication and AIn Handbook of Communication and Aging Research. Nussbaum, J Coupland J (Second edition New Jersey /London. Laurence Erlbaum Associates.

Shaden, Barbara. 1988. Interpersonal communication patterns and strategies in the elderlShaden, B (Ed.) Communication, Behaviour and Aging. Baltimore. Williams and Wilki

Smithers, Janice. 1977. Institutional dimensions of senility. Urban Life 6.(3) 250-275.

Ward, Rusell. 1984 The marginality and salience of being old: When is age relevant?gerontologist 24

Documents

SOCIO-LINGUISTIC SITUATION OF THE ELDERLY IN MOROCCO