The linguistic reality in the Middle Maghreb in the medieval era

Abstract

Througout the medieval era, the central Maghreb witnessed a systematic elite Arabization in the major metropolises. This process started long before the vernacular mass Arabization - so to speak - that grew exponentially with Arab tribal migrations to the Maghreb countries since the second half of the fifth century AH - eleventh century AD. Big cities in the region were known for attracting students, linguists and scholars from all over the Maghreb land. Some of these metropolises inherited, in the field of language study, other cities or even whole regions. as this is illustrated by the case of the city of Tlemcen, which inherited Bejaia and subsequently Andalusia in this field of study: Tlemcen linguistic sciences were controlled by the quality of the resources, timing of teaching, and the specialization. This rich environment yielded a rich linguistic output and studies as well as it generated a process of acculturation that expanded in time and space to extend to whole sub-Saharan Africa