Which Moroccan regions have the highest numbers of Amazigh native speakers among their populations, and where do Arabic (Darija) and Tamazight dominate ? Yabiladi analyzes the linguistic landscape of Morocco based on data from the 2024 General Census. In Morocco, most of the country's population considers Arabic to be their mother tongue, compared to the Amazigh language, also known as Tamazight, which has been an official language of Moroccans since 2011. While 80.6% of the Kingdom's nearly 37 million inhabitants say that Arabic (Darija, or Moroccan Arabic) is their first language, only 18.9% regard Tamazight, including its three dialects, as their mother tongue. Examining statistics revealed by the 2024 General Census, conducted by Morocco's High Commission for Planning (HCP), Yabiladi explores who speaks which language as their mother tongue in Morocco and where they are located. In total, Arabic has the lion's share in terms of data collected on mother tongues in Morocco. Of the 80.6% of Moroccans who consider Arabic to be their maternal language, 86.7% are located in urban Morocco. In rural areas, the percentage of Arabic-language natives remains high at 70.4%. Men who said their mother tongue is Arabic are slightly more numerous than women, with 80.7% for men and 80.5% for women. In rural Morocco, however, fewer women consider Arabic to be their first language, with 69.7% compared to 71.1% for men. Most Tamazight native speakers are located in rural Morocco. Of the people in Morocco who see Tamazight as their mother tongue, 29.5% live in rural areas, in contrast to 12.7% in cities. In villages, however, more women consider themselves Amazigh native speakers, with a percentage of 30.2% compared to 28.8% for men. Tamazight vs. Arabic per region Which Moroccan region houses the largest number of Amazigh native speakers among its inhabitants? According to data collected by HCP, the Draa-Tafilalet region in northeastern Morocco has the largest number of inhabitants who consider Tamazight to be their mother tongue. In fact, 64% of people who live in the Draa-Tafilalet region are Tamazight native speakers. Of these, 73% reside in rural areas of the region. The second region with the highest number of Amazigh native speakers is Souss-Massa, of which the city of Agadir is the capital. In this region, 56.4% of the inhabitants consider Tamazight as their mother tongue, with 48% living in urban areas and 69% in rural areas. In the southern regions of Morocco, Guelmim-Oued Noun also has one of the highest numbers of Amazigh native speakers, accounting for 40.2% of the region's population. Of these speakers, 75.3% live in rural Guelmim-Oued Noun. The Beni Mellal-Khenifra and Oriental regions come fourth and fifth, with 34.3% and 32.3% of their populations considering Tamazight as their mother tongue, respectively. Populations in regions with large urban centers and cities, such as Marrakech, Tangier, Casablanca, and Rabat, have the lowest numbers of Amazigh native speakers. The last on the list is Casablanca-Settat, with only 3.6% of its inhabitants considering Tamazight as their mother tongue. Additionally, only 5.2% of the Rabat-Salé-Kenitra population have Tamazight as their native tongue, followed by Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima with 7.3% and Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra with 8.9%. However, in these regions, the majority of the populations have chosen Arabic as their mother tongue, namely Casablanca-Settat with 95.5%, Rabat-Salé-Kenitra with 94.2%, Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima with 92.4%, and Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra with 90.8%. The numbers of Arabic and Tamazight speakers differ from those who use the two languages to communicate. According to HCP, nearly nine out of ten people (91.9%) use Moroccan Darija, mostly in urban areas of the country. The proportion of the population using the Amazigh language stood at 24.8% in 2024, with 19.9% in urban areas and 33.3% in rural areas. Tamazight encompasses many dialects. Tachelhit is the most used dialect among Amazigh speakers in Morocco, with 14.2% of the population, followed by Tamazight with 7.4% and Tarifit with 3.2%. However, Hassania, a dialect used in the southern provinces of the Kingdom, is spoken by 0.8% of the population. Article modifié le 18/12/2024 à 18h58
