Beyond Arabization and Linguistic Competition: A Domain-Based Framework for Language Governance in Algeria

Abstract

Algeria presents a particularly complex sociolinguistic configuration in which constitutional provisions, language-planning decisions, institutional practices, everyday communication, and the international value of languages do not always converge. Earlier approaches have often interpreted this configuration through binary oppositions, especially Arabic versus French or Arabization versus multilingualism. Although these oppositions capture important historical tensions, they provide an incomplete account of the ways in which different linguistic resources operate across contemporary Algerian society. This article therefore reconsiders the Algerian linguistic situation by distinguishing among language status, language function, and language domain. It adopts a qualitative documentary and interpretive approach based on foundational sociolinguistic scholarship, research on Algerian language planning, studies of language attitudes and multilingualism, and official constitutional provisions. The analysis shows that Arabic, Algerian Arabic varieties, Tamazight, French, and English do not occupy identical sociolinguistic positions. Arabic possesses central constitutional and institutional status; Algerian Arabic varieties remain fundamental to everyday interpersonal communication; Tamazight combines official recognition with cultural and identity functions and an ongoing need for institutional development; French retains historically accumulated functional capital in several professional, scientific, educational, and economic contexts; and English is acquiring increasing strategic value in international academic, scientific, technological, and professional communication. The article argues that multilingualism should therefore not be understood exclusively as a process of linguistic competition. Competition may occur within particular domains, while complementarity may characterize relationships across domains. On this basis, the article proposes a Domain-Based Linguistic Governance Model (DLGM), organized around five principles: national-language empowerment, institutional development of Tamazight, functional multilingualism, domain differentiation, and evidence-based policy evaluation. The proposed framework seeks to reconcile linguistic sovereignty, linguistic rights, educational effectiveness, social equity, and international participation without reducing language planning to the replacement of one language by another.