The Standardization of a Diglossic Low Variety

This book investigates horizontal (regional and social) and vertical (colloquial-standard) variation in Moroccan Arabic. At the horizontal level it shows that MA dialects are converging toward the variety of the capital cities of Rabat and Casablanca. At the vertical level the study focuses on the new functions of MA and their impact on its structure. The two dimensions are argued to be aspects of language standardization. The linguistic and the social aspects of this process are accounted for in a uniform way.