_____Language in Morocco is truly a tower of Babel. First there is Classical Arabic, also called Fosha (Foci). It represents all of the words that are in the Koran. Although it is taught throughout the Islamic world few people speak it in Morocco. Fosha is the Arabic that is spoken and written by the upper class (Educated Class). This is what you see spoken on TV in Morocco. The main point about Fosha is that it has a written form. This is the Arabic script that you see on signs and in other places where it is useful to write stuff down. The main problem is that most of the country speaks Dereeja, which literally means dialect. The problem with Dereeja is that it has no written form. This means that most of the population can not read any language. There is Moroccan Dereeja, Algerian Dereeja, and many others. Any country can have its own Dereeja. Then you have the three Berber languages that are spoken by Berbers who typically live in the bled. The three Berber dialects are all mutually incomprehensible. The Berber dialect spoken near where Becky lives is called Tashelhait. Then on top of this you have French. Most people in the city speak a decent amount of French, however it's usefulness declines in the countryside unless you stick to touristy locals that cater to French tourists. In addition to their language, the French also endowed Morocco with their work ethic. The real beauty of communicating in Morocco is that most conversations are carried out in at least two languages. In the big cities Mom would use French and Dereeja. Then in the countryside she would switch to Dereeja and Tashelhait. There were some conversations that took place in at least five languages! (Dereeja, Tashelhait, French, English, Spanish, and a little bit of Jive.) It made things a bit hard for me to follow.
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