Dialectal Arabic has become the second most widely spoken language in France, surpassing many of the nation’s historic regional languages for the first time in history, according to a recent study.
France, which has the largest Muslim population of any country inside the European Union at around ten percent, is witnessing many of its regional languages, such as Berber, Alsatian, Occitan, and Breton, slowly die out while dialectal Arabic is becoming increasingly common.
Indeed, more people across France speak some form of Arabic than all other regional languages combined. “This would seem to be a first in history, at a crossroads of the decline of regional languages, globalization, and migration,” states Victoire Lemoigne of the French newspaper Le Figaro.
The country has up to four million Arabic speakers, the majority of whom come from countries on the North African coast, including Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. However, migrants from other Arabic-speaking countries, such as Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria, have contributed to the trend.
It is likely this trend will continue over the coming decades, as the Muslim population of France is expected to increase to around 12.6 million by 2050.
