Linguistic Cartography

The Languages of Morocco

Five mother tongues. Four scripts. Three colonial languages. One country.

A Moroccan in Casablanca might speak Darija at home, French at work, Modern Standard Arabic for news, and English on Instagram — in a single day. In the Rif, add Tarifit. In the Souss, Tashelhit. In the Sahara, Hassaniya. Morocco is not bilingual — it is a permanent negotiation between at least five languages, each carrying different power, prestige, and identity.

Language Landscape

Percentage of population who speak each language (mother tongue or L2). Percentages overlap — most Moroccans speak 2–4 languages.

Darija

~30M

85%

Tamazight

14%

Tashelhit

11%

Tarifit

Hassaniya

1.5%

French

~12M (L2)

33%

Modern Standard Arabic

~15M (L2)

42%

Spanish

English

Moroccan ArabicCentral AtlasSouthern Morocco, Souss, Anti-AtlasRif Mountains + diaspora (Netherlands, Belgium, Germany)

Amazigh by Region

Sorted by Amazigh mother-tongue percentage. Regions above 30% are the heartlands. Click to expand.

Drâa-Tafilalet

64%Tamazight

Souss-Massa

53.2%Tashelhit

Guelmim-Oued Noun

40.2%Tashelhit

Béni Mellal-Khénifra

34.3%Tamazight

Oriental

32.3%Tarifit

Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceïma

24.5%Tarifit

Fès-Meknès

16.2%Tamazight

Marrakech-Safi

14.1%Tashelhit

Rabat-Salé-Kénitra

5.8%Mixed

Casablanca-Settat

3.6%Mixed

Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra

2.1%Hassaniya

Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab

1.4%Hassaniya

The Three Amazigh Languages

Tashelhit

Largest Amazigh language. ~4M speakers. Southern Morocco: Souss, Anti-Atlas, western High Atlas. Centre: Agadir. The argan country. Historically the most commercially successful Amazigh group — Soussi merchants in every Moroccan city.

Tamazight

Central Atlas. ~5M speakers. The Middle Atlas mountains: Béni Mellal, Khénifra, Azrou, Ifrane. Drâa-Tafilalet oases. Became the name for the standardised pan-Amazigh language (IRCAM). Official since 2011 constitution.

Tarifit

Rif Mountains. ~2M speakers in Morocco, significant diaspora in Netherlands, Belgium, Germany. Al Hoceïma, Nador. Most geographically isolated of the three. Strong community identity. Spanish as colonial L2 rather than French.

Language Zones

Language in Morocco is never neutral. Darija is home. French is money. Arabic is God and the state. Amazigh is identity reclaimed. English is the future, maybe. Every Moroccan carries this negotiation in their mouth — switching codes mid-sentence, mid-thought, mid-life. The polyglossia is not confusion. It is surplus.

Sources

Regional Amazigh percentages from HCP RGPH 2024 (7th General Census) and IRCAM (Institut Royal de la Culture Amazighe) 2023 estimates. National language speaker counts from Ethnologue (27th ed.) and World Bank. French/English penetration from British Council (2022) and Institut Français surveys. Darija speaker estimates from HCP linguistic module. Hassaniya data from CERED demographic studies.