This textbook aims to answer the needs of our undergraduate students (mainly second, third and fourth year students) who speak Arabic, sometimes Berber, French and/or Spanish in addition to English, the target language. Five languages are used for illustration: English, French, Standard Arabic, Moroccan Arabic and Berber. The variety of English that is illustrated from is Standard British English, often referred to as the "BBC English" or the "Queen's English", and the sound pattern of Received Pronunciation (RP), which is a standard British English accent, is described. Broadly speaking, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) has been selected to transcribe all speech sounds. So far as Standard Arabic is concerned, the variety used is the one which is prevalent in the domain of mass media, such as radio, television and newspapers. As to Moroccan Arabic, the variety which is exemplified from is the one spoken in the regions of Rabat and Casablanca. Concerning Berber, the varieties used for illustration are the ones spoken in Ayt Hassan, near Demnat and Ayt Bouzid, near Beni-Mellal.

   This textbook is written by Moroccan academics to Moroccan, Maghrebi and Arab students of the English language and linguistics. It does not presuppose any background knowledge of linguistics and each chapter offers an introduction to the component with which it deals. Examples from the languages that the students know are provided in virtually all chapters in order to illustrate different linguistic principles and phenomena. For the sake of practice and discussion, there are exercises and questions related to the sociolinguistic context of our students, in addition to a summary and a list of references at the end of each chapter.