Latest news with #MoroccoWorldNews
Time of India
a day ago
- General
- Time of India
Did you just study French for your English exam? Here's the history your textbook missed
Almost 950 years ago, a conquest led by William, Duke of Normandy, invaded not only England but also the language of the 'English'. In the Battle of Hastings, Anglo-Saxon King Harold was defeated, and his loss left a profound and lasting impact on how the language evolved over the centuries that followed. In the words of French linguist Bernard Cerquiglini, "The English language does not exist." That's mispronounced French. Today, students across classrooms around the world learn English as a vital part of their academic journey. Yet, what many fail to recognise is that nearly 40% of the English words they study are actually of French origin. It is well known that languages borrow from one another, but when the influence becomes as deep and enduring as that of French on English, it is more than borrowing, it is a language invasion. Modern linguistic estimates show that 30–40% of English vocabulary comes from French, much of it tracing directly to the centuries of Norman rule. From classrooms to courts, and from idioms to essay writing, students regularly use words rooted in Norman French, often without even knowing it. A conquest for culture, language and the English throne Prior to 1066, the dominant language of England was Old English, a Germanic tongue spoken by the Anglo-Saxons. It was used for writing, law codes, poetry, and public discourse. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like The Most Beautiful Women In The World Undo But the Norman Conquest brought about a complete linguistic and social restructuring. After claiming the crown at Hastings, William the Conqueror graced the English throne on Christmas Day of 1066. He got rid of the English nobility and appointed French-speaking Norman aristocrats in their place, who then introduced their own language, a dialect of Old French known as Anglo-Norman, as the new standard of power, law, and prestige. Over the next 300 years, French became the language of the court, the church, the elite and the law. Old English, in contrast, became the language of the common people; rural, unwritten, and declining. With nearly 85% of Old English vocabulary lost during this period, a new hybrid language emerged, fusing French and English. This hybrid evolved into Middle English, the basis of the language students learn today. French words dominate English vocabulary The Norman Conquest triggered the flooding of French vocabulary across all aspects of English life. According to Morocco World News, an estimated 30% of modern English vocabulary comes directly from French, and English speakers unknowingly use a vast French-origin vocabulary. Key vocabulary areas shaped by French include: Domain French-Origin Words Law court, jury, tribunal, verdict Politics government, minister, parliament, coup d'état Military army, military, commander Religion religion, confession, virgin Food & Class beef, veal, mutton, venison (vs. Old English: cow, calf) Daily Use abandon, accord, adopt, danger Education university, inspiration, language, literature The language battleground has French footprints all over The Norman Conquest didn't just add new vocabulary, it also changed how English words are formed. French contributed widely used prefixes and suffixes such as: Prefixes: con- , de- , ex- , pre- , trans- Suffixes: -ment , -ance , -ity , -tion , -ism , -ize These are now fundamental to word formation in English. For example: hindrance = Old English hinder + French -ance coverage = French cover + -age reborn = French prefix re- + native English word Even English syntax was affected. French-style phrases such as attorney general and court martial follow the noun-adjective structure common in French, unlike standard English order. English as a museum for french words English learners in India and around the world often encounter French-rooted vocabulary in textbooks, exams, and academic writing. Terms like critique , debate , motivation , inspiration , and education all trace back to French. Even subject names like history , grammar , and literature are French imports. Understanding the roots provide a much intriguing lesson and realisation that when learning one language you might actually be mastering traces of many. The cultural residue in sounds and idioms French also left a phonetic signature on English. Words like ballet , filet , corps , and bouquet retain silent letters and French pronunciations. Additionally, French idioms such as: bon voyage joie de vivre vis à vis au contraire à la mode are still used in both spoken and academic English today. Elite dominated it before commoners embraced it The English populace did not blatantly accept the French parade over their language instantly. In fact, in the early years the French adoption was restricted to the elite, while commoners spoke English. It was by the 13th century that French words found their way into everyday communication. With time, the English language evolved into a stew of both, incorporating French structure and vocabulary into the heart of the English language. This legacy is why, today, English is not purely Germanic, despite its origins, it is a hybrid tongue, carrying with it the linguistic DNA of conquest, colonisation, and cultural fusion. English is now spoken by billions, and the Norman Conquest remains one of its most formative chapters. For Indian students preparing for board exams, entrance tests, or mastering fluency, understanding this linguistic history offers more than trivia, it helps decode the very structure of the English they learn every day. Ready to navigate global policies? Secure your overseas future. Get expert guidance now!
Morocco World
4 days ago
- Politics
- Morocco World
Calls Grow for UK to Intervene in Imprisoned Fighter Lee Murray's Case
Lee Brahim Murray-Lamrani is a British-Moroccan former MMA fighter, born on November 12, 1977, in London to a Moroccan father and English mother. In his early life in Woolwich, London, Murray gained notoriety due to his alleged linkage with illegal activities, including violence and drug dealing, before indulging in the MMA world. In 2006, Murray was involved in a robbery of £53m from a Securitas depot in Kent, England, with a group of masked men before he ran away to Morocco. After four months on the run, Murray was caught in Rabat in a joint operation conducted by Moroccan and British police. He was sentenced to 10 years in Moroccan prison before the sentence was increased to 25 years on appeal. Lee's younger son, Lenie Murray, was two years old during the incident. 'I was only two years old when my dad went to prison. I've spent my whole life without him. He's missed my childhood, and I've missed having a father by my side,' Lenie told Morocco World News (MWN) in an exclusive interview. Read also: Human Rights Groups Demand Inquiry into Lee Murray's Conviction 'He made a mistake a very long time ago that he's taken responsibility for and changed for the better. He's still my dad. I love him and miss him every day. I just want the chance to know him properly and to have him be part of my life. I'm not asking for anything more than the chance to share time with the father I've missed for 19 years. 'My father has spent 19 years in a Moroccan prison — far longer than anyone else involved in the same case received in the UK,' he added. Human rights groups are now demanding that the UK parliament take action in the case. 'We are urging the UK government to formally support a pardon request for Lee,' Radha Stirling, CEO of Due Process International and founder of Detained in Dubai, told Morocco World News. She added: 'We're also urging an investigation into whether the UK government breached its obligation to its own citizens, to pursue a prosecution by a foreign government since this sets a dangerous precedent.' Murray's MMA Career Murray started his MMA career in 1999 at an event called 'Millennium Brawl' when he won over Rob Hudson by a first-round knockout, and gained the nickname 'lightning.' Lee fought four times in 2000 and won each fight with either a submission or a knockout. His aggressive, unpredictable style made him one of the most feared fighters at that time. Dana white, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), described him as 'the most legit gangsters of all time.' Dana detailed: 'I actually ran into Lee Murray right after he got stabbed. He got stabbed everywhere and they were still fresh…Days after Lee Murray got stabbed, he's walking around the event with all the stitches still in him. Lee Murray is one of the most legit gangsters of all time, he really is.' Murray has a professional record of 8-2-1 (win-loss-draw) with remarkable fights, including his win over Jorge Rivera at UFC 46 via triangle armbar in just 1 minute and 45 seconds of the first round. Eight months later, Lee delivered a competitive fight with the UFC legend and Hall-of-Fame Anderson Silva in Cage Rage 8, which ended by decision for Silva. On September 28, 2005, Murray faced the incident that would put an end to his MMA career. He was stabbed repeatedly in the heart at a birthday party at Funky Buddha nightclub in Mayfair. According to The Standard, Murray underwent open-heart surgery and needed 30 pints of blood, but no one was charged with the attack. 'First, they stabbed me in the head. At first, I thought it was a punch. When I felt blood running down my face, I wiped it away and kept fighting. Then I looked down and blood was spurting from my chest. I knew I had been stabbed in the heart by the blood gushing out of me. Blood sprayed from me about a meter away,' Murray said in an interview. Nearly two decades after the Securitas robbery, Lee Murray remains imprisoned in Morocco, and his case continues to draw attention from human rights advocates. Tags: human rightslee murrayMMA
Morocco World
4 days ago
- Sport
- Morocco World
Morocco's CHAN Team Opens Camp to Media as Preparations Intensify
Rabat – The Moroccan national team for local players A held a training session yesterday with media access granted for the first 15 minutes. As part of the preparations for the upcoming African Nations Championship (CHAN), Morocco's national team opened the doors of its training camp to the media, offering a 15-minute window to uphold the team's progress. During the session, the players displayed strong commitment and determination in the warm-up drills, with the coaching staff focusing on tactical refinements and assessing player readiness. In comments to Morocco World News (MWN), midfielder Oussama Lamlioui emphasized the players' determination and commitment to meet expectations placed upon them. 'We're fully committed to representing Morocco with pride. The atmosphere is positive, and there's a strong sense of unity in the group,' Lamlioui said. 'As everyone knows, we have two CHAN titles, and we will enter the competition with the aim of achieving the desired goal and raising the Moroccan flag high.' Speaking alongside Lamlioui, Amine Souane shared similar views. 'The atmosphere is very beautiful, and everything is being managed seriously,' he said of the team's camp. 'The goal is clear: to win the title and bring it back home, God willing.' Preparations will continue in the upcoming days in addition to training sessions and evaluations scheduled for the competition's official date. Tags: African Nations Championship (CHAN)Moroccan National Football Team
Morocco World
5 days ago
- Business
- Morocco World
Is Morocco Becoming Europe's Backyard? Engineers Earn €1,500 vs €6,500
Marrakech – Morocco's Industry and Trade Minister, Ryad Mezzour, sparked controversy in mid-July when he presented the significant wage gap between Moroccan and European engineers as a strategic advantage during an official meeting at the German ambassador's residence in Rabat. Mezzour revealed that the same highly skilled Moroccan engineer who would cost a company in Germany about €6,500 monthly can be hired in Morocco for just €1,000 to €1,500. The minister described this stark disparity as an opportunity for foreign companies while suggesting engineers would be 'much happier' living in their home country with these wages. 'An engineer who graduates with distinction and goes to work in Munich will cost the company about €6,500 per month between salary and social contributions,' Mezzour stated. He added that the same engineer could be employed in Morocco for between €1,000 and €1,500 for identical work, expressing his belief that 'the engineer will live much happier in his country with a salary that allows him to own an apartment and start a family life.' Human outsourcing Economic analysts told Morocco World News (MWN) that this wage gap raises fundamental questions about the country's development strategy and its role in global value chains. Rather than developing technology or products, Morocco appears to be positioning itself as an exporter of affordable brainpower for multinational companies. While official discourse frames this as 'providing solutions,' critics view it as a form of human outsourcing. The minister also acknowledged that Morocco's economy cannot currently absorb all its trained talent, pushing many skilled Moroccans to seek opportunities abroad. Instead of rethinking the development model to retain these professionals, the government has doubled the number of medical graduates and increased engineering graduates tenfold to produce more exportable talent. 'We used to train 1,500 doctors annually, but 800 of them were recruited each year, especially to Germany,' Mezzour said, continuing that German universities would recruit entire classes of engineers before graduation. Mezzour described these young graduates as 'hungry' to integrate into life and create a future for themselves, insisting they represent 'a tremendous force for those who deal with them respectfully and within a balanced partnership framework that ensures contribution to their valorization within Morocco.' Beyond 'cheaper is better' for sustainable growth Mohammed Afzaz, a Qatar-based Moroccan economic analyst, told MWN that betting solely on the wage gap to attract foreign investment may backfire for the kingdom in the long run. 'Morocco's bet on the 'cheaper is better' principle to attract foreign investments may not be the most suitable wager for the kingdom amid strong competition from other Arab and Asian countries that adopt the same strategy,' Afzaz explained. He cited Vietnam and Bangladesh as countries that tried this model before concluding they needed to support innovation rather than simply being open territory for mobile capital. For Morocco to retain its high-caliber talent, Afzaz suggested a five-point strategy: achieving fair wages with growth guarantees, enabling continuous training opportunities at home and abroad, investing heavily in research and development, supporting innovation and entrepreneurship rather than turning engineers into 'stagnant employees and numbers among other numbers,' and providing social and health protection for professionals and their families. 'Morocco in this critical period of its rising development project needs its competencies to play a central role in leading the desired economic takeoff,' Afzaz stressed, though he acknowledged that preventing talent migration entirely would be impossible given global market demands. Afzaz pointed out that the global context presents unique challenges, adding: 'Trump's ongoing trade wars' and persistently 'high inflation levels no longer exempt any country in the world.' He warned that 'if wages do not move to keep pace with rising prices, purchasing power gradually declines.' Cultural factors offset wage disparities Contributing to the discussion, economist and Director of the Government Work Observatory Mohammed Jadri spoke to MWN about several structural factors he believes help explain why the wage gap hasn't triggered a full-blown talent exodus. 'The lifestyle and cultural attachment: A significant portion of Moroccan engineers prioritize family stability, cultural proximity, and quality of life that the country can offer, especially in major cities like Casablanca, Rabat, or Tangier,' Jadri said. He pointed to growing local opportunities thanks to industrial strategies launched since 2014, the relatively lower cost of living, and government policies encouraging training and professional integration as factors helping Morocco maintain its talent pool. Jadri specifically mentioned the Industrial Acceleration Plan launched in 2014 and continued by the current ministry, which has created interesting prospects in several sectors, including 'automotive, aeronautics, electronics, and offshoring' that offer career advancement and specialization opportunities. He also underlined the role of government training initiatives through OFPPT (Office of Professional Training and Work Promotion), the Cités des Métiers et des Compétences (CMC), and ANAPEC employment contracts in structuring a skills pipeline aligned with industrial needs, which strengthens local employability. Jadri characterized the wage gap not as social dumping but as an acknowledged comparative advantage in Morocco's strategy. 'Morocco positions itself as an intermediate alternative between low-cost countries like Bangladesh or Ethiopia and European countries. For multinationals, it's an opportunity to optimize costs without compromising quality,' he stated. 'Morocco does not practice a race to the bottom,' Jadri insisted. 'The minimum wage (SMIG) is regularly revalued, collective agreements are developing in certain industrial zones, and mechanisms for social dialogue exist.' Looking forward, Jadri argued this cost differential is only sustainable if accompanied by structural transformation of Morocco's industrial fabric. 'The simple cost advantage will eventually erode with rising social and wage demands,' he went on to say. 'It is therefore necessary to invest in continuing education and technical and scientific fields, promote R&D partnerships between industrialists and Moroccan research centers, strengthen the ecosystem of industrial and deep tech startups, and integrate global value chains at a higher level,' he concluded. International integration will drive wage growth Offering a critical perspective, economist and researcher at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Zakaria Firano explained to MWN that Morocco's current level of human capital remains average by global standards, leaving substantial room for improvement. 'Morocco is situated in terms of human capital in the world average, according to the World Bank index, at a level of 0.5 to 0.55, which means that the qualification of Moroccan human capital remains average compared to different countries of the world,' Firano observed. This moderate productivity level partly explains the salary gap with European counterparts. Firano provided concrete examples to illustrate this point: 'We are in the industrial sector always at a level of contribution to added value to gross domestic products around 28% to 29%.' For him, 'this means that any improvement in human capital in the medium and long term will allow the industrial sector to reach the objective we want, which is to reach more than 40% of added value, not only in terms of quantity but also in terms of quality and also in terms of quality competitiveness internationally.' Firano linked the salary differential to productivity gaps, remarking that 'in European and developed countries, [highly qualified human capital] remains a bit more important than what we find here in Morocco.' To reduce this gap, he argued Morocco must raise both the level of human capital and its contribution to added value, especially in industrial and service sectors. Comparing minimum wages across countries, Firano stated: 'If we take a minimum wage, we will simply compare it with Spain, it's around 300 euros in Morocco compared to more than 1,084 in Spain,' adding that the minimum found in countries with relatively low minimum wages in Europe, 'like Croatia, Poland, etc., is double, triple what we find, triple the minimum wage in Morocco.' On the sustainability question, Firano gave a firm 'probably not' to whether the wage differential can persist long-term. 'We cannot have a certain sustainability through salary attractiveness if we are in an economy that is beginning to integrate internationally,' he stated. With Morocco's international integration level around 65% and continuing to open up, prices will increasingly align with international levels. 'The obligation to converge with new international professions in technology, robotics, and artificial intelligence will require increased qualification and human capital,' Firano added. This human capital improvement will generate higher added value and productivity, inevitably leading to higher wages. Young talents seek fulfillment beyond salary Weighing in on the debate, economist and academic Mohammed Chiguer shared with MWN that salary isn't the decisive factor behind brain drain decisions, and put it bluntly: 'Moroccans flee their country, but French people also flee their countries.' 'I believe that the minister's statement is simply to support the movement observed for some time, the return of Moroccan talents who even resided in France,' Chiguer said. He pointed to many Moroccan professionals born and educated in France who have chosen to settle in Morocco, with Casablanca serving as a vital platform for those wishing to work with Africa. Chiguer placed the situation in its international context, particularly considering Europe's employment challenges. 'France is experiencing problems in this area. In fact, the unemployment rate for graduates is beginning to worry them,' he asserted. According to Chiguer, young talents seek self-fulfillment through multiple channels. 'The main reason for brain drain or the return of brains is that young people seek to realize themselves not only through a more or less high salary but also through other conditions,' he clarified, referencing Morocco's efforts to establish itself as a true African hub. 'It's a question that really needs to be placed in its context and take into consideration the international situation, take into consideration the situation in Europe in particular and in France more particularly,' Chiguer concluded. Read also: Morocco's Auto Labor Cost: Just $106 Per Vehicle Tags: Moroccan EngineersRyad Mezzourwages
Morocco World
5 days ago
- Sport
- Morocco World
Bulaid Impresses with First-Round Submission Win at UAE Warriors
Moroccan MMA fighter Ilias Bulaid secured a first-round submission victory over Eduard Demenko at UAE Warriors 61, marking the first submission win of his professional career. Nicknamed 'Blade', the 30-year-old is an Enfusion kickboxing champion and remains undefeated in MMA, with a professional record of eight wins and no losses. 'It was not my plan specifically to go for a submission, but I'm always prepared to react to situations,' he told Morocco World News in an exclusive interview. Looking ahead, Bulaid said his ambition is to join the UFC: 'Next plans, in sha Allah, are to sign with the UFC and represent Morocco there,' he said. 'I am a proud Moroccan, and it is a pleasure to represent all Moroccans worldwide… Another goal of mine is to move back to Morocco with my family, as I feel at home there.' He added, 'I want to fight anyone, anywhere, as long as it is in the UFC. I've been rejecting all big offers from major organisations because I want to be in the UFC.'
