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Urban expansion, demographic boom, migratory fluxes and unsatisfactory servicing equipment characterize many Arabic and Third-World metropolises. In many such countries, national liberation has created new language situations we have to reckon with. From a linguistic standpoint, the specific problem, for Algiers and other Arabic eitles, is the confrontation of several forms of Arabic including Classical Arabic and the presence ofnon-Arabic minority languages which include that oftheformer colonial power. In pari l, we provide a presentation of the languages used in Algiers, with their respective domains and emphasis on such features äs may determine their uses and thefactors of the rapid evolution observed there. In pari 2, we try to show how the city, äs the melting pot for certain types ofsocial relations, engenders original linguistic situations that have a bearing upon the communicative strategies the Speaker will adopt. These lead, on the one hand, to the development ofconvergent varieties resultingfrom mutual adaptation; on the other hand, to keeping speech forms apart through differentiation. We examine language interaction and the effects of the choice of different communicative strategies. The article is thus meant äs an account of how Speakers unceasingly oscillate between the two poles of convergence and divergence. Linguistically convergence is shown by the appearance of common forms, divergence -another aspect of sociological differentiationby the preservation of different forms. These two movements appear, on the linguistic plane, äs the manifestations of social patternings and needs for personal Identification. L'independance de l'Algerie (1962) a profondement bouleverse la Situation linguistique de la ville d'Alger. Si peut dire qu'avant cette date un plurilinguisme plus ou moins stable existait, il n'en est plus de meme aujourd'hui. D'une part, parce que, des les lendemains de l'indepen-0165-2516/91/0087-0055 $2.00

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