Covering linguistic variability in Arabic: A language ideological exercise in terminology

Helge Daniëls

In this article a series of Arabic terms that refer to language variability will be discussed. The basic principle of the analysis is that these terms are explicitly or implicitly informed by language ideological attitudes concerning linguistic variability in Arabic in which a diglossic division is taken for granted. Because of its common-sense and taken-for-granted nature, (language) ideology tends to be located much more in the unsaid than in what is overtly voiced. At first sight, linguistic terminology might seem straightforward and explicit. However, especially if the terms involved are commonly used, they tend to cover a set of shared attitudes toward language and language use. A study of the terminology regarding language variability, then, can be very productive in uncovering implicit assumptions concerning linguistic variability in the Arab-speaking world. We will focus on the early Islamic era and the end of the 19th century as crucial pivotal periods in the development of both language and linguistic terminology, as our basic assumption is that the semantic and ideological load of linguistic terms evolves in parallel with important social and political changes. The article will conclude with a preliminary exploration of recent terminological developments related to computer mediated communication (CMC).

Table of contents

In this article I will discuss a range of Arabic terms that refer to linguistic variability. The basic assumption of the analysis is that these terms are explicitly or implicitly informed by language ideological attitudes concerning linguistic variability in Arabic in which a diglossic division is taken for granted. Elsewhere I have argued that diglossia describes the ways in which linguistic variability is interpreted in the Arabic linguistic community rather than the ways in which it is produced. Nevertheless, even if actual language use defies the functional diglossic dichotomy in several ways, diglossia in its language ideological dimension is very persuasive and fits well with how most native speakers of Arabic perceive linguistic variability in Arabic (Daniëls 2018; see also Eid 2002, 204; Suleiman 2008, 28; Suleiman 2011a, 29–31). One of the characteristics of ideology is its shared or “common-sense” nature, meaning that ideological assumptions are most often taken for granted: “The common-sense (basic/normative) nature of ideological meaning is manifested in the fact that it is rarely questioned, in a given society or community, in discourse related to the ‘reality’ in question, possibly across various discourse genres” (Verschueren 2012, 12). Because of this “common-sense-ness”, ideology tends to be located much more in the unsaid than in what is overtly voiced. Yet an exercise in terminology covering language variability, however explicit it may seem, can be very fertile in uncovering these unexpressed common-sense assumptions concerning linguistic variability in the Arabic-speaking world, certainly if the terms involved are commonly used:

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price.

The Muqtaṭaf corpus (in order of appearance)

al-Ğamʿīya al-adabīya al-dimašqīya
1882a “Nağāḥ al-umma al-ʿarabīya fī luġatihā al-aṣlīya (The success of the Arab nation in its authentic language).” al-Muqtaṭaf 6 (February): 551–556.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1882b “Nağāḥ al-umma al-ʻarabīya fī luġatihā al-aṣlīya (The success of the Arab nation in its authentic language).” Al-Muqtaṭaf 6 (April): 697.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
al-Mumkin
1882a “Mustaqbal al-luġa al-ʿarabīya (The future of the Arabic language).” Al-Muqtaṭaf 6 (January): 494–496.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1882b “Mustaqbal al-luġa al-ʿarabīya. Nağāḥ al-umma al-ʿarabīya fī luġatihā al-aṣlīya (The future of the Arabic language. The success of the Arab nation in its authentic language). ” Al-Muqtaṭaf 6: 618–621.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1882c “Mustaqbal al-luġa al-ʿarabīya (The future of the Arabic language).” Al-Muqtaṭaf 7 (June): 42–44.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
al-Yāziğī, ̱Halīl
1881 “Al-luġa al-ʿarabīya wa al-nağāḥ (The Arabic language and success).” Al-Muqtaṭaf 6 (December): 404–405.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dāġir, Asʿad
1882 “Istiḥālat al-Mumkin i̱dā amkana (The impossibility of al-Mumkin if it were possible).” Al-Muqtaṭaf 6 (February): 556–560.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ḥ.Ḥ.
1882 “Kašf al-ğaṭā ʿammā fī kalām al-Mumkin min al-̱haṭā (Uncovering the mistakes in al-Mumkins words).” Al-Muqtaṭaf 6 (April): 690–694.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Qandalaft, Mitrī
1882a “Nağāḥ al-umma al-ʻarabīya fī luġatihā al-aṣlīya (The success of the Arab nation in its authentic language).” Al-Muqtaṭaf 6 (April): 694–696.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1882b “Nağāḥ al-umma al-ʻarabīya fī luġatihā al-aṣlīya (The success of the Arab nation in its authentic language).” Al-Muqtaṭaf 7 (July): 107–110.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ṣarrūf, Yaʿqūb, and Fāris Nimr
1881 “Al-luġa al-ʿarabīya wa al-nağāḥ (The Arabic language and success).” Al-Muqtaṭaf 6 (November): 352–354.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar

Other references

Al-Bustānī, Buṭrus
1998 (1st print 1870) Muḥīṭ al-muḥīṭ. Qāmūs muṭawwal li-al-luġa al-ʿarabīya (Muhit al-muhit. An Arabic-Arabic Dictionary). Beirut: Librairie du Liban Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
al-Qāsimī, ʻalī
(ed.) 2003 Al-muʿğam al-ʿarabī al-asāsī li-al-nāṭiqīn bi-al-ʿarabīya wa mutʿallimīhā (The elementary Arabic dictionary for native speakers and learners). Cairo: ALECSO/Larouse.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anīs, Ibrāhīm
1999 (1961) Al-aṣwāt al-ʻarabīya. Caïro: Maktabat al-Anglo al-Miṣrīya.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ayoub, Georgine
2011a “Faṣīḥ.” In Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Managing Editors Online Edition: Lutz Edzard; Rudolf de Jong. Brill, 2011. Brill Online. University of Cambridge – Cambridge University Library (UK). 01 December 2011. http://​www​.brillonline​.nl​/subscriber​/entry​?entry​=eall​_COM​-vol2​-0014Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2011b “Laḥn.” Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Managing Editors Online Edition: Lutz Edzard; Rudolf de Jong. Brill, 2011. Brill Online. University of Cambridge – Cambridge University Library (UK). 01 December 2011. http://​www​.brillonline​.nl​/subscriber​/entry​?entry​=eall​_COM​-vol2​-0014Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caubet, Dominique
2018 “New elaborate written forms in darija. Blogging, posting and slamming in Morocco.” In The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics, ed. by Elabbas Benmamoun and Reem Bassiouney, 387–406. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Daniëls, Helge
2002 Debating variability in Arabic: Fuṣḥā versus ʻāmmīya. Unpublished Ph.D. Antwerp: University of Antwerp.
2018 “Diglossia: a Language Ideological Approach.” Pragmatics 28 (2): 185–216. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davies, Eirlys
2018 “Colloquial Moroccan Arabic: Shifts in Usage and Attitudes in the Era of Computer-mediated Communication.” In Language, Politics and Society in the Middle East. Essays in Honour of Yasir Suleiman, ed. by Yonatan Mendel and Abeer Alnajjar, 69–89. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dévényi, Kinga
2011 “ʾIʿrāb.” Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Managing Editors Online Edition: Lutz Edzard; Rudolf de Jong. Brill Online. Consulted online on 20 April 2018. http://​dx​.doi​.org​.kuleuven​.ezproxy​.kuleuven​.be​/10​.1163​/1570​-6699​_eall​_EALL​_SIM​_vol2​_0029 Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eid, Mushira
2002 “Language is a Choice – Variations in Egyptian Women’s Written Discourse.” In Language Contact and Language Conflict in Arabic – Variations on a Sociolinguistic Theme, ed. by Aleya Rouchdy, 203–232. London: Routledge-Curzon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferguson Charles A
1959 “Diglossia.” Word 15: 325–340. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frayḥa, Anīs
1938 “Al-ʻāmmīya wa al-fuṣḥā. ʻawd ilā al-mawḍūʻ (ʻāmmīya and fuṣḥā. Back to the subject).” Al-muqtaṭaf 93: 292–298.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fück, Johann
1955 Arabiya: Untersuchungen zur arabischen Sprach- und Stilgeschichte. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haeri, Niloofar
2000 “Form and Ideology: Arabic Sociolinguistics and Beyond.” Annual Review of Anthropology 29: 61–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hassanein, Ahmad Taher
2011 “Lisān.” In Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Managing Editors Online Edition: Lutz Edzard; Rudolf de Jong. Brill, 2011. Brill Online. University of Cambridge – Cambridge University Library (UK).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iványi, Tamás
2011 “Luġa.” In Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Managing Editors Online Edition: Lutz Edzard; Rudolf de Jong. Brill, 2011. Brill Online. University of Cambridge – Cambridge University Library (UK).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kazimirski, A. De Biberstein
1860 Dictionnaire Arabe – Français (2 tomes). Beirut: Librairie du Liban.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liam, Chaoqun
2018 “Metaphorical Recurrence and Language Symbolism in Arabic Metalanguage Discourse.” In Language, Politics and Society in the Middle East. Essays in Honour of Yasir Suleiman, ed. by Yonatan Mendel and Abeer Alnajjar, 49–68. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marçais, William
1930 “La diglossie arabe.” L’enseignement public 97: 401–409.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Muṣṭafā, Ibrāhīm
(ed.) 1980 Al-muʿğam al-wasīṭ (The intermediary dictionary). Istanbul: Dār al-daʻwa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rabin. Chaim
1960 “ʻArabiyya, Arabic language and literature.” Encyclopdia of Islam II: 561-7.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sanni, Amidu
2010 “The Discourse on Laḥn in Arabic Philological and Literary Traditions.” Middle Eastern Literatures, Vol. 13 No. 1. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Suleiman, Yasir
2003 The Arabic Language and National Identity. A Study in Ideology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2004 A War of Words. Language and Conflict in the Middle East. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2008 “Egypt: From Egyptian to Pan-Arab Nationalism.” In Language and National Identity in Africa, ed. by Andrew Simpson, 26–43. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2011a Arabic, Self and Identity. A Study in Conflict and Displacement. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2011b “Arabiyya.” In Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Managing Editors Online Edition: Lutz Edzard; Rudolf de Jong. Brill, 2011. Brill Online. K.U. Leuven – University Library.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2012 “Ideology and the Standardization of Arabic.” In Arabic Language and Linguistics, ed. by Reem Bassiouney and E. Graham Katz, 201–213. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2013a Arabic in the Fray. Language Ideology and Cultural Politics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2013b “Arabic Folk Linguistics between Mother Tongue and Native Language.” In The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguistics, ed. by Jonathan Owens, 264–280. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Verschueren, Jef
2012 Ideology in Language Use. Pragmatic Guidelines for Empirical Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Versteegh, Kees
1984 Pidginization and Creolization: The case of Arabic. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2001 (1997 1st print) The Arabic Language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wehr, Hans, and J. Milton Cowan
(ed.) 1994 (1979 1st print) A dictionary of modern written Arabic: Arabic-English. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrasowitz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zwettler
1978 The Oral Tradition of Classical Arabic Poetry. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
 
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue