Arabic: Languages and Dialects PDF

Arabic: languages and dialects  Arabic is an umbrella term used to refer to a variety of languages and dialects. These languages and dialects have their roots in Classical Arabic from which they evolved. Quraysh dialect is said to have become the lingua‐ franca of the Arabian Peninsula...

Arabic: languages and dialects  Arabic is an umbrella term used to refer to a variety of languages and dialects. These languages and dialects have their roots in Classical Arabic from which they evolved. Quraysh dialect is said to have become the lingua‐ franca of the Arabian Peninsula (Mansour, 1993:107). Classical Arabic is the fusion of this lingua‐franca and the Arabic of the holy Qur’an. “By Mubarrad’s time [Classical] Arabic was dying out as a native language” (Owens, 1988:3). (Jamai, 2010:8) Ferguson (1990:42) is of the view that: A literary culture and the language that was its vehicle [Arabic] had been more or less stagnant from the 13th to 18th centuries… in the 19th century there was a fantastic revival of the use of Arabic as a great language and as the vehicle of a new literate and literary culture. I think nowadays we often underestimate or just forget about that miracle. People more often mention the miracle of the revival of Hebrew, and that was indeed a marvellous event. But the revival of Arabic was in its way at least as much a marvel, […] Quoeted in Jamai, 2010:8 The Arabic language was revived through two channels that went parallel to each other: 1. The westernised literary elite of the east, many of whom, though Arabs, were Christians, and 2. the Islamic religious establishments in the form of centres of learning (Madrassa‐s), usually attached to mosques, which were the driving force behind this revival. (Jamai, 2010:8) This religious dimension and its linguistic reach in the form of Arabic taken together give this language some degree of saintliness in the eyes of the Muslims. The Qur’an mentions and praises Arabic as a language no less than fourteen times (see appendix C: Arabic in the Qur’an). One may suggest that Classical Arabic and indeed Modern Standard Arabic owe their survival to their link to the Qur’an and Islam in general. (Jamai, 2010:8)  Usually, non‐Arab Muslims have great respect for Arabic due to its religious aspect. It is hardly seen as the language of a coloniser or a dominating force, although it should not be forgotten that Muslim nations like the Amazigh of North Africa and the Kurds of the Middle East want to see their own native varieties and cultures promoted as well. To them (as indeed to all Muslims), Arabic is the chosen language by God to reveal his words in the Qur’an – a matter of belief, but it is their languages that symbolise their nationhood and cultural identity. (Jamai, 2010:8)  The divergence of Arabic into regional dialects has come about as a normal linguistic evolution. One parallel that one may consider here is the evolution of those European languages that started as dialects of Latin and Germanic origin. The geo‐linguistic distribution of Arabic spans from Morocco and Mauritania on the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the shores of the Arabian (Persian) Gulf in the East. (Jamai, 2010:9) One may argue that Arabic dialects are on a linguistic continuum distribution. This means that the dialect spoken in Morocco is easily intelligible to speakers in Algeria, as the two countries are geo‐linguistically neighbours. However, Moroccan dialect, as an example, is totally unintelligible to speakers of Arabic dialects in Egypt or Lebanon. This is due among other things to differences on lexical, phonological and morphosyntactic levels (Ennaji, 2002:81). (Jamai, 2010:9) In addition to Classical Arabic, there are also Modern Standard Arabic, Middle Arabic, Educated Spoken Arabic (Ferguson, 1959, in 1996; Stewart, 1968; Abbassi, 1977; Gravel, 1979; Bentahila, 1983; Jamai, 1998; Aabi, 1999; Ennaji, 2005) and many regional dialects as each Arab country, as a political entity and for political reasons, claims to have one or several distinct dialects. (Jamai, 2010:9)  While Arabic dialects have their own respective native speakers, Arabic languages, i.e., Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic, have none, as explained above. They are usually acquired through learning in a formal setting. The two groups, i.e. Arabic languages and Arabic dialects work in a diglossic distribution as proposed by Marçais first in 1930 and 1931 who recognised the difference between the two linguistic systems as quoted in Caubet, 2001:269, and then formulated by Ferguson in 1959. (See also section: 1.1.2 on Diglossia). (Jamai, 2010:9)  In Arab literature, there is reference to ‫ﺍﻟﻠﻐﺔ ﺍﻟﻌﺭﺑﻳﺔ ﺍﻟﻔﺻﺣﻰ‬i.e., eloquent Arabic language. This particular variety of Arabic is what is referred to in western tradition as Classical Arabic. Modern Standard Arabic within the Arab world is usually referred to in literature as the Language of the Press. ‫ﻟﻐﺔ ﺍﻟﺻﺣﺎﻓﺔ ﺃﻭ ﻟﻐﺔ ﺍﻟﻧﺷﺭ‬As for Arabic dialects, these are referred to within the Arab world in terms such as ،‫ﺍﻟﻌﺎﻣﻳﺔ‬. ‫ ﺍﻟﺩﺍﺭﺟﺔ‬،‫ﺍﻟﻠﻬﺟﺔ‬All these three terms in Arabic mean dialect or colloquial. These are in a different class than language in this respect. For a variety to acquire a language status in many cultures, it has to be first and foremost codified. Dialects are not codified (Stewart, 1968:536). The Chinese view on what constitute a language or a dialect is no different from the Arab perception. (Jamai, 2010:10) Wardhaugh (1986:28) clarifies this point as follows: We will find that speakers of Cantonese and Mandarin will tell you that they speak the same language. However, if one speaker knows only Cantonese and the other only Mandarin, they will not be able to converse with each other: they actually speak different languages, certainly as different as German and Dutch, for example. If the speakers are literate, however, they will be able to communicate with each other through a shared writing system. They will almost certainly insist that they speak different dialects of Chinese, not different languages, for the Chinese a shared writing system and a powerful social and cultural tradition form essential parts of their definition of language.  Jamai (2010:10) suggests that the Arab reading of what constitute a dialect and what is a language is similar to the Chinese case described by Wardhaugh (1986:28). Stewart’s sociolinguistic typology (1968:536) goes a long way to define the functions a linguistic system can fulfil. He specifies that a dialect lacks standardisation and autonomy that limit its ability to function fully as a linguistic system for all occasions. (Jamai, 2010:10)