Al-'Arabiyya: Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic, Volume 53 1647120586, 9781647120580

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Al-‘Arabiyya

Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic

‫العربية‬

‫مجلة رابطة أساتذة اللغة العربية‬

Volume 53 | 2020

Al-‘Arabiyya: Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic Volume 53 (2020) Editor: Mohammad T. Alhawary, University of Michigan Book Review Editor: Dris Soulaimani, San Diego State University Editorial Board

Ahmed Idrissi Alami, Purdue University Abdulkafi Albirini, Utah State University Sami Boudelaa, University of UAE Brahim Chakrani, Michigan State University John Eisele, College of William and Mary Raghda El Essawi, The American University in Cairo

Hussein Elkhafaifi, University of Washington Sam Hellmuth, University of York Mustafa Mughazy, Western Michigan University Karin Ryding, Georgetown University Usama Sultan, Middlebury College Keith Waiters, Portland State University

Editorial Office

Email all editorial correspondence to aataeditor@​aataweb​.org

Professor Mohammad T. Alhawary, Editor University of Michigan Department of Middle East Studies 202 S. Thayer Street, Suite 4111 Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1608 http://​aataweb​.org​/alarabiyya Publisher (purchase and copyright)

Georgetown University Press 3520 Prospect Street NW, Suite 140 Washington, DC 20007 http://​press​.georgetown​.edu

© 2020 by the American Association of Teachers of Arabic. All rights reserved. Al-‘Arabiyya (ISBN 978-1-64712-058-0; ISSN#: 0889-8731) is published annually by the American Association of Teachers of Arabic. Institutional and Literary Library Subscriptions: A single issue of Al-‘Arabiyya, which is published annually, or a one-​ year subscription may be purchased by institutions and libraries for US $60. Place orders at 800-537-5487 or online at http://​press​.georgetown​.edu. Beginning with volume 47, Al-‘Arabiyya is also available as an e-​journal through Project MUSE. AATA Membership: A subscription to Al-‘Arabiyya, which is published annually, is included in a membership to the American Association of Teachers of Arabic (AATA). The annual cost of membership is US $50 for individuals, US $15 for students, and US $200 for institutions. AATA welcomes members who live and work throughout the world; AATA does not have a residency or citizenship requirement for members. For more information about AATA membership, to join AATA online, or to download an AATA membership application, please visit the AATA website at http://​aataweb​.org​/signup. Back Issues: Printed back issues through Volume 43 are available through the AATA website at http://​aataweb​.org​ /alarabiyya. Printed back issues from Volume 44-45 (2011–2012) forward are available from Georgetown University Press for US $60 each. Digital backlist volumes are available online through JSTOR and MUSE. Advertising: AATA is pleased to accept a limited number of advertisements, which appear after all editorial content in Al-‘Arabiyya. For information about advertising your institution, organization, publications, or other products or services that relate directly to the needs and interests of AATA members and subscribers, please contact the Editor. Membership subscriptions: If your subscription copy of Al-‘Arabiyya has not yet reached you, please contact AATA at 3416 Primm Lane, Birmingham, AL 35216 USA. Phone 205-822-6800, fax 205-823-2760, info@​aataweb​.org. The views and opinions expressed in this journal are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Georgetown University Press or the American Association of Teachers of Arabic (AATA), the Editor, or the staff of Al-‘Arabiyya.

Contents Editor’s Note  v Acknowledgments  vii Articles Code Choice between Standard Arabic and the Saudi Dialect by Saudi Twitter Users   1 Saeed Al Alaslaa and Mohammad T. Alhawary Languages in Conflict: Examining the Status of Standard Arabic and French in Morocco   37 Brahim Chakrani Attitudes toward Arabic and Foreign Elaboration DMs in Three Dialects of Arabic   57 Abdelaadim Bidaoui The Role of Self-​Efficacy, Attitudes, and Orientations in Learning Arabic as a Less-​ Commonly Taught Language: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach   85 Tarek Hermessi Functions and Uses of Active and Passive Participial Forms in Al-‘Awābī District Vernacular of Northern Oman   109 Roberta Morano Book Reviews Introduction to Spoken Standard Arabic: A Conversational Course on DVD, Part 2, Shukri B. Abed and Arwa Sawan  129 Reviewed by Sara Al Tubuly Kalima wa Nagham: A Textbook for Teaching Arabic, Volume 2, Ghazi M. Abuhakema and Nasser M. Isleem  133 Reviewed by Youness Mountaki Mahmud Sami al-​Barudi: Reconfiguring Society and the Self, Terri DeYoung  137 Reviewed by Archana Prakash The Revolt of the Young: Essays by Tawfiq al-​Hakim, Translated by Mona Radwan  141 Reviewed by Wanis Shalaby My Torturess, Bensalem Himmich, Translated by Roger Allen  143 Reviewed by Mbarek Sryfi Coming of Age in Madrid: An Oral History of Unaccompanied Moroccan Migrant Minors, Susan Plann  147 Reviewed by Mohamed El-​Madkouri Maataoui Contributors  151 Submission Guidelines  154

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Editor’s Note The publication of Al-‘Arabiyya volume 53 brings to you five articles and six book reviews. Three of the articles contribute in many meaningful ways to Arabic sociolinguistics, one to Arabic second language learning and teaching pedagogy, and one to Arabic dialectology. The article by Al Alaslaa and Alhawary investigates codeswitching between Standard Arabic and the Saudi dialect by Saudi Twitter users. Their study examined close to eight thousand tweets and compared codeswitching use in its written form with those identified in face-​to-​face interactions. In addition, the study investigated whether codeswitching patterns change by topic and whether they differ by gender and education. The findings are relevant (quantitatively and qualitatively) to how the two Arabic varieties are used on Twitter by Saudi Twitter users. Chakrani reports on an attitudinal study, focusing on the attitudes of middle-​class Moroccans toward Standard Arabic versus French. The study employed a matched guise test and attempted to detect the participants’ covert attitudes related to status and solidarity traits. The findings challenge previously held assumptions in the literature with respect to the functional complementarity of the two languages, with Standard Arabic “epitomizing” local culture and traditional values and French standing for status, modernity, and social mobility. The article by Bidaoui reports on another attitudinal study. It examined participants’ reactions to Arabic and foreign variants of the elaboration discourse marker “I  mean.” The study relied on a perception experiment where three groups of participants, belonging to three dialects of Arabic (Moroccan, Egyptian, and Saudi), listened to previously recorded passages and rated their responses based on power, solidarity, competence, and status traits. In his article, Hermessi examines L2 learners’ motivation in a study-​abroad setting. In particular, his study investigated the role of self-​efficacy, attitudes, and orientations in learning Arabic as a less commonly taught language. Unlike previous research on motivation to learn Arabic as an L2, which has traditionally focused on the interrelationships among motivational variables, Hermessi investigates the internal structure v

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Editor’s Note

of motivation in how self-​efficacy, attitudes, and orientations interact to affect two external variables of motivation: outcome expectancy and motivational intensity. In her article, Morano offers a descriptive account of the use and functions of the active and passive participial forms in the Omani vernacular spoken in al-‘Awābī district, in the al-​Bāṭina region of northern Oman. In addition to providing new dialectal data on active and passive participles, Morano engages some of the debated issues on the target forms and takes sides based on the nature of the data from al-‘Awābī dialect. The book review section contains six reviews of books whose contents and scope range from teaching the Arabic language, to literature, to translations of literary works, to oral history. These book reviews are Dris Soulaimani’s first welcome contribution as book review editor. On this note, I wish to report my acceptance of the AATA Executive Board Members’ request to continue serving as Al-‘Arabiyya editor for another five-​year period. —Mohammad T. Alhawary

Acknowledgments I would like to express my deep appreciation to the reviewers listed below. Their insightful comments contributed to the quality of volume 53 of Al-‘Arabiyya. Special thanks go to Abdulkafi Albirini for (independently) conducting the external review of the article authored by Al Alaslaa and Alhawary. Ahmed Idrissi Alami Abdulkafi Albirini Dola Algady Saad Al-​Gahtani Mahmoud Azaz Abdelaadim Bidaoui Melissa Bowles Brahim Chakrani John Eisele Raghda El-​Essawi Shehdeh Fareh

Sattar Izwaini Marwan Jarrah Eman Saadah Mustafa Mughazy Hamid Ouali Karin Ryding Lotfi Sayahi Driss Soulaimani Emma Trentman Keith Walters Katrien Vanpee

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Code Choice between Standard Arabic and the Saudi Dialect by Saudi Twitter Users Saeed Al Alaslaa, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia Mohammad T. Alhawary, University of Michigan

This study investigated code switching (CS) in its written form between Standard Arabic (SA) and the Saudi dialect (SD) by Saudi Twitter users. It examined 7,850 tweets and compared CS use in the written form with those identified in face-​to-​ face interactions. In addition, it investigated whether CS patterns change by topic and whether they differ by gender and education. The study found that CS occurs in different contexts that vary in their formality and informality and CS to the SA correlated with prestige, importance, sophistication, and seriousness, whereas CS to the SD is associated with sarcasm, informality, low prestige, and everyday topics. The study also revealed that men use SA more than women, confirming previous findings in the Arabic sociolinguistic literature (e.g., Badawi 1973; Schmidt 1974; Ibrahim 1986; Abd-​El-​Jawad 1987; Haeri 1996; Walters 1996), and that educated Saudis use SA more than their less educated counterparts. Key words: code switching, code choice, colloquial Arabic, diglossia, Standard Arabic, Saudi Arabic, Twitter

Al-‘Arabiyya, 53 (2020), 1–36

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Introduction

As a prevalent sociolinguistic phenomenon, code switching has become an increasingly important topic in sociolinguistic research due to its relationship to various social factors. John Gumperz (1982, 59) defined code switching (CS) as “the juxtaposition within the same speech exchange of passages of speech belonging to two different grammatical systems or subsystems.” The majority of CS studies in the Arabic context have focused on the structural constraints of CS (e.g., Bassiouney 2006; Belazi, Rubin, and Toribio 1994; Boussofara-​Omar 1999; Eid 1982, 1988) as well as CS in multilingual speech communities (e.g., Bentahila 1983; Bentahila and Davies 1995; Belazi 1991; Safi 1992). Fewer studies have examined CS between SA and dialectal Arabic (e.g., Eid 1992; Saeed 1997; Bassiouney 2006; Albirini 2010, 2011) and fewer have explored CS use in social media (e.g., Palfreyman and al Khalil 2003; Al-Tamimi and Gorgis 2007; Abu Elhija 2012; Alabdulqader et al. 2013; Eldin 2014; Kosoff 2014; Albirini 2016). However, little is known about the difference between the (written) functions of CS on Twitter and those identified in face-​to-​face interactions. The present study seeks to bridge the gap by identifying the functions of CS between SA and dialect on Twitter and determining whether such functions differ from those in face-​to-​face communication and whether CS patterns differ by gender, education, and topic.

The Sociolinguistic Functions of Code Switching

Charles Ferguson’s (1959) seminal article on diglossia had a significant impact on early researchers of CS such as Jan-​Petter Blom and John Gumperz (1972) because diglossia is similar, if not identical, to what Blom and Gumperz refer to as situational CS (Belazi 1991; Albirini 2010). Rene Appel and Pieter Muysken (1987) identified three approaches to CS: the psycholinguistic approach, the linguistic or grammatical constraints that restrict code choice within sentences, and the sociolinguistic approach to CS, which is the one mainly guiding the present study. The sociolinguistic approach attempts to provide an explanation for why speakers alternate between different languages and codes. Among the researchers who followed the sociolinguistic approach to identify the motivations behind the factors that impact CS are Blom and Gumperz (1972), Gumperz (1982), Bentahila (1983), Appel and Muysken (1987), Myers-​Scotton (1993), Myers-​Scotton and Bolonyai (2001), and Bhatt and Bolonyai (2011).



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Focusing on the social motivations for CS, Gumperz (1982) identified six functions for code switching that clarify why people usually switch codes: (1) to introduce quotations, (2) to specify the addressee as the recipient of the message, (3) to provide reiterations, (4) to add interjections, (5) to qualify a message, and (6) to differentiate between what is personal and what is general. Notably, Gumperz (1982) distinguished between in-​group and out-​group audience and proposed what he calls “we code” and “they code.” François Grosjean (1982) distinguished ten reasons for CS, namely: (1) to fill a linguistic need for a lexical item, set phrase, discourse marker, or sentence filler; (2) to continue the last language used (triggering); (3) to quote someone; (4) to specify addressee; (5) to qualify message: amplify or emphasize (“topper” in argument); (6) to specify speaker involvement (personalize message); (7) to mark and emphasize group identity (solidarity); (8) to convey confidentiality, anger, or annoyance; (9) to exclude someone from conversation; and (10) to change role of speaker: raise status, add authority, and show expertise. Later, Appel and Muysken (1987) proposed a functional model of CS and identified six functions of CS: (1) the referential function, (2) the directive and integrative function, (3) the expressive function, (4) the phatic function, (5) the metalinguistic function, and (6) the poetic function. Finally, Suzanne Romaine (1995) identified five functions for CS: (1) to serve as a sentence filler, (2) to clarify or emphasize a point, (3) to shift to a new topic, (4) to mark the type of discourse, and (5) to specify a social arena.

The Sociolinguistic Functions of CS in the Arab World

A number of studies have been conducted on the social functions for CS in the Arabic context (e.g., Bentahila 1983; Abu-​Melhim 1991; Belazi 1991; Safi 1992; Mejdell 2006; Saeed 1997; Bassiouney 2006, 2009; Albirini 2011, 2016). For example, Aziz Saeed (1997) investigated the pragmatics of CS between the high (H) variety (SA or fusʕħaː) and the local (L) variety (colloquial/dialectal Arabic) in religious discourse. He found that CS can be divided into three categories: (1) iconic/rhetorical, which is motivated by rhetorical factors and by the speaker’s attitude during reiterating, exemplifying, quoting, using sarcasm and jokes, and simplifying; (2) structural switches, which are motivated by linguistic structure, such as difficulty of structure and foreign words; and (3) other, which is motivated by various factors, such as side talk. Saeed concluded that a correlation exists between the attitude of the speaker and the content of the message

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such as a speaker’s use of SA when speaking about what he perceived as positive and agreeable. In contrast, the speaker used dialectal Arabic (DA) when discussing what he perceived as negative or something on which he did not agree (1997, 111–12). Reem Bassiouney (2006) studied the syntactic constraints and the social functions of CS between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. Regarding the social motivations for CS, Bassiouney points out that the speaker is the one who selects the code and decides which code is most appropriate for a given conversation. Bassiouney found that MSA is more frequently used to state abstract facts while the Egyptian dialect is used to explain abstract facts, often accompanied by personalized, concrete examples. Accordingly, Bassiouney (2006) concludes that speakers tend to use SA to demonstrate importance and show seriousness, whereas the Egyptian dialect is often used to give concrete examples and to narrate. Abdulkafi Albirini (2010, 2011) found that speakers switch to SA for eight main reasons: (1) to introduce formulaic expressions, (2) to highlight the importance of a segment of discourse, (3) to mark emphasis, (4) to introduce direct quotations, (5) to signal a shift in tone from comic to serious, (6) to produce rhyming stretches of discourse, (7) to take a pedantic stand, and (8) to indicate pan-​Arab or Muslim identity. In contrast, he found that speakers switch to colloquial Arabic for nine related reasons: (1) to induce parenthetical phrases and fillers; (2) to downplay a particular segment of discourse; (3) to signal indirect quotes; (4) to simplify a preceding idea; (5) to exemplify; (6) to mark a shift in tone from serious to comic; (7) to discuss taboo or derogatory issues; (8) to introduce daily life sayings; and (9) to scold, insult, or personally attack.

Code Switching on Social Media

Computer-​mediated discourse has attracted the attention of linguists to explore the connection between the language used in online communication and the mode of communication—that is, whether such language is written, spoken, or  a hybrid of both. Yasser Al-​Tamimi and Dinah Gorgis (2007) examined a newly emerging code used in electronic communication—namely, romanized Jordanian Arabic. By analyzing 1,098 e‑mail messages written by 257 Jordanian college students and 1,400 chat turns between nicknamed senders, in addition to eight A4 pages of conversations between seven participants, Al-​Tamimi and Gorgis posited that this new style of e-​message language could be considered a hybrid lingua franca or a pidgin. Alabdulqader and colleagues (2013) examined text messages of sixty-​one male and female Saudi participants ranging in age from fourteen to twenty-​four years old.



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They found that the participants used MSA, a local dialect, and romanized Arabic, or so-​called Arabizi. They further found that the L variety, or the local dialect, was used when writing informal and casual messages, whereas MSA was used to write or exchange religious quotations and supplications. Arabizi was used less often than the local dialect or MSA and was more likely to be used by male students. Ahmad Eldin (2014) investigated the functions of CS among Arabic-​English bilingual university students in their Facebook interactions. The study showed that participants switched codes for several reasons, such as showing solidarity with a social group, distinguishing themselves, participating in social encounters, discussing certain topics, expressing feelings and affections, and impressing and persuading the audience. Zoë Kosoff (2014) examined CS in Egypt on Twitter. She observed that Egyptian Twitter users use a combination of MSA, Egyptian Colloquial Arabic, English, Arabizi Modern Standard Arabic, and Arabizi Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. The results of the study show that a Twitter user’s tweets can reflect the socioeconomic and educational background of the Twitter user’s target audience. Albirini (2016) explored the distribution and functions of SA, DA, and English on Facebook. He found SA was used in the comments to (1) highlight the importance of a segment of discourse, (2) introduce direct speech, (3) produce a rhyming stretch of discourse, (4) theorize or preach, and (5) index a personal identity. On the other hand, he found DA was used to (1) make sarcastic or offensive remarks, (2) introduce common sayings, and (3) scold or insult. Albirini also found three main motivations behind using English: (1) some Facebook posters lacked functional knowledge of Arabic, (2) English appeared to be easier and more convenient for them, and (3) English was used to convey a global message to an international audience.

The Role of Gender and Education on Code-​Switching Patterns

Several Arabic sociolinguistic studies considered the role of two important social variables: gender and education. El-​Said Badawi’s (1973) model emphasizes the role of education in identifying the five language levels, as the gap between the first (fusʕħa t-t​ uraːθ “heritage of Classical Arabic”) and the fifth level (ʕaːmmiyyat ʔal-ʔummiyyiːn “colloquial of the illiterate”) is attributed to the educational levels of speakers. Schmidt (1974) had previously studied the linguistic variation in spoken Egyptian Arabic. He found that men maintained the prestigious variant /q/ rather than the colloquial variant /ʔ/ more frequently than women did in both formal and casual styles. In addition, he found men (in their work place) who were less educated or

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uneducated produced the standard variant /q/ more frequently than women participants from the American University of Cairo did. He also found Egyptians produced /s/, /z/, and /zʕ/ or /t/, /d/, and /dʕ/ rather than the interdentals /θ/, /ð/, and /ðʕ/, respectively, and that Egyptians with high levels of education maintained the standard variants /θ/, /ð/, and /ðʕ/ more often than those who were uneducated or who were workers with a low level of education. Moreover, in the same group of educated informants, men were found to maintain the standard variations /θ/, /ð/, and /ðʕ/ more often than their female counterparts did. With respect to gender as a social variable, studies by William Labov (1972) found that women tend to be more conservative than men and prefer to use more standard language and prestigious forms. However, the issue is not as simple as this generalization proposes. Penelope Eckert (1989, 247–48) observed that “there is a general misconception among writers who do not deal directly with variation that women’s speech is more conservative than men’s. Indeed, women do tend to be more conservative than men in their use of those vernacular forms that represent stable social variables.” Labov (1982) claims that in the Near East and South Asia, women are not necessarily more conservative than men. However, some studies in the Arab world such as Muhammad Ibrahim (1986) and Hassan Abd-​El-​Jawad (1981, 1987) claim that Labov might not have considered the difference between a prestige variety and a standard one. They found that in some urban areas, there is a prestige vernacular that differs from the Standard Arabic (SA). For instance, in Egypt, Cairene is the prestigious variety for non-​Cairenes. Therefore, Abd-​El-​Jawad (1981, 351) stated that “men are more sensitive to what we called ‘National Prestige,’ while women are more sensitive to local prestige.” Niloofar Haeri (1996, 307) states that “studies of gender differentiation have shown that women who have equal levels of education to men use features of Classical Arabic significantly less than men.”

Research Questions

The present study aims to address the following questions:



1. What are the functions of CS between SA and the Saudi dialect on Twitter? Are these functions different from the functions of CS in face-​to-​face interactions? 2. Do patterns of CS differ by gender and education? 3. Do patterns of CS differ by topic?



Code Choice between Standard Arabic and the Saudi Dialect by Saudi Twitter Users

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The Study

The study adopts a descriptive approach to investigating the social functions of CS and is based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of 7,350 tweets from 210 Twitter accounts with sufficient identifiable gender and education information for the selected Twitter accounts. Two techniques were employed in data collection. First, to answer the first and second research questions, a selective sampling method was used in the collection of the tweets, with the aid of the online site “followerwonk” (https://​followerwonk​.com​/bio) as  a source for public user profiles of Twitter accounts. Inclusion of Twitter users’ accounts was based on the following criteria:

1. An account must be active in terms of tweeting and replying to other users. 2. An account should have at least one thousand tweets, which can appear in the biography, to ensure that the user is active on Twitter. 3. Accounts of users with nicknames were excluded because nicknames do not usually reveal accurate gender information about the users. 4. The user’s biography should contain some personal information about the user, such as job, gender (which can be inferred from the user’s name), level of education (for example, the title “professor” means that the user has a PhD; “teacher” means that the user has a bachelor degree1).

After applying the above-​specified criteria to the participants’ selection, 210 Saudi Twitter accounts were obtained and grouped based on gender and education, as table 1 illustrates. Then the “All My Tweets” website https://​www​.allmytweets​.net/ was used to collect participants’ tweets. The focus of the tweets was narrowed down to the period between December 2016 and July 2017, and the latest 35 tweets from each participant’s tweets were selected, amounting to a total of 7,350 tweets. The extracted tweets were then exported and were categorized according to gender and level of education of the 210 account holders, as shown in table 1. All extracted tweets were filtered to exclude retweets, duplicates, tweets written in languages other than Arabic, spam, lines of poetry, quotations, proverbs and idioms, supplications, verses from the Holy Qur’ān, and tweets with URLs. Then the switches were coded in terms of whether they convey meanings either from social perspectives or discourse points of view. Second, to  answer the third research question (i.e.,  whether patterns of CS differ according to topic or theme), another sampling method was used to collect an additional five hundred tweets from five hashtags that varied in terms of topics and themes, using the “Tweetdeck” website (https://​tweetdeck​.twitter​.com/).

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Number of tweets

35

35

35

35

35

Women with High Education

Women with College Education

Women with Less than College Education

Men with High Education

Men with College Education

Men with Less than College Education

Table 1 Participants

35

The following hashtags that were trending in Saudi Arabia in the period between November 2016 and July 2017 were selected:







1. #‫ عام_عىل_منع_الهييه‬ʕaːm_ʕalaː_manʕ_ʔal-​hayʔah “A year since the suspension of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice”; the hashtag was chosen because it deals with a religious topic. 2. #‫ رشايك_يف_الزواج_التقليدي‬ʃraːyik_fiː_ʔaz-​zawaːdʒ_ʔat-​taqliːdiyy “What is your opinion about arranged marriage?”; the hashtag was chosen because it deals with a social topic. 3. #‫تنظيم_مكافات_الطالب_الجدد‬ tanðʕiːm_mukaːfaʔaːt_ʔatʕ-tʕullaːb_ʔal-​dʒudud “Regulating the stipends of new college students”; the hashtag was chosen because it deals with an educational topic. 4. #‫ ارحل_يا فيصل_بن_تريك‬ʔirħal_yaː faysʕal_bin_turkiyy “Oh Faisal Bin Turki, leave”; the hashtag was chosen because it deals with a sport topic. 5. #‫ الشعب_يعارض_بيع_ارامكو‬ʔaʃ-ʃaʕb_yuʕaːridʕ_bayʕ_ʔaraːmkuː “The people object to selling ARAMCO”; the hashtag was chosen because it deals with a political topic.

In particular, one hundred tweets were extracted from each of the five hashtags, excluding retweets, duplicates, tweets written in languages other than Arabic, spam, advertisements, lines of poetry, quotations, proverbs and idioms, supplications, and tweets with URLs. To identify parts of the tweets that are in SA and DA, the study relied on syntax, morphology, and lexical choice when categorizing the tweets since it is not possible to account for phonology. Since SA and DA might overlap in many aspects in terms of their morphosyntactic rules and lexical items, the study followed Mushira Eid (1988) and Albirini (2010, 2016) in determining where a switch is initiated and how to categorize ambiguous forms, which might be identical in both H and L varieties in



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addition to the intermediate forms that neither clearly belong to H nor clearly belong to L. Eid (1988) and Albirini (2010, 2016) identify switches based on cases in which SA can be clearly distinguished from DA. Forms or tweets that cause an ambiguity because they are shared by both H and L varieties do not provide evidences either for or against CS; therefore, such forms were disregarded.

Findings

Quantitative Findings of All Tweets Based on the data analysis of the 7,350 tweets, the data revealed that the Saudi Twitter users utilize SA in their tweets 4,376 times (60 percent), significantly more so than they use the SD in 1,851 of their tweets (25 percent) (see tables 2 and 3). As for CS patterns, the data revealed that whereas the users tend to maintain SA in their tweets more often and use the SD less often, they switch between SA and the SD in fewer cases than both. Moreover, the data showed that only 333 (5 percent) of the collected tweets include CS to SA, whereas 790 (11 percent) of the collected tweets contain CS to the SD, bringing the total of CS patterns in both directions to 1,123 (15 percent) of the collected tweets, which is not high compared to the total of all collected tweets. Code Switching to Standard Arabic The study found that Twitter users in Saudi Arabia switch to SA (or the H variety) for five reasons, as illustrated below with representative examples: (1) to introduce formulaic expressions, (2) to emphasize a point, (3) to quote, (4) to shift from the comic to the serious, and (5) to take a pedantic stance (see table 2 for the distribution and frequencies of CS to SA in all data samples). 1. To introduce formulaic expressions Formulaic expressions in Arabic culture are widely used in everyday speech. They include many statements such as maː ʃaːʔa l-​laːh “what God pleases,” ʔin ʃaːʔa l-​laːh “if God wills,” subħaːna l-​laːh “Glory be to God,” and ʔal-​ħamdu li-​l-​laːh “praise be to God.” The data revealed that CS to SA was used to introduce formulaic expressions, as illustrated in tweets (1)–(2). Tweet 1

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“My wish is to be with a group and not get trapped by a girl. Oh, brother, Glory be to God,2 circumstances only come at the time of the project due date. Today, I am in three groups, and all of us ate hay because of absent female members.” Tweet 2

“It is true that most of Al-​Ahly’s players are bad players and completely worthless and just play because of their connections. But tomorrow, if God wills, I will attend the match and will support my team—not them, because they eventually will go away, while the team itself will remain.” In tweet 1, a female student wishes to work in a productive group with serious members. She complains about her previous experience with other groups, particularly when some members miss group meetings, which negatively affects their work. She uses the SD in her tweet as she complains about a personal experience. However, in this tweet, she inserts a formulaic expression in SA “Glory be to God.” In this context, this exclamation conveys that she is angry with her group members and, to some extent, does not believe their excuses for not attending the group meetings and consequently failing to produce excellent work in their class projects. In tweet 2, the SD is used when dealing with a sport topic. The tweet disparages the team players for not working hard for the sake of their team. The Twitter user criticizes and expresses anger about the level of his favorite team’s performance using the SD. However, he employs SA in a formulaic expression invoking a verse from the Holy Qur’ān: “And never say of anything, Indeed I will do that tomorrow, except [when adding], If Allah wills” (Q. 18:23–24). 2. To emphasize a point In many instances, Twitter users switched to SA to highlight various social issues, as illustrated in tweets 3 and 4. Tweet 3



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“If the camel fell down, many knives would stab it with the intent to slaughter it according to sunna/way of the Prophet to make it permissible to eat its meat. It should not be applicable to an official who slaughtered honesty and righteousness! It is fair to have more knives to stab him!” Tweet 4

“Whoever is angry and does not maintain ties with his kinship, from now, curse Satan and be reconciled with each other, because God does not accept the [good] deeds from people who have disputes amongst themselves.” In tweet 3, the writer starts his tweet with a traditional proverb in the SD or the L variety and then code switches to SA to emphasize the importance of fighting corruption in high places. He asks for showing no mercy to corrupt officials. Here CS to SA indicates the importance of fighting corruption and purging corrupt, high-​ ranking officials and bureaucrats without showing any mercy. The Twitter user in tweet 4 offers advice to those who were hostile to each other at the beginning of Ramadan, the month of fasting. She tweets about important social issues—namely, harboring a grudge against others and having disputes with others. She tweets to indicate the significance of reconciliation. Thus, due to the importance of reconciliation among those who have disputes, she switches to SA to emphasize the importance of purifying one’s heart and reconciliation with others; otherwise, God would not accept good deeds from those who had a dispute with others, particularly during the time of Ramadan, the month of mercy and forgiveness. Therefore, she shifts to SA because of the importance of approaching others with a pure heart and good intentions. 3. To quote CS to SA was also used for quotations. Consider tweets 5 and 6, containing quotations used in social contexts. Tweet 5

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SAEED AL ALASLAA AND MOHAMMAD T. ALHAWARY

“When someone passes by me while I am in the court and says to me, ‘Their [women’s] homes are better for them’, what I am supposed to do with him?!” Tweet 6

“I like it: If you feel pain, then you are alive . . . And if you feel the pain of others, then you are a human . . .” In tweet 5, the user uses the SD and reports a quote in SA. The author is a female lawyer complaining about some women opponents working in courts as lawyers. She asks sarcastically, as the emoji reveals, how she should reply to those who are ignorant or those passersby who keep saying to her “their [women’s] homes are better for them.” This statement invokes a verse from the Qur’ān instructing the wives of the Prophet Muhammad to “stay quietly in [their] houses, and make not dazzling display, like that of the former times of Ignorance” (Q. 33:33) because they are not like other women. The Twitter user employs the SD to express her anger and irritation with this frequent occurrence as she complains to her close friends by seeking their advice about her problem at work. The quote is in SA because it invokes the Holy Qur’ān. The user begins tweet (6) in the SD to express his admiration for the quote. Then he switches to SA to state the quote directly about an important issue: empathy for others and their pains, sufferings, and hardships. 4. To shift from the comic to the serious CS to SA was used to indicate a shift from the comic to the serious, as illustrated in tweets 7 and 8. Tweet 7

“I like the sagacious Nasraoui. . . . Even if he altered and made fun of Al-​Hilal away from prejudice. . . . Thank [you] Riyadh police.”



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Tweet 8

“Oh God, people. It [@NoMaleGuardians a Twitter account] is not an organization LOL. It is an initiative of great women to follow up and monitor the implementation of decisions regarding the [male] guardianship [over women in Saudi Arabia].” In tweet 7 the Twitter user tweets about a sport topic: the two most famous soccer teams in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. The competition between An-​Nasr and Al-​Hilal is very tough, and their fans make fun of each other and get mad at each other in endless debates and arguments. The Twitter user uses the SD to compliment any An-​Nasr fan who is sane and not narrowminded or prejudiced against Al-​Hilal, even if he criticizes and makes fun of Al-​Hilal. He uses the SD for this sarcastic purpose and to criticize a realistic case, and then he switches to SA to reflect on a serious issue, the role of Riyadh police in controlling the fans of both teams and preventing them from attacking and hurting each other. He uses SA because this is a significant issue, to control the flow of the fans from both teams and protect them from the insane fans who might cause fights and vandalism. Soccer hooliganism is considered a social issue and annoys and upsets most well-​behaved fans and those concerned with sport issues and topics. The Twitter user in tweet 8 replies to a previous tweet. The user is essentially joking about another Twitter account, @NoMaleGuardians, about the account’s name itself. She describes the @NoMaleGuardians account as the National Anti-​Corruption Commission, women’s section, in a joking way. The National Anti-​Corruption Commission was established in 2011 by a royal decree from King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz to fight corruption in Saudi Arabia. The @NoMaleGuardians account was created after “Saudi King Salman has issued an order to free women from having to obtain a consent from their male guardians in order to receive services.”3 The account was created by a group of feminists to follow up and monitor the implementation of the decree. The user here is joking about the account’s name and activities; as she emphasizes that this is not an official or governmental organization, she uses the SD and then shifts to SA to alter the tone from comic to serious.

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SAEED AL ALASLAA AND MOHAMMAD T. ALHAWARY

5. To take a pedantic stance CS to SA was used to take a pedantic stance. In some cases Twitter users shifted to SA to assume the role of an expert or an analyst in addressing their audience. For them, SA is the appropriate choice because it is the language of education and prestige. Such patterns of CS occur in political and educational contexts, as shown in tweets 9 and 10. Tweet 9

“Maybe, but the subject is relative to some degree and varies from one specialty to another. Technology (for example) provides a tool to solve a problem and graduate studies provide seeds and refine the idea of this tool.” Tweet 10

“No, there are all kinds. But third-​world nationalities were formed in a liberal framework of colonialism during the Cold War and the left was the model for liberation.” In tweet 9 the user code switches from the SD to SA for the purpose of assuming the role of an expert—that is, to take a pedantic stance. He replies to a follower who inquires about the interference between modern technology and higher education today and wonders whether modern technology will make higher education unnecessary because knowledge will be available at everyone’s fingertips. The user creates the feeling of an in-​group solidarity by using the SD to show some agreement and then codeswitches to SA to take a pedantic stance, emphasizing the need for higher education in providing students with the required tools and to develop their knowledge and hone their tools. In tweet 10, the user replies to a question about whether all nationalists are leftist and socialists or if some are right-​wing and capitalists. The



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user initially replies in the SD, which is to show closeness or in-​group affiliation. He then code switches to SA to explain a philosophical issue. He takes a pedantic stance or the role of expert to explain how third-​world nationalisms were shaped in the liberal framework of colonialism during the Cold War, when the left was the model of liberation. CS to the Saudi Dialect (SD) The study found that Twitter users in Saudi Arabia switch to the SD (or the L variety) for eight reasons, as explained below with representative examples: (1) for a specific intended meaning; (2) for joking and sarcasm; (3) to quote; (4) to explain and exemplify; (5) to introduce sayings about daily life; (6) to scold, insult, and personally attack; (7) for common usage; and (8) for supplication and prayer (see table 3 for the distribution and frequencies of CS to SA in all data samples). 1. For a specific intended meaning The study found some tweets were fully written in SA but had lexical items from the SD inserted for conveying a specific meaning, possibly only through (CS) to the SD, as explained in tweets 11 and 12. Tweet 11

“Do not sacrifice your personal goals and your friends; do not sacrifice your fun and your enjoyment because without all of these, you cannot go on; you only need to control your time!” Tweet 12

“You might be obliged to sacrifice by sitting with people who consider studiousness a shame! Do not lose them, but reduce the dosage [of sitting] with them; this is the hard part of sacrifice!”

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SAEED AL ALASLAA AND MOHAMMAD T. ALHAWARY

In tweets 11 and 12, the Twitter user advises a newly enrolled student at his university, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, how to do well in college. He takes on the role of the expert, so he uses SA. However, he also prefers to use some lexical items that have specific pragmatic meanings in the SD, so he code switches to insert fallitək “fun,” wanaːstik “enjoyment,” and ʔad-​dafrah “studiousness.” The user makes these lexical choices to convey a specific intended meaning possible only through CS to the SD. For tweet 11, the meaning of fun and joy is available in SA, but the two words fallitək and wanaːstik carry specific meanings, especially among younger generations. Similarly, in tweet (12), ʔad-​dafrah “studiousness” has a specifically negative connotation and is used frequently among college students similar to “nerd” in English. Most Saudi college students avoid it and do not want to be stigmatized by such a description. It is basically the name of a single-​burner camping stove. Since the Twitter user tweeted about an important educational topic, advising the newly enrolled students at his university about how to do well in college, which is a serious topic, he used SA. He inserted the SD word to convey a specific meaning for college students. 2. For joking and sarcasm CS to the SD was used for joking and sarcasm or underlying criticism of a person, idea, or a social issue. The SD was used for humor, as it is not usually appropriate to use SA for joking. A switch to the L variety in other cases is a way of criticizing or refuting political or social issues without facing potential consequences. Utilizing the L variety reduces the formality and seriousness of the criticism, and the user would therefore avoid the possible consequences of his or her stance for or against a specific idea or issue. Tweets 13 and 14 show how CS to the SD conveys humor that combines sarcasm and underhand criticism. Tweet 13

“And because of the difficulty of getting a house in Saudi Arabia, we opened ‘house of cake, house of donuts, house of juices, house of shrimp, house of kabob’ until relief comes.”



Table 2  The social motivations and frequencies for CS to SA in each group

To introduce formulaic expressions To emphasize a point To quote To shift from comic to serious To take a pedantic stand

# Men, H.E. (%)

# Women, H.E. (%)

# Men  C.E. (%)

# Women, C.E. (%)

# Men, B.C.E. (%)

# Women, B.C.E. (#)

Total (%)

5 (19) 4 (15) 3 (12) 6 (23) 8 (31)

8 (20) 5 (12) — 13 (32) 15 (37)

8 (14) 15 (25) 5 (8) 17 (29) 14 (24)

9 (19) 13 (28) 8 (17) 17 (36) —

20 (29) 13 (19) 7 (10) 17 (24) 13 (19)

59 (66) 5 (6) 11 (12) 9 (10) 6 (7)

109 (33) 55 (17) 34 (10) 79 (24) 56 (17)

Notes: H.E. = high education; C.E. = college education; B.C.E. = below college education. Total tweets containing CS to SA = 333; total tweets in SA = 4,376; total tweets in SD = 1,851.

Table 3  The social motivations and frequencies for CS to the SD in each group Social Motivation for CS to the SD

Men, H.E. (%)

Women, H.E. (%)

Men, C.E. (%)

Women, C.E. (%)

Men, B.C.E. (%)

Women, B.C.E. (%)

Total (%)

For a specific intended meaning For sarcasm and criticism To quote To explain and exemplify To introduce sayings about daily life To scold, insult, and personally attack For common usage For supplication and prayer

30 (27) 15 (13) 16 (14) 15 (13) 13 (12) 15 (13) 9 (8) —

— — 14 (12) 16 (14) 7 (6) 16 (14) 63 (54) —

30 (17) 17 (10) 8 (5) 21 (12) 9 (5) 42 (24) 49 (28) —

17 (15) 8 (7) 6 (5) 22 (20) 8 (7) 14 (13) 36 (32) —

31 (18) 15 (9) 14 (8) 30 (18) 7 (4) 24 (14) 48 (28) —

11 (10) 7 (7) — 19 (18) 8 (8) 15 (14) 40 (38) 5 (5)

119 (15) 62 (8) 58 (7) 123 (16) 52 (7) 126 (16) 245 (31) 5 (1)

Code Choice between Standard Arabic and the Saudi Dialect by Saudi Twitter Users

Social Motivation for CS to SA

Notes: H.E. = high education; C.E. = college education; B.C.E. = below college education. Total tweets containing CS to SD = 790; total tweets in SA = 4,376; total tweets in SD = 1,851. 17

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SAEED AL ALASLAA AND MOHAMMAD T. ALHAWARY

Tweet 14

#news “A medical examination predicts death 7 years in advance #comment Ridiculous . . . ! A person they expected him to live for seven years!! He went out joyously and a limousine runs over him and cuts him into seven pieces.” In tweet 13 the user sarcastically describes a crucial issue in Saudi Arabia: home ownership, which is not easy to achieve. Thus, the user uses SA to draw the audience’s attention to a problem that concerns all Saudi citizens. Then she shifts to the SD to deliver underhanded criticism and to sarcastically express her frustration, declaring to “open a house of cake, house of donuts, house of juices, house of shrimp, house of kabob” and wait until the housing problem is solved. In tweet 14, the Twitter user comments on a news item regarding the prediction of a person’s death up to seven years in advance. The user is Muslim and, in the Islamic faith, knowing or determining of the time of death for a specific person is among the things that are unseen, unwitnessed, and unknown except by God: “[He is] Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, the Grand, the Exalted” (Q. 13:9). Thus, Muslims must have faith in predestination, which is one of the six pillars of faith in Islam; as the Holy Qur’ān directs believers, “Say Never will we be struck except by what Allah has decreed for us; He is our protector. And upon Allah let the believers rely” (Q. 9:51). The user uses the SD humorously to give an example of an unreal or hypothetical example of someone who had been told that he would live for seven additional years and, when exiting from the clinic, happy with the knowledge that he would live for seven additional years, was suddenly run over by a limousine and was cut into seven pieces. As the user perceived such a news item as an object of ridicule (i.e., how can such studies be trusted or believed in such cases), he shifted to the SD for the purpose of joking and humor. 3. To quote The study found that quoting is common in both directions of CS, from SA to the SD and vice versa, regardless of whether it was direct or indirect. The data revealed there



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are two types of quotes: authentic quotes, which were said or written by someone, and hypothetical quotes in which the Twitter user makes up a quote to indicate what the imaginary conversation partner would have said regarding the topic or issue under discussion, as tweets 15 and 16 demonstrate. Tweet 15

“I was in the emergency room in a hospital and this scene attracted me: the girl with fear [says], ‘Mama, I do not want a needle [vaccination]!’ Her mother asks her to repeat the sentence in order to take a video of her and share it on Snapchat!” Tweet 16

“Wrong behavior: To be ill with chronic hypertension and [the patient] takes a chronic treatment and does not watch his blood pressure! He [the patient] says that the last time I measured my blood pressure was last Eid Al-​Adha [the Feast of the Sacrifice].” In tweet 15 the user shares an authentic quote from a scene she witnessed during a visit to an emergency room at a Saudi hospital. The user criticizes mothers for sharing videos of their children on Snapchat and other social media platforms. The user first uses SA to discuss a crucial social issue (posting videos of children on social media platforms, which might cause harm to them and might be considered child exploitation under Saudi laws), then employs the SD in the quote. In tweet 16, the user, who is a medical doctor, admonishes patients who have hypertension but are careless about their blood pressure and do not monitor it. He raises a significant sociomedical issue

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SAEED AL ALASLAA AND MOHAMMAD T. ALHAWARY

because some people in Saudi Arabia pay no attention to medical doctors’ directions and instructions. The user first employs SA to describe the case and signify its importance then shifts to the SD to give a hypothetical quotation of what patients frequently say when asked about the last time their blood pressure was measured. 4. To explain and exemplify Two types of examples for explanation in CS to the SD were found: true examples and hypothetical examples. The study found in some cases Twitter users switch to the SD to explain and simplify because the SD is perceived as being easier. Hence, users shifted to the SD to provide more clarification and explanation to their followers to understand their statements, as illustrated in tweets 17 and 18. Tweet 17

“The good word is a charity. . . . If we return to the feeling of the person to whom we say sweet words, we will know why my God rewards us for it :(, Can you imagine getting a reward because you made somebody happy?” Tweet 18

“One example of enslavement is that when you want to buy food for a group of people, you impose your opinion and just buy according to what you like [to eat].” In tweet 17 the Twitter user attempts to explain the Prophet Muhammad’s saying: “Saying a good word [to others] is an act of charity.” She uses SA to quote this prophetic saying and then shifts to the SD to explain and simplify it. The user in tweet 18 gives a sarcastic/humorous example of human enslavement by means of ordering food analogy. The user initially employs SA to show how serious the topic he explains is, especially because it encompasses concepts usually referenced when discussing crucial topics, such as human trafficking and enslavement. Then he shifts to the SD to give a sarcastic example of enslavement from his perspective, which is imposing one’s choices on others by purchasing only what one desires and likes.



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5. To introduce sayings about daily life Twitter users switched to the SD to connect with their followers or audience through daily life sayings, such as proverbs, idioms, and cultural expressions. Such CS patterns facilitate comprehension of complicated ideas in context, as tweets 19 and 20 illustrate. Tweet 19

“We are in a state of war against Iran’s ambitions. Here, [the saying] my brother and I are against my cousin, and my cousin and I are against the stranger is not applicable, but rather I am with whoever supports my homeland against whoever let it down and even if he were my brother!” Tweet 20

“#stabbing a medical doctor in Madina Irresponsible behavior. . . . Whoever has a right or a complaint should file a complaint with the designated authorities and never take his right with his own hand. The concept of taking your rights by beating noses does not help you; it will rather harm you!” The Twitter user in tweet 19 states that we, the Saudi people, are in a state of war against Iran, and he criticizes the role of the Qatari government in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran. In other words, he alludes to the betrayal of the Qatari regime in this conflict, which makes it no longer trustworthy. To emphasize his idea, he switches to the SD citing an Arabic saying to prove it is not applicable to the Saudi conflict with Iran. He inserts the saying, which is in the SD, to support his argument against the Qatari regime and emphasize the idea of loyalty to the homeland. For the sake of the security of his country, he stands with whoever supports his country, and he stands against whoever lets his country down, even if he were a brother. The

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SAEED AL ALASLAA AND MOHAMMAD T. ALHAWARY

Twitter user in tweet 20 comments on a trending hashtag about the stabbing of a medical doctor in Al-​Madina. The user, also a medical doctor, criticizes the prevalent attitude of haughtiness, especially among younger generations. He code switched to the SD to employ an expression commonly repeated among such haughty, boastful, and bragging groups to show his condemnation of such unacceptable behavior. This saying calls for ignoring the role of the government in controlling security and maintaining rights, thus legitimizing insecurity, instability, chaos, and the lack of peace. He uses SA because he discusses a crucial social issue and then shifts to the SD to cite a saying of daily life and argue against it. 6. To scold, insult, and personally attack CS to the SD was used to scold, insult, and personally attack others, as seen in tweets 21 and 22. Tweet 21

“A call to the distinguished members of the Consultative Assembly If you have good and beneficial proposals to the homeland and the citizens, go ahead and thank you, [but] if you have nothing, please be quiet; we are in no need for you to bother us!” Tweet 22

“#Where is the questionnaire, Hekail? ‘Al-​Hekail wants citizens to ratify the results of their [Center of Poll and Measuring] voting and they [the citizens] did not even vote. He is either foolish or fooling the people.” In tweet 21 the Twitter user switches to the SD to insult and personally attack members of the Consultative Assembly in Saudi Arabia. She demands they stop



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making provocative statements, particularly by some members who have refused some suggestions that would benefit citizens. The user asks the Consultative Assembly members to adopt beneficial suggestions to both citizens and the state; otherwise, they should keep quiet. Similarly, in tweet 22, the user personally attacks and insults the director of the Center of Poll and Measuring in Saudi Arabia over a social issue related to the General Authority for Entertainment. Al-​Hekail, director of the Center of Poll and Measuring, stated that 77 percent of Saudis support the Saudi government’s 2030 Vision, and 82 percent prefer entertainment events in public gathering places. However, the user opposes entertainment events in public gathering places and the General Authority for Entertainment because she believes that its current events, activities, and views of entertainment contradict Saudi values and traditions. Consequently, she switches to the SD to scold and insult the director of the Center of Poll and Measuring and accuses him of lying. She personally attacks him by saying he is either foolish or fooling Saudi citizens. 7. For common usage Some SD switches occurred for no clear reason except that they were commonly used in daily speech. Twitter users merely inserted them into some tweets that would otherwise be completely written in SA. Such insertions included future markers, demonstrative and relative pronouns, and negation. Similar SD switches occurred with single borrowed words from English and included Twitter-​related terms and words, such as “tweet,” “retweet,” “hashtag,” “mention,” and “trend.” They occurred in the midst of tweets that would otherwise be written in SA. The only reasonable motivation for such switches is that they are commonly and popularly used on a daily basis in spoken Arabic. Tweets 23–25 illustrate occurrence of this pattern of switching. Tweet 23

“Many names we will miss, we benefited from their knowledge and learned from their morals. May God reward them well and save them wherever they are.” Tweet 24

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SAEED AL ALASLAA AND MOHAMMAD T. ALHAWARY

“One of the problems that I observed in some public parks is lack of proper distribution of outdoor trash cans, which makes some people too lazy to clean their places.” Tweet 25

“I apologize for having deleted the tweets and then reposting them due to a mistake I made related to the hashtag. I hope you support this serious issue, since this would be in support of society.” In tweet 23 the user used SA since she was tweeting about a formal situation in which she and her classmates were attending her professor’s retirement celebration party. Thus, it was a formal context in which she needed to show respect to her professor. However, she inserted the future marker raːħ “will” from the SD. SA exhibits two future markers: sa and sawfa. The user inserted the future marker from the SD for no clear reason except for common usage in the spoken SD. In tweet 24 the user was tweeting about a problematic issue that she witnessed in most public parks in her city—namely, that there was an insufficient number of trash cans and that they were not distributed adequately. She used SA because she was reporting a serious social issue that concerned society and public facilities. It is a public matter, not a personal matter; otherwise, the user would have used the SD. However, the user inserted a single word, the relative pronoun ʔilliː “that” from the SD instead of ʔallatiː “that” from SA. The user, who was a highly educated woman, inserted a single word from the SD in this tweet for no clear reason other than common usage. Similarly, in tweet 25 the user employs SA except for two words that are specific Twitter terms: tweet and haːshtaːg. Such terms have been Arabized and used as verbs (e.g., use of hashtag(a) “he posted a hashtag”) and nouns (e.g., twiːtaːt “tweets”) but are treated as the L variety (SD) because SA equivalents are available (e.g., wasm “hashtaq,” taγrːda “tweet,” and taγrːdaːt “tweets”). The author, a highly educated woman, used SA because she wrote about an important social issue, divorced mothers prevented from seeing their children, but she shifted to the SD probably for no other reason than the wide common use of Twitter-​related terms. It is also possible that such terms were used because the users did not know their equivalents in SA or that such switching is a pattern of CS to English or borrowing. However, doubtless such terms are now widely used in the spoken SD and no longer used as English lexical items, hence the label of the motivation of this CS pattern “for common usage.”



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Code Choice between Standard Arabic and the Saudi Dialect by Saudi Twitter Users

8. For supplication and prayer Finally, in addition to the abovementioned social motivations for CS to the SD, the study found a pattern that exhibits an overlapping function of the SD with that of SA. In particular, five tweets (equivalent to 1 percent of all tweets) were posted by women, all of whom had less than college education. These Twitter users code switched to the SD where one would expect SA to be used instead. All five tweets were supplications and prayers, as exemplified in tweet 26. Tweet 26

“O Allah, I beseech You by Your greatest name and most gracious ‘Honorable’ Face with which one should not beseech You for anything except for Heaven that you make me pass it [the exam].” In tweet 26 a female Twitter user with less than college education begins her tweet using normal SA for prayer and supplication. Then she shifts to the SD for no clear reason. There are two possible interpretations for such CS to the SD. The Twitter user either lacks the knowledge of the H code (SA) or her code choice was a matter of preference. The Role of Education and Gender in CS The role of education and gender together is evident in the CS patterns (see table 4). The data revealed that men with high education used SA 84 percent of the time, which is very high in comparison to their use of the SD, at 4 percent of the time, which is very low. They switched to SA 2.1 percent of the time, while they switched to the SD 9 percent of the time. Similarly, women with high education used SA 80 Table 4  Total number of tweets and percentages by group and by gender and education Gender & Education Men, high education Women, high education Men, college education Women, college education Men, below college education Women, below college education

# Tweets in SA (%)

# Tweets in SD (%)

# CS to SA (%)

# CS to SD (%)

1,033 (84.33) 988 (80.65) 810 (66.12) 740 (60.41) 458 (37.39) 347 (28.33)

53 (4.33) 80 (6.53) 180 (14.69) 327 (26.69) 528 (43.10) 683 (55.76)

26 (2.1) 41 (3.35) 59 (4.82) 47 (3.84) 70 (5.71) 90 (7.35)

113 (9.22) 116 (9.47) 176 (14.45) 111 (9.06) 169 (13.80) 105 (8.57)

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percent of the time, which is also very high, while they used the SD 6 percent of the time. They shifted to SA in 3.4 percent of their tweets, while they switched to the SD in 9.5 percent of their tweets. Men with less than college education used SA and the SD 37 percent and 43 percent of the time, respectively, exhibiting the opposite trends of their counterparts with high education. Men with less than college education switched to SA in 6 percent of their collected tweets, while they shifted to the SD in 14 percent of their collected tweets. Similarly, women with less than college education used SA and the SD 28 percent and 55 percent of the time, respectively, displaying the opposite trends of their counterparts with high education. Women with less than college education switched to SA in 7 percent of their collected tweets, while they shifted to the SD in 9 percent of their tweets. With respect to gender, men (regardless of their level of education) used SA more often than women did across all groups. Men also used the SD less often than women did across all groups. The data revealed no particular trend in terms of group differences in CS to SA, but women with college education and with less than college education tended to switch to the SD less often (9.06 percent and 8.57 percent, respectively) than their male counterparts (14.45 percent and 13.80 percent, respectively). The Role of Topic in CS Recall, the 7,350 tweets analyzed above were not collected based on topic. To address the question whether the CS patterns differ by topic, 100 tweets were extracted from each of five different hashtags that were trending in Saudi Arabia during the period between November 2016 and March 2017. The hashtags varied in terms of topics and themes; therefore, the formality and seriousness of the topics varied significantly. To  address the question whether CS patterns differ by topic, Ferguson’s (1959) model is adopted here as a working framework. Accordingly, the study assumed that the Saudi community of Twitter users would conform to Ferguson’s context-​based model, in which he associated code choice with the topic and situation. If the context is formal, such as formal education, sermons in mosques and churches, newspapers, and news, for example, then the H variety (or SA) would be the predicted appropriate code or variety to use. If the context is informal such as sport, the L variety (or the SD) would be the predicted appropriate variety to use. The findings of the 500 tweets from the five hashtags are discussed separately below (see also table 5 displaying the number of tweets in each of the investigated categories). The religious topic #‫ عام_عىل_منع_الهييه‬ʕaːm_ʕalaː_manʕ_ʔal-​hayʔah “A year since the suspension of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice”



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Table 5  Totals of the five hundred additional tweets (collected from five hashtags) by topic Topic Religious Social Educational Sport Political

#Tweets in SA

#Tweets in SD

#Tweets have CS to SA

#Tweets have CS to SD

Total

63 37 26 27 72

14 46 62 60 16

8 6 3 1 2

15 11 9 12 10

100 100 100 100 100

This is a socioreligious hashtag discussing a highly controversial issue that resulted from the government’s decision to reduce the power privileges of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice the previous year (2016). A year later, in March 2017, Arab News adopted the opponent of the religious police’s view, stating, “A year after curbing its power, the Saudi religious police is deemed redundant by many.”4 Opponents believe the Saudi government has made the correct decision, claiming that the committee pries into their personal affairs and is the gathering place and official umbrella for fundamentalists. Proponents believe the government has made a costly and unforgivable mistake because they see the committee as the lifeboat that saved Saudi society from sinking into immorality. The hashtag discusses a crucial issue in Saudi society. Accordingly, following Ferguson (1959), the H variety (SA) is predicted to be used here. Based on the analysis of the one hundred tweets extracted randomly from the hashtag, the data showed 63 percent of the tweets were written entirely in SA, while 14 percent were written completely in the SD (or the L variety). The data also showed 8 percent of the tweets contained CS to SA, whereas 15 percent included CS to the SD. In other words, the findings revealed that both the H code and the L code were used in this hashtag and that CS occurred as well. However, the H code was the dominant code, and it is the typical code to be used to discuss such a socioreligious topic. The social topic #‫ رشايك_يف_الزواج_التقليدي‬ȝraːyik_fiː_ʔaz-​zawaːdȝ_ʔat-​taqliːdiyy “What is your opinion about arranged marriage?” This is a social hashtag that discusses Saudi people’s opinions about arranged marriages compared to dating or to marriage based on a romantic relationship before becoming engaged or getting married, which is rejected by Saudi society because it violates Saudis’ traditions, beliefs, and culture. Following Ferguson (1959), Twitter users in this hashtag are predicted to use both the H and the L variety since it is a

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social issue, and therefore the variety used would depend on the users’ perceptions of the issue. Based on the analysis of the one hundred tweets extracted randomly from the hashtag, the data showed that 37 percent of the tweets were written entirely in SA, while 46 percent were written completely in the SD. The data also revealed 6 percent of the extracted tweets contained CS to SA, while 11 percent included CS to the SD. In other words, the findings confirmed Ferguson’s prediction by revealing that both the H code and the L code were used, with the latter being slightly more often used than the former and with CS also occurring. The educational topic #‫تنظيم_مكافات_الطالب_الجدد‬ tanðʕiːm_mukaːfaʔaːt_ʔatʕ-tʕullaːb_ʔal-​dȝudud “Regulating the stipends of new college students” This is a socioeconomic topic related to education and concerning college students in Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, university students who attend a public school receive a monthly stipend that varies between SAR 850 and SAR 1,000 (equivalent to $222–$266) based on students’ majors. This hashtag was trending in Saudi Arabia after leaks that the Saudi government was planning to introduce new regulations governing students’ monthly stipends and that only students with high grade point averages would receive the monthly stipend. Following Ferguson’s (1959) prediction, Twitter users in this hashtag are predicted to use the H variety since it discusses an important and serious issue for college students. However, based on the analysis of the one hundred tweets extracted randomly from the hashtag, the data revealed that only 26 percent of the tweets were written entirely in SA, whereas 62 percent were written completely in the SD. As for code switching, the data showed that 3 percent of the extracted tweets contained CS to SA, while 9 percent included CS to the SD. Since the L code was used more often than the H code, this is compatible with the finding that Twitter users with less than a college education use the L variety more often than users with high education, with the vast majority of the participants in the hashtag being college students. Consequently, since the L variety was more often used than the H variety, this finding disconfirms the prediction made by Ferguson’s model. The sport topic #‫ ارحل_يا فيصل_بن_تريك‬ʔirħal_yaː faysʕal_bin_turkiyy “Oh Faisal Bin Turki, leave” This is a sport hashtag. Using this hashtag, the fans of Al-​Nassr, which is one of the most famous soccer clubs in Saudi Arabia, asked the president of the club to resign



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29

after losing the final game in the Saudi Crown Prince Cup to Al-​Ittihad, which is another famous soccer club in Saudi Arabia. According to Ferguson’s (1959) model, this hashtag should have been in the L variety because the topic was sport. Based on analysis of the one hundred tweets extracted randomly from the hashtag, the data showed that 27 percent of the tweets were written entirely in SA, while 60 percent were written completely in the SD, which is high and is the typical code used to discuss such sports topics, confirming Ferguson’s prediction. The data also showed that 1 percent of the tweets contained CS to SA, while 12 percent included CS to the SD. The political topic  #‫ الشعب_يعارض_بيع_ارامكو‬ʔaȝ-ȝaʕb_yuʕaːridʕ_bayʕ_ʔaraːmkuː “The people object to selling ARAMCO” This is a sociopolitical hashtag through which Saudis express their opinions either for or against significant issues that concern the entire Saudi society that arose when the Saudi government announced its intention to sell 5 percent of its giant oil and energy company, Saudi ARAMCO. The hashtag discusses an important topic for Saudi society because ARAMCO oil company is perceived as the backbone of the economy of Saudi Arabia. Following Ferguson’s (1959) model, Twitter users using this hashtag are predicted to use the H variety. Based on the analysis of the one hundred tweets extracted from the hashtag, the finding confirmed the prediction and revealed that 72 percent of the tweets were written entirely in SA, whereas 16 percent were written completely in the SD. In addition, 2 percent contained CS to SA, and 10 percent included CS to the SD.

Discussion and Conclusion

The study set out to investigate the difference between the functions of CS on Twitter and those identified in face-​to-​face interactions. Additionally, the data were analyzed, taking into account two crucial variables, gender and education, and how they affect CS. With respect to the first research question (i.e., the specific motivations of CS on Twitter and whether they are different from those in face-​to-​face interactions), the study found many, though not all, motivations of CS in Twitter similar to those identified in face-​to-​face interaction (e.g., Saeed 1997; Albirini 2010, 2011, 2016). In particular, motivations for CS to SA (or the H variety) were found to correlate with prestige, importance, and seriousness; and CS to the SD (or the L variety) were found to be associated with sarcasm, informality, low-​prestige, and simple everyday

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topics. Nevertheless, some differences were found. Among the most obvious differences is the absence of some motivations that were identified in the literature concerning social motivations for CS in face-​to-​face interactions, including “to provide reiterations” (Gumperz 1982), “to add interjections” (Gumperz 1982; Saeed 1997), “to gain the floor” (Bentahila 1983), “to function as a sentence filler” (Grosjean 1982; Romaine 1995; Albirini 2010, 2011), “to induce parenthetical phrases” (Albirini, 2010, 2011; Grosjean 1982), “to produce rhyming stretches of discourse” (Albirini 2010, 2011), and “to indicate pan-​Arab or Muslim identity” (Albirini 2010, 2011). Despite such differences, at least two of the CS motivations reported in face-​to-​ face interactions are not expected to occur: serving as “a sentence filler” and inducing “parenthetical phrases.” This is due to the nature of Twitter as a written medium (where Twitter users have ample time to draft and revise their tweets before posting them) as well as the enforced word limit requirement (i.e., 140 characters during the time the data were collected). However, new patterns of CS emerged, most prominent of which are those related to common usage where CS to the SD (accounting for 31 percent of such CS) exhibited use of the Twitter-​related terms in English and insertion of single words from the L code (e.g., future markers, relative pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, and negation) in the middle of tweets that would otherwise be written entirely in SA (see table 2). However, with respect to use of Twitter-​related words in English, recall that such use might also be due to Twitter users not knowing the equivalent Arabic words, although this is doubtful in a case of the Twitter user with high education. If this were the case, it is worth noting that such a motivation has been identified in the literature albeit in different ways; for example, “some Facebookers lack[ing] functional knowledge of Arabic” (Albirini 2016), “the referential function of CS” occurring due to a lack of facility or lack of knowledge in one of the two languages concerning a certain topic or subject (Appel and Muysken 1987), and “lack of register” (Eldin 2014; Hussein 1999). Regarding language use in social media, the findings of the present study indicated that the Saudi Twitter community used SA in 60 percent of their (4,376) tweets, whereas they used the SD in 25 percent of their (1,851) tweets (see tables 2 and 3). This is contrary to the findings reported by Al-​Tamimi and Gorgis (2007), who reported the majority of their participants used a variety that could be described as hybrid lingua franca or a pidgin, and to those reported by Duaa Abu Elhija (2012), who accordingly introduced the term ʔal-ʕaːmmiyyah ʔal-ʔilkitruːniyyah “electronic colloquial.” The discrepancy in the findings can be explained away by the nature of their data, as participants in Al-​Tamimi and Gorgis’s (2007) and Abu Elhija’s (2012) were young Arabic-​speaking participants. Accordingly, their findings cannot be generalized to include all speakers or users of social media. Nevertheless, the findings of



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the present study are in support of Al-​Tamimi and Gorgis’s (2007) and Abu Elhija’s (2012) data in terms of Twitter users with less than a college education. Saudi Twitter users with less than a college education in the present study tended to use the SD (or L variety) in a manner that was congruous with the casual nature of online interaction and in order to remain in-​group or, to use Gumperz’s (1982) term, the WE code. By contrast, the Twitter users who were not young (and were more educated) were found to use SA more often than the SD because it has been shown that SA is correlated with prestige, importance, and seriousness. Regarding the second research question (i.e., whether patterns of the use of CS differ by gender and education), the data revealed several findings on the question and related issues. Gender has been a controversial issue for Western sociolinguists such as Labov (1972), who posited that women tend to be more conservative than men and prefer to use more standard and prestigious forms of language. Labov (1982) further claimed that, in the Near East and in South Asia, women are not necessarily more conservative than men. Although the findings of the present study partly confirm this observation, where women used SA less than men and conversely used the SD more than men, the findings show that women (with a college education and with less than a college education) tended to switch to the SD less often than their male counterparts (table 4). However, the distinction between the H and L varieties does not quite capture language use in the present data. Some sociolinguists identified two types of a prestigious variety in the Arab world: SA and a regional or superdialectal variety (Ibrahim 1986; Abd-​El-​Jawad 1987; Eckert 1989; Haeri 1996). The latter is a middle variety between SA and local varieties. Based on the nature of the dialectal variety used by women in the present study, women tended to prefer the supradialectal variety (over other local varieties in Saudi Arabia), which is the Saudi dialect (SD) in the present study.5 Hence, the gender-​related findings here seem to confirm conclusions reached by other studies (e.g., Ibrahim 1986; Abd-​El-​Jawad 1987; Haeri 1996; Walters 1996), which found that, in urban areas of the Arabic-​speaking world, women tended to prefer the supradialectal varieties over local ones. With respect to the finding that women used SA less often than men, this also confirms previous findings (e.g., Badawi 1973; Haeri 1996). Like gender, education is found to be an important social variable that impacts language use, as many studies have found. For example, Ferguson (1959) emphasizes the role of education, as he attributes the acquisition of SA to formal education and the L variety as the language usually spoken in the home and everyday conversation. Badawi (1973) identifies five levels of Arabic based on education (and social class), with the fifth/lowest level in particular (“colloquial of the illiterate”) being spoken by the lower classes or by people who have very little or no education. The present

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study found that the Saudi Twitter community members who have high levels of education or a college education use SA more than they do the SD (see also Schmidt 1974; Ibrahim 1986; Abd-​El-​Jawad 1987; Haeri 1996; Walters 1996). Finally, the present study aimed to address the third research question—that is, whether CS patterns differ by topic. Recall, to address this question, the study adopted Ferguson’s (1959) context-​based model, in which he associated code choice with the topic and situation. If the context is formal, such as formal education, sermons in mosques and churches, newspapers, and news, for example, then the H variety (or SA) would be predictably the appropriate code or variety to use. If the context is informal such as sport, the L variety (or the SD) would be the predicted variety to be used. Such contextual polarization in the distinction between the H and L varieties and confining each of them to specific functions and specific daily use has been refuted by others later, such as Badawi (1973), Gustav Meiseles (1980), Karin Ryding (1991), who instead posited the existence of a continuum or middle variety/ varieties between the H code and the L code. Similarly, the current study contradicted Ferguson’s (1959) claims. In particular, although the religious hashtag (“A year since the suspension of the committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice”) displayed the H variety as the dominant used code, the findings revealed that both the H code and the L code were used and that CS also occurred, partially contradicting Ferguson’s (1959) context-​based model. On the other hand, the findings provide support to the works of Saeed (1997), Bassiouney (2006), and Albirini (2010, 2011), who posited that the code choice does not depend solely on the formality or informality of the context but that “even in religious discourse, which is the most formal form of discourse, DA [dialectal Arabic] may occur if such functions as joking, simplifying, exemplifying, and scolding, are invoked” (Albirini 2010, 166). Similarly, although the study shows that use of the L variety was the dominant code in the sport hashtag (“Oh Faisal Bin Turki, leave”), use of SA and CS to SA is observed contrary to Ferguson’s (1959) model. Recall, SA is used in this hashtag to perform some functions, such as taking a pedantic stance or adopting the role of the expert as well as indicating seriousness. Accordingly, the study findings provide further support to previous findings reported by Saeed (1997), who pointed out that SA is usually used to upgrade or when discussing a topic in positive terms, and by Albirini (2010, 2011), who found that SA is used when adopting a serious tone. The same type of finding was yielded in the political hashtag (“The nation objects to selling ARAMCO”). Following Ferguson’s model, SA was predicted to be the variety used to discuss such crucial issues. The findings revealed that SA is indeed the dominant code used, as predicted. However, contrary to the prediction, the L code



Code Choice between Standard Arabic and the Saudi Dialect by Saudi Twitter Users

33

is also used in order to perform specific functions. These functions included use of SA for conveying sarcasm and for mocking, in agreement with Saeed (1997), who found that the L code is usually employed for downgrading and for discussing an issue disagreed on or perceived as negative. The educational hashtag (“The new regulating of college students’ stipends”) provides even stronger counter evidence to Ferguson’s context-​based model. Recall, SA was predicted to be used in this hashtag. However, the findings revealed that the L code is in fact the dominant code, contrary to the prediction altogether but in support of previous findings reported by Saeed (1997) and Albirini (2010, 2011), who found CS occurring in formal as well as informal contexts for performing specific social pragmatic meanings such as mocking, sarcasm, or underhand criticism. As for the social hashtag (“What is your opinion about arranged marriage?”), both the H and the L variety were predicted to be used because the topic related to a social issue, and use of the specific variety depended on users’ perceptions of the issue. The prediction was confirmed, as the findings revealed that 37 percent of the tweets were written entirely in SA, while 46 percent were written completely in the SD. However, Ferguson’s model does not predict when exactly a specific variety is used. Saeed (1997) posited that speakers use the H variety to upgrade when discussing an issue they agreed on or considered to be positive, whereas they use the L variety to downgrade and when discussing an issue that they disagreed on or perceived as negative. Following Saeed (1997), account users in the hashtags positioned themselves either for or against the issue. This also seems to be compatible with what Bhatt and Bolonyai (2011, 533) subsumed under the principle of perspective: “Actors switch to a language that is best positioned to signal what is assumed to be currently salient point of view and socio-​cognitive orientation in discourse.” In sum, rather than being contingent on the type of topic or context, code choice on Twitter (by Saudi users) seems to depend on a combination of factors, including the nature of context in terms of formality and informality; attitude of the Twitter user toward the issue being discussed, the user’s stance or perception of his or her followers/ audience, and how they will be involved; and the function that the user aims to perform and how it is linked to either the H variety or to the L variety. The study emphasizes the importance of considering the macro level of societal norms as well as the micro level of individual interactions to expand our understanding of CS. The findings of the current study contradict Ferguson’s (1959) model, in which the main constraint is situational context, as well as Bassiouney’s (2006, 234) claim that the utilized code is chosen by the speaker regardless of other factors that might control code choice, such as topic, situation, and audience. It might also be the case that dialectal and standard use in Egypt is unique, as Egyptian speakers seem to mix between SA and Egyptian

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Colloquial Arabic depending on the social hierarchy and educational background of the speaker (Badawi 1973) or the speaker’s choice (Bassiouney 2006), regardless of other factors that might affect code choice, such as topic, situation, and audience. In conclusion, the present study revealed that SA (or the H variety) was correlated with prestige, importance, sophistication, and seriousness. By contrast, the SD (or the L variety) was associated with sarcasm, informality, and low-​prestige, simple, everyday topics. The findings imply that the functions and motivations for CS may differ from one community to another in agreement with Appel and Muysken (1987), who posited that the functions of CS vary from one community of speakers to another speech community. Future research should investigate the influence of social media on Arabic in general and should consider more social variables (and the interaction among them) such as gender, education, age, and social class among others.

Notes 1. Normally, in Saudi Arabia, teachers who earn masters degrees in their fields are promoted to work in the Department of Educational Supervision. 2. To distinguish between SA and the DA codes, the English gloss corresponding to SA is in bold throughout the examples. Screenshots of the actual tweets in Arabic are provided so that emojis used with the tweets can also be included as used. In many cases Arabic script reflects the educational level of Twitter users. 3. “Saudi Women No Longer Need Male Guardian Consents to Receive Services,” Al Arabiya, May 3, 2017, http://​english​.alarabiya​.net​/en​/News​/gulf​/2017​/05​/04​/Saudi​-women​-no​-longer​ -need​-male​-guardian​-consents​-to​-receive​-services​-​.html. 4. “A Year after Curbing Its Power, the Saudi Religious Police Is Deemed Redundant by Many,” April 1, 2017, http://​www​.arabnews​.com​/node​/1076321​/saudi​-arabia. 5. The Saudi supradialectal here is the variety that does not contain regional variations such as al-​kashkasha, al-​kaskasah, and use of im- instead of al- as the definite article in some areas of southern region; at the same time, it is not the same as SA.

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Eldin, Ahmad. 2014. “Sociolinguistic Study of Code Switching of the Arabic Language Speakers on Social Networking.” International Journal of English Linguistics 4:78–86. Ferguson, Charles. 1959. “Diglossia.” Word 15:325–40. Grosjean, François. 1982. Life with Two Languages: An Introduction to Bilingualism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Gumperz, John. 1982. Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Haeri, Niloofar. 1996. The Sociolinguistic Market of Cairo: Gender, Class, and Education. London: Kegan Paul. The Holy Qur’an, Electronic Moṣḥaf Project “Ayat” (n.d.). Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: King Saud University​. http://​quran​.ksu​.edu​.sa​/index​.php​?l​=​en​#aya​=​10​_98​&​m​=​hafs​&​qaree​=​husary​&​trans​=​ en​_sh. Hussein, Riyad. 1999. “Code-​Alteration among Arab College Students.” World Englishes 18:281–89. Ibrahim, Muhammad. 1986. “Standard and Prestige Language: A Problem in Arabic Sociolinguistics.” Anthropological Linguistics 28:115–26. Kosoff, Zoë. 2014. “Codeswitching in Egyptian Arabic: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Twitter.” Al-‘Arabiyya 47:83–99. Labov, William. 1972. Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ———. 1982. “Building on Empirical Foundations.” In Perspectives on Historical Linguistics, edited by W. Lehmann and Y. Malkiel, 17–82. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Meiseles, Gustav. 1980. “Educated Spoken Arabic and the Arabic Language Continuum.” Archivum Linguisticum 11:118–48. Mejdell, Gunvor. 2006. Mixed Styles in Spoken Arabic in Egypt: Somewhere between Order and Chaos. Leiden: Brill. Myers-​Scotton, Carol. 1993. Social Motivations for Codeswitching: Evidence from Africa. Oxford: Clarendon. Myers-​Scotton, Carol, and Agnes Bolonyai. 2001. “Calculating Speakers: Codeswitching in a Rational Choice Model.” Language in Society 30:1–28. Palfreyman, David, and Muhamed al Khalil. 2003. “A Funky Language for Teenzz to Use: Representing Gulf Arabic in Instant Messaging.” Journal of Computer-​Mediated Communication 9 (1). Retrieved June 20, 2011, from http://​jcmc​.indiana​.edu​/vol9​/issue1​/palfreyman​.html. Romaine, Suzanne. 1995. Bilingualism. Oxford: Blackwell. Ryding, Karin. 1991. “Proficiency Despite Diglossia: A New Approach for Arabic.” Modern Language Journal 75:212–18. Saeed, Aziz. 1997. “The Pragmatics of Codeswitching Fuṣḥa Arabic to ‘aammiyyah Arabic in Religious Oriented Discourse.” PhD dissertation, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana. Safi, Sabah. 1992. “Functions of Codeswitching: Saudi Arabic in the United States.” In The Arabic Language in America, edited by Aleya Rouchdy, 72–80. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. Schmidt, Richard. 1974. “Sociostylistic Variation in Spoken Egyptian Arabic: A Re-examination of the Concept of Diglossia.” PhD dissertation, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Walters, Keith. 1996. “Diglossia, Linguistic Variation, and Language Change in Arabic.” In Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics VIII: Papers from the Eighth Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics, edited by Mushira Eid, 157–97. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Languages in Conflict Examining the Status of Standard Arabic and French in Morocco Brahim Chakrani, Michigan State University

Language attitudes toward Standard Arabic (SA) and French in Moroccan sociolinguistic literature (Bentahila 1983; Ennaji 2005; Marley 2004) have been presented as occupying a relationship of functional complementarity, where SA epitomizes local culture and traditional values, while French is imbued with status, iconic of modernity, and presented as instrumental for social mobility. The results of a French and SA matched guise test (MGT) conducted in Morocco show covert attitudes of middle-​class members indicating status contested in both French and SA, and that, for the middle class, the solidarity traits cannot be allocated to either French or SA. The results show that French, introduced in Morocco as an exogenous code, is considered exogenous and has not been appropriated to covert prestige. Although speakers attempted to use French in different social domains, it cannot be considered, for middle-​class respondents, as a solidarity code. This study reveals a complex attitudinal landscape of a rapidly changing linguistic market characterized by ongoing tensions between ex-​colonial, regional, and local tensions, where the availability of each code is continually contested and challenged. Key words: Morocco, attitudes, status, solidarity, sociolinguistics, Standard Arabic, French, covert and overt prestige, matched guise test Al-‘Arabiyya, 53 (2020), 37–56

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Introduction

Morocco has a complex multilingual situation in which many languages compete for different domains of use. Amazigh, also referred to as Berber, is Morocco’s indigenous oral language and has historically functioned as primarily a Low (L) code, mostly spoken at home and in the street. Amazigh has been recently codified and entered in the media domain and, in 2003, was introduced in the educational domain in public schools (Soulaimani 2016). Since 2011, Amazigh is Morocco’s co-​official language. Arabic is Morocco’s other native and co-official language, with two different varieties, Standard Arabic (SA) as the High (H) code and Moroccan Arabic (MA), which serves as the L code. The presence of these varieties maintain a diglossic situation. Ferguson defines diglossia as “a relatively stable language situation in which, in addition to the primary dialects of the language (which may include a standard or regional standards), there is a very divergent, highly codified (often grammatically more complex) superposed variety, the vehicle of a large and respected body of written literature, either of an earlier period or in another speech community, which is learned largely by formal education and is used for most written and formal spoken purposes but is not used by any sector of the community for ordinary conversation” (Ferguson 1959, 75). SA is the official language of Morocco and has been historically used for official purposes and formal domains such as education, media, government, and religion. In addition, Arabic has served as the mainstay of Morocco’s identity and culture since the seventh century. MA, Morocco’s L code, serves primarily as the variety that most Moroccans use for daily interactions and is used primarily in functional complementation to SA, primarily in the home and street, as well as in semiformal domains such as the media. Morocco also has three exogenous languages, Spanish, French, and English. Spanish has historically been in contact with Arabic in Spain as well as in northern Morocco. Spain and France colonized Morocco from 1912 to 1956 using their respective languages as de facto languages of communication. Spanish, an H code, is spoken as a second language to MA in northern Morocco and has limited presence outside this area. Despite its use in the north and the continuous historical contact with Spain, Morocco’s language policy has reinforced the use of French, making Spanish fluency recede in favor of French, except within older generations. French is an H code that serves in private education, the business domain, and in science and technology sectors. French was the official language during the French protectorate. As of 2019, French constitutes the mother tongue for the over fifty-​four thousand French expatriates living in Morocco (La communauté française à l’étranger en chiffres 2019). French has also been integratively acquired by a segment of affluent



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Moroccans. For this segment, French not only serves as the power code but has been appropriated to the home domain along with MA (Chakrani and Huang 2014). English, an H code, serves in the domain of elite education and asserts an increasing presence in business, science, technology, media, and entertainment sectors. English has status as a global language and the language of popular culture. Due to the fact that English is not directly associated with colonialism in Morocco, attitudes toward English are positive, as the language indexes the prestige and status of its speakers, much like in the case of Algeria (Belmihoub 2018). With the inception of English teaching institutions and Morocco’s orientation toward a global market, the status of English is viewed as being more prestigious than both SA and French (Chakrani 2017). After a century since the introduction of French in Morocco and more than half a century after the country’s independence, this article addresses the important question of whether French and SA, as languages of power, have changed their status to compete for covert prestige. This is especially relevant in light of the introduction of English in Morocco, where SA-​English code switching is becoming commonplace, especially among the youth. The MGT, administered in 2005, evaluated covert language attitudes toward French and SA and was the first study conducted in Morocco that evaluated covert attitudes toward SA. The MGT, as a methodological tool in the study of covert language attitudes in many multilingual settings (Bentahila 1983; El Dash and Tucker 1975; Gal 1987; Giles and Coupland 1991; Lambert et al. 1960; Lawson and Sachdev 2000; Park 2004; Woolard 1989), investigates the interaction between these codes and their relationship to status and solidarity traits. Researchers have presented the presence of French and SA in terms of a complementary biculturalism, within which SA is portrayed as representing “cultural authenticity” (Ennaji 2005), while French was described as iconic of status-​stressing attributes and epitomizing a forward-​looking projection of modernity (Bentahila 1983; Hassa 2006; Marley 2004; Mouhssine 1995). The difference of attitudes between the classes in Morocco have been evidenced to show a contestation of the presence of French and SA in functional domains, especially education, and in bifurcating the Moroccan society on the basis of language of instruction (Chakrani 2017). The existence of class-​based differences compels us to consider class as an important social factor in shaping linguistic practices and attitudes to these varieties. SA and MA have existed in functional complementation for centuries, with SA serving as the language of erudition and in formal settings and MA being used as the local code that indexes local cultural expression and serves in daily communicative interactions. The empirical significance of this study is to test if French, the language

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that serves as an outward-​looking “window on the world” (Bentahila and Davis 2002), has additionally turned into an inward-​looking linguistic code that competes for aspects of local culture. SA, the official language of Morocco, was introduced post-​ independence as emblematic of the modern Moroccan nation-​state (Haeri 2000) and does not index covert prestige. This study attempts to answer the following research questions:

1. What are the covert language attitudes toward SA and French in Morocco? 2. Are the covert attitudes toward these languages aligned along the dimensions of status and solidarity, as has been standardly assumed? 3. How does the distribution of these covert attitudes inform our understanding of the current linguistic situation in Morocco?

This study discusses the results from student respondents’ covert attitudes toward SA and French in light of the theoretical framework of status and solidarity, analyzing the relationship that SA and French have regarding ascriptions of covert and overt prestige.

Literature Review

Language Attitudes The study of language attitudes in the social sciences has been the locus of an extensive body of literature, stretching from social psychology, to educational psychology, to sociolinguistics. Linguistic cues serve as strong ethnic indicators that invoke covert attitudes. In fact, the variations in our linguistic repertoires, as identity markers, do not go uncontested in daily communicative exchanges. On the contrary, during any verbal interaction, these variations of speakers’ linguistic cues become indices of a speaker’s social identity that are constantly being negotiated and assigned social values. The social values of these linguistic cues are determined based on preconceived and, oftentimes, perpetual notions that are ascribed to any given speech community. Allport’s (1935, 810) formative work on attitudes defines them as “a  mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related” (see also Baker 1992; Garrett, Coupland, and Williams 2003). The study of attitudes as a social phenomenon is critical to understanding societal structure. Language attitudes are vital components to examine, as listening to given speech



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41

varieties can trigger favorable or unfavorable reactions to the corresponding speech community to which these varieties are tied (Edwards 2011). According to Aaron Cargile and colleagues (1994), the nature of language attitudes is three-​dimensional: cognitive in that attitudes constitute given “beliefs about the world,” affective in that they are constructed “feelings about an attitude object,” and behavioral in that they “encourage certain actions” (Cargile et al. 1994, 221). Language attitudinal stances rest on and are warranted by the establishment of a given linguistic code as the normative and standardized core against which other varieties compete to gain equal social prestige (Friedrich 1989). Language attitudes can also be construed as expressions of strong allegiance to local culture (Abrams and Hogg 1987). This evaluation process can further warrant the legitimacy of a speaker’s use of a particular accent or language variety as either diverging from or conforming to the linguistic norms that are constructed and imposed through a socialization process. Value judgments toward and evaluations of interactants’ language varieties and the attitudes associated with them are part of daily social interactions. By using a particular linguistic variety, such as Received Pronunciation, for instance, a speaker may be perceived as cultured when compared to a speaker who uses local English varieties (Cargile et al. 1994, 225). Language attitudes are not “passive reactions to blocks of vocal sounds” (Cargile et al. 1994, 32) but present an important phenomenon that the study of language plays in the social realm. The importance of this lies in the fact that they can, for instance, affect individuals at the microsocietal level, where established “negative attitudes towards non-​fluent and accented speakers of second language” (Cargile et al. 1994, 219) can downgrade the credibility assessment of these speakers. These attitudes can therefore play a key role in the negotiation of power and can be, for example, the cause for disenfranchisement of “non-​native” individuals in the job market (Cargile et al. 1994, 224). Moreover, on the macro-​societal level, the importance of positive or negative attitudes toward a given language variety can translate into its maintenance, “restoration, preservation, decay, or death” (Baker 1992, 9). Covert language attitudes that can be elicited from respondents are hidden and are “a true reflection of their privately held views” (Giles and Coupland 1991, 22). These attitudes can be inferred from an individual’s behavior, implicitly or explicitly articulated in linguistic expressions, or construed from bodily hexes. In order to solicit covert attitudes, Wallace Lambert and his colleagues (1960) modeled a “subjective reaction test (Giles and Coupland 1991, 23) called the matched guise test (MGT), which has sparked an extensive body of research ‘investigating aspects of overt linguistic attitudes in interethnic interactions’ ” (Cargile et al. 1994, 119; also Abrams and Hogg 1987; Woolard 1989; Mansour 1993; Abu-​R abia 2003).

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Tapping into language attitudes within multilingual nations helps us understand how each language variety, whether associated with an ethnic group or not, harmoniously or conflictually interfaces with other linguistic capitals present in the same social market. Numerous studies conducted in this regard (Gal 1987; Giles and Coupland 1991; Lambert et al. 1960; Woolard 1989) argue for the polarization of two existing attitudinal motivations within a speech community that account for the existence, either symmetrical or asymmetrical, of two H varieties or an H and an L variety. Namely, feelings of in-​group solidarity tend to be motivated by “covert prestige,” which is defined, according to Peter Trudgill (1983), as representing attributes of toughness and in-​group loyalty. In contrast, the other motivational impetus driving the acquisitional process of outer group linguistic variety is “overt prestige,” where certain varieties have secured the instrumental role for social prestige and upward mobility, and their acquisition has become socially attractive and economically promising (Baker 1992; Lambert et al. 1960; Mansour 1993; Woolard 1989). The theoretical findings of this dichotomy may sketch some aspects of the acquisitional motivation of a given language variety. However, they do not present a thorough picture of the power dynamics behind the attitudinal stances of social actors toward a given language variety in their negotiation of social identities and management of their linguistic repertoires. Language Attitudes in Morocco Research on Arabic and French in Morocco has taken a similar approach. Abdelali Bentahila (1983) showed that Moroccans’ covert attitudes toward French and MA bilingualism co-​indexes French, the H variety, with “status-​stressing traits” while associating MA with those of solidarity. Moreover, the overt attitudes regarding SA and French in the works of both Moha Ennaji (2005) and Bentahila (1983) argue for a complimentary biculturalism of a “conservative and of a consensus nature” (Saxena 1995, 31), where SA correlates with traditional values, national identity, and “cultural authenticity,” and French is synonymous to advancement, open-​mindedness, and social mobility. Their analyses suggest an integrative role of SA in representing local norms, with MA playing a major role in representing the solidarity code of everyday expression. Contrarily, the acquisition of French is a pragmatic instrument of linguistic means necessary for social advancement. In overt language attitudes research, Dawn Marley (2004) argues for Morocco’s need to maintain an “additive bilingualism,” stressing the inadequacy of maintaining a monolingual educational system. Her work, similar to earlier findings, aligns itself with the already existing dichotomous division along the instrumental and integrative functions of language use. Furthermore, Ouafae Mouhssine (1995) argues



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that attitudes toward SA are epitomized in its representation of Moroccans’ cultural heritage, while those toward French represent the forward-​looking and progressive outlook that Moroccans aspire to attain to and project in order to keep up with the pressures of the modern world. Respondents in Mouhssine’s (1995) research on Arabization, however, reported an ambivalent attitude toward SA and Arabization. Mouhssine concludes that the only way Morocco’s Arabization policy can be successful is if it is incorporated within Arabic–French bilingualism. However, in the work of Mohamed Elbiad (1991, 42) on the Arabization policy in Morocco, respondents were shown to hold negative attitudes toward French, given its colonial overtones, and positive attitudes toward SA, “motivated by nationalistic feelings” and a sense of local identity.

Methodology

The conceptual framework for designing the MGT’s evaluation traits is based on the theoretical model that locates two types of indexicalities: one relating to what Cargile and colleagues (1994) call “competence traits” or what is conventionally known as status traits, and the other are “social-​attractiveness traits” or solidarity traits (see appendix 1). Status traits are descriptive adjectives that are associated with socially mobile actors, such as “intelligent,” “educated,” “modern,” and “open-​minded.” Solidarity traits of personal values are annotated as essential in constructing individuals’ social characteristics, such as “sociable,” “humble,” “religious,” “emotional,” and “patriotic,” which facilitate in-​group integration. In this study, status and solidary traits, modeled after Bentahila (1983), Kathryn Woolard (1989) and Hyunju Park (2004), were alternated so subjects would not trace any recognition of a trait cluster (Woolard 1989) as pertaining either to solidarity or status. Conducting the MGT in either French or Arabic would have biased the judgment of these subjects toward one of these languages. Therefore, the test was administered in English, which, although a Western language, was the best viable option, given that it does not promote either SA or French. The MGT was administered in the summer of 2005 at a foreign-​language school in a major metropolitan city in Morocco with predominantly L1 speakers of MA. The experiment was not only linguistically convenient and culturally appropriate, but its contextual framework was also educational (Woolard 1989). The debate between the use of French and SA is still contentious in Morocco. The Moroccan minister of education’s spring 2018 proposal to teach scientific subjects in French was passed into law in 2019. This has created a heated debate in Morocco between (1) proponents of SA, who see this move a persistence of the

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colonial legacy in Morocco; (2) a francophone elite, who argue that SA should not be used because of its limited presence in up-​to-​date research and innovation; and (3) those who support the introduction of English as the global language and the de facto code for science, innovation, and technology. The contention between Arabic, French, and potentially English concerns which language(s) becomes the instrument that defines the modern Moroccan state and consequently, Moroccan society. The post-​independence Arab state sought to make Arabic the language of science and innovation through implementing Arabization, yet this project did not materialize, since the ruling elite promoted French education, which perpetuates the cultural and linguistic segregation between the colonial rulers and the Moroccan masses (Hammoud 1982). This means that the elite group, “which derives its privileged economic and social position precisely from its competence in French, resists any change which threatens its status in the intellectual, social and political spheres” (Salhi 2002, 327). Similar asymmetry holds in the francophone world, where France still maintains an ethnocentric view of its language, placing it at the top of the French linguistic hierarchy while claiming centuries-​old ideologies that cast its appeal as a universal language (Vigouroux 2013). A similar situation is taking place in the rest of the Arab world, where Arabic is supplemented with English, and in the Gulf, English is becoming nativized under the process of modernization (Bashshur 2010; Belhiah and Elhami 2015; Boyle 2012). This modernization project is translated into a wholesale adoption of English, reaffirming old language asymmetries between English and Arabic that undermine the latter’s ability to serve in defining the modern Arab world. The text chosen for this experiment (appendix 2) was a passage about soccer that is emotionally free from any “specific association” with either French or SA as well as from any political or social connotation that may have biased respondents’ judgments. Soccer is an unmarked choice in Morocco, as it is broadcasted equally in both SA and French and is usually discussed in MA. The text chosen was from an article in Le Matin newspaper, which was published in French, then translated into SA.1 There were five speakers whose voices were used in the matched guise recordings. Three guises were composed of three Moroccans, as two “unmarked bilinguals” (a female and a male) and one male unbalanced bilingual. In addition, two filler voices were introduced, a female French native speaker and a female Arabic native speaker. The range in the ages of the five speakers was from mid-​twenties to early thirties in order to avoid age disparity and to record speakers from within the same age group as the respondents. The French and SA guises of the two balanced bilinguals were maximally separated to avoid recognition (Woolard 1989). Although the French and SA guises of these balanced bilinguals are recognized as Moroccan, they do not



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display linguistic features of any given regional dialect in Morocco, neither in SA nor in French. Choosing to administer the MGT at this language school enabled us to test the covert attitudes of twenty-​three student respondents with a mean age of twenty-​four years. The respondents had, according to their self-​reported assessment, an equal competence in French and SA, both in speaking (p = 0.684012) and understanding (p = 0.245147). Since there were seven female and sixteen male respondents, gender, as an independent variable, was analyzed to determine if it affected their answers toward the two guises. Using a three-​way analysis of variance, the main effects of classes or factors were compared—Gender, Trait, and Guise—as independent variables on the variation from the means. In comparing all responses, no significant difference was found in terms of respondents’ gender (p = 0.7341). The analysis of results did not indicate any significant effect of the variable gender on the respondents’ responses toward the different guises. However, the results of both trait and guise were significant (for both, p < .0001, at the critical alpha value of 0.05). The respondents, regardless of their gender, allocated similar judgments in their responses to trait and guise. Therefore, only the interactions between trait and guise were further analyzed in this study. Because tuition is relatively expensive at this private foreign-​language center, the majority of students are from middle- (78.3 percent) and upper-​class (8.7 percent) backgrounds. The remaining two respondents did not provide enough demographic information to determine their socioeconomic status. The distribution of class in some areas in Morocco cannot be predicted based on the area of residence, as some middle-​class families can be living in areas whose residents are primarily from the lower socioeconomic class. Because of this, class status is difficult to determine based on neighborhood of residence and will be determined, following Daniel Wagner (1993), on the basis of each respondent’s parental occupation. Soliciting covert attitudes of middle-​class respondents with young profiles is critical to understanding the language situation in Morocco. This enables us to predict trends of future change in the Moroccan linguistic outlook (Woolard 1989), given that the deeply held views of these students will potentially influence the price formation of a particular linguistic capital. This price formation may potentially materialize as a permanent behavioral attitudinal stance toward these varieties. Although the current study of attitudes cannot be generalized to the entire Moroccan population, it does represent the attitudinal stance of middle-​class, educated young adults. This will help us understand how and where these young social actors position themselves (Cargile et al. 1994) in the ongoing linguistic conflict between the opposing H varieties of SA and French in Morocco.

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Discussion

These results present an MGT study measuring students’ covert attitudes to SA and French using status and solidarity traits. Given the attitudinal positioning of the respondents, these results suggest a new way of conceptualizing the interface of these two linguistic capitals. Overall status results (table 1) from this study are rated significantly higher in French than SA, while overall solidarity traits have no significant difference between the French and SA guises. The two status traits of open-​minded and important show that French is significantly higher than SA, while the one significant solidarity trait, modest, is ranked higher in SA than French. When evaluating responses between SA and French guises for all status traits, a significant difference emerges when comparing the least squares means of both guises. Students’ responses indicate that overall French is significantly higher than SA among status traits (p = 0.01). The relationship between SA and French is an indication of a broader social perception that speakers of French are viewed as having more status-​bearing traits than those of SA. Among overall solidarity traits, the results indicate that there is no significant difference between SA and French (p = 0.70). The significant difference in terms of the trait important (p = 0.00) signals the importance that Moroccans attach to the acquisition of French over that of SA (table 2). Contemporary economic realities in Morocco and the country’s orientation toward being a competitor in the global market capitalize on the use of Western languages. This accounts for the rising interest in English, as shown in the burgeoning number of students enrolled in this foreign-​language school and in other schools as well. Furthermore, there is a stark difference in the marketability of French in Morocco’s economy, as compared to SA. This is primarily observed in the main sectors of the Moroccan economy, such as in tourism and agriculture, fishing, and mining. It is interesting to note that these areas of commerce are directed toward a European consumption, with an enormous dependence on the French–Moroccan trade partnership, which expectedly gives precedence and marketability to the knowledge of French over that of SA. This Table 1  Overall Results Trait

Meansa

Overall Status

SA: 3.16 French: 2.7150 SA: 2.93 French: 2.9831

Overall Solidarity a

Std. Error

Result

Sig.

0.1723

Significant

p = 0.01

0.1444

Not Significant

p = 0.70

Rating scale: 1 = Strongly Agree, to 5 = Strongly Disagree



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Languages in Conflict

Table 2  Status Traits Trait

Meansa

Intelligent

SA: 2.82 French: 2.39 SA: 3.47 French: 3.08 SA: 3.13 French: 2.65 SA: 2.65 French: 2.30 SA: 2.34 French: 2.00 SA: 3.30 French: 2.52 SA: 3.00 French: 2.73 SA: 3.80 French: 2.95 SA: 3.68 French: 3.28 SA: 3.17 French: 3.08 SA: 4.17 French: 3.87

Rich Modern Confident Educated Open-​minded Ambitious Important Would like to hire him / her Like way of speaking Want as boss a

Std. Error

Result

Sig.

0.2968

Not Significant

p = 0.14

0.2968

Not Significant

p = 0.18

0.2968

Not Significant

p = 0.10

0.2968

Not Significant

p = 0.24

0.2968

Not Significant

p = 0.24

0.2968

Significant

p = 0.00

0.3002

Not Significant

p = 0.37

0.2968

Significant

p = 0.00

0.3072

Not Significant

p = 0.15

0.2968

Not Significant

p = 0.76

0.2968

Not Significant

p = 0.30

Rating scale: 1 = Strongly Agree, to 5 = Strongly Disagree

perception of French is also contingent on the fact that many Moroccans, due to the unemployment rate, entertain the possibility of immigration to France or francophone Canada as well as anglophone countries such as the United States and Canada. This is especially relevant in light of the recent wave of migration to Canada with the brain drain of Morocco’s intellectuals, as well as its professionals. This economic promise is continuously being reinforced by the revenue of Moroccan expatriates, which is a major contributing factor to the country’s economy. The contemporary economic realities in Morocco and the country’s orientation toward a competitive global market will capitalize on more dominant world languages. This has given precedence to French in the Moroccan economic domain over SA and other local languages. However, it is important to mention that SA is the primary language in public sector jobs, such as government, education, and administration, which comprise a significant body of the Moroccan working force that is retracting in light of the increasingly privatized Moroccan market. These results indicate that French and SA are negotiating their legitimacy to serve in different domains of use. That there is no statistically significant difference in the

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trait educated (p = 0.24) shows that SA and French are competing in the educational domain (see table 2). SA and French are anchored in two different types of school systems, public and private, respectively. Public schools, which host the majority of the Moroccan student body, are conducted in SA, yet suffer from a lack of professional training, pedagogical methodology (Alkattani 2000), and financial support from the Moroccan government. This motivates many Moroccan families to embrace private SA-​French-, French-, or English-taught education as an alternative to public schools because it provides access to higher-​paying employment compared to that available to SA-​taught graduates (Chakrani 2017). The educational domain has been and still is the most contested domain for these two H varieties, yet the introduction of English has changed the language dynamics, placing it at the top of the educational hierarchy. Education as a key social function is responsible for “the large scale production and reproduction of producers and consumers, without which the capacity to function as a linguistic capital would cease to exist” (Bourdieu 1991, 53). In higher education, French still solidifies its presence as the language of science instead of SA, impeding the use of SA in the educational sector (Zakhir and O’Brien 2017) and its ability to drive the modernization process of Morocco. During colonialism, in order to prevent the growth of an intelligentsia hostile to the French rule, schools imparted a double culture, where the humanities would be taught in Arabic and modern subjects in French. Thus, the educational bifurcation was established, which has survived to the present day in Morocco (Kaye and Zoubir 1990, 14). It is clear that the French government has mobilized its linguistic resources and has attempted to control the educational market to promote French in educational and business domains. La mission civilisatrice had the goal to rearrange the social order of Moroccan linguistic capitals in order to secure enough economic and cultural capital for French to facilitate its nativization in the Moroccan milieu as a “national language” (Fabian 1986). Consequently, French continues to compete with SA in the realm of the science. In fact, the French colonial power implemented a cultural plan with the purpose of assimilating Moroccans into French culture and Western values (Gintsburg 2016). This distribution of codes in education should be understood within the context of political influence and an asymmetrical economic relationship between France and Morocco, which continues to this day. After independence, Morocco opted not to recognize French as an official language, thus rejecting a francophone identity and asserting Morocco’s independence (Tazi 1986). Until now, sociolinguistic research in Morocco has argued for the exclusive appropriation of the modern characteristics of language to the acquisition of French, which



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is the instrumental motivation for its acquisition, promotion, and maintenance in the Moroccan linguistic market. Yet the fact that the trait modern (p = 0.10) did not show a statistically significant difference between French and SA is a solid argument against exclusively attributing a modern projection to French (table 2). This is evidence that, in the social consciousness of Moroccans, the institutionalization of SA and its presence in an official status throughout the Arab world has strengthened the image of SA as a language with the ability to meet the continuing demands of the modern world. Furthermore, this enhanced image is solidified through all of the Arab world, in which SA is used in technology, science, media outlets, and the economy. Arab countries reinstated SA as their official language to project a modern image of the nation-​state and forge a common future. Yet this has not fully materialized, as the exclusive appropriation of modern scientific knowledge reaffirms the use of French and English as codes that control the engine of modernity (Chakrani and Huang 2014). Although the institutionalization of the Arabization policy has decreased the power of French over local languages, Morocco still places importance on the use of French in its globalization efforts. This explains why the trait open-​minded was ranked significantly higher in French as compared to SA (p = .00) (table 2). French represents the code through which Morocco accesses Western culture and ideas. Since access to the world has been channeled through the acquisition of French, the projection of modernity has been exclusively associated with the French language, for upper classes more so than lower classes (Chakrani 2013). While for the middle-​class respondents in this study, French is ranked higher than SA for overall status traits (p = .01), there is no significant difference between French and SA with regard to overall solidarity traits (p = .07; table 1). However, in the trait modest, SA is rated significantly higher than French (p = 0.00) (table 3), which shows that respondents view SA speakers as more modest than French speakers, whose language imbues them with status, but as speakers are seen as removed from local culture. This analysis cannot be generalized to the social realities that govern the use of SA and French in Morocco for speakers of all social classes. Understood properly from a sociohistoric perspective, the results reveal a new understanding of the contemporary linguistic situation in Morocco. The French language is no longer as socially sanctioned as it used to be after independence and has not, in fact, lost the symbolic position that it once had as the instrument of domination (Elbiad 1991). The ongoing tension between SA and French shows that each code represents two spheres of authority; namely, SA is a global language epitomized in the Islamic umma (nation) and a local one emanating from the modern nation states, whereas French draws

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Table 3  Solidarity Traits Trait

Meansa

Religious

SA: 2.52 French: 3.00 SA: 2.13 French: 2.91 SA: 2.34 French: 2.56 SA: 2.60 French: 2.78 SA: 3.17 French: 2.65 SA: 2.95 French: 2.50 SA: 2.65 French: 2.78 SA: 3.26 French: 2.95 SA: 3.69 French: 3.47

Modest Honest Sociable From a good family Emotional Patriotic Take as a friend Want to work with him/her a

Std. Error

Result

Sig.

0.2968

not significant

p = 0.10

0.2968

significant

p = 0.00

0.2968

not significant

p = 0.46

0.2968

not significant

p = 0.55

0.2968

not significant

p = 0.07

0.2968

not significant

p = 0.12

0.2968

not significant

p = 0.66

0.2968

not significant

p = 0.30

0.2968

not significant

p = 0.46

Rating scale: 1 = Strongly Agree to 5 = Strongly Disagree

its authority from its presence as a global language in the francophone world, with Parisian French as its most valued commodity. What is revealing in these attitudes is that, for these middle-​class respondents, French has not been able to appropriate covert prestige traits. The fact that there is no statistical difference between SA and French for overall solidarity traits suggests that solidarity for the middle-​class members in this study is tied to MA, which speakers use to index local Moroccan culture. The fact that French has not been able to acquire solidarity traits is significant, since it shows that although this group uses French instrumentally, it has not integratively adopted French. French remains, as it has been since its introduction in Morocco, a code embraced for socioeconomic mobility. Much like the Irish situation in which the acquisition of English is imposed, the instruction of the French language in Morocco does not stem from an integrative motivation, but from a “reluctant instrumental one” (Edwards 2011, 57). The inability of French to establish itself as a local code and the unfavorable attitudes toward French can be attributed to the francophone legacy, which has given way to more favorable attitudes toward English, shown in the inclination of young Moroccans to adopt the latter as their first foreign language. This brings into question the status of French in Morocco and the Maghreb,



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as the possibility of it ceding ground to English increases, evidenced by Maghrebi youth becoming more sonorous about including English in modern sectors, especially science and education.

Conclusion

This study examines language attitudes toward SA and French in Morocco to determine if they are aligned, as has been conventionally assumed, along the axes of status and solidarity. These results indicate that respondents’ covert attitudinal dispositions toward French and SA still arrange themselves axiomatically along the poles of status and solidarity as an organizing dynamic of language behavior in Morocco. With SA coexisting in a diglossically functional complementarity with MA, the solidarity code for most Moroccans, this study investigated whether, after a century-​ long presence, the French language has acquired solidarity-​bearing traits or local resonance. The results of middle-​class respondents’ covert attitudes show that their attitudinal reaction toward the French and SA guises indicates a competition on the level of overt prestige by both codes. French’s indexing of status traits has implications for the Arabization process, the presence of French in Morocco, and implementing the officialization of Amazigh. Regarding Arabization, these attitudes indicate that, like elsewhere in the Arab world, post-​independent states’ efforts to reverse the colonial linguistic legacy by appropriating SA to education has not diminished their dependency on foreign languages. On the contrary, this dependency has spread to other domains under the states’ modernizing missions. As for the presence of French in Morocco, its ability to confer overt prestige on its speakers is waning, due to France’s decreased political influence, research, and innovation. In the Maghreb, positive attitudes toward English are increasing due to the reluctant instrumental nature of the acquisition of French, the lack of its appropriation as a solidarity code, and ties to its historical past. As Morocco is in the conundrum between the francophone influence and the growing impact of English, questions about the ethnolinguistic vitality of speakers of Arabic and Berber still remain.

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Appendix 1: Matched Guise Test Evaluation Sheet

Evaluation Instructions: First, please listen carefully to each speaker, then indicate whether you agree or disagree by circling one of the numbers bellow. Please remember, there are no right or wrong answers. Speaker       1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.

sounds to me intelligent sounds to me religious sounds to me rich sounds to me modern sounds to me modest sounds to me confident sounds to me honest sounds to me educated sounds to me sociable sounds to me open-​minded sounds from a good family sounds to me emotional sounds to me patriotic sounds to me ambitious sounds to me important I would like to hire him/ her I can take this person as a friend 18. I like his or her way of speaking 19. I want this person to be my boss 20. I want to work with this person

strongly agree

agree

neutral

disagree

strongly disagree

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

1

2

3

4

5

1

2

3

4

5

1

2

3

4

5

Appendix 2: Soccer Text for Matched Guise Test

French version Il était une fois: Le Maroc et le Mondial Au moment où la sélection entame les dernières étapes des éliminatoires du Mondial pour l’édition 2006, il est intéressant de revenir à la toute première participation à cette épreuve sportive internationale. En 1961, et pour prendre part a la coupe du



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monde au Chile, l’équipe Marocaine, sous la conduite du légendaire et inoubliable feu Ahmed Antifit, trouvait sur son chemin le Ghana, qui allait plier, par deux fois, devant les amateurs du football marocain. Ensuite, le onze Marocain s’engage dans la partie en donnant droit au match barrage avec l’Espagne. La Maroc fut appel a un entraineur étranger, le franco-​algérien Kader Firoud et aus grands joueurs: Bettache et Akesbi de Nîmes, Belmahjoub et Tibari de Racing Paris. Avec ce match le Maroc venait de faire son entrée dans la cour des grands et l’Afrique allait découvrir le football mondial. (Le Matin 2005) Standard Arabic version

‫ املغرب وكأس العامل‬:‫كان ذات يوم‬ ‫ يجدر بنا‬،2006 ‫يف الوقت الذي تخوض فيه النخبة الوطنية آخر املراحل اإلقصائية لكأس العامل يف دورة‬ ‫ وقت اإلقصائيات األوىل‬،1961 ‫ يف سنة‬.‫أن نعود ألول مشاركة مغربية يف هذه التظاهرة الكروية العاملية‬ ‫ لقاء‬،‫ تحت قيادة األسطورة املرحوم أحمد أنتيفني‬،‫ خاض الفريق املغريب‬،‫للمشاركة يف كأس العامل يف الشييل‬ ‫ بعد ذلك لعب الفريق املغريب مبارة السد ضد املنتخب اإلسباين حيث متت املناداة عىل‬.‫أمام منتخب غانا‬ ‫ كام تم استدعاء العبني كبار أمثال بطاش وأقصبي‬،‫مدرب أجنبي وهو الفرنيس ذو األصل الجزائري قادر فريود‬ .‫ بهذه املبارة سجل املغرب اسمه يف ملعب األقوياء‬.”‫ واملحجوب والتيباري من “راسينغ باريس‬،”‫من “نيم‬ .‫وكانت افريقيا عىل وشك اكتشاف كرة القدم العاملية‬ English translation Once upon a time: Morocco and the World Cup While the national selection is going through the last stages of the 2006 World Cup playoffs, it is worth remembering the first participation in this international sporting event. In 1961, during the time of the preliminary playoffs to qualify for the World Cup in Chili, the Moroccan team, led by the legendary and unforgettable, late Ahmed Antifit, played a game against Ghana. Afterward, the Moroccan team played a tiebreaker game against Spain. Morocco called for Kader Firoud, the French-​Algerian coach, alongside with other prominent players like Bettache and Akesbi from Nimes and Belmahjoub and Tibari from Racing Paris. With this match, Morocco had engraved its name among the elite soccer teams and Africa was about to discover world soccer.

Notes 1. “Il était Une Fois: Le Maroc Et Le Mondial,” Le Matin, June 19, 2005, retrieved from http://​www​.lematin​.ma​/Actualite​/Journal​/Article​.asp​?origine​=​jrnandidr​=​114andid​=​82616.

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Fabian, Johannes. 1986. Language and Colonial Power: The Appropriation of Swahili in the Former Belgian Congo, 1880–1938. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ferguson, Charles A. 1959. “Diglossia.” Word 15:325–40. Reprinted in The Bilingualism Reader, edited by Li Wei, 65–80. London: Routledge, 2000. Friedrich, Paul. 1989. “Language, Ideology, and Political Economy.” American Anthropologist 91:295–312. Gal, Susan. 1987. “Codeswitching and Consciousness in the European Periphery.” American Ethnologist 14:637–53. Garrett, Peter, Nikolas Coupland, and Angie Williams. 2003. Investigating Language Attitudes: Social Meanings of Dialect, Ethnicity and Performance. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. Giles, Howard, and Nikolas Coupland. 1991. “Language Attitudes: Discursive, Contextual, and Gerontological Considerations.” In Bilingualism, Multiculturalism, and Second Language Learning, edited by A. Reynolds, 21–42. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Gintsburg, Sarali. 2016. “Moroccan Immigrants in the United States of America: History, Languages, and Identities.” In Identidad y conciencia linguistica: VI Congreso de arabe marroqui, edited by Francisco Moscoso García, 195–214. Universidad Autonomia de Madrid. Haeri, Niloofar. 2000. “Form and Ideology: Arabic Sociolinguistics and Beyond.” Annual Review Anthropology 29:61–87. Hammoud, Mohamed Salah-​Dine. 1982. Arabicization in Morocco: A Case Study in Language Planning and Language Policy Attitudes. PhD dissertation, University of Texas, Austin, TX. Hassa, Samira. 2006. “De la Médina a la Nouvelle: Étude Ethnolinguistique de la Ville de Fès.” PhD dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-​Champaign, Urbana-​Champaign, IL. Kaye, Jacqueline, and Abdelhamid Zoubir. 1990. The Ambiguous Compromise: Language, Literature and National Identity in Algeria and Morocco. London: Routledge. La communauté française à l’étranger en chiffres. February 2019. Retrieved from https://​www​ .diplomatie​.gouv​.fr​/fr​/services​-aux​-francais​/la​-communaute​-francaise​-a​-l​-etranger​-en​ -chiffres/. Lambert, Wallace E., R. C. Hodgson, Robert C. Gardner, and Samuel Fillenbaum. 1960. “Evaluational Reactions to Spoken Languages.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 60:44–51. Lawson, Sarah, and Itesh Sachdev. 2000. “Codeswitching in Tunisia: Attitudinal and Behavioural Dimensions.” Journal of Pragmatics 32:1343–61. Mansour, Gerda. 1993. Multilingualism and Nation Building. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. Marley, Dawn. 2004. “Language Attitudes in Morocco Following Recent Change in Language Policy.” Language Policy 3:25–46. Mouhssine, Ouafae. 1995. “Ambivalence du Discourse sur l’Arabisation.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 112:45–62. Park, Hyunju. 2004. “Language Ideology, Attitudes and Policy: Global English in South Korea.” Manuscript. Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois. Salhi, Kamal. 2002. “Critical Imperatives of the French Language in the Francophone World: Colonial Legacy—Postcolonial Policy.” Current Issues in Language Planning 3:317–45. Saxena, Mukul. 1995. “A Sociolinguistic Study of Panjabi Hindus in Southall: Language Maintenance and Shift.” PhD dissertation, University of York, UK.

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Soulaimani, Dris. 2016. “Writing and Rewriting Amazigh/Berber Identity: Orthographies and Language Ideologies.” Writing Systems Research 8:1–16. Tazi, Abdelhadi. 1986. “Ḥarakāt at-​Ta‘arīb fī al-​Maghrib.” Ta‘arību al-​Ta‘alīm al-‘Ālī wa al-​Jāmi‘ī fi al-​Rub‘ al-​Qarn al-​Akhīr. Microfilm 85-0565. Rabat, Morocco: Unknown publisher. Trudgill, Peter. 1983. On Dialect: Social and Geographical Perspectives. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Vigouroux, Cécile B. 2013. “Francophonie.” Annual Review of Anthropology 42:379–97. Wagner, Daniel A. 1993. Literacy, Culture and Development: Becoming Literate in Morocco. New York: Cambridge University Press. Woolard, Kathryn A. 1989. Double Talk: Bilingualism and the Politics of Ethnicity in Catalonia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Zakhir, Marouane, and Jason L. O’Brien. 2017. “French Neo-​colonial Influence on Moroccan Language Education Policy: A Study of Current Status of Standard Arabic in Science Disciplines.” Language Policy 16:39–58.

Attitudes toward Arabic and Foreign Elaboration DMs in Three Dialects of Arabic Abdelaadim Bidaoui, Ball State University

This article reports on an attitudinal study comparing respondents’ reactions to Arabic and foreign variants of the elaboration discourse marker (DM) “I mean.” In light of the sequential cognitive processes (Ryan 1983) and a socially motivated procedural meaning (Terkourafi 2011), this study examines attitudes toward how variation in the use of DMs triggers different reactions. Thirty participants representing three dialects of Arabic took part in the study. They had to answer twelve questions related to power, solidarity, competence, and status. The use of both endoglossic and exoglossic DMs resulted in higher evaluation of the trait of solidarity and lower evaluation of the trait of status for the Moroccan and Egyptian participants. As to the Saudi participants, the use of the shared and the exoglossic DMs resulted in higher evaluations of the trait of competence and lower evaluation of the trait of status, whereas local DMs resulted in higher evaluation of the trait of solidarity and lower evaluation of the trait of power. This study shows how sequential cognitive processes and a socially motivated procedural meaning help us understand the correlation between the linguistic behavior and the encoded ideological schemes ( Johnstone 2009). Key words: Language attitudes, discourse markers, endoglossic and exoglossic elements, cognitive processes, procedural meaning, ideological schemes Al-‘Arabiyya, 53 (2020), 57–83

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Introduction

Language attitudes are based on two main sequential cognitive processes: social categorization and stereotyping (Dragojevic et  al.  2017; Ryan 1983). While social categorization refers to the use of the linguistic behavior as a cue to infer social group membership, stereotyping refers to attributing social traits to a given group (Dragojevic et al. 2017). In this attitudinal study, social traits in particular and language attitudes in general are inferred from passages involving discourse markers (DMs). The latter refer to words or phrases such as “oh,” “well,” “now,” “then,” “you know,” and “I mean” used in a conversation to serve different functions in discourse. The study of DMs has been primarily conducted from a production perspective with a focus on their functions in discourse as in Botha (2018). In light of data collected from university students in Singapore, Werner Botha (2018) has shown that DMs may reflect speaker’s identity and affiliation to a given ethnic or social group. DMs may also indicate a change of topic or digression. The DM “oh,” for instance, has been shown “to signal disapproval of someone else’s actual or imagined statement” (Traugott 2019). While most studies focused on the study of DMs from a production perspective, this study is part of a project that examines the use of DMs in spoken Arabic from both a production and perception perspective. The study of DMs from a production perspective (Bidaoui 2016a, 2016b, 2017a, 2017b, 2020) focused on the social-​indexical meanings attributed to elaboration and causality DMs. Causality refers to “ordinary” cause-​consequence relations and also to causality involved in explanation, reasoning, and argumentation (Sanders 2005). As to elaboration, it involves adding more specific information, generalizing from what was said, or introducing information of the same status (Owens and Rockwood 2008). The study of DMs from a production perspective revealed the importance of the correlation between the context of use, social meanings, and the choice of DMs. While data from informal multi-party conversations and structured interviews in informal settings (Bidaoui 2016a, 2016b) resulted in variation in the use of DMs and the projection of various identities, the results of data in a formal setting from Al Jazeera (Bidaoui 2017a) showed the projection of a single identity through the use of a single DM, yaʕnī “I mean,” for elaboration and liʔanna “since” for causality. The results of Al Jazeera in Abdelaadim Bidaoui’s (2017a) study show that the shared DMs yaʕnī and liʔanna were meant to reflect a desire to project an identity shared among the whole Arabic-​speaking world, the Arab identity. The findings of Bidaoui’s studies (2016a, 2016b), which are characterized by diversity in the linguistic behavior, support the claim that language use represents “acts of identity” that speakers perform



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(Le Page and Tabouret-​Keller 1985). Further details on the correlation between the linguistic behavior and “acts of identity” is provided in the next section. With a focus on the use of DMs from a perception perspective, this study examines how respondents from three Arabic-​speaking countries—Morocco, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia—evaluate passages involving both endoglossic, Arabic-​origin DMs, and exoglossic, foreign-​origin, DMs. Using indirect questions, this study seeks to unveil how speakers perceive of variation in the use of DMs. The perceptual perspective is meant to test the findings achieved in the production data and to investigate whether speakers are conscious of the social meanings encoded in DMs. The goal of this study is to contribute to research on language attitudes in light of the following research questions:



1. How do speakers of three dialects of Arabic evaluate the social-​indexical meaning of passages involving three variants of the elaboration DM “I mean”? 2. How are foreign elements perceived in countries with or without a colonial past? 3. What is the status of local elements compared to elements shared among all Arabic-​speaking countries? 4. To what extent is the social status of Arabic maintained in a globalized Arab world?

Theoretical Frameworks

This study is based on multiple theoretical frameworks. First, this study uses relevance theory (Blakemore 2002; Sperber and Wilson 1995; Terkourafi 2011) to understand the correlation between the linguistic behavior and social traits. DMs under relevance theory have a core procedural meaning, a set of instructions that guides the inferential phase of utterance interpretation. In line with Marina Terkourafi (2011), I argue that the notion of procedural meaning offered by relevance theory is a suitable theoretical framework for the study of DMs. As indicated in Bidaoui (2016a, 2016b, 2017a, 2017b, 2020), the pragmatic variants of elaboration or causality share the same procedural meaning of providing instructions serving to guide the hearer in utterance interpretation, each of which conveys different social meanings. It has been shown that the abstract pragmatic variable of causality, for instance, may be realized by different forms: endoglossic forms shared among all dialects of Arabic, endoglossic local

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forms typical to a given dialect, and exoglossic elements. Since DMs carry procedural meanings and are used to guide the inferential phase of utterance interpretation, listeners are predicted to pay special attention to them. Due to the inferential weight given to DMs in relevance theory, it is argued here that they may be a good tool to test respondents’ attitudes to language. The assumption, as I explain in detail in the discussion section, is that variation in the use of DMs may be the driving force shaping respondents’ reactions to passages in the stimuli. Second, this study uses Barbara Johnstone’s (2009) model to understand variation in the linguistic behavior and to test if respondents are aware of the ideological schemes encoded in language. Ideological schemes refer to linking a social meaning with a given linguistic behavior. A linguistic variant becomes noticeable when it is “linked with an ideological scheme that can be used to evaluate it in contrast to another variant” ( Johnstone 2009, 159). It is important to note that ideological schemes can be either idiosyncratic, decided by the individual, or they can be the result of metapragmatic practices ( Johnstone 2009, 160). While idiosyncratic ideological schemes are the result of an association between a linguistic variable and a social meaning that an individual makes, metapragmatic schemes are the result of people indicating to one another the social meaning of a word. According to Johnstone’s approach, when a linguistic variant is linked with a given ideological scheme, it may gain high symbolic value. This perceptual study is meant to investigate whether the passages in the stimuli carry different social and ideological schemes that may vary according to the choice of DMs. Third, DMs in particular and the linguistic behavior in general are seen as “acts of identity” that lie in the need to “behave according to the behavioral patterns of groups we find it desirable to identify with” (Le Page and Tabouret-​Keller 1985, 182). The study of DMs from a production perspective (Bidaoui 2016a, 2016b, 2017a, 2017b, 2020) has shown that speakers diversify their choice of DMs to project different “acts of identity.” The Algerian participants in Bidaoui (2016b), for instance, projected various identities through the use of various DMs. While the foreign DMs cele veut dire “that is to say” and parce que “since” reflect an identity associated with the French heritage, the dialectal DMs reflect a local and Maghrebi identity, and the shared DMs reflect a sense of belonging to the broad Arab identity. Furthermore, the study of DMs shows that the colonial past is always a driving force leading to linguistic heterogeneous situations, with the long period of colonial history giving rise to the need to create “new identity with new social patterns and structures” (Le Page and Tabouret-​ Keller 1985, 5). This study predicts that respondents’ attitudes should reflect their understanding of the social meanings and “acts of identity” encoded in the linguistic behavior as well as their exposure (or lack of exposure) to a colonial history.



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Language Attitudes

Approaches to the Study of Language Attitudes The study of language attitudes has been conducted in light of three main approaches: direct measures, indirect measures (referred to as the matched guise technique or speaker’s evaluation paradigm), and societal treatments (content analysis). In the direct approach, one way of triggering attitudes is to ask respondents to choose one of three possible responses such as “agree,” “disagree,” and “no response.” What characterizes the direct approach is that participants are asked direct attitudinal questions about language and their feedback is overtly elicited. Brahim Chakrani (2017), for instance, asked respondents questions directly and their reactions were overtly elicited. As to the indirect approach, participants are asked indirect attitudinal questions. An example of this type is a study by Dédé Brouwer (2019), who used the matched guise test to examine social evaluations of speech variation. The indirectness of the method lies in the fact that respondents were not asked directly to evaluate speech variation. The indirect methods are used because in some cases direct questions may not yield true attitudinal results. As Peter Garrett (2010, 42) discusses, because there is a difference between people’s private attitudes and the ones they are normally prepared to tell, “people may operate with two value systems (or two sets of attitudes) alongside each other, while only being conscious of one of them.” It seems that people do not want to disagree with the prevailing opinion. Garrett (2010, 41) explained that the indirect approach is characterized by the use of “more subtle even deceptive techniques than simply asking straight questions about what people’s attitudes are to something.” The third approach to the study of language attitudes is referred to as the societal treatment approach. In this approach, attitudes stem from different types of tasks. Cheris Kramarae (1982), for instance, studied attitudes to gender by examining literature dealing with the issue. The current study uses the indirect measure as it may yield significant results and is considered “a neat and rigorous design” (Garrett 2010, 57). The use of the indirect method is meant to help in triggering true attitudes. If respondents were asked direct questions, they may avoid showing attitudes that seem not to conform to the norm. Sometimes people tend to act in a way that makes them “socially appropriate” (Garrett 2010, 44). Thus, the use of indirect methods, among other interesting methods, may be a good way to trigger true attitudes. The Focus of the Study of Language Attitudes Language attitudes have been the focus of interest of many linguists. Work on attitudes has dealt with attitudes toward languages in general or toward regional and

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social accents of a language in particular as well as toward stylistic variation. Wallace Lambert and colleagues’ 1960 study is considered a seminal study of language attitudes where two groups of respondents, English-​speaking and French-​speaking, were exposed to audio passages read by four speakers in French and English. The results of the study indicated that both French and English Canadians rated highly English voices compared to French ones. Since attitudes toward language are dynamic, attitudes toward a given language by a particular society may not be the same after a certain period of time. Thus, the results obtained by Lambert and colleagues (1960) may not be achieved if we are to replicate the same study in the current Canadian society. As the world changes around us, attitudes toward language may also change. The study of language attitudes has also examined stylistic variation. Harry Levin and colleagues’ 1994 study points out that stylistic choices may not affect equally the evaluation of social traits. Although German and Latinate are both exoglossic elements, their effect on perception varies depending on the social traits examined. Levin and colleagues showed that the use of Latinate vocabulary resulted in higher evaluation of the traits of intelligence and formality, whereas the use of German words resulted in higher evaluations of the trustworthiness and informality traits. A number of attitudinal studies have examined respondents’ reactions toward varieties of English. Mark Stewart and colleagues (1985) focused on attitudes toward standard American English and Received Pronunciation, or RP, “the standard accent of English spoken in the South of England” as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary. The results show that RP speakers are considered to have more status compared to standard American English. The latter was rated with more attractiveness. Building on Stewart and colleagues’ (1985) study, Donn Bayard and colleagues (2001) used respondents from Australia, New Zealand, and the United States to investigate attitudes toward American English and Australian and New Zealand varieties of English. With the use of the verbal guise technique, respondents rated the US female voice first on four dimensions (power, status, competence, and solidarity). The English male was rated first on solidarity. For the same trait, the RP speakers were rated low by the three groups of respondents. The study shows that attitudes toward RP are changing as it is no longer ranked highly in terms of power and status. American accents seem to be taking over RP in terms of prestige. The study of language attitudes has also examined respondents’ reactions to accents of the same language. Peter Ball (1983) examined attitudes to English accents in Australia using the matched guise technique. One of the issues addressed in the study is what advantages result from speaking in an “Australian manner.” The Glasgow and French accents were judged neutrally, but Italian accents were judged very sociable but unsure, incompetent, and unattractive. As to German accents, they were



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judged more competent and more attractive. The weight given to accents remains an important linguistic inquiry in the study of language attitudes. Marko Dragojevic and colleagues (2017) investigated the impact of foreign accents on listeners’ evaluative reactions to languages in light of a new theoretical model that highlights the role of fluency and prototypicality. While prototypicality refers to the degree to which a speaker is likely to “fit” the defining characteristics of a given group (Hogg and Reid 2006), fluency refers to the ease or difficulty associated with processing a given speech. Based on a short story read by a male speaker in either mild or heavy Punjabi or Mandarin accent, the findings of the study indicated that heavy-​accented speakers were rated negatively on status and were considered more prototypical to their groups. The study also showed that the main reason behind the low rating of the heavy-​accented speakers is not prototypicality but fluency. This means that the low ratings of the heavy-​accented speakers were due to the difficulty in speech processing. Attitudes toward Arabic The study of language attitudes toward Arabic is not a recent phenomenon but goes back to the late 1960s. It is difficult to understand the current situation of language attitudes without referring to early studies. One of the first language attitude studies on Arabic was conducted by Lambert and colleagues (1965). The study compared attitudes toward Arabic with attitudes toward Hebrew. Lambert and colleagues (1965) used a recorded text from Arabic, Yemenite Hebrew, and Ashkenazic Hebrew (European Hebrew). The respondents were Arab and Jewish teenage school students. The respondents were asked to rate the speakers based on the personality traits of friendliness and humor and on being potential friends or husbands. The results indicated that Jewish respondents evaluated Arabic speakers low in terms of friendliness, humor, and being potential friends or husbands. The Arab respondents evaluated Jewish speakers low in terms of the same features. Although the varieties of Hebrew were from distinct communities, they were rated equally. That is, both Yemenite and Ashkenazic Hebrew were evaluated equally. It would be interesting to see whether the same attitudes would be expressed if the study is replicated. Another important study compared attitudes toward Arabic with attitudes toward varieties of English. Linda El-​Dash and Richard Tucker (1975) compared attitudes toward classical Arabic to colloquial English, British English, American English, and Egyptian English. Classical Arabic speakers were rated highly on intelligence compared to speakers of Egyptian colloquial Arabic, British English, and American English. Speakers of Egyptian English were rated more favorably compared to speakers of colloquial Arabic. Regarding status, speakers of Classical Arabic and Egyptian English were evaluated favorably on the trait of leadership. Speakers of colloquial

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Arabic and British English were rated less favorably than speakers of American English in terms of leadership. As Peter Garrett (2010, 74) mentions, the “results appeared to point to an Egyptian status hierarchy along the lines of classical Arabic and Egyptian English, then American English, and then British English, and Colloquial Arabic.” Along similar lines with El-​Dash and Tucker (1975), Abdelali Bentahila and Paul B. Stevens (1985) focused on the study of attitudes toward Moroccan Arabic, French, and code switching between Arabic and French. They conducted their study with three criteria: social status, solidarity, and religion. The results indicate that attitudes of participants toward Moroccan Arabic were positive only for the religious criterion, while attitudes toward French were very positive for social status and solidarity. Code switching between Moroccan Arabic and French was negatively evaluated for all the three social traits. French was also rated highly on status and modernity dimensions in a study by Hedi Mohammed Belazi (1993). Tunisian Arabic was ranked highly on religious and conservative dimensions. No difference was found between French and Tunisian Arabic in terms of solidarity dimensions. In the same vein of Bentahila and Stevens (1985) and Belazi (1993), Sarah Lawson and Itesh Sachdev (2000) examined attitudes toward Tunisian Arabic, French, and the mixing between Tunisian Arabic and French. Lawson and Sachdev’s (2000) study involved a perception experiment and a field experiment. The participants’ attitudes toward Tunisian Arabic for the experimental sections were positive regarding the criterion of solidarity, while attitudes toward the use of the French passages were very positive for the criterion of social status. Attitudes toward the use of the experimental sections that included Tunisian Arabic and French were negative for all the social traits. The results of the field experiment showed an extensive use of code switching between Tunisian Arabic and French. The overall results of Lawson and Sachdev’s study indicate that there is a clear discrepancy between attitudes toward a given language and its actual use. While Maghrebi language attitudes focus on comparing dialectal Arabic with foreign languages, attitudes toward Standard Arabic compared to dialectal Arabic is an interesting attitudinal linguistic inquiry for other Arabic varieties. Ahmad Mahmoud Saidat (2010), for example, compared attitudes toward Standard Arabic with attitudes toward Jordanian Arabic. Using a questionnaire, interviews, and observation, Saidat found that Standard Arabic was ranked higher than the Jordanian dialect. The author argues that this preference may be because Standard Arabic is linked with Islam and because it is considered the lingua franca in the Arab world. The study also shows that the results may be impacted by gender and age of the participants. It seems that women as well as young people show a preference for the Jordanian dialect over Standard Arabic. Following the same line of thought, Mohammed Kamil Murad (2014)



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highlights the impact of education on language attitudes toward Standard Arabic and Iraqi Arabic. Murad argues that the educational level of participants can help us predict their language attitudes. Murad’s study shows that the higher one’s educational level is, the more likely they are to favor Standard Arabic over Iraqi Arabic. To conclude this section, a recent and highly important study by Chakrani (2017) is worth discussing. The study examines how language attitudes are impacted by changes in the political economy of languages. In light of a theoretical framework that highlights the impact of “profit” on language attitudes (Duchêne and Heller 2012), Chakrani investigated the impact of language of instruction in Morocco on language attitudes. Alexandre Duchêne and Monica Heller’s theoretical framework focuses on how global markets shape the value of linguistic forms depending on the “profit” made from using a given code. Based on data collected from two groups of university students taught either in French or in Standard Arabic, the study reveals how the language of instruction can predict language attitudes. While French-​taught students gave high ratings toward French and English, Standard Arabic-​taught students rated Arabic highly. Chakrani (2017) argues that positive attitudes toward French and English reflect a need to access the global market economy and confirm the “profit” logic. The positive attitudes toward Standard Arabic reflect a desire to sustain local languages and challenge the “profit” rationale.

Methodology

Study Design Prior to the perception experiment, the calibration study was performed. The aim of the calibration study was to make sure that the recording or, rather, the language of the speaker to be used in the perception experiment represented well the dialect we wanted to study. Six participants (two participants per dialect) representing the Moroccan, Egyptian, and Saudi dialects participated in the calibration study. The length of the recorded speech was no more than twenty seconds. Each participant was asked to evaluate the calibration passages representing their dialects. Unlike the experimental passages, the calibration passages did not include any foreign words or any DMs. Respondents were asked to elicit eligibility ratings based on (1–6) Likert type scale by answering the following questions: • “How much can you understand?” Nothing      everything 6 5 4 3 2 1

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• “Do you find the speech model representative of your dialect?” Not at all      very 6 5 4 3 2 1 The same speech of each dialect was rated by six native speakers who did not participate in the main study. The results of the calibration study indicated that all participants ranked highly the calibration passages. This means that all the participants considered the voices and dialects used in the calibration passages and in the perception experiment to be a good representation of their dialects. After signing the consent form, participants in the perception experiment were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding personal information such as age, education, languages spoken, and years of exposure to English and French. Participants then took part in the main study which lasted between fifteen and twenty-​five minutes. The experiments took place at the researcher’s office. Participants listened to the clips with headphones and were then asked to write their answers on a piece of paper. Each group of participants listened to passages recorded in the voice of a speaker representing their own dialect. After listening to each passage, participants were asked to answer twelve questions, three questions for each of the four social traits, as follows: • Solidarity traits: Trait 1: friendly Trait 2: reliable Trait 3: pleasant to listen to • Power traits: Trait 4: educated Trait 5: speaks well Trait 6: can be a good leader • Competence traits: Trait 7: speaks more than one language Trait 8: intelligent Trait 9: has a mastery of the language • Status traits: Trait 10: has a high-paying job Trait 11: belongs to the upper class Trait 12: rich The participants were asked to listen to three experimental passages and six nonimportant passages as distractors. It is important to note that although this study



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examines attitudes in three dialects of Arabic, it is not meant to be an interdialectal attitudinal study, as is the case of Mahmoud Abdel-​R ahman (2016). As mentioned earlier, each group rated passages in their own dialect and were not asked to evaluate other dialects in the study. Participants were asked to attribute characteristics to the experimental passages using a scale of 1–7. The following is an example of questions from the solidarity variable: Give your opinion about the speaker in this passage: (Choose 1 for friendly, 7 for nonfriendly, and 4 if you do not know the answer) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 The use of semantic differential tables is a common method in this type of language-​ related experience. According to Garrett (2010), the semantic differentiation tables are better than the Likert scale. Participants in the Likert scale are asked whether they agree or disagree with the statements, whereas in the semantic differential tables participants are asked to choose one of seven options. As Garrett explained, the use of Likert’s standards encourages participants to give quick answers, while semantic differentiation tables allow participants to give answers that reflect real situations and not just quick answers. Participants were asked to answer twelve attitudinal questions regarding four variables: power, solidarity, competence, and status. These four variables are used in this study as well as in previous research because they are key elements in investigating language attitudes. The solidarity variable, for instance, informs us about social acceptance of a given language. If a person using a given passage is ranked highly in terms of the solidarity trait and is considered friendly, reliable, and pleasant, this means that the person is socially acceptable. Solidarity can also help us tease apart in-​group from out-​group language use (Woolard and Gahng 1990); out-​ group people are always considered unfriendly, unreliable, and unpleasant. The status trait informs us of the symbolic value of a given language. It also informs us which dialects are prestigious (Bayard et al. 2001). Furthermore, the political economy of language shapes the correlation between the linguistic behavior and the economic value (Chakrani 2017). Thus, a speaker whose language use is ranked highly on status indicates that the person belongs to the upper class. Participants The thirty participants who took part in this study represent three dialects of Arabic: the Saudi dialect (S), the Moroccan dialect (M), and the Egyptian dialect (E). The

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age of the participants ranges between twenty-​five and thirty-​six for the Moroccan participants, twenty-​four and thirty-​four for the Egyptian participants, and twenty-​ three and twenty-​seven for the Saudi participants. The participants were all students pursuing BA/BS, masters, or PhD degrees. Length of stay in the United States varied between three and ten years for the Moroccan participants, two and eleven years for the Egyptian participants, and one and four years for the Saudi participants. Moroccan and Egyptian Arabic were chosen to represent North African countries, which are known for their colonial past and for the wide spread of foreign languages. Saudi Arabic was chosen to represent a country that did not know any foreign colonization in its history and is characterized by a limited spread of foreign languages. This study is based on the hypothesis that speakers from countries with a colonial past are likely to evaluate foreign expressions positively, whereas participants from a country with no colonial past are expected to evaluate foreign expressions negatively and to evaluate Arabic forms positively. The Method This attitudinal study is meant to reveal new findings about the perception of linguistic variation in spoken Arabic. Respondents’ attitudes are predicted to vary according to the type of the DM included in the experimental passages. It was hypothesized that passages involving foreign DMs in varieties with a colonial past may carry higher social-​indexical value than passages involving only Arabic forms, and their use may be linked to perceived power and competence. Thus, attitudes triggered toward passages involving endoglossic DMs are predicted to be different from attitudes triggered toward passages involving exoglossic DMs. Hence, the use of passages involving endoglossic DMs might be evaluated highly in terms of solidarity, while passages involving exoglossic DMs might be positively evaluated in terms of power, status, and competence. Evaluation of DMs might also be strongly affected by nationality. That is, speakers from a country with a colonial past are more likely to evaluate passages involving exoglossic DMs highly in terms of power, status, and competence. Respondents from a country with no colonial past may not rate passages involving exoglossic DMs highly in terms of the traits just mentioned. As discussed by Allan Bell (1982, 246), the colonial past shapes “the response of a country toward another country which has exercised (or still exercises) imperial power over it.” This has also been discussed by Robert Phillipson (1992, 47). Using the term “linguistic imperialism,” Phillipson argues that colonialism is responsible for the creation of dominant and weak languages. Nationality may also have an impact on the evaluation of the use of endoglossic DMs. Countries with no colonial past may evaluate endoglossic forms highly in terms of status compared to countries with a colonial past.



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The Stimulus The stimulus included a total of thirty-​six passages, presented separately to three groups of speakers representing three dialects of Arabic: nine passages for the Moroccan group, nine for the Egyptian group, and nine for the Saudi group. Each passage in each set of the stimuli contains three pairs of sentences. Only the second sentence of each pair contains the DM. The recordings are made up of three experimental passages; these are the passages that contain the DMs (see the appendix). In addition to the experimental passages, participants were presented with six passages serving as distractors/fillers. Both the experimental passages and the fillers contain two pairs of sentences. There are three types of DMs: dialectal DMs (DDM), the shared DMs (SDM), and the French/English DMs (FDM/EDM). The first two DMs are tracking endoglossic variation; the third is introduced to track attitudes toward exoglossic linguistic influence. The three DMs are variants of the same variable in the sense that they have the same pragmatic meaning but are realized differently. For Moroccan Arabic, the variants are yaʕnī (SDM), zeʕma (DDM), and cela veut dire (FDM). For Egyptian Arabic, the variants are yaʕnī (SDM), ʔasʕdī (DDM), and “I mean” (EDM). As to Saudi Arabic, the variants are yaʕnī (SDM), gasʕdī (DDM), and “I mean” (EDM). The three variants convey the meaning of elaboration similar to “I mean” in English. The passages were randomized to avoid serial effect. Since the rate of speech may have an impact on language attitudes as discussed by Bruce Brown (1980), the rate of speech in every passage was controlled in order to keep the same rate in all the passages. The content of the reading passages revolves around a neutral topic: what motivates an expatriate to visit his or her home country. The topic and structure are the same in the three dialects. Passages from each dialect carry the features of a given dialect that allow the participants to recognize it. The /q/ sound, for instance, is realized as /g/ in Saudi Arabic and as /ʔ/ in Egyptian Arabic. The vowel /a/ is realized as a schwa in Moroccan Arabic. In terms of lexis, words for the verb “want” are realized as bɣit in MA, ʔabɣa in SA, and ʕāyiz in EA. The DMs used in the experimental passages are as follows: Moroccan dialect: (1) yaʕnī (SDM), (2) zeʕma (DDM), (3) Cela veut dire (EDM) Saudi dialect: (1) yaʕnī (SDM), (2) ʔasʕdī (DDM), (3) “I mean” (EDM) Egyptian dialect: (1) yaʕnī (SDM), (2) gasʕdī (DDM), (3) “I mean” (EDM) All these expressions are DMs of elaboration. The difference is that number 1 indicates the shared DM among all Arab countries, which may also be used in formal settings (Bidaoui 2017a). It is important to note that the DM yaʕnī has a special status; it is found in classical texts, regional colloquial Arabic dialects, and media interviews

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and is derived from the verb ʕanā “to mean,” ʔiʕtanā “take care,” and maʕnā “meaning” (Rieschild 2011, 318–19). Although yaʕnī is derived from words in Standard Arabic, its current status is problematic. Jonathan Owens and Trent Rockwood (2008) consider yaʕnī to be Lebanese, not a Standard Arabic borrowing, concurring with Mahmoud Al-​Batal (1994) on this point. Owens and Rockwood (2008) listed some dictionaries of dialectal Arabic such as Yemeni, Gulf, Libyan, and Moroccan Arabic dictionaries where yaʕnī is used as a shared DM to express the meaning of elaboration. The findings of Bidaoui (2016a, 2016b, 2017a, 2017b, 2020) show that, in addition to its use as a dialectal and a shared DM, yaʕnī can be used in formal settings as a standard form. For the sake of consistency, yaʕnī in this study is viewed as a shared DM, not a dialectal one. Number 2 DMs indicate dialectal DMs that are particular to a given dialect. Number 3 DMs designate DMs that are exoglossic. After listening to the passages, participants were asked to answer questions based on language attitudes to record their impressions of each speaker on semantic differential scales. The assumption made in this study is that while respondents’ evaluations are a response to the passages in the stimuli, I also argue that variation in the use of the elaboration DMs may be the driving forces behind respondents’ evaluations. Details of how these assumptions are made are provided in the discussion section.

Results of the Study

Two different statistical analyses were conducted on the data: mixed-​effects ANOVA and descriptive statistics. Mixed-​effects ANOVA as a type of inferential statistics are used to yield more generalizable results and to make inferences and predictions about the data. In this study, mixed-​effects ANOVA are used to make inferences about the statistical significance of the main variables: nationality of the participants, passages including DMs, and the social traits. The descriptive statistics are meant to obtain specific details and provide simple descriptions for passages including DMs. The results of mixed-​effects ANOVA are shown in table 1. Table 1 shows that two factors obtained statistical significance: passages involving DMs and the social traits. The statistical significance related to the passages involving DMs implies that respondents’ attitudes did vary depending on the type of variant used in each passage. In other words, each passage in the stimuli gave rise to a different reaction from the respondents. The statistical significance of the social traits reflects the difference in the social meanings encoded in the passages. The results indicate that the social traits attributed to passages containing DMs are



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Table 1  Results of mixed-​effects ANOVA p value Passages including DMs Nationality of participants Social traits

.001 .62 .04

significantly different. Finally, mixed-​effects ANOVA indicate that the nationality of participants did not have an impact on respondents’ evaluations of the passages involving DMs. For a detailed analysis of the impact of passages involving DMs, groups, and social traits on language attitudes, a second statistical method is used: descriptive statistics. This method has been found adequate at providing simple descriptions of what is going on in the data. Recall that participants were asked to attribute characteristics to the experimental passages using a scale of 1–7. Participants had to choose, for example, number 1 if they thought the speaker was friendly and number 7 if they thought the speaker was nonfriendly. This means that the lower the score on average is, the higher is the evaluation. For clarity purposes, the results of each variant in the study are shown separately. If we start by presenting the results of the passages involving variant 1, the shared DM yaʕnī, we notice that it received high evaluation on the solidarity trait for both the Moroccan and the Egyptian participants. Among the Saudi participants, the passage involving the shared DM was highly ranked for the competence trait. For more details on the results of the passages involving variant 1, consider table 2. The results in table 2 show a pattern in terms of the evaluations of the passages involving the shared DM on the status trait. The three groups ranked the passages involving the shared DM low on the status trait. The Moroccan participants group gave the lowest ranking for the shared DM on the status trait compared to the Egyptian and Saudi participants. It is important to note that the evaluation of the passages

Table 2  Results of the shared DM yaʕnī (SDM) yaʕnī (SDM)

Egyptian

Moroccan

Saudi

Competence Power Solidarity Status

3.11 3.29 2.92 3.40

3.53 3.23 2.7 4.46

2.93 3.43 3.64 3.83

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Table 3  Results of the passages involving dialectal DMs (DDM) Dialectal DMs

Egyptian

Moroccan

Saudi

Competence

3.03

3.06

3.2

Power

2.59

3.23

3.83

Solidarity Status

2.33 3.88

2.1 3.96

3.2 3.63

involving the shared DM is also influenced by the social dimensions against which it is evaluated. A summary of the ranking of the social traits for the passages involving variant 1 is provided below: The Moroccan participants: solidarity > power > competence > status The Egyptian participants: solidarity > competence > power > status The Saudi participants: competence > power > solidarity > status Similar to the results of the passage involving variant 1, the passages involving dialectal DMs obtained higher scores for the solidarity trait. The results of the passages involving variant 2 are shown in table 3. As shown in table 3, the three groups of participants ranked the passages involving dialectal DMs highly on the solidarity trait. The Moroccan participants ranked the passages involving dialectal DM slightly higher than the Egyptian participants but considerably higher than the Saudi participants. The Saudi group gave the same ranking of the passages involving the dialectal DM on the solidarity and competence traits. Similar to the results of the passages involving the shared DM, the evaluation of passages involving dialectal DMs was influenced by the social dimensions against which they were evaluated. A summary of the ranking of the social traits for the passages involving variant 2 is provided below: The Moroccan participants: solidarity > competence > power > status The Egyptian participants: solidarity > power > competence > status The Saudi participants: solidarity = competence > status > power As we can see, the passage involving the dialectal DMs were ranked higher for the solidarity trait by the three groups of participants. Status for the passages involving variant 2 obtained lower rankings for the Moroccan and the Egyptian participants, while power obtained lower rankings for the Saudi participants.



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Table 4  Results of the passages involving exoglossic DMs (EDM) Exoglossic DMs Competence Power Solidarity Status

Egyptian

Moroccan

Saudi

2.70 2.55 2.48 3.11

2.66 3.03 2.33 4.43

2.43 3.23 2.73 3.66

Along similar lines with the results of the passages involving the shared DM, the passages involving exoglossic DMs were ranked highly for the solidarity trait and negatively for the status traits. The results of the passages involving variant 3 are shown in table 4. The Moroccan and Egyptian participants gave higher evaluation of the passages involving exoglossic DMs for the solidarity trait, while the Saudi group ranked the passages involving exoglossic DMs higher on the competence trait. The three groups ranked the passages involving exoglossic DMs low on status. A summary of the ranking of the social traits for variant 3 are provided below: The Moroccan participants: solidarity > competence > power > status The Egyptian participants: solidarity > power > competence > status The Saudi participants: competence > solidarity > power > status Ranking the social traits for the three variants displays a clear pattern in the low evaluations of the three DMs involved in the passages on the status trait by the three groups.

Discussion

It is important to mention that the assumption in this study, as in many if not all attitudinal studies, is that a given linguistic variable may trigger a given social meaning due to two sequential cognitive processes theorized in language attitudes: social categorization and stereotyping (Dragojevic et al. 2017). Thus, “listeners use linguistic cues to infer which social groups speakers belong to,” then “they attribute to speakers stereotypic traits associated with those (inferred) group memberships” (Dragojevic et al. 2017, 385). Following the same line of thought and in light of sequential cognitive processes, the assumption made in this study is that if you have two similar passages and the only distinction between them is that one uses an endoglossic DM and the other uses an exoglossic DM, then the driving force triggering the sequential

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cognitive processes would be the choice of the type of DM. Based on the study of DMs from a production perceptive (Bidaoui 2016a, 2016b, 2017a, 2017b, 2020) and in light of relevance theory (Sperber and Wilson, 1986, 1995) and Terkourafi’s (2011) socially motivated pragmatic meaning, respondents’ attitudes are argued to be triggered by variation in the choice of DMs. DMs are important elements in discourse and are used by speakers as triggers of inferential processes that serve to shape the cognitive environment of the listener (Sperber and Wilson 1986, 1995). Thus, listeners are supposed to pay special attention to DMs not only because of their pragmatic meaning but also because of their social meaning. As explained in Terkourafi’s (2011) account of the pragmatic variable, the choice of one variant over another is socially conditioned. I have shown that DMs are used by speakers to serve a given pragmatic meaning as well as to project a given social identity (Bidaoui 2016a, 2016b, 2017a, 2017b, 2020). Algerian speakers, for instance, would incorporate a French DM in their speech to trigger a particular social meaning. Furthermore, choosing a French DM happens only if the speaker knows that he or she shares knowledge with the listener. This will lead us to the second assumption: since speakers are conscious of the linguistic choices they make and of their social meanings, and assuming that there is a shared knowledge between listeners and speakers, then listeners should also be conscious of these choices and their encoded social meanings. From now on, we will consider DMs to be the driving force of the attitudes triggered by passages in the stimuli. If we are to compare the results of the respondents’ reactions to the passages involving DMs among the three groups representing the three dialects of Arabic, we can clearly see some patterns. The first pattern is that both the Moroccan and Egyptian participants ranked all the passages involving the three DMs highly on the solidarity trait. This means that regardless whether the passages involved endoglossic or exoglossic DMs, they were ranked in the same way on the solidarity trait, and they are linked with the same “ideological scheme” ( Johnstone 2009, 159). That is, when speakers use either endoglossic or exoglossic DMs, they are considered friendly, reliable, and pleasant to listen to. The second pattern is that both the Moroccan and Egyptian participants ranked the passages involving the three variants lower on status. The use of the exoglossic DMs did not make respondents consider speakers to have a high-​paying job, to belong to the upper class, or to be rich. Unlike the patterns found in many perception studies that pinpoint that local words may have a higher value compared to foreign words (Bayard et al. 2001), the results obtained in this study did not point out that the endoglossic DMs had any privilege on the status trait. Unlike the Moroccan and Egyptian participants, the Saudi participants ranked both the passages involving the shared Arabic DM and the exoglossic DMs higher



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on the competence but not the solidarity trait. This means that speakers using both the shared Arabic DM and the exoglossic DM were considered to speak more than one language, to be intelligent, and to have a mastery of the language. Similar to the Moroccan and Egyptian participants, the Saudi participants ranked the passages involving the shared Arabic DM and the exoglossic DM low on the status trait. Overall, it is important to note that while the Moroccan and Egyptian participants perceived the passages involving Arabic DMs in the same way, the Saudi group perceived them differently. While the passages involving the shared DM were evaluated high on competence and low on status, the local DM was perceived high on solidarity and low on status. Before discussing the results of the Moroccan participants further, it should be noted that French “has long been perceived in Morocco as the language of education, modernity, global culture, and the media” (Hassa 2017, 292). French has been associated with Morocco since 1912, the date of the beginning of the French intervention in Morocco (Bidwell 2012). During the colonial period, French appeared in all aspects of the Moroccan life. Despite the fact that Morocco gained its independence in 1956, French has maintained its importance and strength in the fields of health, industry, management and various activities, and, most importantly, education. As shown in a study conducted by Dawn Marley (2004), students as well as teachers in Morocco are in favor of Arabic-​French bilingualism and the introduction of French at the early stages of education. Currently, French is used alongside Arabic in primary and secondary schools as well as universities. This explains why French “has acquired overt prestige through its presence in the formal functional domains of private business, communication, technology, and higher education” (Chakrani 2017, 218). It is important to note that “proficiency in French is a marker of educational and social status and has provided many students the access to employment that enabled them to move into a higher socioeconomic group” (Chakrani 2017, 220). French may no longer keep the same status in Morocco in the future, as English seems to be gaining more prestige (Anderson 2014). In spite of all the weight and symbolic value that French has in Morocco, especially in urban areas, the Moroccan participants did not rank the French DM higher on the status, competence, or power traits. This implies that what has been discussed by Phillipson (1992) under the term “linguistic imperialism” to show the relationship between dominant and weaker languages may not apply here. It is important to note that Phillipson used the term “linguistic imperialism” to refer to the dominance of English over other languages in a context where colonialism is responsible for the creation of dominant and weak languages. The response of the Moroccan participants is also different from what was expected by Bell (1982), who considers the colonial past to be a driving force shaping how a

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country responds to the language of “another country which has exercised imperial power over it” (246). As we have discussed before, the long colonial past did not lead the Moroccan participants to give more weight to the French DMs. Contrary to Bell’s (1982) and Phillipson’s (1992) claims, Chakrani’s claim about the status of French in Morocco makes more sense because, “for many Moroccans, the link between French and its colonial past leads them to favor English as a neutral code of modernization” (2017, 228). The other reason that may account for the results is that “French is no longer the sole language of capital accrual; English has emerged as a strong contender in the Moroccan linguistic market” (Chakrani 2017, 226). Unlike the results obtained in Bentahila and Stevens (1985), the results of this study indicate that passages involving French scored low on status. This may indicate that there is a change in language attitudes. The low evaluation of passages involving French DMs on status by the Moroccan participants despite the widespread use of French and its symbolic value in Morocco may signal a difference between use and perception. This topic was discussed by Lawson and Sachdev (2000) who consider that it is possible to find a contradiction between the actual use and the perception of a given linguistic behavior. Lawson and Sachdev (2000) point out that although speakers may extensively use French along with Tunisian Arabic, they may still evaluate negatively the use of code switching between French and Tunisian Arabic. For the Egyptian participants, given the importance of English in Egypt, which is similar to the importance of French in Morocco, it was expected that their evaluation of the English DM, “I mean” may be ranked higher on status. It should be noted that Egypt was under British occupation between the years 1914 and 1922 (Cole 1999), and since this period English has had an important linguistic symbolism. The status of English is reflected in the wages of secretaries in the 1970s: an Arabic-​speaking secretary would make £E70, while an English-​speaking secretary would make £E350 (Cochran 2008, 78). As Radi Abouelhassan and Lois Meyer (2016) explained, in 1916 and even today, teaching English in Egypt is seen as a prestigious profession due to the symbolic value the English language has acquired. English is also the main language of instruction in medical and engineering colleges. Furthermore, there is a massive spread of English among Egyptians (Abouelhassan, Moustafa, and Meyer 2016, 151–52). Hence, what was said about the results of the passages involving the exoglossic DM for the Moroccan participants, in terms of the predictions of respondents’ reactions, also applies to the Egyptian participants. Similar to the results of the Moroccan participants, the Egyptian participants did not rank the English DM higher on status, which reinforces the claim made by Lawson and Sachdev (2000) in terms of the discrepancy between the use of a given linguistic behavior and its perception. Unlike what was predicted for the Moroccan and the Egyptian participants, the Saudi



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participants were predicted to evaluate the passages involving the shared Arabic DM higher on status because Saudi Arabia is one of the rare Arab countries with no colonial past and because of the symbolic value the Arabic language has in the kingdom. The Saudi participants ranked the passages involving the shared Arabic DM low on status. The evaluation of passages involving the exoglossic DMs predicted that they may be negatively evaluated by the Saudi participants. It should be noted that English has a lot of weight in Saudi Arabia even though the country did not have any colonial past. This means that although the notion of “linguistic imperialism” does not apply to the Saudi participants knowing that their country was not subject to direct Western colonialism, “hegemony” may impact how speakers perceive foreign languages. According to Stuart Allan (1998, 109), “hegemony,” which “relies on consent and persuasion rather than coercion,” may impact the value attributed to languages. This means that in some cases consent can render some languages stronger or weaker than other languages even in the absence of “linguistic imperialism.” Interestingly, “hegemony” did not lead the Saudi participants to evaluate the passages involving the exoglossic DM high on status. However, it may account for the high ranking of the passages involving English DM on the competence trait. The results of the study for the Moroccan and Egyptian participants indicated that both passages involving Arabic and foreign DMs were ranked highly on solidarity. In other words, both the Moroccan and Egyptian participants considered the speakers using both endoglossic and exoglossic DMs to be friendly, reliable, and pleasant to listen to. This is a clear indication that foreign expressions are part and parcel of these speech communities. It is important to note that language attitudes help us tease apart in-​group from out-​group language use (Woolard and Gahng 1990) based on how the solidarity trait is ranked. The high evaluation of a speaker on the solidarity trait is an indication of their being part of the in-​group. As for the Saudi participants, it seems that English is not yet considered an in-​group language as the passages involving the English DM did not receive high evaluations on the solidarity trait. From the discussion of the findings, it may be possible to provide answers for the four research questions in this article. For the first research question (How do speakers of three dialects of Arabic evaluate the social-​indexical meaning of passages involving three variants of the elaboration DM “I mean”?), it seems that passages including DMs carried different social meanings. In light of social categorization and stereotyping (Dragojevic et al. 2017), it seems that respondents used linguistic cues to infer social meanings encoded in DMs and then they attributed different social traits to the speakers (Dragojevic et al. 2017, 385). A clear explanation of how social traits were attributed to speakers is provided while answering the remaining research questions.

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For the second research question (How are foreign elements perceived in countries with or without a colonial past?), it seems that the colonial past did have a small impact on how exoglossic DMs were perceived in countries with or without a colonial past. For participants from countries with a colonial past (Morocco and Egypt), Arabic and foreign DMs were ranked equally since their use resulted in higher evaluation of the trait of solidarity and lower evaluation of the trait of status for both groups. It seems that the Moroccan and Egyptian participants did not give more weight to exoglossic DMs although they belong to countries known for their colonial past. Contrary to Moroccan and Egyptian participants, the Saudi participants ranked the passages involving the local DM higher on the trait of solidarity, while the exoglossic DMs were ranked higher on competence and lower on status. As for the third research question (What is the status of local elements compared to elements shared among all Arabic-​speaking countries?), while the results of the Moroccan and Egyptian participants did not show any difference between the shared DM and the dialectal DMs, the results of the Saudi participants indicated that the use of the shared DM resulted in higher evaluations of the trait of competence and lower evaluation of the trait of status, whereas local DMs resulted in higher evaluation of the trait of solidarity and lower evaluation of the trait of power. This also reinforces what was said in the second research question, which examines the impact of the colonial past. It seems that the Saudi participants somehow perceived of DMs differently compared to the Moroccan and Egyptian participants. Before answering the fourth research question (To what extent is the social status of Arabic maintained in a globalized Arab world?), it is important to mention that ranking passages involving both Arabic and foreign DMs low on status by the three groups may be because they are not viewed as prestigious. According to the classic pattern in Lambert and Giles’s and Lambert’s tradition (discussed in Bayard et al. 2001, 23; see, e.g., Giles and Powesland 1975; Cargile et al. 1994), prestige dialects score highly on status. The fact that status did not outrank the other social traits for passages involving both Arabic and foreign DMs is an indication that they all share the same status. This provides an answer to the fourth research question; it seems that Arabic in a globalized world may not differ from foreign and dominant languages in terms of status. Finally, it is important to acknowledge the limitations of the study, which was based on a small sample of participants who are Arab students in diaspora. Therefore, the goal of the study is not to make sweeping generalization about language attitudes in Morocco, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia but rather to initiate this program of research.



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Conclusion

Discourse markers have been predominantly studied from a production perspective and have been viewed either as markers of relations between discourse segments (Schiffrin 1987), as a type of “discourse glue” (Fraser 1990), or as “acts of ostensive communication” carrying pragmatic information relevant to the listener/reader’s social and cognitive environment (Blakemore 2004). However, few studies have examined discourse markers from a perception perspective. Based on an attitudinal study comparing listeners’ attitudes toward passages involving Arabic and foreign variants of the elaboration DM “I mean,” this study examined how participants perceive the use of Arabic DMs compared to foreign DMs. The study showed how perceptions of social dimensions such as solidarity, power, status, and competence can account for the mapping between the social-​indexical meaning and the linguistic behavior. The study pointed out that passages involving either Arabic or foreign DMs resulted in higher evaluation of the trait of solidarity and lower evaluation of the trait of status for Moroccan and Egyptian participants. The results of the Saudi participants were characterized by higher evaluations of the trait of competence and lower evaluation of the trait of status for the passages involving both the shared Arabic DM and the exoglossic DM, while the passages involving the local DM resulted in higher evaluation of the trait of solidarity and lower evaluation of the trait of power. The evaluation of passages involving Arabic DMs is meant to indirectly reflect the evaluation of the Arabic language compared to foreign languages. Overall, the results of this study reinforce the findings in the production studies discussed in my earlier studies (Bidaoui 2016a, 2016b, 2017a, 2017b, 2020), which highlight the social meanings carried by DMs in particular and any linguistic behavior in general. It should be noted that this study emphasizes the fact that the relationship between the linguistic behavior and social meanings is the result of their association in the minds of speakers and listeners. This correlation is not coincidental but is part of intellectual convictions and the social status of speakers and listeners.

Acknowledgments

I am deeply grateful to Dr. Mohammad Alhawary, the journal editor, as well as to the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive feedback. Without their feedback this article would not have come to life. I am also grateful to Dr. Zsuzsanna Fagyal and Dr. Marina Terkourafi for early discussions of this work.

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Appendix: Experimental Passages

First passage: MA bɣit nəmʃi l-​blād baʃ nərtāħ SA ʔabɣā ʔarūħ l-​balad ʕaʃān ʔartāħ EA ʕāyiz ʔarūħ l-​baladī ʕaʃān ʔastarayyaħ “I want to go home to relax.” MA zeʕma, nsā ʃwiyya dʕaɣtʕ dyāl l-​xədma SA gasʕdī, ʔansā ʃwayya dʕaɣtʕ ʃ-ʃuɣl EA ʔasʕdī, ʔansā ʃwayya dʕaɣtʕ ʃ-ʃuɣl “I mean, to forget a bit the stress of work.” Second passage: MA w-​bɣit ħttā nsˁəl r-​raħim SA w-ʔabɣā ħattā ʔasˁil raħimī EA w-ʕāyiz kamān ʔasˁil r-​raħim “And I want to visit my family.” MA yaʕnī, nāxed ʃwiyya dyāl ħasanāt SA yaʕnī, ʔaksib ʃwayyit ħasanāt EA yaʕnī, ʔāxud ʃwayyit ħasanāt “I mean, to gain some good deeds.” Third passage: MA w-​ħttā nʃūf les amis dyālī SA w-ʕaʃān kamān ʔʃūf my friends EA w-ʕaʃān kamān ʔaʃūf friends bitūʕī “And also to see my friends.” MA Cela veut dire, ndawəz wəqt zwīn mʕahum SA I mean, ʔagdʕī maʕahum wagt ħilw EA I mean, ʔaʔadʕī waʔt ħilw maʕāhum “I mean, to spend good time with them.”

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The Role of Self-​Efficacy, Attitudes, and Orientations in Learning Arabic as a Less-​Commonly Taught Language A Structural Equation Modeling Approach Tarek Hermessi, Institut Supérieur des Langues de Tunis, Tunisia

This study uses the internal structural modeling approach to examine the motivation of eighty international adult students learning Arabic as a less commonly taught language. Grounded within social psychological and social cognitive theories of motivation, the study specifically investigates the role of self-​efficacy, attitudes, and orientations in learning Arabic. Results show that intrinsic orientation plays a mediating role between self-​efficacy and attitudes, on the one hand, and motivational intensity and expectancy of success, on the other. Learners of Arabic proved to (1) have a high sense of self-​efficacy for language learning, (2) be intrinsically oriented, and (3) hold positive attitudes toward foreign language learning, the target language, and the context of learning. Integrative orientation, extrinsic orientations, and social attitudes did not, however, contribute to the definition of motivation for learning Arabic as an L2 (second language). In light of these findings, it could be argued that learning a less-​commonly taught language such as Arabic is more motivated by intellectual, aesthetic motives than pragmatic, utilitarian ones. Key words: Arabic, less-​commonly taught languages, motivation, self-​efficacy, orientation, attitude, structural equation modeling

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Introduction

This study investigates motivation for learning Arabic as an L2 in a study abroad program. Motivation research has been dominated since the second half of the 2000s by Zoltán Dörnyei’s Second Language Self-​System Model (L2SSM) that is based on possible selves theory (Dörnyei 2009). Peter McIntyre and colleagues (2009, 45–46) warned, however, against losing “the conceptual baby” of L2 motivation and draining “the social psychological and political dimensions of language” as the bathwater by using only “possible selves as a theoretical framework.” They added that such dimensions or “motives affect the learning process, whether we frame them in terms of SE [socioeducational] model, other models of motivation, or in terms of possible selves.” Actually, the domination of L2SSM has brought L2 motivation research back to the so-​called 1990s reform articles period, whose main claim had been that the domination of L2 motivation research by Robert Gardner’s social psychological theory has potentially overshadowed valuable alternative paradigms (see Dörnyei 1994). The same can be purported for L2SSM, which might have overshadowed other prominent L2 motivation paradigms emanating from mainstream psychology and educational psychology such as, social cognitive theory (SCT), self-​determination theory (SDT), the expectancy-​value model (EVM), and the socioeducational model (SEML2). SCT is a theory of motivation elaborated by Albert Bandura where self-​efficacy and outcome expectancy are the major constructs, with prominence given to self-​ efficacy. Self-​efficacy refers to how individuals assess their ability to complete a task or successfully engage in an activity. It determines the amount of effort, perseverance, and resilience in front of adversity and difficulty (see Schunk and Green 2017; Schunk and Pajares 2009). SDT, elaborated by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, is an influential motivation theory in mainstream psychology that lies on two postulates. The first is that the satisfaction of inborn needs is essential to intrinsic motivation, which, according to Deci and Ryan (2000, 235), “involves people freely engaging in activities that they find interesting, that provide novelty and optimal challenge.” The second considers humans to have an integrative propensity “to transform socially sanctioned mores or requests into personally endorsed values and self-​regulation” by virtue of the natural constructive process of internalization (Deci and Ryan 2000, 236). EVM, as posited by Allan Wigfield and colleagues (2009), is based on Wigfield and Jacqueline Eccles’s (2000) expectancy–value theory of achievement motivation. The model rests on the assumption that the disposition for action is a function of two constructs: expectancy of success and its valuation. When more than one behavior is possible, the behavior chosen will be the one with the largest combination of



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expected success and incentive value. Expectancy and value are the best predictors of achievement, performance, and choice. In addition to SCT, SDT, and EVM, Gardner’s socio-educational model that has been taken to task in the “reform articles” is assumed to be still relevant to defining motivation for L2 learning. This model distinguishes between motivation (encapsulating effort or motivational intensity, desire, and positive affect toward learning an L2) and its social psychological determinants (orientations and attitudes, mainly social attitudes). Gardner (2007) notes that, for the last forty-​five years, he concerned himself with investigating the link between attitudes and motivation, on the one hand, and a host of criterion variables such as achievement, retention, and other learning behaviors, on the other hand. L2 motivation research has been biased toward English and a few studies focused on “languages other than English” (Ushioda and Dörnyei 2017). Among the under-​ researched “languages other than English” are less-​commonly taught languages (LCTLs). According to Kira Gor and Karen Vatz (2009, 234), an LCTL is “predominantly a U.S. term referring to languages other than French, German, and Spanish,” and it is “a nation’s current educational policy and political situation that determine what languages are classified as less commonly taught.” Among the underresearched LCTLs is Arabic, which is the focus of the present study. A few researchers have attempted to explore motivation for learning Arabic—namely, R. Kirk Belnap (1987, 2006), Yasir Suleiman (1991), Gassan Husseinali (2006), and Ryan Blair and Mahmoud Azzaz (2019); fewer studies relied on constructs deriving from mainstream and educational psychology such as self-​efficacy and expectancy of success. The current study, situated within the growing interest in motivation for learning LCTLs, investigated the motivation for studying Arabic as an L2 in a study abroad program. In the current study, it is assumed that SCT, SDT, and SEML2 are appropriate for capturing motivation for learning LCTLs in spite of the domination of L2SSM. As a matter of fact, taking an LCTL involves a social-​cognitive dimension and a social-​political dimension that have not been considered in L2SSM. The social-​ cognitive dimension pertains to the fact that choosing to study an LCTL is not always a common choice for L2 learners and therefore requires a certain amount of self-​ efficacy. The sociopolitical dimension concerns the role of attitudes and orientations in learning Arabic as an LCTL. Methodologically, motivation research has been characterized by a robust tradition of quantitative psychometric measurement in L2 (Ushioda and Dörnyei 2012). A few studies, however, rely on structural equation modeling (SEM). SEM is a statistical methodology that analyzes a theory bearing on a given phenomenon

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structurally in terms of causal processes. In SEM, “the causal processes under study are represented by a series of structural (i.e., regression) equations,” and “these structural relations can be modeled pictorially to enable a clearer conceptualization of the theory under study” (Byrne 2012, 3). In L2 motivation research, SEM allows for going beyond the investigation of relationships among motivational variables to study the internal structure of L2 motivation. F. Peter Tremblay and Robert Gardner (1995) pioneered studies on such internal structure using a LISREL structural equation modeling software program. Since the emergence of L2SSM, several studies have used SPSS Statistics’ AMOS (analysis of moment structures) structural equation modeling software program to shed light on how motivational constructs interplay to influence motivated behavior and learning outcome (for a review, see Boo, Dörnyei, and Ryan 2015). Research on motivation to learn Arabic as an L2 has traditionally focused more on the interrelationships among motivational variables than on the internal structure of motivation, except for the study by Blair and Azzaz (2019). However, in contrast to Blair and Azzaz (2019) who relied on L2SSM, I rely on “traditional” motivational paradigms—namely, SCT, SDT, EVM, and SEML2—to inquire into how self-​efficacy, attitudes, and orientations interplay to affect two external variables of motivation: expectancy of success and motivational intensity.

Theoretical Framework of the Study

The Role of Self-​Efficacy, Expectancy of Success, and Motivational Intensity in L2 Motivation In the present study, three motivational variables have been considered: self-​efficacy for L2 learning, expectancy of success, and motivational intensity. Bandura and Dale Schunk (1981, 587) define self-​efficacy as “the judgments about how well one can organize and execute courses of action required to deal with prospective situations containing many ambiguous, unpredictable, and often stressful elements.” Bandura (1986, 1993) contends that purposive human behavior is regulated by self-​appraisal of capabilities. The stronger the perceived self-​efficacy, the more challenging are goals and the firmer is commitment to achieve them and realize “valued futures” (Bandura 1993, 128). The weaker the perceived self-​efficacy and the higher the self-​doubt, the more failure scenarios are visualized. Bandura (1993) notes that humans motivate themselves by forming beliefs about what they can do, anticipating likely outcomes, setting valued future goals, and planning courses of action to realize them. Schunk



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and Frank Pajares (2009) argue that self-​efficacy determines effort and increases the extent to which success is expected. Schunk (1989, 1991) extends the self-​efficacy construct to education, introducing the concept of “self-​efficacy for learning” to refer to the beliefs learners hold about their capabilities to effectively acquire new cognitive skills and process knowledge. Schunk and Pajares (2004, 283–84) note that “self-​efficacy influences achievement behavior such as task choice, persistence, effort, and skill acquisition.” Schunk and Pajares (2009) contend that self-​efficacy for learning is contingent on three variables: (1) possessing adequate skills, (2) believing that (positive) outcomes are valuable and within reach, and (3) explaining success and failure by factors that are within the learner’s locus of control. In a similar vein, Nichole Mills (2014) and Mills and colleagues (2007) note that research on the role of self-​efficacy in learning, in general, and language learning, in particular, amply supports the claim that students who feel self-​efficacious proved to be capable of organizing and executing courses of action in ways that significantly affect academic achievements. Following the assumption that individuals avoid tasks they believe to be beyond their ability and engage in tasks they deem within their reach, Bandura (1993) argues that self-​efficacy beliefs are very likely to correlate positively with expectancy of success. Expectancy of success refers to the extent to which an individual expects a positive outcome and values it. In EVM, motivation is conceived as the multiplicative function of three variables: (1) motive to achieve success, (2) subjective probability of success, and (3) the incentive value and attractiveness of the expected outcome. When more than one behavior is possible, the behavior chosen will be the one with the largest combination of expected success and incentive value (see Wigfield and Eccles 2000; Wigfield, Tonks, and Klauda 2009). In addition to the constructs of self-​efficacy and expectancy of success, motivational intensity is considered in the present study. Motivational intensity refers to “the total amount of effort a person would make to satisfy a motive, and this effort could be spread over time, the intensity is the magnitude at a point in time” (Brehm and Self 1989, 110). In L2 learning, it pertains to the amount of effort, degree of concentration, attention, and persistence the L2 learner is willing to expend both in and outside class to learn (Gardner 1985). The importance of this construct lies in the fact that motivational intensity is tightly related to self-​efficacy, attitudes, and outcome expectancy. Accordingly, it could be hypothesized that unless L2 learners believe that the goal of becoming fluent in the target language is within reach, they would not expend enough effort to achieve such an outcome (Tremblay and Gardner 1995).

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The Role of Attitudes in L2 Motivation Research Gardner (1985, 9) defines attitude as “an evaluative reaction to some referent or attitude object, inferred on the basis of the individual’s beliefs or opinions about the referent.” In L2 motivation research, attitude can be defined as a set of beliefs, thoughts, and feelings learners hold about the different aspects of L2 learning. It has been considered a central construct in most influential models of L2 motivation, mainly SEML2. The attitudes that have emerged in L2 motivation research can be classified as social, contextual, and linguistic (see Dörnyei 2003; Gardner 2010; Masgoret and Gardner 2003). Social attitudes or attitude toward an L2 group is related to the sociocultural dimension of L2 learning. Gardner (1985) assumed that holding positive attitudes toward the social group representing the L2 and respecting their culture and lifestyle might prove essential to success in L2 learning. Howard Giles and Jane Byrne (1982) explain L2 acquisition in terms of the perceived social difference between the in-​group (the L2 learner’s group) and the out-​group (the L2 social group). According to Giles and Byrne (1982), the L2 learner who considers his or her in-​group of higher status compared to the out-​group and considers the social and cultural distance between the two groups to be large is less likely to succeed in L2 learning. Contextual attitudes or attitude toward the learning context is defined by Anne-​ Marie Masgoret and Gardner (2003) as the individual’s reactions to anything related to the situation in which the language is taught. It pertains to L2 learners’ emotional evaluation of L2 teacher, method of teaching, teaching materials, and classroom activities. Attitude toward learning context has emerged in most L2 motivation models as a determinant motivational variable (see Dörnyei and Csizér 2002; Gardner 2010). Linguistic attitudes concern attitude toward foreign language learning and attitude toward the L2. The former, first introduced by Gardner (1985) as a central indicator of L2 motivation, has been defined as the extent to which the L2 learner is interested in learning foreign languages in general. The latter has been defined in light of the notion of L2 vitality—that is, the importance of the target language in education, trade, technology, and science (see Csizér and Dörnyei 2005). It has also been defined in terms of Gardner’s (1985) concept of “valence,” which refers to the extent to which the learner finds reaching an advanced proficiency in the L2 important and valorizing. The Role of Orientations in L2 Motivation The role of orientations, defined as reasons or antecedents for which individuals decide to engage in L2 learning, has been extensively researched (for a review, see



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Noels, Clément, and Pelletier 2001; Noels et al. 2000; McEown et al. 2014). The two dichotomies of orientations that have received most attention have been SEML2’s integrative/instrumental dichotomy and SDT’s intrinsic/extrinsic dichotomy. The dichotomy integrative/instrumental was first proposed by Robert Gardner and William Lambert (1972). Integrative orientation reflects “a sincere and personal interest in the people and culture represented by the other group.” Integrative orientation reflects a genuine interest in learning the second language in order to come closer to the other language community. Instrumental orientation reflects “the practical value and advantages of learning a new language” (Gardner and Lambert 1972, 132). It involves learning an L2 for such utilitarian, pragmatic reasons as passing exams, finding a job, and obtaining a job promotion. The dichotomy intrinsic/extrinsic has been proposed by Deci and Ryan (2009, 2012). Intrinsic orientation involves engaging in an activity for reasons such as knowledge, simulation, challenge, and self-​accomplishment. Extrinsic orientation involves, in contrast, normative, external reward patterns that are based on utilitarian, pragmatic expectations and includes such goals as others’ recognition or respect, competition, avoiding punishment, and meeting compulsory requirement (Noels 2001). Kimberly Noels and colleagues (2000) classify intrinsic orientation or intrinsic motivation (IM) into three types: (1) IM-​Knowledge, which refers to engaging in an activity for the feelings associated with exploring new ideas and developing knowledge; (2) IM-​Accomplishment, which means engaging in activity for sensations of mastering a task or achieving a goal; and (3) IM-​Stimulation, which is about engaging in an activity for such sensations as aesthetic appreciation or fun and excitement. Most research studies on motivation for learning Arabic as an L2 have relied on integrative/instrumental orientation dichotomy as well as intrinsic/extrinsic orientation dichotomy. Belnap (1987, 2006) found that Arabic has been learned to discover and understand Arab culture and literature, to travel to Arab countries and live in the Middle East, to learn a heritage language, to read media in Arabic, to read religious texts in Arabic, to meet a degree requirement, to prepare for a career, and to take up the intellectual challenge of learning a “difficult” language. Likewise, Husseinali (2006) found instrumental orientation and identification orientation as well as travel and culture orientation to represent the most important reasons for learning Arabic. In a rare study outside the North American context, Suleiman (1991) found that the subjects he investigated chose to study Arabic more for intellectual reasons (studying Arabic for challenge and stimulation) than integrative or instrumental ones. This study intends to contribute to understanding the internal structure of motivation for learning an LCTL, Arabic. It uses the AMOS structural equation modeling

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program to explore how self-​efficacy, attitudes, and orientations covary to predict motivational intensity and expectancy of success. Specifically, the study addresses the following questions:



1. Which motivational variables considered in the present study (i.e., self-​ efficacy, attitudes, and orientations) contribute most to the definition of a motivational model for learning Arabic as an LCTL? 2. What is the role of self-​efficacy as an independent variable in learning Arabic as an LCTL? 3. What is the role of attitudes as independent variables in learning Arabic as an LCTL? 4. What is the role of orientations as moderator variables in learning Arabic as an LCTL?

The Study

Setting and Participants The focus of the present study is Arabic. Karin Ryding (2005) notes that Arabic has witnessed three periods in its development: the Classical Arabic (CA) period, the Middle Arabic period, and the Modern Arabic one. She also noted that at the end of the eighteenth century, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) emerged as the variety of Arabic that supplanted CA (Ryding 2005, 4). Regarding the status of Arabic today, a distinction between three varieties—CA, MSA, and regional dialects (Tunisian Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, etc.)—should be made. In the different Arab countries today there exists a contrast between MSA versus vernacular/dialectical varieties of Arabic. The setting of this study is Tunisia, a North African Arab country. Linguistically speaking, Tunisia is a typical diglossic setting where two varieties of Arabic coexist: MSA, the official language variety of the country, and Tunisian Arabic, the everyday language used for communication. The study was conducted at Institut Bourguiba des Langues Vivantes (IBLV), commonly known as Bourguiba School, a state-​owned language institution offering MSA summer courses to international students. The participants of the study represent a sample of international students of MSA in IBLV. It is worth noting that some of the students who attended IBLV summer course were heritage students and were eliminated from the study as they were believed to represent a separate group of L2 learners whose motivation for studying Arabic might be different from other international students. The sampling technique used in



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Table 1  Biographical data of the participants Data point Nationality

Participants Europeans

Asians

North Americans

77.5%

17.5%

5%

High School 13%

Higher Education 75%

Not Specified 12%

Sex

Male 53.75%

Female 46.25%

Age Range

18–25 77%

26–35 8.8%

Educational Level

35–42 13.8%

this study was convenience sampling, as preexisting intermediate-​level IBLV groups have been approached through their teachers of Arabic, and eighty students agreed to participate in the study (see table 1). Study Variables The variables of the present study are self-​efficacy, outcome expectancy, motivational intensity, attitudes, and orientations. Self-​efficacy for L2 learning was conceptually defined in light of Schunk’s (1989) and Schunk and Pajares’s (2009) conceptualization of the construct and operationally defined with three items. Expectancy of success or outcome expectancy was defined with three items based on the model of Wigfield and colleagues (2009). Motivational intensity was defined with three items based on Gardner’s (1985) and Tremblay and Gardner’s (1995) conceptualization of the construct (see the appendix). In addition to self-​efficacy, expectancy of success, and motivational intensity, four attitudinal variables have been considered: attitude toward L2 group, attitude toward L2, attitude toward foreign language learning, and attitude toward learning context. Attitude toward L2 group was defined in light of Giles and Byrne’s (1982) construct of “ethnolinguistic vitality.” It concerns the beliefs held by the L2 learner about the social group representative of Arabic. This variable taps the degree of openness to and acceptance of Arab people, their customs, and their lifestyle by the L2 learner. It was defined with six items (see the appendix). Attitude toward L2 concerns the beliefs and thoughts held by the present study participants about Arabic. This variable has three dimensions: an affective dimension, a vitality dimension, and an aesthetic dimension. The first pertains to how “pretty” and “prestigious” Arabic is. The second

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concerns the importance of Arabic to “progress” and “modernity.” The third relates to the degree to which the L2 learner appreciates Arab art and culture. It was defined with four items. Attitude toward foreign-​language learning has been defined in terms of readiness to engage in the experience of foreign language learning as well as valuing and enjoying such experience with three items. As for attitude toward the learning context, it was defined based on Dörnyei and Kata Csizér’s (2002) and Gardner’s (2010) conceptualizations of the construct. It pertains to the emotional (in terms of likes and dislikes) evaluation of learning context factors—that is, textbook, teaching method, teacher, and classroom activities. It was defined with four items. The selection of orientations in this study was based on the review of L2 motivation literature and previous studies of motivation to learn Arabic as well as an informal discussion with a group of ten students about their reasons to learning Arabic as an L2. Accordingly, I decided to consider integrative orientation, intrinsic orientation, and extrinsic orientation. Integrative orientation is defined following Gardner’s (1985) conceptualization as the desire to integrate the social group representing the L2. Intrinsic orientation was deconstructed based on Noels’s (2001) definition and Noels and colleagues’ (2000) classification of the construct into knowledge and stimulation as well as self-​accomplishment. Along with intrinsic orientations, three types of extrinsic orientation (i.e., academic, professional, and others’ respect) are considered in the current study. They are defined in terms of Noels and colleagues’ (2000) conceptualization of extrinsic orientation in the academic setting as finding good reasons to learn in passing exams, satisfying parents, and showing one’s competence to others as well as learning for professional and academic purposes. In total, six orientations are included in the study: knowledge/simulation, self-​accomplishment, others’ respect, academic, professional, and integrative. They are respectively operationally defined with a single item (see table 2 and the appendix). Instrumentation The data collection instrument used in this study was a questionnaire (see the appendix). The first section of the questionnaire collected biographical data (sex, age, nationality, occupation, and level of education). The second section used a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (5) to gauge the variables of the study. The questionnaire was piloted on five students enrolled in IBLV’s Arabic program to ensure its clarity, wording, and format. The piloting revealed that some of the current study participants were more comfortable with the French language than with the English language. It was therefore decided to administer the questionnaire in both languages, and participants were given a choice between the English and the French versions of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was



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Table 2  Study Variables

Variable

 Contextual  Linguistic    Arabic as L2   FL learning Orientations  Knowledge/simulation   Self-​accomplishment   Other regulation  Academic  Professional  Integrative Self-​efficacy

Expectancy of success

Internal consistency coefficient

Giles and Byrne (1982) Gardner (1985) Dörnyei and Csizèr (2002) Gardner (2010)

6

.77

4

.77

Gardner (1985, 2010) Csiser and Dörnyei (2005)

4 3

.66 .84

1 1 1 1 1 1 3

.82

3

.74

3

.87

Theoretical framework

Attitudes  Social

Motivational intensity

Number of items

Noels (2001) Noels et al. (2000) Gardner (1985) Schunk (1991) Schunk and Pajares (2009) Gardner (1985) Tremblay and Gardner (1995) Wigfield and Eccles (2000) Wigfield and colleagues (2009) Trembly and Gardner (1995)

administered by the researcher with the help of the teacher of Arabic during one of the Arabic classes a week before the end of IBLV’s 2017 summer program. Data were processed using AMOS 24 software. Two statistical tests have been used: Cronbach alpha internal consistency test and AMOS structural equation modeling. Cronbach alpha internal consistency is a method used in quantifying the reliability of a score to summarize the information of several items in questionnaires that is made up of multiple items, as is the case in the present study. The method yields an alpha coefficient as an indicator of the reliability of the measure. The internal consistency analysis yielded acceptable alpha coefficients ranging from .66 to .87 (see table 2).

Hypotheses and Model Identification

This study aimed to specify a model that reflects the internal structure of motivation for learning Arabic. The model was specified based on a set of hypotheses

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formulated in light of previous L2 motivation research, in general, and of motivation for learning Arabic as an L2, in particular. In specifying the motivational model for learning Arabic, self-​efficacy for L2 learning, attitude toward L2, attitude toward L2 group, attitude toward context, and attitude toward foreign language learning have been treated as the independent variables of the model—that is, variables that are not influenced by any other variable in a model. As such, these variables can either directly or indirectly (through other variables) affect the two dependent variables (a variable that is influenced by another variable in a model) of the study, which are motivational intensity and outcome expectancy. Orientations have been treated as moderator variables. Reuben Baron and David Kenny (1986, 1174) define a moderator variable as “a variable that affects the direction and/or the strength of the relation between a dependent variable and an independent or criterion variable.” As moderator variables, orientations mediate the relation between self-​efficacy and attitudes and the two dependent variables of the study. As independent variables, orientations can also directly affect motivational intensity and expectancy of success (see figure 1). As far as the impact of self-​efficacy and attitudes on the two dependent variables of the study is concerned, only self-​efficacy and attitude toward foreign language learning were hypothesized to directly affect both motivational intensity and outcome expectancy. This hypothesis is based on the assumption that self-​efficacy has emerged in many motivation studies as a predictor of effort and success. In contrast, attitudes toward context, attitude toward L2, and attitude toward L2 group were hypothesized to directly affect motivational intensity rather than outcome expectancy. This hypothesis is based on the fact that finding the learning context pleasant and appealing can increase motivation to learn but does not necessarily lead to success in learning. Regarding the relationship between self-​efficacy and orientations, self-​efficacy was hypothesized to be more related to intrinsic orientations than the other types of orientations. This hypothesis is based on the claim that the self-​confident learner is likely to engage in L2 learning more for intellectual-, aesthetic-, and competence-​oriented reasons such as accomplishment, knowledge, and stimulation rather than utilitarian, instrumental, pragmatic, and extrinsic motives such as academic, professional, and others’ respect orientations. Self-​efficacy was also hypothesized to relate to integrative orientation on the basis that a self-​confident L2 learner would find no difficulty or problem to live in a country that speaks the target language. As for the relationship between attitudes and orientations, attitude toward the L2 was hypothesized to be related to the three extrinsic orientations—namely, academic, professional, and others’ respect—rather than to intrinsic orientation. Regarding the interrelationships among orientations and their relationship to expectancy of success



Self-Efficacy, Attitudes, and Orientations in Learning Arabic as an LCTL

LABEL EFFICACY ATTCONTEX ATTFL ATTL2 ATTL2group INTEGRATIVE

CONSTRUCT Self-efficacy for L2 learning Attitudes toward learning context Attitudes toward foreign language learning Attitudes toward L2 Attitudes toward L2 group Integrative orientation

LABEL ACCOMPLISH PROFESSIONAL ACADEMIC KNOWLEDGE OTERESPECT INTENSITY EXPECTANCY

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CONSTRUCT Self-accomplishment orientation Professional orientation Academic orientation Knowledge orientation Others’ respect orientation Motivational intensity Expectancy of success

Figure 1  The initial model of motivation for learning Arabic

and motivational intensity, knowledge/simulation orientation and accomplishment orientation were hypothesized to be interrelated and to affect the two independent variables of the study. In  contrast, academic and professional orientations were hypothesized to neither affect motivational intensity nor outcome expectancy. This hypothesis is based on the assumption that, for learning LCTLs, intrinsic orientation is more determinant of the amount of effort L2 learners would expend and the extent to which they expect to reach an advanced attainment level in the L2 than extrinsic orientation. Finally, others’ respect and integrative orientation were hypothesized to be related to motivational intensity rather than outcome expectancy. Such a hypothesis finds its reason in the assumption that learning for others’ recognition might be a source for energy to learn but does not necessarily guarantee success. Likewise, aspiring to settle in a country that speaks the target language could lead to motivational intensity but does not always lead to a high attainment level in L2.

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To identify a model in AMOS, Byrne (2001) recommends to report chi-​square (or CMIN, as it is labeled in AMOS) and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) as well as one of the baseline fit measures such as comparative fit index (CFI) (Hu and Bentler 1995). Chi-​square, a measure of difference between what the actual relationships in the sample are and what would be expected if the model was assumed correct, must be interpreted in terms of its degrees of freedom (df). A model that represents the sample data well would yield a ratio of CMIN/df close to 1, and most researchers would reject a model that was much over 2 (Byrne 2001). CFI is an incremental, normed fit index in which values range between zero to 1, with higher values indicating better fit (Hu and Bentler 1995). RMSEA represents how well a model fits a population, not just the sample used for estimation. Lower RMSEA values indicate better fit, and < 0.05 is the recommended good fit indicator (Browne and Cudeck 1993). Given that there is no model comparison in the present study, chi-​square and CMIN/df, RMSEA, and CFI are reported (see the results section).

Results

The first question of the study concerned which variables among self-​efficacy, attitudes, and orientations contribute to the definition of motivation for learning Arabic as an LCTL. The answer to this question was based on testing the initial model using AMOS 24 software. As table 3 indicates, the obtained model has a perfect fit to the data with a low CMIN/df (.32) and RMSEA (.00) and a high CFI (1.0). The obtained model revealed that the variables that lowered the initial model goodness of fit were attitude toward L2 group, integrative orientation, academic orientation, professional orientation, and other respect orientation. Accordingly, the five variables were eliminated from the model and the hypotheses formulated regarding their relation with the other variables of the study were rejected. In other words, in the obtained model (see figure 2), self-​efficacy proved to be an essential component of motivation to learn

Table 3  Recommended and obtained fit statistics of identified model Fit Statistic CMIN/df CFI RMSEA

Recommended

Obtained

0.9 < 0.05

.32 1.0 0.0



Self-Efficacy, Attitudes, and Orientations in Learning Arabic as an LCTL

LABEL EFFICACY ATTCONTEX ATTFL ATTL2 e1, e2, e3, e4

CONSTRUCT Self-efficacy for L2 learning Attitudes toward learning context Attitudes toward foreign language learning Attitudes toward L2 AMOS random measurement error terms

LABEL KNOWLEDGE INTENSITY EXPECTANCY ACCOMPLISH

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CONSTRUCT Knowledge orientation Motivational intensity Expectancy of success Self-accomplishment orientation

2. Themodel identified model of motivation learning Arabic Figure 2  TheFigure identified of motivation for learningforArabic

Arabic as an LCTL. In addition, the attitudinal variables that significantly contributed to the definition of the model have been attitudes toward learning context, attitudes toward L2, and attitudes toward foreign language learning. The orientations have been the accomplishment orientation and the knowledge orientation. The obtained model proved also the pertinence of treating orientations as moderator variables between self-​efficacy and attitudes, on the one hand, and expectancy of success and motivational intensity, on the other. The second research question of the study pertains to the role of self-​efficacy in defining motivation for learning Arabic as an LCTL. In order to answer this question and evaluate the covariance among the independent variables of the study (i.e., self-​ efficacy for L2 learning and attitudes) along with how they interplay with orientations to affect the two dependent variables of the study (motivational intensity and outcome expectancy), path analysis standardized regression coefficients were used. Standardized regression estimates allow for the evaluation of the relative contribution of each predictor variable to each dependent or outcome variable. Specifically, they

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represent the amount of change in the dependent variable given a standard deviation unit change in the predictor variable (see Kline 1998). In this respect, Rex Kline (1998) notes that standardized path regression coefficients with absolute values greater than 0.10 indicate a small effect, values above 0.30 indicate a medium effect, and those greater than 0.50 mean a large effect. The obtained model shows that although self-​efficacy significantly covaries with the three attitudinal variables that contributed to the goodness of fit of the obtained model, it proved to have the largest regression weight on attitudes toward the learning context. As for the relationship between self-​efficacy and orientations, the obtained model partially confirms the study hypotheses as self-​efficacy proved to be only related to self-​accomplishment orientation with a small regression weight of .23. It proved, however, not to be related at all to knowledge and simulation orientation. In this study, it was hypothesized that self-​efficacy affects both motivational intensity and outcome expectancy. Results partially confirm this hypothesis as self-​efficacy proved to have a large regression weight on expectancy of success, at .50, but a small one with motivational intensity (.23) (see figure 2). The third question of the study concerns the role of attitudes in defining motivation for Arabic as an LCTL. Figure 2 reveals that attitude toward foreign language learning has a large regression weight on self-​efficacy, at .49, and knowledge orientation, at .48. It reveals also that attitude toward L2 has a medium regression weight on accomplishment orientation (.38). Attitudes toward L2 proved to be related to self-​accomplishment, with a medium regression weight of .38. As for the relationship between attitudes and the independent variables of the study, results reveal that attitude toward context proved to be the best predictor of motivational intensity, with a large regression weight of .55. In contrast, attitude toward L2 had a small regression weight on motivational intensity (.17). Attitude toward foreign language learning proved to have a negative moderate impact on motivational intensity of .45. This can be explained by the fact that motivational intensity is more affected by factors pertaining to the L2 and the L2 learning context than beliefs about the importance of foreign language learning. As for the link between attitudes and expectancy of success, the study interestingly reveals that only attitude toward foreign language learning slightly affects expectancy of success, at .21. The fourth question of the study pertains to the role of orientations in defining motivation for taking Arabic as an LCTL. Figure 2 first reveals that knowledge/ simulation orientation and self-​accomplishment orientation are interrelated, with a small regression weight of .22. They interestingly show also that self-​accomplishment orientation has a small regression weight on both motivational intensity and outcome



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expectancy, at .16 and .27, respectively. Figure 2 shows, however, that although knowledge orientation does not affect expectancy of success, it interestingly has a medium regression weight of .34 on motivational intensity. In sum, the major findings of the present study are a. Self-​efficacy and intrinsic orientation proved to be characteristic factors of motivation of learners of Arabic. b. Social attitudes, integrative orientation, and extrinsic orientation (academic, professional, and others’ respect orientations) did not contribute to the definition of motivation for learning Arabic as an L2. c. Attitude toward learning context, attitude toward foreign language learning, and attitude toward L2 proved to play a central role in motivation for learning Arabic.

Discussion

The first finding of the study is that self-​efficacy for language learning proved to be the best predictor of expectancy of success and, to a lesser extent, motivational intensity. This finding can be explained by the fact that self-​efficacy emerged, in several motivation research studies in different areas, as a motivational variable that strongly predicts engagement, effort, perseverance, and performance in completing different types of tasks and activities. Engaging in the highly demanding enterprise of learning an LCTL such as Arabic requires a positive evaluation of one’s learning capacity. Such positive evaluation is assumed to enable the L2 learner to approach the difficult task of learning Arabic as an achievable challenge to be taken rather than an unreachable goal to be avoided, on the one hand, and to give them the energy to persevere in completing such a task, on the other. Actually, Arabic and East Asian languages have been classified by the Foreign Service Institute and the Defense Language Institute in the United States as the most difficult languages to learn for English-​speaking learners. Such difficulty is accounted for in terms of structural closeness of L2 learner’s native language and the target L2 language (see Chiswick and Miller 2005; Kuntz 1996). The second finding of the study is that social attitudes played no role in defining motivation for learning Arabic. This finding calls into question the assumption that has dominated motivation research for decades, mainly in the socioeducational model, about the role of social attitudes in defining L2 motivation. This unexpected finding could be explained by the fact that it is difficult to determine which Arab

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country or social group or region (East/West) represents the Arabic language. It can be argued, also, that social attitudes are more important for commonly taught languages (CTLs), mainly English, than LCTLs, given that exposure to the cultural and economic products of the nations representing CTLs is more common than those of the social groups representing LCTLs. However, more research is needed to corroborate such a claim. The third finding of the study was that, unlike social attitudes, attitudes toward context of learning, attitudes toward foreign language learning, and attitudes toward L2 have been essential for the specification of the motivation model for learning Arabic. Actually, attitudes toward the learning context was the best predictor of motivational intensity. This result confirms that a learner-​friendly, pleasant atmosphere is important even for adult language learners. Furthermore, the study informed that attitudes toward foreign language learning proved to be an essential component of L2 motivation as it was the only motivational variable that strongly predicted both motivational intensity and expectancy of success. This can be explained by the fact that students who choose to take LCTLs such as Arabic must be cognizant of the personal and intellectual valance of learning languages other than their mother tongues, in general, and less-​commonly taught languages, in particular. The last finding of the study was that neither integrative orientation nor the three extrinsic orientations—academic orientation, professional orientation, and others’ respect—contributed to the definition of motivation to learn Arabic. This finding is not in line with Belnap’s (1987, 2006) and Husseinali’s (2006) findings that learners of Arabic choose to study the language for integrative and instrumental reasons such as identification and fulfilling a foreign language requirement. Learners of Arabic as an LCTL seem, however, to be more motivated by the stimulating effect of both acquiring new knowledge and feeling knowledgeable and the sense of self-​ accomplishment experienced through such stimulation. Such a finding has emerged across several studies on motivation to learn various LCTLs, such as Arabic and Japanese (McEown, Noel, and Saumure 2014; Suleiman 1991; Ueno 2005). The significance of learning an LCTL such as Arabic goes beyond academic and professional requirements to acquire a personal and aesthetic value. Junko Ueno (2005, 56–57) found that students who study Chinese, Japanese, and Russian as LCTLs not only were intrinsically motivated but also perceived themselves as “different from others” and wanted therefore “to study something unique.” Indeed, foreign language learning becomes for them a means for self-​actualization and a source of the intellectual pleasure that stems from the appreciation of knowledge. The sensation of such intellectual pleasure is reminiscent of studying Latin and Greek, in ancient times, to have access to the canonical texts of the epoch.



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Conclusion and Implications

The present study, framed within traditional L2 motivation paradigms, adopted the structural equation modeling approach to highlight the interplay among self-​efficacy, attitudes, and orientations to affect motivational intensity and expectancy of success among learners of Arabic as L2. It identified a model in which self-​efficacy, intrinsic orientations, attitudes toward learning context, attitudes toward foreign language learning, and attitudes toward the L2 play a central role in defining motivation for learning Arabic as an LCTL. This calls into question the endeavor of motivation research for the last four decades or so to look for the motivation paradigm that cuts across all the factors that affect L2 learning. Such paradigms include the socioeducational model in the 1980s, the cognitivist and educationalist paradigm in the 1990s and early 2000s, and the L2SSM since 2005. The search for the paradigm or model that captures the full picture of L2 motivation across language type (LCTL, CTL, heritage language, etc.), context of learning (FL/SL), setting of learning, (formal/informal), and learner characteristics (age, sex, etc.) might simply prove neither realistic nor seminal. As far as the pedagogical implications of the present study for teachers of Arabic as a foreign language, it can be recommended that although self-​efficacy for L2 learning is difficult to nurture in learners of Arabic, attitudes and orientations can be manipulated. To do so teachers of Arabic should, starting from the early years of education, bring their students to discern the importance of learning foreign languages by devising linguistic awakening programs in the form of consciousness-​raising. They should bring students to see that foreign languages, in general, and Arabic as an LCTL, in particular, represent more than a school subject or an academic requirement. Rather, foreign language learning represents a personally enriching experience that procures intellectual and aesthetic pleasure and serves as a means for self-accomplishment. By so doing, foreign language teaching/learning would (re)gain its intellectual and educational breadth. Although this study obtained interesting findings, it has a number of limitations. The first limitation was the choice to rely on indirect external measures of motivation (motivational intensity and expectancy of success) rather than an objective one— that is, achievement or proficiency scores. Although this choice is very common in motivation research, such reliance has been criticized by Christo Moskovsky and colleagues (2016), who argued that intended motivated behavior neither reflects actual behavior nor reliably predicts achievement/proficiency. The second limitation of the study was the reliance on single items to define orientations for learning as this might undermine their content validity and construct validity. A tempting conclusion from this study is that motivation for learning an LCTL such as Arabic is different from

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that of learning CTLs. To safely make such a claim, more research, mainly qualitative, involving learners of both LCTLs and CTLs, is needed.

Appendix

Self-​efficacy • I feel that I have a special aptitude to learn language. • For me, no language is difficult to learn. • I am gifted for languages. Attitudes Attitudes toward L2 • Arabic is a prestigious language. • Personally, I find Arabic one of the most beautiful languages of the world. • For me, Arabic is one of the languages of progress. • I am impressed with the Arabic culture and art. Attitudes toward L2 group • Arab people represent progress and civilization. • Although they are different from mine, I have no problem with Arab lifestyle and customs. • I have a lot of admiration and respect for Arabs. • The more I get to know the Arabs, the more I like them. • Arabs have a major contribution to human culture. • I don’t have favorable attitudes toward the people representing the Arabic language. Attitudes toward foreign language learning • For me, learning a foreign language is an enjoyable and valuable experience. • Learning foreign languages is of great importance to me. • I would seek out opportunities to study a foreign language, even if it is not required for me. Attitudes toward learning context • I have always found activities, tasks, and exercises in Arabic classes varied, relevant, and attractive. • My teacher of Arabic has always been efficient, cheerful, and patient.



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• All in all, I like the textbooks we used in Arabic classes. • I don’t like the method used to teach Arabic at Bourguiba School. Orientations • Academic: I study Arabic for academic reasons. • Professional: I study Arabic for professional reasons. • Others’ respect: I learn Arabic because people around me respect those who speak several languages. • Accomplishment: The more I master the Arabic language, the more I experience a sense of self-​accomplishment. • Knowledge and stimulation: I study Arabic because it is a stimulating experience that allows me to acquire new knowledge. • Integrative orientation: If I have the opportunity, I would settle in an Arab-​ speaking country and integrate its social group. Motivational intensity • I always seek out opportunities to use Arabic outside class. • When possible, I volunteer for extra assignments in Arabic courses. • I will participate in as many extra activities offered by IBLV as possible, to improve my Arabic proficiency. Outcome expectancy • No doubt I will become a fluent speaker of Arabic. • I am quite certain that I will reach an advanced proficiency in Arabic. • I believe that mastering the Arabic language is within my reach.

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Belnap, R. Kirk. 1987. “Who’s Taking Arabic and What on Earth For? A Survey of Students in Arabic Language Programs.” Al-‘Arabiyya 20:29–42. ———. 2006. “A Profile of Students of Arabic in US Universities.” In Handbook of Arabic Language Teaching Professionals, edited by Kassem M. Wahba, Zeinab A. Taha, and Liz England, 69–78. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Blair, Ryan, and Mahmoud Azzaz. 2019. “Self-​Guide Distinctions and Episodic Memory in L2 Motivation: The Case of Arabic in the United States.” System 81:192–205. Boo, Zann, Zoltán Dörnyei, and Stephen Ryan. 2015. “L2 Motivation Research 2005–2014: Understanding a Publication Surge and a Changing Landscape.” System 55:145–57. Brehm, Jack W., and Elizabeth A. Self. 1989. “The Intensity of Motivation.” Annual Review of Psychology 40:109–31. http://​dx​.doi​.org​/10​.1146​/annurev​.ps​.40​.020189​.000545. Browne, Michael, and Robert Cudeck. 1993. “Alternative Ways of Assessing Model Fit.” In Testing Structural Equation Models, edited by Kenneth A. Bollen and Long J. Scott, 136–62. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Byrne, Barbara M. 2001. Structural Equation Modeling with AMOS: Basic Concept, Applications, and Programming. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. ———. 2012. Structural Equation Modeling with Mplus: Basic Concepts, Applications, and Programming. New York: Taylor and Francis. Chiswick, R. Barry, and Paul W. Miller. 2005. “Linguistic Distance: A Quantitative Measure of the Distance between English and Other Languages.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 26:1–11. Csizér, Kata, and Zoltán Dörnyei. 2005. “The Internal Structure of Language Learning Motivation and Its Relationship with Language Choice and Learning Effort.” Modern Language Journal 89:19–36. Deci, Edward L., and Richard M. Ryan. 2000. “The ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-​Determination of Behavior.” Psychological Inquiry 11, no. 4: 227–68. ———. 2009. Promoting Self-​Determined School Engagement: Motivation, Learning and Well-​ Being.” In Handbook of Motivation at School, edited by Kathryn R. Wentzel and Allan Wigfield, 171–98. London: Routledge. ———. 2012. “Self-​Determination Theory.” In Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology, Vol. 1, edited by Pam Van Lange, Arie W. Kruglanski, and E. Tory Higgins, 416–37. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Dörnyei, Zoltán. 1994. “Motivation and Motivating in the Foreign Language Classroom.” Modern Language Journal 78:273–84. https://​doi​.org​/10​.1111​/j​.1540​-4781​.1994​.tb02071​.x. ———. 2003. “Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations in Language Learning: Advances in Theory, Research, and Applications.” In Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations in Language Learning: Advances in Theory, Research, and Applications, edited by Zoltán Dörnyei, 3–32. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. ———. 2009. “The L2 Motivational Self System.” In Motivation, Language Identity and the L2 Self, edited by Zoltán Dörnyei and Ema Ushioda, 9–42. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Dörnyei, Zoltán, and Kata Csizér. 2002. “Some Dynamics of Language Attitudes and Motivation: Results of a Longitudinal Nationwide Survey.” Applied Linguistics 23:421–62. Gardner, Robert C. 1985. Social Psychology and Second Language Learning: The Role of Attitudes and Motivation. London: Edward Arnold.



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———. 2007. “Motivation and Second Language Acquisition.” Porta Lingarium 8:9–20. ———. 2010. Motivation and Second Language Learning: The Socio-​Educational Model. New York: Peter Lang. Gardner, Robert C., and William E. Lambert. 1972. Attitudes and Motivation in Second Language Learning. Rowley, MA: Newbury. Giles, Howard, and Jane L. Byrne. 1982. “An Intergroup Approach to Second Language Acquisition.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 3:17–40. https://​doi​.org​/10​.1080​ /01434632​.1982​.9994069. Gor, Kira, and Karen Vatz. 2009. “Less Commonly Taught Languages: Issues in Learning and Teaching.” In The Handbook of Language Teaching, edited by Michael H. Long and Catherine J. Doughty, 234–49. Chichester, UK: Wiley-​Blackwell. Hu, Li-​Tze, and Peter M. Bentler. 1995. “Evaluating Model Fit.” In Structural Equation Modelling: Concepts, Issues, and Applications, edited by Rick H. Hoyle, 76–99. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Husseinali, Gassan. 2006. “Who Is Studying Arabic and Why? A Survey of Arabic Students’ Orientations at a Major University.” Foreign Language Annals 39, no. 3:395–412. https://​doi​ .org​/10​.1111​/j​.1944​-9720​.2006​.tb02896​.x. Kline, Rex B. 1998. Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modelling. New York: Guilford. Kuntz, Patricia S. 1996. “Students of ‘Easy’ Languages: Their Beliefs about Language Learning.” ERIC Document Reproduction Service, No. ED397658. Masgoret, Anne-​Marie, and Robert C. Gardner. 2003. “Attitudes, Motivation, and Second Language Learning: A Meta-​analysis of Studies Conducted by Gardner and Associates.” Language Learning 53:123–63. McEown, Maya Sugita, Kimberly Noel, and Kristie Saumure. 2014. “Students’ Self-​Determined and Integrative Orientations and Teachers’ Motivational Support in a Japanese as a Foreign Language Context.” System 45:227–41. http://​dx​.doi​.org​/10​.1016​/j​.system​.2014​.06​.001. McIntyre, Peter D., Sean P. Mackinnon, and Richard Clement. 2009. “The Baby, the Bathwater, and the Future of Language Learning Motivation Research.” In Motivation, Language Identity and the L2 Self, edited by Zoltán Dörnyei and Ema Ushioda, 43–65. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Mills, Nichole. 2014. “Self-​Efficacy in Second Language Acquisition.” In Multiple Perspectives on the Self, edited by Sarah Mercer and Marion Williams, 6–19. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Mills, Nichole, Frank Pajares, and Carol Herron. 2007. “Self‐Efficacy of College Intermediate French Students: Relation to Achievement and Motivation.” Language Learning 57, no. 3: 417–42. Moskovsky, Christo, Racheva Sylvia, Assulaimani Turki, and Jean Harkins. 2016. “The L2 Motivational Self System and L2 Achievement: A Study of Saudi EFL Learners.” Modern Language Journal 100:641–54. https://​doi​.org​/10​.1111​/modl​.12340. Noels, Kimberly A. 2001. “New Orientations in Language Learning Motivation: Towards a Model of Intrinsic, Extrinsic and Integrative Orientations.” In Motivation and Second Language Acquisition, edited by Zoltan Dörnyei and Richard Schmidt, 43–68. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center. Noels, Kimberly A., Richard Clément, and Lug G. Pelletier. 2001. “Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Integrative Orientations of French Canadian Learners of English.” Canadian Modern Language Review 57:424–42.

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Noels, Kimberly A., Lug G. Pelletier, Richard Clement, and R. L. Vallerand. 2000. “Why Are You Learning a Second Language? Motivational Orientations and Self-​Determination Theory.” Language Learning 50:57–85. Ryding, C. Karin. 2005. A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schunk, Dale H. 1989. “Self-​Efficacy and Achievement Behaviors.” Educational Psychology Review 1:173–208. ———. 1991. “Self-​Efficacy and Academic Motivation.” Educational Psychologist 26, no. 3–4: 207–31. Schunk, Dale H., and Jeffrey A. Greene. 2017. Handbook of Self-​Regulation of Learning and Performance. London: Routledge. Schunk, Dale H., and Frank Pajares. 2004. “Self-​Efficacy in Education Revisited: Empirical and Applied Evidence.” In Big Theories Revisited, edited by D. M. McInerney and S. Van Etten, 115–38. Greenwich, CT: Information Age. Schunk, Dale H., and Frank Pajares. 2009. “Self-​Efficacy Theory.” In Handbook of Motivation at School, edited by Kathryn R. Wentzel and Allan Wigfield, 34–55. London: Routledge. Suleiman, Yasir. 1991. “Affective and Personality Factors in Learning Arabic as a Foreign Language: A Case Study.” Al-‘Arabiyya 24:83–110. Tremblay, F. Peter, and Robert C. Gardner. 1995. “Expanding the Motivation Construct in Language Learning.” Modern Language Journal 79:505–18. Ueno, Junko. 2005. “An Analysis of Learner Motivation of Less Commonly Taught Languages.” Journal of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Language 2:45–72. Ushioda, Ema, and Zoltán Dörnyei. 2012. “Motivation.” In The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, edited by Susan M. Gass and Allison Mackey, 96–409. New York: Routledge. ———. 2017. “Beyond Global English: Motivation to Learn Languages in a Multicultural World: Introduction to the Special Issue.” Modern Language Journal 101, no. 3: 451–545. https://​doi​ .org​/10​.1111​/modl​.12407. Wigfield, Allan, and Jacquelynne Eccles. 2000. “Expectancy–Value Theory of Achievement Motivation.” Contemporary Educational Psychology 25, no. 1: 68–81. https://​doi​.org​/10​.1006​ /ceps​.1999. Wigfield, Allan, Stephen Tonks, and Susan Lutz Klauda. 2009. “Expectancy-​Value Theory.” In Handbook of Motivation at School, edited by Kathryn R. Wentzel and Allan Wigfield, 55–75. London: Routledge.

Functions and Uses of Active and Passive Participial Forms in Al-‘Awābī District Vernacular of Northern Oman Roberta Morano, University of Leeds, UK

This article investigates the use and functions of the active and passive participial forms in the Omani vernacular spoken in al-‘Awābī district, in al-​Bāṭina region of northern Oman. This dialect was first described by Carl Reinhardt in 1894. No sections of his work, however, deal with the analysis of functions of participial forms in the dialect, although they are common in his texts. The data presented in this article aim to show the uses of the active participle in the everyday speech of my participants living in al-‘Awābī district and the different syntactic and semantic functions it conveys. The syntactic functions of the participle in Arabic linguistics has long been debated since it is neither completely a verbal form nor a nominal. This article fits into this discussion as it brings new data and analysis of active and passive participles in Arabic dialectology with regard to the Omani vernacular spoken in al-‘Awābī district. Key words: Omani Arabic, dialectology, participle, sociolinguistics, Arabic linguistics, aspect, Oman, Gulf

Al-‘Arabiyya, 53 (2020), 109–128

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Introduction

In this article, I analyze the functions conveyed by the active participle (AP) in the data collected throughout al-‘Awābī district of northern Oman. The syntax of the AP in spoken Arabic has long been debated (Brustad 2000; Holes 2004; Eades and Persson 2013; Comrie 1976, 1985; Eisele 1990) due to its morphological form, which behaves as a nominal, albeit carrying verbal force. This article aims to fit into this discussion regarding the data collected in al-‘Awābī district, and it contributes new material to either prove or disprove the points made by the aforementioned authors. This work starts with a brief presentation of participial forms in Classical Arabic (CA) in order to state some differences with modern Arabic dialects. Then it analyzes the categories of tense and aspect, which are of fundamental support for the argument. The actual analysis of the AP starts with the presentation of its morphological form in the dialect under investigation and moves forward to the syntactic functions it conveys in the speech of my participants. I also present some grammaticalized AP forms similarly found in other Arabic vernaculars and, to some extent, in CA. Finally, the discussion on the passive participle (PP) will be limited only to the few examples appearing in the speech of my participants, acknowledging that these are not enough to postulate any rule about the functions it carries. If the AP is used in a variety of temporal and aspectual contexts, the PP in the data is mainly used to express passivity, behaving syntactically as an adjective and without carrying the same verbal characteristics as the AP. In CA, two types of participial forms are found: the ’ism fā‘il “the noun of the agent” and the ’ism maf‘ūl “the noun of the patient.” Morphologically, they behave as a noun inflected for gender and number; syntactically, they present some of the characteristics of a verb: for example, the AP in CA allows the suffixation of an object pronoun, and the PP allows the suffixation of a subject pronoun (Owens 2008). However, in old sources not much is said about the AP and the PP in CA in terms of tense and aspect. Nevertheless, two qualities are specifically described to belong to verbs. In contrast with CA, only the AP in this vernacular retains some of the characteristics of the verb such as its diathetic properties (i.e., transitiveness and intransitiveness) and, as will become clear further on, an aspectual value. The PP, regarding the examples collected, does not allow the presence of a suffixed subject pronoun.

The Data

The material for the present article was obtained during two fieldwork trips made in February–April 2017 and June 2018. The data were collected in al-‘Awābī district,



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Table 1  Participants Metadata Speaker

Gender

Age

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12

F F F F F F M F M F F

58 45 60–70 28 38 44 65–75 55 85–95 50–60 80–90

Origin

Level of Education

Tribe

al-‘Awābī Wādī Banī Kharūṣ Wādī Banī Kharūṣ al-‘Awābī al-‘Awābī al-‘Awābī Wādī Banī Kharūṣ al-‘Awābī Wādī Banī Kharūṣ Wādī Banī Kharūṣ al-‘Awābī

illiterate illiterate illiterate university university middle school illiterate middle school illiterate middle school illiterate

al-​Kharūṣī al-​Kharūṣī al-‘Abrī al-​Kharūṣī al-​Kharūṣī al-​Kharūṣī al-‘Abrī al-​Kharūṣī al-​Kharūṣī al-‘Abrī al-‘Abrī

which consists of al-‘Awābī town and Wādī Banī Kharūṣ—a strip of villages that goes 26 km deep into the al-​Hajar mountain chain. The two places differ significantly in terms of lifestyle. The town hosts a younger population, many of whom have access to higher education and work either in Muscat or in Rustaq. The wadi, on the contrary, is inhabited by older people—on average fifty years and older—who live on farming (dates) and breeding (goats). In recent decades, the wadi has witnessed an exodus as the younger generation has moved out either to the town or to other regions of Oman. Therefore, the participants varied from younger literate speakers in al-‘Awābī town to illiterate elders in Wādī Banī Kharūṣ. Table 1 shows a detailed list of the participants used for this study. As table 1 indicates, the data must be considered, with only two exceptions (participants 7 and 10), to be based on women’s speech since accessing men was difficult for the author, and the male data collected are not enough to expand this investigation to the gender variable—with only one exception, which will become clear in the course of this article. The methodology employed for the collection of the material presented in this article was the recording of free speech, generally not influenced by the author’s language or presence. The recording process mainly consisted of placing the recorder in the middle of the group of women after taking their consent. Their talks were not influenced in any way by my way of speaking Arabic (i.e., mainly MSA); neither was it influenced by my presence among them. Suitable material was then elicited and transcribed with the help of a native speaker of the dialect under investigation. The recording sessions usually took place in indoor places, during coffee gatherings (i.e., morning/afternoon) or private family reunions (i.e., evening). Their time ranged from two to five minutes, depending on the topic of conversation (e.g., stories and

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local events are generally longer, whereas daily practices were shorter). At the beginning of each session the informants were asked for their consent, and they were simply told to speak as they would have done without the recorder being there. As for specific topics or syntactical structures, I submitted a set of five sentences to the informants, each one displaying a different structure for participial forms, as they appear in the course of this paper. The latter process has been used only for the material belonging to the male speakers, as far as this article is concerned, whereas in the case of women’s speech, the participial forms were extrapolated by the free-​speech recordings. I did this because I could not have longer recording sessions with male speakers due to local traditions. Therefore, I decided to submit the sentences to them. The fact that I have never solicited any particular structure during the free-​speech recording sessions, whose material is partly presented in this article, shows the frequent occurrence of participles in the everyday speech of my informants. The examples reported throughout this article are glossed following the speaker’s number as given in table 1.

The Categories of Tense and Aspect

In order to fully understand the functions conveyed by the AP in al-‘Awābī district of Oman, a few words on the concepts of tense and aspect are needed. One of the main issues that arises in the literature on this matter is whether Arabic needs to be considered a language whose verb opposition is based on temporal (i.e., past versus non-​past) or aspectual factors (i.e., perfectivity versus imperfectivity), or a combination of both. Bernard Comrie (1985, 9) defines tense as “a grammaticalised location in time,” relating the action expressed by the verb to a past or non-​past event. Kristen Brustad (2000, 203) goes further, separating the concepts of “tense” and “time reference,” the former referring to “morphological verb forms” and the latter to the context of the whole sentence and the possible presence of temporal adverbs to locate the time. Modern Arabic dialects use different strategies to express temporal references, which are usually linked to the context rather than to the verb form itself. The vernacular under investigation is not much different in this sense: in an unmarked context (i.e., in a copular phrase), the time reference is assumed to be present, whereas in a marked context (i.e., in a clause), the time reference could refer to any time. Consider examples (1)–(3). (1) haḏēlā l-ḥarīm min ’ahl-​ī DEM.PROX.FPL DEF-​woman.FPL from family.MPL-​PRON.1SG “These women are my relatives (lit. “from my family”).” [Participant 5]



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(2) qāl l-​abū-​y inn-​ha kabīr-​a said.3MSG PREP-​father.MSG-​PRON.1SG that-3FSG old-​FSG “He said to my father that she was old.” [Participant 2] (3) haḏī kāna-​t ḥayāt-​ī DEM.PROX.FSG was-3FSG life.FSG-​PRON.1SG “This was my life.” [Participant 2] Example (1) is a verbless phrase, which nevertheless displays a present time reference. If we compare example (1) with example (3)—which shows a tense, expressed by the past form kānat “was”—we can see that the time reference is past because the morphological verb form used is past. Example (2) offers a further evidence of copular clause, this time in a complement clause. Time reference in subordinate clauses in the data is linked to the time reference of the main clause. Therefore, the past verb qāl “he said” marks the time reference of the whole clause as past and ensures the time reference of the subordinate clause is past as well. The discussion on aspect is much more complex in the literature on Arabic dialects. Comrie (1976, 3) states that “aspects are different ways of viewing the internal temporal constituency of a situation,” which relates to the internal consistency of the action expressed by the verb.1 In this respect, verbs can express actions seen as either complete or incomplete or as ongoing process. Thus, languages can present three main cross-​linguistic aspectual categories: perfective, imperfective, and perfect (Comrie 1976). “Perfective” indicates a situation viewed in its entirety; that is, the action expressed by the verb is punctual and considered a whole, completed.2 “Imperfective” indicates, on the contrary, an action viewed internally as not completed, “which may be iterative, habitual, or progressive” (Brustad 2000, 172). The “perfect” refers, instead, to a past state relevant to the time frame expressed by the utterance.3 In the data under investigation, these aspects relate to specific morphological verb forms to a certain extent: the perfective aspect is expressed through the suffixed conjugation of the verb (e.g., ketebt “I wrote”; ketebt “you (m.) wrote”; ketebti “you (f.) wrote”), whereas the imperfective is expressed with the prefixed conjugation of the verb (e.g., ektub “I write”; tiktub “you (m.) write”; tikitbī “you (f.) write”). However, the prefixed form of the verb can also express perfectivity in this vernacular in narrative contexts, where main events are set in the past through the perfective, whereas descriptive scenes or habitual events are expressed through the imperfective throughout the narration.4 An additional clarification needs to be made between grammatical (or “formal”) aspect and lexical aspect (also known as Aktionsart5): the former refers to how the

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action expressed by the verb is represented (i.e., as complete, as a punctual event, as a duration or process, or as a resultant state), while the latter refers to the semantic value of a given verb (i.e., punctuality or duration, telic or atelic meaning, stative or dynamic). Verbs can therefore be categorized in stative, motion, and action— mainly according to their semantic values—and each of them will have a different reading when perfectivity or imperfectivity are added to it. Fundamental for a clear understanding of lexical aspect is also Bruce Ingham’s (1994, 89) distinction between “telic” and “atelic” verbs, the former being any action that will lead up to a conclusion and the latter being any action that lacks a definite conclusion. Again, we are concerned with the importance of the meaning of the verb rather than its morphological form. In many Arabic dialects, participles have verbal force, in opposition to those used as adjectives or frozen forms (e.g., lāzim “it is necessary,” “must”). In this respect, the major difference between the AP in CA and in spoken Arabic lies in the correlation between the AP’s morphological form and the categories of tense and aspect.

Active Participle (AP)

In modern Arabic dialects, the AP seems to have a more widespread use with verbal force, if compared to CA and in opposition to its use as a nominal.6 Morphologically speaking, the AP behaves as a nominal form; that is, it is inflected for gender and number but not for persons. In the data collected in al-‘Awābī, the AP of nonderived verbs shows two main patterns: • CāCiC, which has four different forms for gender and number (e.g., MSG kātib “one who writes, writing”; MPL kātibīn “writing”; FSG kātiba “one who writes, writing”; and FPL kātibāt “writing”) • CiCCān7 (e.g., nisyān “forgetting”) Derived verbs, on the other hand, only affix an m- (sometimes followed by an epenthetic vowel) to the imperfective form of the verb (e.g., mṣalli [MSG]/mṣallya [FSG] “praying, one who prays”; munkasir [MSG]/munkasra [FSG] “broken”). The AP is therefore a nominal form that can function as an adjective or a noun (see Eades and Persson 2013), but it also carries some of the characteristics of a verb. For example, it keeps the diathetic properties of the verb base (i.e., transitiveness and intransitiveness) and carries aspectual values. As it concerns the diathetic



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properties (i.e., transitiveness and intransitiveness) of the verb stem from which the AP is derived, this implies that the AP of a transitive verb, for example, can take direct objects suffixed. When a direct object is suffixed to the AP, its pattern can undergo changes. Jonathan Owens (2008, 544) divided Arabic dialects in three main groups concerning the behavior of APs with a direct object suffixed, as follows: • No change. An object suffixed is simply added to the AP + gender/number suffix: kātib-​a + ha = kātiba-​ha “she has written it (FSG)” (< Cairene Arabic). • Feminine –it. The feminine singular takes the construct form -it: kātb-​it-​ ha “she has written it (FSG),” with no further changes (< Eastern Libyan Arabic). • Intrusive -in(n)-. An intrusive -in(n)- is added between the AP and the suffix: kātb-​inn-​uh “he has written it (MSG).” The vernacular under investigation belongs to the last group. Morphosyntactically, the infix in the data is applied to plural APs of both genders. The /n/ of the infix is doubled when the direct object suffix starts with a vowel. Consider examples (4)–(6). (4) haḏā l-​masgid bāna-​yinn-​o DEM.PROX.MSG DEF-​mosque.MSG build.AP.MSG-​IN-​PRON.3MSG l-’imām ben Kāb ’aw ’ibn-​o DEF-​imam ben kaab CONJ son-​PRON.3MSG “This mosque has been built by the Imam Ben Kaab or his son.” [Participant 2] (5) tāyb-​at-​yn-​kum ’ilā l-​madras-​a bring.AP-​FSG-​IN-2MPL to DEF-​school-​FSG “I am bringing you to school.” [Participant 4] (6) muqaṣṣir-​in-​he negligent.AP.MSG-​IN-​PRON.3FSG “He was negligent toward her.” [Participant 1] These examples show that the infix is always compulsory between an AP and a suffixed object pronoun—that is, when the verb is both in its basic (as in 4 and 5) and derived form (as in 6).

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Aspect and Participle When we talk about aspect related to the AP, we are mainly talking about Aktionsart, or “lexical aspect.” One of the main works on this matter concerning the Gulf area is by Domenyk Eades and Maria Persson (2013), who refuse the idea that it is the AP itself that carries the aspectual information; rather, it is the verb stem (where the AP derives from) that carries and contextualizes such information. They report Frederick Oldsjö’s proposal to distinguish between Aktionsart and “situation type” (Eades and Persson 2013, 346): the first being the type of situation expressed by the verb root and the second being the character of the verb within context. Following this distinction, the Aktionsart value of the verb may vary according to the presence of an adjoint word. For example, snow falling is often perceived as a durative event, but a tree falling is perceived as a punctual event. Eades and Persson (2013, 348, transcription adapted) remark the grammatical aspect of the AP as “apparent,” because it “results from a combination of the Aktionsart properties of the verb and the temporal context in which they occur.”8 Thus, the idea is that the aspect of the AP is not related to the AP itself but to the verb base it is derived from. In this section, I demonstrate how the AP in my data can be related to the perfect aspect only for some types of verbs used in specific contexts, thus relating it both to the aspect of the verb form it derives from and to the context in which it is uttered. Hence, we will note that the AP can convey either a perfect or an imperfective aspect and never the perfective one. As mentioned previously, the distinction made by Ingham (1994, 89) in terms of action and state/motion verbs and in telic and atelic (an inherent quality of many Arabic verbs) can help in understanding the role of aspect when it comes to the AP. Brustad (2000, 171) argues that APs of telic state / motion verbs indicate a resultant state, as well as APs of action telic verbs. On the contrary, APs of atelic state / motion verbs give a progressive reading. This is in accordance with the data presented here, where only the AP of action telic verbs conveys a resultant state, thus relating its meaning to the past with respect to the time of the utterance and therefore linking the AP form to the perfect aspect. If we take the same example brought by Brustad (2000, 171) of the verb qarā “to read,” the AP form qārī in my data has only a resultant reading as “having read” (thus indicating a past that has some relevance to the present time of the utterance). In order to give a progressive reading to the AP of this kind of verb (i.e., “reading,” concomitant with the time of the utterance), this variety of Arabic uses a semi-​grammaticalized form of the AP of the verb galis “to sit, stay” (i.e., gālis /gālsa /gālsīn /gālsāt) followed by the prefixed form (hereby, p-​stem) of the verb.9 Consider examples (7)–(8).



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7) gāls-​a ’aqrā l-​qurān taww, ba‘ad ‘ašar sit.AP-​FSG read.1SG DEF-​Qurān now after ten.M daqāyq ’arūḥ ’ilā l-​maṭbāḥ minute.FPL go.1SG to DEF-​kitchen “I am reading the Qurān now, I will go to the kitchen in ten minutes.”10 [Participant 9] (8) gālis ’ašūf ’il-’aḫbār taww sit.AP.MSG see.1SG DEF-​news.PL now “I am watching the news now.” [Participant 3] In both examples (7) and (8), the AP of galis is followed by the p-​stem verb that agrees in gender and number with the subject.11 To some extent, both of these AP forms can be translated “I am sitting and reading the Qur’an” and “I am sitting and watching the news,” respectively, as two simultaneous actions conveying a progressive aspect. The verb šāf is also an action atelic verb, which cannot convey a pro­gressive reading without the AP gālis/gālsa. This AP, as mentioned above, is only partially grammaticalized in this dialect because, unlike other kinds of participial forms that have been completely grammaticalized (e.g., wāgid “many” or lāzim “must”), gālis inflects for gender and number, agreeing with the noun to which it refers. Moreover, forms of gālis as actual AP of the verb galis are frequently attested in Omani Arabic and in the vernacular under investigation as in (9).12 9) gālis waḥd-​ī fī haḏā l-​makān sit.AP.3MSG one-​PRON.1SG in DEM.PROX.MSG DEF-​place.SG “I am sitting here (in this place) by myself.” [Participant 7] In terms of aspect, the AP has also been often described as either “resultative” or “stative.” Brustad (2000, 183) criticizes John Eisele’s (1990) labeling of the participle as exclusively “stative.” Her criticism is based on three main points: first, many verbs of epistemic knowledge are stative (e.g., to know, to believe) and therefore this feature cannot be limited to the participle, but it is inherent in the verb stem; second, copular clauses can also express a state; and finally, it is the resultative feature that allows participles to be associated with the perfect aspect. However, the data shown in this article contradict this. As shown in examples (7) and (8), the AP of galis followed by a p-​stem verb does not always convey a resultative state but also a progressive one. As such, therefore, the AP of this variety of Omani Arabic cannot be

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associated with the perfect aspect when it has a progressive reading but rather with the imperfective one. In the data under investigation, the AP of verbs can have two main readings: either resultant or progressive. This reading depends, on the one hand, on the type of verb involved (i.e., stative, motion, or action) and, on the other hand, on the meaning of the verb in a given context. Consider examples (10)–(11) for motion verbs. (10) sāyir martīn lā l-​mustašfī go.AP.MSG twice.DL to DEF-​hospital.FSG “Having been twice to the hospital.” [Participant 7] (11) rāyḥ-a ’ilā l-​dikkān go.AP-​FSG to DEF-​shop.MSG “I am going to the shop.” [Participant 11] Examples (10) and (11) show two different motion verbs, the former in its telic realization, and the latter in its atelic. In the first case (example 10), the AP sāyir indicates a resultant state: the speaker has already been to the hospital, and he is seeking help in order not to go back there again. In the second case (example 11), the AP rāyḥa conveys a progressive reading relating to the present time of the utterance. In the data, there is no evidence of AP of rāḥ with a resultative meaning.13 In the data collected in al-‘Awābī district, APs of motion verbs tend always to convey a progressive reading. AP forms, such as gāy “to come” and māši “to walk,” in all the cases collected regardless of age, provenance, or level of education of the speaker involved, convey a progressive meaning, as in (12). 12) māšy-​a ’ilā d-​dikkān walk.AP-​FSG to DEF-​shop “I am walking to the shop.” [Participant 5] The only exception to this is the verb sār “to go” in example (11) above. This supports the idea that the aspect of the AP is linked to the aspectual value of the verb itself and to its semantics within the context of the utterance rather than to the participial form itself. Time Reference and Participle Holes (1990, 189) states that the participle is a tenseless form that does not signal any particular time reference. Usually the temporal value of the AP relates to the time of



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the utterance and refers “to actions and events that have taken place, are taking place or will take place in the future” (Brustad 2000, 162). In some instances the AP seems to define a completed event, and at others it states a continuous activity. The ambiguity lies in the fact that there is a tendency to add a temporal status to the AP, whereas it is not the participial form itself to express these temporal/aspectual values but rather its Aktionsart and the context of the utterance (see Eades and Persson 2013, 345). In their analysis of Gulf and Omani (Šarqiyya) Arabic, Eades and Persson (2013) show that APs derived from state verbs carry an adjectival meaning, not indicating any time frame. In all other cases, it is assumed that the AP has a present time value. In the present data, the AP is of common occurrence in everyday speech and narrative discourse. It is used with a different variety of time values (i.e., past, present, and future), but, as is shown in the following examples, some of these time references are valid only if the AP is accompanied by a temporal adverb, thus depending on the time frame of the whole clause. The main use of the AP in the data appears to be in a present time reference—albeit it can be used in past contexts, especially in narrations. In this context, it usually expresses an ongoing action in reference to the utterance time. Consider examples (13)–(16). (13) ’in-​naḫīl kibār w-​šweyya min-​hin DEF-​palms.FPL big.PL CONJ-​a few among-​PRON.3FPL ‘ āyš-​āt live.AP-​FPL “The palms are old and only a few of them are surviving.” [Participant 10] (14) šūfti-​he ḥāml-​a ġaršet ’el-‘aṣīr saw.1SG-​PRON.3FSG carry.AP-​FSG bottle.FSG DEF-​juice “I saw her carrying a bottle of juice.” [Participant 9] (15) ’anā gāy-​a lēn masqaṭ PRON.1SG go.AP.FSG to Muscat “I am going to Muscat.” [Participant 3] (16) ’anā ʿāyš-​a ‘ind ’umm-​ī PRON.1SG live.AP-​FSG around mother.FSG-​PRON.1SG w-ḫt-​ī CONJ-​sister.FSG-​PRON.1SG “I was living with my mother and my sister.” [Participant 2]

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In example (14), the AP is behaving as a normal adjective, agreeing in gender and number with the noun to which it refers (i.e., the suffixed pronoun -he). In example (16), the speaker was talking about her past life, but the use of the AP indicates a habitual situation with respect to the past point of reference, which was set at the beginning of the narration with the suffixed form of a verb. As Holes (2016, 247) also notes for Baḥārna dialects, “in a narrative, as here, the AP provides background to the main story-​line but does not take it forward.” Once the past time reference is settled at the beginning of the narration, it is common to use the AP even without repeating the auxiliary kān. However, in case the AP is the main verb of the clause and at the beginning of the narration or “the resultative state of the participle is not relevant to the moment of speech” (Brustad 2000: 226), it can be preceded by the auxiliary kān to indicate anteriority or specify past time reference, as in (17).14 (17) kān riggāl ḫāyf bi-​sabab l-​ginn, ’illi was.3MSG man.MSG fear.AP.MSG because of DEF-g​ inn REL kān yḥāwil yḍa‘af ’imān-​o was.3MSG try.3MSG weaken.3MSG faith-​PRON.3MSG “The man was scared by the ginn, which was trying to weaken his faith.” [Participant 2] Another use of the AP is future time reference, even though it is not of common occurrence, and in the data there are only a few examples with motion verbs, as in (18)–(20). (18) ’il-​ban-​āt gāy-​āt bukra DEF-​girl-​FPL go.AP-​FPL tomorrow “The girls will arrive (are arriving) tomorrow.” [Participant 6] (19)

’il-​bīdār gāyb15 ’el-​suḥḥ fī-​l-‘aṣr DEF.farmer.MSG bring.AP.MSG DEF-​date.PL in-​DEF-​afternoon “The farmer will bring (is bringing) the dates in the afternoon.” [Participant 10]

(20) gāyb-​a l-​awlād lā l-​duktūr bukra bring.AP-​FSG DEF-​child.MPL to DEF-​doctor tomorrow “I will bring the kids to the doctor tomorrow.” [Participant 9] These examples only provide evidence of APs of motion verbs in a future time context, although accompanied by temporal adverbs. In both (18) and (19), the



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future time reference expressed is planned; there is a certainty that the future event will happen. In (18), for example, the girls are in the state of arriving at some point the day after. Clause (20) could also be translated as “I am bringing the kids to the doctor tomorrow,” indicating a state planned (presumably because the speaker took an appointment with the doctor). Usually an AP in this context is always accompanied by a temporal adverb like bukra “tomorrow,” ’il-’usbūʿ ’il-​qādim or ’il-​gāy “next week.” The Case of bāġī /bāyā The use of APs of stative verbs, in the data, like bġī and its feminine counterpart bayā “to want,” is an interesting case that is worth mentioning in this section. The use of participial forms of these two types of stative verbs are not always common. Ingham (1994, 93), for example, classifies bġī as a dynamic atelic verb since in Najdi Arabic it cannot be used as an AP. In al-‘Awābī district vernacular, on the contrary, the AP forms bāġī and bāya are very common and, most importantly, represent the only difference in speech based on the gender of the speaker. The form bāya “wanting,” used exclusively by women, lacks a complete verbal conjugation and can only be used in the contexts where the AP is acceptable, whereas the verb bġī has s-​stem (i.e., suffixed) and p-​stem forms (i.e., bġī /yibġa). The time reference expressed by the AP bāya is usually present, as in (21)–(22). (21) wāgid bāya ’arūḥ ma‘-kin bas ’il-​yōm much want.AP.FSG go.1SG with-​PRON.2FPL but DEF-​day.FSG mašġūla min ’el-‘aṣr lēn ’is-​sā‘-at ‘ašar busy.PP from DEF-​afternoon until DEF-​hour-​FSG ten.M ’il-​masā DEF-​evening “I really want to go with you, but today I am busy in the afternoon until 10 pm.” [Participant 11] (22) bāya duwā wa mā ’arūm ’arūḥ ’ilā want.AP.FSG medicine.FSG CONJ. NEG. can.1SG go.1SG to ṣ-ṣaydilīyy-​a DEF-​pharmacy-​FSG “I need a medicine, but I cannot go to the pharmacy.” [Participant 6] In both (21) and (22), the AP indicates a strong desire or a need for something. It expresses a state of wanting simultaneous to the utterance time. In examples (23)– (24), bāya is used to express a wish, equivalent to the English “would like.”

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(23) bāya ’azūr ṣalāla want.AP.FSG visit.1SG ṣalāla “I would like to visit Ṣalāla.” [Participant 12] (24) bāya ’arūḥ wa mā šey siyyāra want.AP.FSG go.1SG CONJ. NEG. EXIST. car.FSG “I would like to go, but there is no car.” [Participant 9] The AP bāya can be used only in the contexts mentioned above. Consider example (25). (25) trīd-​ī qahwa ? Lā, mā bāya want-2FSG coffee NEG. NEG. want.AP.FSG “Do you want coffee? No, I don’t want it.” [Participant 5] In the question trīdī qahwa, “want” is expressed with a different verb (i.e., ’arād/ yurīd), especially because bāya does not inflect and therefore does not have a 2FSG form. It is acceptable using the same verb in the answer as well (e.g., lā, mā ’arīd), but the use of the AP bāya is much more common and, according to my participants, peculiar to this district vernacular. The AP bāġī behaves in the same way, and it is only used by men, as in examples (26)–(27).16 (26) turīd ‘īš ? lā, mā bāġī want.2MSG rice NEG. NEG. want.AP.MSG “Do you want rice? No, I don’t want it.” (27) bāġī ’arūḥ ’ilā want.AP.MSG go.1SG to “I want to go to the shop.”

d-​dikkān DEF-​shop

In contrast with bayā, the verb baġā shows a verbal conjugation, and it can be used both as s-​stem and p-​stem, as in examples (28)–(29). (28) qāl haḏī ṣaġīra, mā ’abġ-​ha said.3MSG DEM.PROX.FSG small.FSG NEG. want.1SG-​PRON.3FSG “He said, ‘She is young, I don’t want her.’ ” [Participant 1]



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(29) ’anā mā ’abġ-​ak PRON.1SG NEG. want.1SG-​PRON.2MSG w-ṭallaq-​nī CONJ-​divorce.IMP-​PRON.1SG “I don’t want you, divorce me!” [Participant 2] The conjugated verb baġā can be used, as shown in (28) and (29), both by men and women, alongside the use of the verb ’arād (e.g., ’anā mā ’arīd-​iš “I don’t want you [FSG]”). Thus, it seems from the data that the gender distinction in speakers is valid only for the participial forms of these verbs. Further Remarks on the AP The last category of AP analyzed in this section is some “frozen” forms attested throughout the Arabic-​speaking world and in CA, used as either adjectives or adverbs. Forms like dāḫil “inside,” ḫārig “outside,” wāgid “many/much,” and qādim “next/following” are of common occurrence in the data and work mainly as adverbs, as in examples (30)–(31). (30) ḫārig ’er-​rīḥ qawīyya giddān outside DEF-​wind.FSG strong.FSG very “Outside the wind is very strong.” [Participant 7] (31) ’ēn māmā ? dāḫil where mother inside “Where is mum? Inside.” [Participant 3] The AP form gāy is also used instead of qādim to mean “following/coming,” as in ’il-‘ām ’il-​gāy or ’es-​sana l-​gāya “next year.” However, gāy cannot be counted as a grammaticalized form since it inflects for gender and number, and it is commonly used as AP of the verb gā “to go,” as in (32).17 (32) ’anā gāya ma‘-kin PRON.1SG go.AP.FSG with-​PRON.2FPL “I am coming with you.” [Participant 4] A fully grammaticalized AP form is lāzim “to be necessary/must,” used as a modal verb (i.e., “ought to/should/must/have to”). Consider examples (33)–(34).

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(33) lāzim yarga‘ marra ṯanya l-​balād necessary.AP go back.3MSG time second.F DEF-​village.FSG w-​yinām fī-​l-‘awābī CONJ-​sleep.3MSG in-​DEF-ʿawābī “One should go back again and sleep in al-ʿAwābī.” [Participant 1]18 (34) lāzim ’aḫalliṣ haḏā necessary.AP finish.1SG DEM.PROX.MSG “I must finish this book.” [Participant 7]

l-​kitāb DEF-​book.MSG

Lāzim is an impersonal modal expression, an old AP form grammaticalized in CA. It does not conjugate, but the p-​stem verb that follows it carries the grammatical functions (i.e., person, number, and gender) specified in the sentence.19 In example (33), the sentence has an impersonal subject, expressed with the third-​person masculine singular. In example (34), on the contrary, the subject of the sentence is the first-​person singular and it is carried by the p-​stem verb ’aḫalliṣ. Finally, the AP forms bāqī/bāqīn “remaining” are not entirely grammaticalized forms, but they are commonly used in the everyday speech of my participants, as in example (35). (35) ’anā gubt tisa‘a ’awlād, ṯnīne māt-​ō PRON.1SG was given.1SG nine.F child.MPL two.F died.3MPL w-bāqīn sba‘a CONJ-​remain.AP.MPL seven.F “I had nine children, two died and remained seven.” [Participant 2]

Passive Participle (PP)

The PP in the data behaves grammatically as an adjective, agreeing in gender and number with the noun to which it refers. Moreover, as with the AP, the PP does not have inherent time reference, and it “describes the state of an entity consequent to an action performed upon it” (Holes 2016, 261, italics original). The PP of strong verbs follows the pattern maCCūC (e.g., masmūḥ “allowed,” ma‘rūf “known.” Geminate and weak verbs show the pattern mCaCCi (e.g., msawwi “made” and mabġī “desired”), as in examples (36)–(37).



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(36) mamnū‘ ḥad yṭla‘ min ’el-​bēt prevent.PP.MSG person leave.3MSG from DEF-h​ ouse “No one was allowed to leave the house.” [Participant 1] (37) qāl-​ha ’anā mā ’arīd-​iš, said.3MSG-​PRON.3FSG PRON.1SG NEG. want.1SG-​PRON.2FSG ntī magnūn-​a PRON.2SG crazy.PP-​FSG “He said to her, ‘I don’t want you, you are crazy.’ ” [Participant 1] The PP is often used instead of a passive form of the verb to express the passive voice, especially because the apophonic passive (i.e., the alteration of the basic active voice of the verb through a different vocalic pattern to express passivity) is recessing in the dialect under investigation. It is worth mentioning here that verbs of Form VII, which usually express a passivation of the basic form, do not present a PP but only an AP that has a passive value, as in example (38). (38) ḏelēn ’el-​fanāgīn munkisir-​īn DEM.PROX.MPL DEF-​coffee cup.PL broken.AP-​MPL “These coffee cups are broken.” [Participant 5] Another function expressed by the PP in this vernacular is the existentiality: mawgūd (MSG)/mawgūd-​a (FSG) can occur to express presence or existence, as in examples (39)–(40). (39) hīya mawgūd-​a PRON.3FSG exist.PP-​FSG “She is alive.” [Participant 11] (40) mā mawgūd ’iš-​šuwāra‘ NEG. exist.PP.MSG DEF-​road.PL “There were no roads.” [Participant 2] In (39), the PP expresses the physical existence of a person (as opposed to the death), whereas in (40) the meaning of the clause indicates that roads did not exist at that time.

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Conclusion

A few conclusions emerge from the data presented. First, the AP is a common occurrence in al-‘Awābī district vernacular, regardless of gender, level of education, age, or provenance of the speaker, and it conveys different aspectual and temporal values. Regarding the question of aspect related to the AP, it has been shown how the aspectual value is either perfect or imperfectivity—but never perfectivity—and it is not inherent in the AP form itself but rather to the semantic values of the verb stem that the AP is derived from and the context of the utterance. Moreover, we saw that it is possible in this vernacular to give a progressive reading to the AP of atelic action verbs using the AP gālis/gālsa + p-​stem, this being also evidence of the only static atelic verb with an active participial form, not exclusively with a resultative reading. Second, we saw how bāġī and bāya are the only two participial forms that are used distinctively by men and women merely on the basis of the speaker’s gender and how these forms are rare examples of productively used APs for atelic stative verbs. Third, regarding the time reference expressed by the participial forms, this study demonstrates how the AP only has a present value with respect to the time of the utterance. However, in narrative contexts where the time has been set at the beginning of the narration, the AP can be used to express present situations regarding the time of the narration rather than the time of the utterance. As for the future, finally, it has been shown that the AP only has a future time reference if accompanied by a temporal adverb expressing futurity (e.g., bukra “tomorrow”). This article also presents a brief overview of the PP, which is the most common means of expression of passivity in the dialect since the apophonic passive is recessing and is still used only in specific contexts such as description of processes. Tentatively, based on the data collected in al-‘Awābī district and presented in this article, it seems that the PP does not carry any aspectual value or time reference, conveying only a passivity function. Notes 1. The main difference between tense and aspect has been synthetized by Comrie (1976, 5) this way: “One could state the difference as one between situation-​internal time (aspect) and situation-​external time (tense).” 2. On this, Comrie (1976, 18) argues, “The use of ‘completed,’ however, puts too much emphasis on the termination of the situation, whereas the use of the perfective puts no more emphasis, necessarily, on the end of a situation than on any other part of the situation, rather all parts of the situation are presented as a single whole.”



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3. Brustad (2000, 173) emphasizes the difference between the concepts of “perfect” and “perfectivity,” citing Comrie (1976): the former designates “a past situation which has present relevance,” while the latter “denotes a situation viewed in its entirety, without regard to internal temporal constituency.” 4. This is consistent with Brustad’s (2000, 187–88) description of the “foregrounding and backgrounding” strategy used in narrative contexts by speakers of Arabic. 5. From the German for “kind or type of action,” Aktionsart expresses different types of situations through lexical items. It is the “lexical aspectual properties of the verb” (Eades and Persson 2013, 345). 6. See Holes (2016) for Baḥārna dialects of Bahrain and Brustad (2000), Owens (2008), and Qafisheh (1977) for Gulf Arabic. 7. There are not many evidences of this pattern in my data, although it seems to be peculiar of some weak verbs. 8. “Grammatical aspect is distinguished from tense by the fact that tense indicates distance in relation to the time of the utterance, whereas aspect refers to the temporal flow of a state of affairs regardless of when it occurs in relation to the time of the utterance” (Eades and Persson 2013, 347). 9. Grammaticalization is the phenomenon by which words representing objects or actions (i.e., nouns and verbs) further develop as grammatical markers. The use of gālis as a marker of continuous aspect is well known in the Gulf area as well as in other Arabic dialects (see Caubet 1991 for North African dialects). 10. In this example, the word “Qurān” is transcribed without the glottal stop according to the pronunciation of my participants. As a matter of fact, in the Arabic variety spoken in the district of al-‘Awābī, the glottal stop in medial position lengthens. 11. There are also examples in Omani Arabic, but not in my data, of the AP gālis followed by another AP to convey a continuous state (see Bettega 2016). 12. In this regard, many other examples have been provided in Bettega (2016), who analyzes the language of an Omani cartoon series called Yōm w-​yōm. 13. This is also noted by Brustad (2000, 170), who confirms that the verb rāḥ “cannot give a resultant meaning in some dialects.” 14. Reinhardt (1894, 150) states that the construction kān followed by an AP expresses the anterior future (i.e., “it will be gone by now”), but evidence of this has not been found in present-​ day speech of my participants. 15. In this variety of Omani Arabic, the verbs tayb and gayb—formed by affixing tā + bi- and gā + bi-, respectively—seem to be at times interchangeable, meaning “to bring,” and at others in contrast, tayb is used to mean “to bring” and gayb to mean “to give.” 16. Both examples (25) and (26) have been elicited with a male speaker aged thirty-​two from Stāl in Wādī Banī Kharūṣ, who was university-​educated, and another one, illiterate, aged about fifty-​five from al-‘Awābī, both belonging to the al-​Kharūṣī tribe. 17. See also example 17 above. 18. In the data, a verb with an impersonal subject is often realized as 3MSG, as in this example. 19. Lāzim can also be in nominal constructions—that is, with no verb involved, as in: lāzim qabil ’il-​maġrib “it was necessary before the sunset” [Participant 1]. However, there are only two examples of this construction in my data.

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References Bettega, S. 2016. “Syntactic Issues in Modern Omani Arabic.” PhD thesis, University of Turin, Turin, Italy. Brustad, Kristen. 2000. The Syntax of Spoken Arabic: A Comparative Study of Moroccan, Egyptian, Syrian, and Kuwaiti Dialects. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. Caubet, Dominique. 1991. “The Active Participle as a Means to Renew the Aspectual System: A Comparative Study in Several Dialects of Arabic.” In Semitic Studies: In Honor of Wolf Leslau on the Occasion of His 85th Birthday, vol. 2, edited by Alan S. Kaye, 209–24. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect: An Introduction to the Study of Verbal Aspect and Related Problems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ———. 1985. Tense. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Eades, Domenyk, and Maria Persson. 2013. “Aktionsart, Word Form and Context: On the Use of the Active Participle in Gulf Arabic Dialects.” Journal of Semitic Studies 53, no. 2: 343–67. Eisele, John C. 1990. “Time Reference, Tense, and Formal Aspect in Cairene Arabic.” In Perspective on Arabic Linguistics, edited by Mushira Eid, 173–212. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Holes, Clive. 1990. Gulf Arabic. London: Routledge. ———. 2004. Modern Arabic: Structures, Functions and Varieties. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. ——. 2016. Dialect, Culture, & Society in Eastern Arabia. Vol. 3, Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Style. Leiden: Brill. Ingham, Bruce. 1994. Najdi Arabic: Central Arabian. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Owens, Jonathan. 2008. “Participle.” In Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, vol. 3, edited by Kees Versteegh, Mushira Eid, Alaa Elgibali, Manfred Woidich, and Andrzej Zaborski, 541–46. Leiden: Brill. Qafisheh, Hamdi A. 1977. A Short Reference Grammar of Gulf Arabic. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press. Reinhardt, Carl. 1894. Ein Arabischer Dialekt Gesprochen in ‘Oman und Zanzibar. Lehrbücher des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen zu Berlin. 13. Stuttgart-​Berlin: W. Spemann.

REVIEW

Introduction to Spoken Standard Arabic: A Conversational Course on DVD, Part 2 Shukri B. Abed and Arwa Sawan New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013. xxix + 506 pp., glossary, index. ISBN: 9780300159042. Paperback, $40.00. Reviewed by Sara Al Tubuly, Al Maktoum College of Higher Education

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earning to speak and communicate in a foreign language is a vital skill in the language-​learning process. Most language teachers will dedicate considerable time in developing this skill in their students. Introduction to Spoken Standard Arabic by Shukri B. Abed with Arwa Sawan is a conversational course at the intermediate level. It provides materials for instructors to develop their students’ ability to understand and interpret facts and thoughts as well as to express opinions and views in both oral and written forms of language in a range of social, intercultural, educational, and political contexts. The book, which is the second of two volumes, begins at the low-​intermediate level (lessons 1 and 2) and extends to the high-​intermediate level (lessons 9 and 10). It introduces students to various conversational and structural aspects of Arabic using a variety that lies between the standard and the various Arabic dialects, termed by the authors the “third way” of communication. For example, case endings are not always used, and some colloquial expressions are occasionally embedded in the dialogues, interviews, and talks. Although the problems associated with integrating standard Arabic with the various dialects have not been solved, at least a simplified medium has been adopted. Furthermore, it is important for learners to notice this variety and increase their communicative range. Al-‘Arabiyya, 53 (2020), 129–131

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This book is composed of ten lessons (chapters). They present a range of themes and abstract topics appropriate to the intermediate level. Each lesson is composed of subtopics related to the theme of the lesson. The topics are practical and target real-​life situations: “my city, my country, a story in my life, my job, teaching and educational institutions, studying the Arabic language, studying in America, Arabs and Westerners, religions and holy places, and finally, celebrations, traditions and customs.” Within each lesson there are two primary types of exercises in the form of questions and answers. The first (segment exercise) focuses on the content of each subtopic, and the second (lesson exercise) focuses on the overall content of the topic. In segment exercises, learners are required to activate some items located in boxes in useful phrases and answer the questions orally as well as in writing. Lesson exercises contain supplemental speaking, reading, listening, or writing activity. These lesson exercises help learners interact with topics, stimulate discussions, and develop oral skills. Each lesson begins with a grammatical and structural section that presents some grammatical aspects and polishes particular linguistic skills, followed by the transcript of the segment. Each lesson ends with a list of topic-​specific vocabulary terms and occasionally phrases and idioms from the chapter with English translations to facilitate the process of learning through context. Moreover, the supplementary list of vocabulary items allows students to obtain a deeper understanding of the content. One of the advantages of this book is that it advances speaking skills through the development of other language skills. After attempting the filmed clips and completing speaking activities, the leaners can benefit from writing or reading exercises. As an Arabic language instructor and linguist, I believe the grammatical sections, vocabulary lists, and English-​to-​Arabic and Arabic-​to-​English glossaries, in addition to the classes of verbs, are highly useful in supporting students’ work and facilitating their learning. The authors have clearly endeavored to clarify possible difficulties and complexities such as unfamiliar expressions, slips from the segments, and differences between standard Arabic and the dialects. This has been achieved by adding footnotes as needed and writing any missing expressions from the segments between angle brackets < > in the transcripts to avoid confusion. The book comes with a DVD that includes eighty segments of high-​quality filmed clips of authentic Arabic spoken at different speeds with various expressions and featuring a diverse group of native speakers from across the Arab world as well as nonnative speakers. I believe this will greatly assist learners to familiarize themselves



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with different styles of conversation about educational, intercultural, and religious aspects in societies, both Eastern and Western. Another merit is the cultural content throughout the book, which raises learners’ awareness of deep culture, such as feelings, attitudes, beliefs, and ideas that cannot easily be understood. Moreover, it shares success stories and learning experiences of the Arabic language from learners’ perspectives. I applaud the authors for preserving natural speech in which the speakers choose their own words. The authors have adopted the oral-​aural approach in this book. Furthermore, they have introduced different methods for using the segment transcripts. However, to be able to follow this approach and use transcripts as supplements only, it would be preferable to move the location of the transcripts to the end of the book to ensure that they are not used as reading texts but rather as a complement. It would be challenging for learners not to check the transcript until after completing the speaking activity. Some supplemental listening activities have no transcripts in the book; grammar and vocabulary lists have no corresponding sections in the DVD. My own experience suggests that students greatly appreciate listening to the pronunciation of vocabulary in order to learn them accurately. Therefore, adding lists of vocabulary terms to the DVD would facilitate learning and be a welcome addition to the book. Another recommendation is to number the questions written in Arabic in the segment exercises as well as the lesson exercises. This would help the instructor to navigate between questions and guarantee that all students are following without confusion. Furthermore, it would be more stimulating to avoid close-​ended questions or combine them with open-​ended questions. Most speaking exercises follow the same approach, which might make certain activities somewhat repetitive. Also, a few questions are written in English; it would be better if English text were replaced by Arabic for students at this level. In conclusion, the book is extremely useful for Arabic instructors as a supplementary teaching tool. It is easy to use and can act as a guide for self-​study given the range of segments, questions, useful vocabulary lists, and glossaries. Furthermore, it facilitates learning other skills such as reading, listening, and writing.

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REVIEW

Kalima wa Nagham: A Textbook for Teaching Arabic, Volume 2 Ghazi M. Abuhakema and Nasser M. Isleem University of Texas Press, 2016. 538 pp. ISBN: 978-1477309438. Paperback, $45.00. Reviewed by Youness Mountaki, Wofford College

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alima wa Nagham: A Textbook for Teaching Arabic, Volume 2, is an Arabic textbook designed for teaching Arabic to second-​year learners. The book is written by Ghazi M. Abuhakema and Nasser M. Isleem, whose varied and extensive experience with teaching Arabic facilitated their task to design this Arabic textbook with a multipronged approach and a creative methodology. The book is well structured and accessible to language learners of Arabic, and it responds to the needs of both teachers and students. The book consists of twelve lessons that are all user-​friendly for both students and teachers. Each lesson follows the same pattern. With careful organization, each lesson is divided into sections, taking into account the necessity of incorporating same theme-​based content and a context that derives from ACTFL proficiency guidelines. The wording in the book introduction matches clearly to the organization of the content throughout and within the lessons. Each lesson includes a fairly equal amount of materials that incorporate all language skills: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. The authors ensure consistency in implementing the main vocabulary and chapter theme in the reading materials and the listening activities. Equally important, the authors incorporate activities that help students build up their speaking and writing skills. To illustrate, students are presented with effective speaking activities that Al-‘Arabiyya, 53 (2020), 133–135

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impel them to talk and discuss concepts while applying them to their daily real-​life situations. I cannot think of a more enjoyable learning activity than listening to Arabic music and songs. Here I would like to applaud the authors for their consistent use of theme-​related songs and music in every lesson of the book and for making the format so flexible, which allows for formulating and creating activities that fit teachers and students’ needs. Most of the songs are authentic (designed for native speakers to consume in a real-​life environment) and are appropriate for their context and linguistic level. An examination of the book suggests that it relies heavily on output-​based activities (transformational, mechanical, meaningful, and communicative drills) as compared to input-​based activities, which are employed less frequently throughout the lessons (mainly used in the listening sections). Thus, it would be more beneficial if the book employed an equal or slightly equal number of input-​based and output-​ based activities. The rationale behind my suggestion derives primarily from research conducted in the context of processing instruction and its role in altering the way learners acquire grammar. Yet it is evident that the book stands out when compared to other Arabic textbooks on the market. The book presents fairly clear metalinguistic information about the targeted grammatical features and concepts like the construct phrase Iḍāfa and integrates helpful information about processing strategies in a logical manner and in a way that does not overwhelm the learners. Those strategies are illustrated with the use of attention-​calling expressions such as “a word of caution.” Similarly, the section “Cultural and Linguistic Remarks” follows this pattern and thus provides ample opportunities for learners to familiarize themselves with the targeted information. However, there is room for improvement; for example, to maximize the grasp of the grammatical concepts and features, the authors could have modified the appearance of some grammatical structures through the incorporation of visual input enhancement such as underlining, bolding, and coloring to draw more attention and add an aesthetic value to the items. One of the many components I really appreciate about the book is its partial incorporation of the dialect, thus giving more attention and focus to the teaching of the Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). For a language like Arabic with a diglossic aspect, I think that foundation in MSA at the early levels is very important because it eventually functions as a base on which students can build their learning of any dialects later on. More specifically, even learning vocabulary of one single dialect, as  Mohammad  T. Alhawary (2013) notes, involves many aspects of knowledge that makes it less efficient at an early stage because a working knowledge of the L2



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language systems have not yet been developed by the learner. Besides, the approach of having students study MSA first and dialects at later stages is the most common approach of Arabic instruction today (Eisele 2018). All in all, Kalima wa Nagham, Volume 2, is one of the Arabic textbooks that adopts innovative approaches to their methodology and content design to fit the needs of an increasing demand from both teachers and learners. The strength of the book derives from the understanding of the needs of both teachers and students. Although the book makes a solid Arabic resource for learners, it can easily be supplemented with other available resources including existing textbooks and materials designed by teachers themselves. A user-​friendly companion website could be a good addition to the book.

References Alhawary, Mohammad T. 2013. “Arabic Second Language Research and Second Language Teaching: What the Teacher, Textbook Writer, and Tester Need to Know.” Al-‘Arabiyya 46:23–35. Eisele, John. 2018. “One Path or Multiple Paths: Munther Younes on the Integrated Approach to Arabic Instruction.” Al-‘Arabiyya 51:1–24.

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REVIEW

Mahmud Sami al-​Barudi: Reconfiguring Society and the Self Terri DeYoung Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2015. xi + 416 pp., notes, references, index. ISBN: 9780815633914 Paperback, $49.95. Reviewed by Archana Prakash, University of California, Berkeley

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erri DeYoung’s latest book provides in-​depth analysis and unprecedented English translations of the poetry of the Egyptian literary luminary and seminal political figure Mahmud Sami al-​Barudi (1839–1904) within a historically grounded biographical approach. Al-​Barudi is recognized as a founder in the development of modern Arabic literature in general and the neoclassical, modernist, and reformist trends in Arabic poetry more specifically. DeYoung’s book adds to this understanding by illuminating the ways in which al-​Barudi’s intellectual, political, cultural, and social frames of reference inform his poetry. By doing so, the work provides a critical reassessment of al-​Barudi’s work that situates his literary contributions not merely as a forerunner of the more recent trend of Romanticism or as confined to the classical style. Rather, DeYoung argues that al-​Barudi’s poems are evocative of the transformation of Arab and Egyptian identity in the watershed of Egypt’s transition from an independently ruled Ottoman province to a British protectorate in the late nineteenth century. Reconfiguring Society and the Self attempts to bridge a divide between scholarship that explores al-​Barudi’s political stature and studies that take a critical literary approach to his corpus. DeYoung’s method is informed by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s theorizing of the cultural field and specifically his notion that “literature Al-‘Arabiyya, 53 (2020), 137–139

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[is] . . . the aspect of culture where relations between individuals (and the social networks they inhabit) are most flexible, yet at the same time are governed by a strict set of rules that (often invisibly) guide the actions of the participants” (2). Her use of Bourdieu in this context breaks new ground by placing al-​Barudi and his poetry in the historical moment within which both were produced. Al-​Barudi was Egypt’s first independent prime minister in the 1880s, having played a critical role in the 1882 ‘Urabi revolution and subsequently having been exiled to Ceylon (modern-​day Sri Lanka) for his actions. In post–World War II reimaginings of Arab national identity, al-​Barudi claims a hallowed place as a rebellious hero who fought for the freedom of his country. DeYoung recognizes that in literary histories, this context is often underexplored in relation to al-​Barudi’s poetic contributions. This work provides a much-​needed addition to the scholarship on the development of modern Arabic literature, particularly in its attention to how literary pursuits are inextricably linked to formations of modern Arab identity. As DeYoung puts it, “al-​Barudi represents a convenient but essential starting point for inquiry into not only how modern Arabic poetry became modern but also how modern Arab politics became, first, a locus for examining questions of identity and how the individual should relate to the collective, and second, a place of frustration for aspirations of selfhood” (25). DeYoung’s biographical study consists of an introduction and seven chapters, which unfold in a linear and chronological fashion. This choice enhances the organizational clarity of a work that ambitiously pulls together al-​Barudi’s personal, professional, and literary personas, although it detracts from following through on her argumentative stance regarding the relationship of cultural production to identity formation, especially in its lack of a concluding chapter. In the introduction, DeYoung delineates the shifting focus on al-​Barudi vis-​à-​vis his literary reception and historical importance in previous scholarship. She acknowledges the strides in historical studies on Egypt in this period that, together with the publication of al-​Barudi’s poetry since the 1960s, make her research possible. The following chapters map al-​Barudi’s life to his poetry, beginning with his upbringing, his education, and his first posting in Istanbul. Of particular interest to this historian of Egyptian education was DeYoung’s accounting of the contingent factors that led al-​Barudi to be educated not at the religious institution of Al-​A zhar like some of his older relatives but in the scaled-​back government military academies following Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali Pasha’s death in 1849. She presents a comprehensive intellectual genealogy of al-​Barudi, accounting for all possible influences on his work. To this end she relates the impact of the educational philosophies of reformers like Rifā‘a al-Ṭahṭāwī and Alī Mubārak Pāsha, who married traditional methods of teaching Arabic with European-​modeled curriculum, on al-​Barudi’s exposure to classical



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pre-​Islamic and Islamic verse as a student. This is convincingly tied to early excerpts of his poetry, in particular his emulations of pre-​Islamic poetry in his elegy to his father. The remaining chapters cover his family life and career as a military officer, leading to postings in France, England, and Crete; his years as a government minister holding various positions under Khedive Ismail and his son Tawfīq, which culminated in exile in Ceylon (1883–99); and his final years in Egypt before his death in 1904. The chapters that relate his military service in Crete (1866–67) and the years leading up to his prime ministership of Egypt during the ‘Urabi revolution cover new historical ground in English language scholarship on al-​Barudi. However, these later chapters are less conclusive in their juxtaposition of al-​Barudi’s poetry with the events and circumstances of his life. The extant biographical record, which DeYoung largely draws from al-​Hadīdī’s 1969 biography of the poet, has left little to corroborate the details of his personal relationships. Further, the information used to date certain poems is also inconclusive, leaving DeYoung’s analysis speculative in many instances. What is novel about DeYoung’s approach is her attention to how historical context and lived experience shaped al-​Barudi’s literary outlook while in turn suggesting that his poetry can be mined as a historical source to understanding the social, political, and cultural milieu of al-​Barudi’s time. Her work is thorough yet careful to acknowledge the aforementioned limitations of this cultural approach to history. Perhaps the greatest contribution of her work is her translations of al-​Barudi’s trendsetting poetry into English, making this invaluable primary source on nineteenth-​century Egypt and the development of modern Arabic poetry available to readers not fluent in Arabic. Al-​Barudi’s poems, set against the sweeping history of Egypt in a time of political and cultural transformation, are worthy of a wide readership. At the very least, this book will no doubt be a beneficial addition to any course meditating on the development of modern Egypt, the greater Middle East, and Arabic literature in general.

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REVIEW

The Revolt of the Young: Essays by Tawfiq al-​Hakim Translated by Mona Radwan Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2015. xxii + 152 pp., notes, references, index. ISBN: 9780815633686. Hardback, $24.95. Reviewed by Wanis Shalaby, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

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awfiq al-​Hakim (October 9, 1898–July 26, 1987) was a prominent Egyptian writer and a visionary. He authored more than seventy plays, eleven novels, and twenty-​five collections of essays. Nonetheless, his most significant contribution was in the realm of theater. His book The Revolt of the Young, as Roger Allen succinctly puts it, “presents to its readers a voice from the past, one that seeks to offer comment and counsel to present generations of Egyptians in all their variety” (foreword, xii). Mona Radwan, translator of The Revolt of the Young, explains that “by the time the January 25 Revolution (2011) took place in Egypt, I had already finished translating the book but was even keener on editing it and looking for a publisher” (xix). The book deserved to be available in English for those who are interested in Arabic literature. She believed, and I agree, “this book deserves to be in the limelight as it predicts the revolt of the Egyptian and the American people socially and culturally, if not politically, in the twenty-​first century” (xx). Not only did The Revolt of the Young foresee the Arab Spring but it also continues to serve as a universal reference to the rebellious nature of the youth all over the world, from U.S. opposition to the Vietnam War to the Wall Street sit-​ins and France’s housing unrest. As Mona Radwan succinctly puts it, “his book inspires” (xxii). Al-‘Arabiyya, 53 (2020), 141–142

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In her English rendition of The Revolt of the Young, Radwan effectively dealt with al-​Hakim’s elevated and abstruse classical Arabic. To do so, she rid the target text of the many ellipses that al-​Hakim used either to signify pondering or in place of commas. Further, she also eliminated from the target text many of the exclamation marks that al-​Hakim used so profusely. Additionally, al-​Hakim’s erudite style necessitated in the source text the inclusion of a myriad of cultural allusions to Western, Asian, and Arab works and writers. However, al-​Hakim almost never cites the sources and rarely mentions the names of the writers fully. Nor did his source text include a bibliography. This required Radwan to insert many explanatory footnotes and add the years of publication of said referenced works. She did this while keeping citations in the same manner al-​Hakim wrote them to make her translation “more reader friendly” (xxi). Clearly, Radwan’s translation has brought the author home (Venuti 1995, 20) to the English readership. Overall, it is both domesticated and transparent. Nonetheless, her translation seems to be best suited for the British readership. This is clearly manifested in her word and idiomatic choices. For instance, she uses “lift” where Americans would use “ride.” To this effect, Radwan has done a magnificent job in making The Revolt of the Young accessible to the English readership, but unfortunately much of al-​Hakim’s writing persona was lost. Radwan might have stretched and bent the target language much farther to better accommodate aspects of the source text’s foreignness (Schleiermacher 2012, 62). In the end, this would be my preference, a preference for which I am regularly criticized for urging the easily distracted reader to strain to hear the voice of the original (Scott 2000, 14).

References Schleiermacher, Friedrich. 2012. “On the Different Methods of Translating.” Translated by Susan Bernofsky. In The Translation Studies Reader, edited by Lawrence Venuti, 43–63. London: Routledge. Scott, Clive. 2000. Translating Baudelaire. Exeter: Exeter University. Venuti, Lawrence. 1995. The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. London: Routledge.

REVIEW

My Torturess Bensalem Himmich, Translated by Roger Allen Syracuse University Press, 2015, 225 pp. ISBN: 978-0-8256-1047-2. Paperback, $19.95. Reviewed by Mbarek Sryfi, University of Pennsylvania

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he Moroccan philosopher and novelist Bensalem Himmich goes further than merely becoming embroiled in ideological diatribes, notwithstanding his skill in polemics. The truth of this assertion is measured in his tenth novel, Mu‘adhdhibatī (My Torturess), the most crushing of his novels, which was published by Dar Al-​Shurouq in Cairo in Arabic in 2010. My Torturess deviates from his hitherto literary comfort zone to dive into the shocking daily and political current events. My Torturess opens with a letter that a mysterious woman, Na‘ima, has slipped into Hamuda’s pocket, a letter instructing him how to survive the hell he has descended into. The novel, told by a first-​person narrator, is perhaps best understood as a trance session in which the dissociation from bodily torture prevails, Hamuda survives, and he decides to tell his story as a testimony for history. This narrative strategy is an immersion into terror. Far from just criticizing the so-​called War on Terror, extraordinary rendition, and wrongful incarceration, Himmich’s novel paints the cruel story of a man, Hamuda, wrongly accused of terrorism, imprisoned without charge, and subjected to surreal violence. My Torturess functions as a window into an absurd and surreal world that voices the author’s convictions and strong stand against post-9/11 injustices. My Torturess is nothing less than a moral cri de coeur. Al-‘Arabiyya, 53 (2020), 143–145

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The title, My Torturess, cleverly translated by Roger Allen, refers to “Mama Ghula,” a notorious orgress whom Moroccan mothers often invoke in cautionary tales to frighten their children if they misbehave and fail to obey. A young, innocent child’s fear of Mama Ghula seems an appropriate metaphor for Hamuda’s experience. Snatched at night by a “special unit,” Hamuda ends up in a Kafkaesque ordeal: drugged, forced into a blue uniform, and taken to an unidentified location for interrogation about the whereabouts of his cousin, a suspected jihadi leader. When the authorities recognize his innocence, Hamuda, who should be seen as slipping through the cracks of the bureaucratic system, is then handed over to a special team to break him and force him to work as a professional spy, double agent, or hitman. Once imprisoned, Hamuda metamorphoses from a human being into “Detainee Cell Number 112,” where he steadfastly asserts his innocence: “I’m accused . . . of killing my mother’s husband with a deadly slingshot, an accusation that I totally deny and reject. I am completely innocent” (33). From a closer distance, we follow Hamuda as he makes every effort to stay alive, despite his five-​year physical and psychological torment, an ordeal reminiscent of many deep-​rooted stories shared by Moroccans, Arabs, and many others around the world. Hamuda’s recounting of his experiences works as a cathartic release. That Himmich has his main character undergo such an absurd destiny suggests his desire to investigate human nature in a more personal yet distant way. The dark and absurd characteristics of this novel lean more toward existentialist philosophy. My Torturess’s unflinching portrait of extraordinary rendition and wrongful incarceration bears witness to the visible and invisible scars that the War on Terror has left on the lives of many innocent people globally. The narrative abounds with dark, gory scenes of torture that make even the thought of them more unbearable. With respect to perhaps the most infamous torture method of the War on Terror, the narrator says, “Now it was time for the infamous waterboarding. People say that, as the person being tortured is deprived of oxygen, he can look upon his own death time after time until he confesses and cooperates or else dies without doing either” (104). My Torturess ends with yet another letter, this time from Hamuda to Na‘ima, thanking her for her help and filling her in about his new life in a rural area, where he married and his wife is expecting a baby. The letter portrays Hamuda regaining his humanity and slowly returning to normal life. Here he informs her that he has not found a publisher for his manuscript about his prison narrative and that he refuses to “leave out or rewrite any detail about [his] suffering and torture” (212). Allen has crafted a masterful translation and invites us once again to relish yet another translation of Bensalem Himmich’s literary oeuvre. Allen writes in the



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afterword, “This novel is thus a very different contribution . . . concerned with a particular and highly controversial period in the twenty-​first century history” (220). Lionel Trilling famously asserted that if a literary work offers any true artistic value, it should be “as a criticism of life; in whatever complex way it has chosen to speak, it is making a declaration about the qualities that life should have” (Trilling and Wieseltier 2000, 419). With My Torturess, both Himmich and Allen have delivered that value. In Sympathy for a Traitor, Mark Polizzotti writes, “Translation is like any art: in the best of cases, it helps shed light on ourselves, on those hidden corners of ourselves that we barely knew existed, and whose discovery has enriched us” (2018, 73). My Torturess represents “the best of these cases,” especially regarding Allen’s imaginative creativity and stylistic clarity. And if we accept the prevailing idea that translation “skirts the boundaries between art and craft” (Polizzotti 2018, xi), then the distinguished translator Roger Allen has delivered once again in Himmich’s My Torturess an intelligible and enjoyable read.

References Polizzotti, Mark. 2018. Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Trilling, Lionel, and Leon Wieseltier. 2000. The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent: Selected Essays. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux.

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REVIEW

Coming of Age in Madrid: An Oral History of Unaccompanied Moroccan Migrant Minors Susan Plann Brighton, Chicago, Toronto: Sussex Academic Press, 2019, xi + 344 pp., notes, works cited, index. Hardback ISBN 978-1-84519-941-8, £65.00 / $85. Paperback ISBN 978-1-84519-981-4, £29.95 / $44.95. Reviewed by Mohamed El-​Madkouri Maataoui, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain

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oming of Age in Madrid is a longitudinal study of twenty-​seven young Moroccans who immigrated to Madrid as unaccompanied minors (known in Spain as MENAS, the Spanish acronym for unaccompanied foreign minors). As children and adolescents, they spent a critical period of their lives in the Spanish child-​care system. As young adults, some continue to live in Spain, while others have been deported to their country of origin, Morocco. The importance of this work is not only for Spain but also for other countries contending with the growing numbers of unaccompanied minors on their borders. As befits its subject matter, this is a complex investigative work that weaves together linguistic and intercultural knowledge. With sensitive observation of her narrators’ semantic and pragmatic nuances and modulation of voice and tone, Susan Plann captures their stories in their own words, oral histories that relate the transformation/assimilation, integration, and acculturation of identity of MENAS in the Community of Madrid. The author, a researcher and professor emerita at the University of California at Los Angeles, focuses on the spoken words and problematics of The Other to distinguish between the individual voice and the collective voice of belonging of this cohort. Her book differs in this respect from existing studies of migration in general in Spain because the subject of MENAS has rarely been investigated from within due to the difficulties of accessing these youth. Al-‘Arabiyya, 53 (2020), 147–149

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For this reason, the narrators, who arrived in Spain before their personalities were completely formed, step forth on the 344 pages of this book to lift the curtain on the prejudice, discrimination, and even abuse they suffer, not only in Spain but also, unfortunately, in Morocco, their country of origin. Susan Plann has gained access to the twenty-​seven narrators, listening to their stories and meeting directly with this silenced Other to conduct interviews over an impressive period of six years. In both Madrid and Tangier the author gained the narrators’ confidence, allowing them to speak openly and honestly about their histories, which take the form of personal stories that she has patiently transcribed and translated, presenting to the English-speaking reader what must be considered a true and authentic oral history. Another merit of this work is its lengthy examination of the experiential and mental changes that narrators undergo, together with the analysis of their testimonies. This achievement will undoubtedly deepen contemporary understanding of youth migration and its transnational implications. All of this makes this book a significant contribution to transnational migration and transcultural studies. The assiduous, thoughtful reading of Coming of Age in Madrid leads to an inescapable conclusion: MENAS are not the problem but rather the consequence of other problems, such as the inadequate migration policies of the Euro-​Mediterranean region, and the failure of development projects and job creation in the region’s developing nations. Systems of inequality at both national and regional levels oblige migrants to undertake an arduous cross-​continental journey at an early age, underscoring even more their sense of injustice and their inevitable unrest before both the homeland and the receiving country, which is even greater if they are deported. This responds, albeit only partially, to one of the author’s questions: What happens to unaccompanied migrant minors when they come of age? Thus, seen through a sociological and political lens, the discourse configured by the narrators’ stories reveals the political and economic conditions that have shaped their experiences. Seen through an anthropological lens, a focus here as well, the book provides data for future research on cultural questions and relationships and their various intersections (of The I and The Other, but also of The Others among themselves). Also included in this work is an abundance of data on an identity situated between two cultures and two value systems that do not always coincide. The book lends itself to yet another reading, the compilation and analysis of otherwise inaccessible ethnographic data on MENAS. Coming of Age in Madrid is a groundbreaking longitudinal study that could also inspire and give rise to artistic works in the realm of the novel, theater, and film. Throughout their stories the narrators provide a wealth of basic elements:



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bureaucracy, belonging, identity, drama, tragedy, melodrama, courage, survival. Last but not least, this work provides an interesting study and a real treasure trove of testimonies about personal identity: How do MENAS view themselves? How do they perceive the gaze of The Other? And how do they want to be seen and represented?

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Contributors Saeed Al Alaslaa is an assistant professor of Arabic linguistics at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He received his PhD in 2018 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His research interests include Arabic sociolinguistics with a special focus on diglossia, language attitudes, variation and social cognition, and code switching from a sociolinguistic perspective and as a contact-​induced language-​ change mechanism. In addition, he is interested in exploring Arabic syntax from the medieval Arab grammarians’ as well as the generative theory perspectives. Mohammad T. Alhawary is professor of Arabic linguistics and second language acquisition at the University of Michigan. He is the editor of Al-‘Arabiyya journal as well as the Journal of Arabic Linguistics Tradition and the author of many works, including Arabic Second Language Acquisition of Morphosyntax (Yale University Press, 2009), Modern Standard Arabic Grammar: A Learner’s Guide (Wiley-​Blackwell, 2011), Arabic Grammar in Context (Routledge, 2016), The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Second Language Acquisition (Routledge, 2018), and Arabic Second Language Learning and Effects of Input, Transfer, and Typology (Georgetown University Press, 2019). Sara Al Tubuly is a lecturer in Arabic at Al-​Maktoum College of Higher Education in England. Before joining Al-​Maktoum College, she worked in the Language and Linguistics Department and Languages for All Program at the University of Essex. Al Tubuly holds an MA and a PhD in linguistics. Her dissertation topic addresses the phonological development of Arabic-​speaking children. Her research focuses on Arabic language and linguistics, phonology, and first and second/foreign language acquisition. Al Tubuly was involved in designing materials for teaching and assessment at different levels of Arabic in the United Kingdom. Abdelaadim Bidaoui is an assistant professor of Arabic and French in the Department of Modern Languages and classics at Ball State University. Dr. Bidaoui received a PhD in linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-​Champaign. He does 151

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research in sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and second language acquisition. His current project is on discourse markers in Arabic. Brahim Chakrani is an associate professor in the Department of Linguistics and Languages at Michigan State University. His research interests are sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and heritage and second language learning. He received a PhD in linguistics and a graduate Certificate of Advanced Studies in the program of Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education (SLATE) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-​Champaign. Mohamed El-​Madkouri Maataoui holds doctorates in linguistics and philology and is a professor of applied linguistics and translation studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, where he cofounded the Program in Translation and Interpretation. His publications include La imagen del Otro en la prensa: Arabia Saudi, Egipto y Marruecos (The Image of the Other in the Press: Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco), Anaya bilingüe español-​árabe árabe-​español (Anaya Bilingual Spanish-​Arabic Arabic-​ Spanish), and (with Beatriz Soto Aranda) Escuela e inmigración: La experiencia española (School and Immigration: The Spanish Experience). He is also a sworn translator and interpreter. Tarek Hermessi holds a PhD in applied linguistics and currently occupies the position of lecturer at Institut Supérieur des Langues de Tunis, Tunisia. He teaches psycholinguistics, TEFL, and research methodology. His research interests include L2 motivation, culture, globalization, and L2 education as well as teacher and learner cognition on the cultural dimension of L2 education. Roberta Morano obtained a PhD in linguistics and phonetics at University of Leeds (UK), working on the descriptive grammar of the Arabic dialect spoken by Banū Kharūṣ tribe in northern Oman. She holds a BA and MA in Islamic Studies, obtained at University of Naples “L’Orientale.” Her main research interests lie in documenting languages and dialects of Oman and the Arabian Peninsula. Youness Mountaki is an assistant professor of Arabic at Wofford College. He earned his MA in teaching and learning, a second MA in liberal arts from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania (LHU), and his PhD in second language acquisition and instructional technology from the University of South Florida.

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Archana Prakash most recently held the position of visiting lecturer in the Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught courses on the history of Islam, Egypt, and the modern Middle East. She received her PhD in Middle East History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-​Champaign and has previously taught at Stanford University. Her research examines how Egyptians transformed European knowledge by implementing it through modern education in Egypt as well as how Egyptian ideas about education and knowledge evolved over the course of the nineteenth century. Wanis Shalaby holds a BA in literature from Alexandria University, Egypt; an MS in education from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and an MA in literature, language, and translation from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He is the head of Salam School of Milwaukee and publishes extensively on his literary blog: http://​www​.salamschool​.org​/wordpress​_0/. Mbarek Sryfi is lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, scholar, poet, and translator. His translations and articles have appeared in CELAAN Review, Metamorphoses, World Literature Today, Banipal, Translation Review, and the Journal of North African Studies. Sryfi cotranslated Monarch of the Square, The Elusive Fox, Arabs and the Art of Storytelling, and The Blueness of the Evening. His poetry has appeared in CELAAN, Poetry Ink Anthology, Poetry & Resistance Anthology, and Philadelphia Says: Struggle for Freedom Anthology. His chapbook The Trace of a Smile shared first place in the 2018 Moonstone Chapbook contest.

Al-‘Arabiyya Submission Guidelines

Al-‘Arabiyya welcomes scholarly and pedagogical articles and book reviews that contribute to the advancement of study, criticism, research, and teaching in the fields of Arabic language, linguistics, and literature. Al-‘Arabiyya also considers responses and comments on articles published in previous issues. Review articles are also welcome; contact the editor to propose one. Please address all correspondence regarding submissions to the Editor, Al-‘Arabiyya Journal, aataeditor@​aataweb​.org.

General Guidelines

Authors are encouraged to present an original, scholarly contribution or a perceptive restructuring of existing knowledge. All articles are subject to a peer review process. Previously published pieces or those being considered for publication elsewhere will not be accepted. Book reviews are commissioned by the book review editor. Reviews of current and recently published textbooks are particularly welcome. Please propose a book review to the book review editor prior to submission at aatabookrevieweditor@​aataweb​.org.

Submission Procedures

Submissions are only accepted via the Scholastica submission platform, a link to which is available in the journal website: http://​www​.aataweb​.org​/alarabiyya. Please upload both a PDF version and an original Word document, including an abstract in English of 100–150 words. To aid the blind review process, remove author’s name and all identifying information from the article and include a cover sheet with author’s name, mailing address, email address, telephone number, academic affiliation, and title of the article. Article length: 8,000 words max (Times New Roman, 12 pt.). Review article length: 1,500–2,000 words max. Book review length: 750–1,250 words max. Doulos SIL fonts must be used for transliterated text/words. SIL’s Scheherazade font must be used for Arabic terms. Reviews must be in English. Reviews previously appearing in print or online will not be accepted. Articles in Arabic must use SIL’s Scheherazade font. Submissions must conform to Al-‘Arabiyya style and writing guidelines. These are posted online on the Al-‘Arabiyya website: http://​www​.aataweb​.org​/alarabiyya.