Choosing One Dialect for the Arabic

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• Choosing One Dialect for the Arabic
• Speaking World An Unnecessary,
• Unpopular and Unlikely Status
• Planning Dilemma
• Robert A. CoteMay 10, 2006

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Introduction

• Arabs need a unified language which can in turn
  unify them, an instrument of fusion rather than
  fission. (Suleiman, 2003)
• The Arabs need a unified and unifying
  language, rather than a series of
  dialect-languages which will lead to further
  fragmentation. (Al-Husri, 1985)

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Statement of the Problem

• Having so many distinct dialects makes the
  prospect of choosing and implementing a common
  Arabic-language both daunting and unlikely, for
  not only would the governments of more than 20
  nations have to choose a particular dialect, but
  they would also have to convince their
  populations to adopt the chosen language.

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Research Question

• What roles do the widespread use of colloquial
  Arabic, education policies and the media have on
  the feasibility of selecting a particular dialect
  of Arabic, or possibly even English, to serve the
  needs of the entire Arabic-speaking world?

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Colloquial Arabic

• Numerous national and regional varieties derived
  from Classical Arabic
• Mother tongues spoken daily across North Africa
  and the Middle East
• Sometimes different enough to be mutually
  incomprehensible

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Colloquial Arabic continued

• Linguistic divisions between the Maghreb dialects
  and those of the Middle East and between
  sedentary dialects and conservative Bedouin
  dialects
• Number of speakers of each dialect ranges from a
  few hundred among certain nomadic Bedouin tribes
  to more than 60 million speakers of Egyptian.

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Education

• Literary Arabic is the only form of Arabic taught
  in schools at all stages resulting in overall
  literacy rate of 60. (Yemen 38, Qatar 95)
• Low levels of educational achievement and high
  illiteracy rates are directly related to the
  complexities of the standard Arabic language used
  in formal schooling.
• Children cannot learn academics in their Mother
  Tongue.
• Diglossic situation makes reading in Arabic
  arduous.
• Lexical differences in everyday words and
  functional terms.
• Archaic inflections denoting gender, number and
  tense.
• Changes in phonological structure with sounds in
  writing which have dropped out of everyday usage.
• Lack of unified Fusha for scientific vocabulary.

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Media of Unique Words (Abdelali 2004)
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Participants

• 43 native-Arabic speakers from 11 countries
• 34 males and 9 females
• Ranging in age from 18 to 43 and living in
  Tucson, Arizona

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Participants

• Many were students at the University of Arizonas
  Center for English as a Second Language (CESL).
• Another significant population consisted of
  degreed professionals who are permanent U.S.
  residents

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Methodology

• Each participant was given a map of the
  Arabic-speaking world and asked to label one
  country each with the letters B for where they
  thought the Best Arabic was Spoken and W for the
  Worst Arabic.
• Participants were also asked to order the five
  major Arabic dialect regions Egyptian, Maghreb,
  Levantine, Iraqi and Gulf from 1 to 5 to chose
  one dialect to replace Fusha.
• The researcher also collected biographical
  information, including age, sex, nationality,
  religion and occupation.

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Map Markings

• Highest of Bs Saudi Arabia (18)
• 2nd Highest Egypt (8)
• Highest of Ws Morocco (16)
• 2nd Highest Algeria (7)

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Reasons for Egyptian/Saudi

• Because its easy to learn their accent Its
  popular
• Because you can understand them quickly when
  they speak
• Because it is clear and the accent can be
  understood in every country
• I think it has the least borrowed words
• Because its the first Islamic country
• Because all Arabic people believe the Saudi
  Arabia is the best spoken and the Arabic come
  from Saudi Arabia for many hundred years
• Because it has Makkah
• Because Arabic language is originally from Saudi
  Arabia
• They speak near to Fusha
• There is a relationship between the wealth and
  religion of the country to the language spoken,
  so I believe Saudi Arabia has one of the best
  Arabic spoken

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Views on Moroccan/Maghrebi

• Far away from Arabic
• They use different languages like French
• They mix a lot of French with the Arabic and
  that makes it hard to understand
• Hard to understand them
• I think their accent is difficult for us
• Because you cant understand them quickly
• The use of foreign language prevails
• It is hard to understand because of the French
  language influence
• Morocco because you cannot understand the people

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Maghrebi Dialect or Language?

• il convient de prendre en considération, surtout
  dans les centres urbains du Maghreb, et donc à
  Alger, un autre type de produit linguis-tique, le
  mélange, résultat de la situation de contact
  prolongé entrearabe dialectal et français. On
  sait que ce contact a conduit à des
• emprunts massifs de larabe au
  francais(Boucherit, 1991)
• it must be taken into consideration, especially
  in the urban centers
• of the Maghreb, in particular Algiers, there is
  another type of linguistic
• product, a mixture/blending, resulting from the
  situation of prolonged contact between the Arab
  dialect and French. One knows that this contact
  has driven/caused a massive borrowing from Arabic
  to French.

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Total Frequency Rankings
Dialect Region First Second Third Fourth Fifth
Egyptian 13 10 5 12 0 Maghreb 0 2 3 0 34 Levanti
ne 12 9 8 7 1 Iraqi 0 10 11 14 3 Gulf
States 15 7 11 5 0
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Combined 1st 2nd Rankings

• Best Egypt (23)
• 2nd Gulf States (22)
• 3rd Levantine (21)
• Worst Maghreb (34)

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Conclusions

• It will be virtually impossible for Arabic
  speakers to come to an agreement on what dialect
  should replace Fusha.
• Countries should develop national literacy
  programs based on their vernaculars to raise
  literacy rates.
• English and/or French should be chosen as the
  universal second languages in the Arabic speaking
  world to satisfy diverse linguistic, educational
  and social needs.