The Arabic Language

Barti 
and the weekly 
Iḍḥak li-d-Dunyā
, are mentioned 
by Davies (2006) as examples of media that regularly publish contributions in 
vernacular. The use of vernacular language has become common, not only in the 
theatre, but also in autobiographies, novels and even in expository prose. In a 

---

Middle Arabic 
169
contribution to the international conference on language in Morocco at Agadir in 
2011, Hoogland (2013) discussed the use of written Moroccan dialect in public life 
and literature. He mentioned three journals (
Ḫbar bladna
, 
al-ʾAmal 
and 
Nichane
), 
which for a limited period of time were published in Moroccan Arabic, two of 
them with systematic vernacular vocalisation. But he concluded that one of the 
reasons that these journals had to be closed down after a number of years was 
the lack of interest and prestige of the vernacular. In one case, the author of an 
editorial that quoted the Moroccan king in vernacular, was even arrested on a 
charge of lèse majesté!
The contribution of social media to the promotion of written dialect can hardly 
be overestimated (see Chapter 12, pp. 237f.). Moreover, it is undeniable that in the 
course of events in the Middle East, and particularly the events leading up to and 
accompanying the Arab Spring, a number of developments have taken place that 
have changed the situation considerably. An interesting example is the Egyptian 
version of Wikipedia, 
wīkīpīdiyā maṣrī
, which was established in 2008. The fluid 
character of texts in Wikipedia contributes to the high degree of variation in its 
language. Panović (2010) points out that even though the professed aim of the 
contributors to the 
Wikipedia masry
is the promotion of the Egyptian language 
as an independent variety in its own right, its language remains influenced by 
the norms of the standard. In particular in those lemmas that are ‘translated’ 
from the Arabic Wikipedia into Egyptian, the underlying structure of the text 
is Standard Arabic, which has been ‘colloquialised’ by a number of devices, e.g., 
the replacement of the fifth measure of the verb by the vernacular form (
taḫar-
raja 
> 
itḫarraj 
‘to graduate’) or the use of the abbreviated form 
ʿa- 
of the preposi
-
tion 
ʿalā 
‘on’. In some articles, the rather frequent use of nominal constructions 
and 
ḥāl 
accusatives betrays the influence of the 
fuṣḥā
. Nonetheless, this initiative 
represents a daring attempt to introduce the colloquial language in the realm of 
scholarly discourse.
We may also point at the increased use of transcription to represent Arabic. 
In mobile phone messages and in chat room discussions a system of transcrip
-
tion with Latin and numerical characters has become popular under the name 
of 
arabish 
or 
ʿarabīzī
, for example, the use of 9 for 
qāf
, 5 for 
ḫāʾ
and 3 for 
ʿayn
. 
All these elements may contribute to a greater acceptability of non-standard 
written language. Whether this will eventually lead to the emancipation of the 
vernacular language and the emergence of national languages remains to be seen. 
Perhaps, it is still too soon to decide what further developments may be expected. 
The degree of political cohesion in the Arab world will decide whether national 
standards will develop. The emergence of the Romance languages instead of 
Latin as national languages in Europe shows that in order for dialects to become 
standard languages, political and geopolitical realities must change first. In the 
Arab world, dialects will continue to be used in the production of written speech, 
but the products of this process will continue to be affected by the real standard. 

---

170
The Arabic Language