Diglossia in Arabic: Its Beginnings and Development
Keywords:
Diglossia, Code-switching, Continuum of varieties, Dialectal variations, levels
Abstract
This study addresses the concept of diglossia in the Arabic language and its historical development from its beginnings in 1959 by Ferguson to the present day. The study reviews the various stages that this concept has undergone, starting with Ferguson's dual model that distinguishes between the high level (Modern Standard Arabic) and the low level (colloquial), passing through Fishman's expansion of this concept, and arriving at multi-level models presented by Blanc, Badawi, and others. The study also discusses the shift from the simple concept of diglossia to the concept of language continuum, which recognizes the existence of intermediate levels between Modern Standard Arabic and colloquial. The study concludes by discussing modern studies on code-switching between Modern Standard Arabic and colloquial in social media, reviewing the different functions performed by this switching and the factors affecting it. The study concludes that the linguistic landscape in the Arab world is more complex than the early models assumed, and that the relationship between Modern Standard Arabic and colloquial is a dynamic relationship affected by multiple social, cultural, and technological factors.
References
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20. El-Hassan, Shahir. "Variation in the Demonstrative System in Educated Spoken Arabic." Archivum Linguisticum 9 (1978): 32-57.
21. Ferguson, Charles A. "Myths about Arabic." In Readings in the Sociology of Language, edited by Joshua A. Fishman, 375-381. The Hague: De Gruyter Mouton, 1968.
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25. Fishman, Joshua A. "Bilingualism with and without Diglossia; Diglossia with and without Bilingualism." Journal of Social Issues 23, no. 2 (1967): 29-38.
26. Fishman, Joshua A. The Sociology of Language: An Interdisciplinary Social Science Approach to Language in Society. Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1972.
27. Gumperz, John J. Language in Social Groups. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1962.
28. Haugen, Einar. Language Conflict and Language Planning: The Case of Modern Norwegian. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966.
29. Hawkins, Peter. "Diglossia Revisited." Language Sciences 5, no. 1 (1983): 1-20.
30. Hudson, Alan. "Outline of a Theory of Diglossia." International Journal of the Sociology of Language 157 (2002): 1-48.
31. Ibrahim, Muhammad. "Standard and Prestige Language: A Problem in Arabic Sociolinguistics." Anthropological Linguistics 28, no. 1 (1986): 115-126.
32. Heath, Jeffrey. From code switching to borrowing. Routledge, 2013.
33. Kahane, Henry. "A Typology of the Prestige Language." Language 62, no. 3 (1986): 495-508.
34. Kaye, Alan S. "Remarks on Diglossia in Arabic: Well-defined vs. Ill-defined." Linguistics 81 (1972): 32-48.
35. Kosoff, Zoe. "Codeswitching in Egyptian Arabic: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Twitter." Al-'Arabiyya: Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic 47 (2014): 83-99.
36. Leikin, Mark, Raphiq Ibrahim, and Hanna Eghbaria. "The Influence of Diglossia in Arabic on Narrative Ability: Evidence from Analysis of the Linguistic and Narrative Structure of Discourse Among Preschool Children." Reading and Writing 27, no. 4 (2014): 733-747. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-013-9462-3.
37. Mahmoud, Youssef. "The Arabic Writing System and the Sociolinguistics of Orthography Reform." PhD diss., Georgetown University, 1978.
38. Meiseles, Meir. "Educated Spoken Arabic and the Arabic Language Continuum." Archivum Linguisticum 11 (1980): 118-148.
39. Mejdell, Gunvor. Mixed Styles in Spoken Arabic in Egypt: Somewhere between Order and Chaos. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
40. Miller, Catherine. "Variation and change in Arabic urban vernaculars." In Approaches to Arabic dialects, pp. 177-206. Brill, 2003.
41. Mitchell, Terence Frederick. "Writing Arabic: A Practical Introduction to Ruq'ah Script." Middle Eastern Studies 12, no. 2 (1976): 229-230.
42. Mitchell, Terence Frederick. "Dimensions of Style in a Grammar of Educated Spoken Arabic." Archivum Linguisticum 11 (1980): 89-106.
43. Mitchell, Terence Frederick. Colloquial Arabic: The Living Language of Egypt. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1982.
44. Nader, Laura. "A Note on Attitudes and the Use of Language." Anthropological Linguistics 4, no. 6 (1962): 24-29.
45. Ryding, Karin C. "Proficiency Despite Diglossia: A New Approach for Arabic." The Modern Language Journal 75, no. 2 (1991): 212-218.
46. Sabir, Mona, and Sabah Safi. "Developmental Diglossia: Diglossic Switching and the Equivalence Constraint." Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Arts and Humanities 16, no. 2 (2008): 91-110.
47. Saeed, Ahmed. "The Pragmatics of Codeswitching Fusha Arabic to Aammiyyah Arabic in Religious Oriented Discourse." PhD diss., Ball State University, 1997.
48. Sayahi, Lotfi. Diglossia and Language Contact: Language Variation and Change in North Africa. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
49. Schulz, David Eugene. "Diglossia and Variation in Formal Spoken Arabic in Egypt." PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1981.
50. Suleiman, Yasir. Arabic, Self and Identity: A Study in Conflict and Displacement. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
51. Versteegh, Kees. The Arabic Language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001.
52. Walters, Keith. "Fergie's Prescience: The Changing Nature of Diglossia in Tunisia." International Journal of the Sociology of Language 163 (2003): 77-109.
53. Weinreich, Uriel. Languages in Contact: Findings and Problems. New York: Linguistic Circle of New York, 1953.
54. Muhammad Raji Zughoul, "Diglossia in Arabic: Investigating Solutions," Anthropological Linguistics 22, no. 5 (1980): 201-217.
2. بدوي، سعيد. مستويات العربية المعاصرة في مصر: بحث في علاقات اللغة بالحضارة. دار المعارف، مصر، (١٩٧٣).
3. البنا، محمد إبراهيم. الإعراب سمة العربية الفصحى. دار الإصلاح للطبع والنشر والتوزيع، ١٩٨٦.
4. العبيد، بدرية. "تويتر السعودية وما يسطرون: أثر تويتر على عربية المستخدمين السعوديين: المشكلة والحل." في لغة الشباب العربي في وسائل التواصل الحديثة، ٢٨٥-٣٢٧. الرياض: منشورات مركز الملك عبد الله بن عبد العزيز الدولي لخدمة اللغة العربية، ٢٠١٤.
5. السيوطي، جلال الدين عبد الرحمن بن أبي بكر. الاقتراح في أصول النحو وجدله. تحقيق وشرح محمود فجال في الإصباح في شرح الاقتراح. الطبعة الأولى. دمشق: دار القلم، ١٩٨٩/١٤٠٩.
6. Abd-El-Jawad, Hassan. "Cross-dialectal Variation in Arabic: Competing Prestigious Forms." Language in Society 16 (1987): 359-368.
7. Al Alaslaa, Saeed. "Code Choice in Twitter: A Sociolinguistic Study of Saudi Twitter Users." PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2018.
8. Al Alaslaa, Saeed, and Mohammad T. Alhawary. "Code Choice between Standard Arabic and the Saudi Dialect by Saudi Twitter Users." Al-'Arabiyya 53 (2020): 1-24.
9. Albirini, Abdulkafi. "The Structure and Functions of Code-switching between Standard Arabic and Dialectal Arabic." PhD diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010.
10. Albirini, Abdulkafi. "The Sociolinguistic Functions of Codeswitching between Standard Arabic and Dialectal Arabic." Language in Society 40, no. 5 (2011): 537-562.
11. Albirini, Abdulkafi. Modern Arabic Sociolinguistics: Diglossia, Variation, Codeswitching, Attitudes and Identity. London: Routledge, 2016.
12. Alenazi, Atheer Mahmoud. "The Effect of Social Media on Arabic Vocabulary in the Saudi Society Atheer Mahmoud Alenazi." Arab World English Journal (ID Number: 299) 1 (2023): 24.
13. Al-Wer, Enam. "The Formation of the Dialect of Amman: From Chaos to Order." In Arabic in the City: Issues in Dialect Contact and Language Variation, edited by Catherine Miller, Enam Al-Wer, Dominique Caubet, and Janet Watson, 55-76. London: Routledge, 2007.
14. Appel, René, and Pieter Muysken. Language Contact and Bilingualism. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1987.
15. Badawi, El-Said. Mustawayāt al-'Arabiyya al-Mu'āṣira fī Miṣr [Levels of Contemporary Arabic in Egypt]. Cairo: Dār al-Ma'ārif, 1973.
16. Bassiouney, Reem. Arabic Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009.
17. Blanc, Haim. "Stylistic Variation in Spoken Arabic: A Sample of Interdialectal Educated Conversation." In Contributions to Arabic Linguistics, edited by Charles A. Ferguson, 81-156. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960.
18. Blom, Jan-Petter, and John J. Gumperz. "Social Meaning in Linguistic Structure: Code-Switching in Norway." In Directions in Sociolinguistics: The Ethnography of Communication, edited by John J. Gumperz and Dell Hymes, 407-434. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972.
19. Boussofara-Omar, Naima. Arabic diglossic switching in Tunisia: An application of Myers-Scotton's MLF model. The University of Texas at Austin, 1999.
20. El-Hassan, Shahir. "Variation in the Demonstrative System in Educated Spoken Arabic." Archivum Linguisticum 9 (1978): 32-57.
21. Ferguson, Charles A. "Myths about Arabic." In Readings in the Sociology of Language, edited by Joshua A. Fishman, 375-381. The Hague: De Gruyter Mouton, 1968.
22. Ferguson, Charles A. "Diglossia." Word 15, no. 2 (1959): 325-340.
23. Ferguson, Charles A. "The arabic koine." Language 35, no. 4 (1959): 616-630.
24. Ferguson, Charles A. "Diglossia Revisited." Southwest Journal of Linguistics 10 (1991): 214-234.
25. Fishman, Joshua A. "Bilingualism with and without Diglossia; Diglossia with and without Bilingualism." Journal of Social Issues 23, no. 2 (1967): 29-38.
26. Fishman, Joshua A. The Sociology of Language: An Interdisciplinary Social Science Approach to Language in Society. Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1972.
27. Gumperz, John J. Language in Social Groups. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1962.
28. Haugen, Einar. Language Conflict and Language Planning: The Case of Modern Norwegian. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966.
29. Hawkins, Peter. "Diglossia Revisited." Language Sciences 5, no. 1 (1983): 1-20.
30. Hudson, Alan. "Outline of a Theory of Diglossia." International Journal of the Sociology of Language 157 (2002): 1-48.
31. Ibrahim, Muhammad. "Standard and Prestige Language: A Problem in Arabic Sociolinguistics." Anthropological Linguistics 28, no. 1 (1986): 115-126.
32. Heath, Jeffrey. From code switching to borrowing. Routledge, 2013.
33. Kahane, Henry. "A Typology of the Prestige Language." Language 62, no. 3 (1986): 495-508.
34. Kaye, Alan S. "Remarks on Diglossia in Arabic: Well-defined vs. Ill-defined." Linguistics 81 (1972): 32-48.
35. Kosoff, Zoe. "Codeswitching in Egyptian Arabic: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Twitter." Al-'Arabiyya: Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic 47 (2014): 83-99.
36. Leikin, Mark, Raphiq Ibrahim, and Hanna Eghbaria. "The Influence of Diglossia in Arabic on Narrative Ability: Evidence from Analysis of the Linguistic and Narrative Structure of Discourse Among Preschool Children." Reading and Writing 27, no. 4 (2014): 733-747. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-013-9462-3.
37. Mahmoud, Youssef. "The Arabic Writing System and the Sociolinguistics of Orthography Reform." PhD diss., Georgetown University, 1978.
38. Meiseles, Meir. "Educated Spoken Arabic and the Arabic Language Continuum." Archivum Linguisticum 11 (1980): 118-148.
39. Mejdell, Gunvor. Mixed Styles in Spoken Arabic in Egypt: Somewhere between Order and Chaos. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
40. Miller, Catherine. "Variation and change in Arabic urban vernaculars." In Approaches to Arabic dialects, pp. 177-206. Brill, 2003.
41. Mitchell, Terence Frederick. "Writing Arabic: A Practical Introduction to Ruq'ah Script." Middle Eastern Studies 12, no. 2 (1976): 229-230.
42. Mitchell, Terence Frederick. "Dimensions of Style in a Grammar of Educated Spoken Arabic." Archivum Linguisticum 11 (1980): 89-106.
43. Mitchell, Terence Frederick. Colloquial Arabic: The Living Language of Egypt. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1982.
44. Nader, Laura. "A Note on Attitudes and the Use of Language." Anthropological Linguistics 4, no. 6 (1962): 24-29.
45. Ryding, Karin C. "Proficiency Despite Diglossia: A New Approach for Arabic." The Modern Language Journal 75, no. 2 (1991): 212-218.
46. Sabir, Mona, and Sabah Safi. "Developmental Diglossia: Diglossic Switching and the Equivalence Constraint." Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Arts and Humanities 16, no. 2 (2008): 91-110.
47. Saeed, Ahmed. "The Pragmatics of Codeswitching Fusha Arabic to Aammiyyah Arabic in Religious Oriented Discourse." PhD diss., Ball State University, 1997.
48. Sayahi, Lotfi. Diglossia and Language Contact: Language Variation and Change in North Africa. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
49. Schulz, David Eugene. "Diglossia and Variation in Formal Spoken Arabic in Egypt." PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1981.
50. Suleiman, Yasir. Arabic, Self and Identity: A Study in Conflict and Displacement. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
51. Versteegh, Kees. The Arabic Language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001.
52. Walters, Keith. "Fergie's Prescience: The Changing Nature of Diglossia in Tunisia." International Journal of the Sociology of Language 163 (2003): 77-109.
53. Weinreich, Uriel. Languages in Contact: Findings and Problems. New York: Linguistic Circle of New York, 1953.
54. Muhammad Raji Zughoul, "Diglossia in Arabic: Investigating Solutions," Anthropological Linguistics 22, no. 5 (1980): 201-217.
Published
2025-04-23
How to Cite
Dr. Saeed Ali Al Alaslaa. (2025). Diglossia in Arabic: Its Beginnings and Development. Journal of Arts, Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, (119), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.33193/JALHSS.119.2025.1390
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