DOI: 10.5176/2251-3566_L315.44
Authors: Kazuhiko Nakae
Abstract:
Standard Arabic, which has no native speakers, has had an imposing power in the traditionally established society. As long as the unstable social situation continues, the educational system in each region is getting more unstable. This means that the generation of the illiterate people who have not had any chance to acquire Standard Arabic and cannot read and write Arabic letters has been growing up. Thus once this traditionally established social system has been changed, the asymmetrical balance of power between Standard Arabic as the ‘artificial’ super-imposing variety and their own colloquial Arabic varieties as ‘natural’ ones will be changing. Here I will discuss the floating situation from ‘bilingualism with diglossia’ to ‘bilingualism without diglossia’, considering the linguistic situation of Arabic language in Israel and also what kind of factors may block or slow down this situational change.
Keywords: Arabic ; diglossia ; multiglossia ; bilingualism ; language contact ; displaced persons
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