The Politics of Written Language in the Arab World : Writing Change

Gunvor Mejdell Jacob Høigilt

ISBN 10: 9004346163 / ISBN 13: 9789004346161

Published by Brill Aug 2017, 2017

About this Item

Neuware - The Politics of Written Language in the Arab World asks how the central sociolinguistic notions of language ideology and diglossia are affected by the rapidly increasing amount of writing in the Arabic vernacular.

Seller Inventory # 9789004346161

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Politics of Written Language in the Arab World : Writing Change
• Publisher: Brill Aug 2017
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9004346163
• ISBN 13: 9789004346161
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 239W x 160H x 23D millimeters 239 millimeters width by 160 millimeters height by 23 millimeters depth
• Weight: 658 grams

About this title

Synopsis

The Politics of Written Language in the Arab World connects the fascinating field of contemporary written Arabic with the central sociolinguistic notions of language ideology and diglossia. Focusing on Egypt and Morocco, the authors combine large-scale survey data on language attitudes with in-depth analyses of actual language usage and explicit (and implicit) language ideology. They show that writing practices as well as language attitudes in Egypt and Morocco are far more receptive to vernacular forms than has been assumed.

The individual chapters cover a wide variety of media, from books and magazines to blogs and Tweets. A central theme running through the contributions is the social and political function of “doing informality” in a changing public sphere steadily more permeated by written Arabic in a number of media.

About the Author

Jacob Høigilt, Ph.D. (2008), Peace Research Institute Oslo, is senior researcher at that institute. His research revolves around issues of language, politics and ideology in the Arab world, including the monograph Islamist Rhetoric (Routledge, 2011).

Gunvor Mejdell is professor at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo. She has many publications in the field of Arabic sociolinguistics, including Mixed Styles in Spoken Arabic in Egypt (Brill 2006), and also works in literary translation.

Contributors are: Emad Abdul-Latif, Mariam Aboelezz, Kristen Brustad, Dominique Caubet, Alexander Elinson, Atiqa Hachimi, Jacob Høigilt, Eva Marie Håland, Tewodros Aragie Kebede, Kristian Takvam Kindt, Gunvor Mejdell, Catherine Miller, and Jon Nordenson.