Variation in Educated Spoken Arabic in Middle-Upper Egypt: A Sociolinguistic Study

Abstract

This study starts by shedding light on the linguistic sistuation in the Arab World today. It attempts to answer many questions concerning the origin of the different linguistic varieties of Arabic-such as Classical Arabic (CA), Modem Standard Arabic (MSA), Educated Spoken Arabic (ESA), and Old Arabic (OA)-and the reasons behind their emergence. Among the varieties of Arabic, Educated Spoken Arabic has been selected to be the focus of this study because of the interesting factors which led to its emergence. Educated Spoken Arabic as used by the educated speakers of middle-upper Egypt has been identified at two levels: the linguistic level-phonologically, morphologically, syntactically, and lexically-and at the social level-certain extralinguistic factors which lead to the use of ESA rather than other Arabic varieties. This study tackles the description of the speech of educated Arabic speakers in middle-upper Egypt and the different styles of speech they use. The description of the styles of speech of such speakers has been achieved in light of the following principles: 1. Labov's (1966-1972) contextual styles;

2. Giles and Smith's (1979) Accomodation Th ory;

3. Scotton's (1983) Principles of Negotiation of the Rights and Obligations

(RO) of social interaction.

A related concern of this study is style shifting in ESA and the major motivation of this process in light of the three aforementioned principles.