Decolonizing Listening: Towards an Equitable Approach to Speech Training for the Actor.

This article confirms and deepens an understanding of the negative impact of teaching culturally embedded speech standards to actors who are “othered” by a dominant “somatic norm” within the performing arts. The author analyzes evidence from a three-year longitudinal study of actors within a UK conservatory in relation to the critical frame of the somatic norm and colonized listening practices in the performing arts. The author identifies conscious and unconscious bias within traditional training methods and proposes a decolonizing approach to listening within foundational speech training. The ideological shift outlined follows the “affective turn” in the humanities and social sciences and moves away from the culturally embedded listening at the core of “effective” speech methods, which focus solely on clarity and intelligibility. The outcome of this research is a radical performance pedagogy, which values the intersectional identities and linguistic capital of students from pluralistic backgrounds. The revised curriculum offers an approach to affective speaking and listening that assumes an equality of understanding from the outset, and requires actors, actor trainers, and, ultimately, audiences to de-colonize their listening ears

Language ideology and policy in a colonial and postcolonial context: The case of Egypt

This chapter explores language ideologies in the colonial context of Arabic in Egypt. After achieving independence in the second half of the twentieth century, Egypt, like all Arab countries, followed a policy of Arabization. In order to understand the implications of such policies for colonial linguistics, it is essential to explore the ideology of Egypt as one community, an ideology that was propagated negatively first by the colonizers and then by Egyptians. The nation-state as an imagined community, built on ideologies and perceptions that are emergent in discourse and dependent on it, is in the focus of the chapter, which describes the role of Standard Arabic vis-vis Egyptian local varieties in constructing ideas about Egyptians as an imagined community

Functions of code switching in Egypt (evidence from monologues in the 1990s)

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DN055723 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Arabic sociolinguistics

xvii, 311 p. : ill. ; 23 cm

Redefining Identity through Code Choice in "Al-Ḥubb fī ’l-manfā" by Bahāʾ Ṭāhir

This study examines the use of language and code choice in a modern Egyptian novel, al-Ḥubb fī ’l-manfā (Love in Exile) by Bahāʾ Ṭāhir (b. 1935). The study concentrates on the diglossic situation that prevails in the entire Arabic-speaking world, i.e. a situation in which there are two language varieties: a ‘High’ variety (standard Arabic) and a ‘Low’ one (vernacular dialects), each with a different function. The study will concentrate on the language varieties, or ‘codes’, used by the writer to depict dialogues between the different protagonists in the novel. The question posed is whether the dialogues in this, as well as in other novels published in Egypt and the Arab world, reflect realistic linguistic choices on the part of the protagonists, or whether this literature projects a different reality with different rules and language choices. If the latter case is true then language may be viewed as a tool to redefine reality and project different identities. It is argued that the choice of standard or vernacular has a discourse function, well as a creative one. This case study furthers our understanding of code choice in dialogue in the Arabic literature of Egypt, and of the Arab world in general

Diglossic switching and the phenomenon of ʻblendingʼ: evidence from Egypt

This paper argues on the basis of empirical data that the definition of diglossia given by Ferguson (1964) does not take account of the overlap between the Η (high) and L (low) varieties in the Arabic language. My data consists of spoken contemporary Egyptian monologues. These monologues are taken from different walks of life. I analyse four monologues. Two are political speeches, which contrary to Ferguson's expectations are a mixture of Η and L, and two are monologues by two cultured Egyptians on television. From this overlap between Η and L, springs a phenomenon I call 'blending'. Blending is different from diglossic switching and code-switching, in that it does not have a discourse function, and does not seem to be as rational an act as code-switching (cf. Myers- Scotton 1998b, Gumperz 1982). I will give five examples of blended features from H and L. This phenomenon resists interpretation within the framework of 'diglossia' and challenges ideas about code-switching. Thus, it is interesting on its own right, as a phenomenon that can explain more about both diglossia and code-switching. If one applies the idea of Myers-Scotton (1997, 1998a), of a Matrix language, then one would indeed find problems with the existence of blending, since a lot of blended forms are system morphemes. Yet, one can ap­ply Myers-Scotton's recent idea of a composite matrix language (1998a) to the Egyptian community. However, this kind of diglossic-switching may be stable and the appearance of blending does not necessarily imply language change or death. To try to explain what goes on in the Egyptian community, I will define those features which characterise blending. I propose that there are two kinds of blending, ʻidiosyncraticʼ blending and ʻintrinsicʼ blending

An alternative approach: Understanding diglossia/code switching through indexicality: The case of Egypt

[no abstract provided]https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_book_chapters/1027/thumbnail.jp

Language and identity in modern Egypt

© Reem Bassiouney, 2014. Examines language and identity in modern Egypt using theories from discourse analysis and sociolinguistics. How is language used in Egyptian public discourse to illuminate the collective identity of Egyptians? How does this identity relate to language form and content? Reem Bassiouney explores these questions by drawing on sources including newspaper articles, caricatures, blogs, patriotic songs, films, school textbooks, TV talk-shows, poetry and novels As well as furthering our understanding of the relationship between identity and language, this book yields insights about the intricate ways in which media and public discourse help shape and outline identity through linguistic processes. Key Features • Offers an in-depth study of identity in modern Egyptian public discourse • Focuses on nationalist discourse before, during and after the Egyptian revolution of 2011 • Based on a broad, and representative selection of data • Helps us to decode and understand the messages put forward by the competing factions in Egyptian politics.https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_books/1041/thumbnail.jp

Dialect and stance-taking by non-Egyptian celebrities in Egypt

This article explores the stance of non-Egyptian celebrities performing in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA) and/or living in Egypt. These celebrities are forced by the Egyptian media to take a stance towards ECA and Egypt, and engage in the ongoing dialogue concerning Egypt’s cultural role. Meta-linguistic, as well as linguistic, resources become the focal point of a struggle for dominance. Over the last five years, there have been intense debates regarding the role of Egypt as a cultural hub in relation to the Egyptian media. This is due to the increasing threat from other emerging cultural hubs – such as Dubai and Lebanon – both of which have greater financial resources and allow the use of other Arabic dialects. The data utilised for this research includes television and newspaper interviews, articles, as well as performances by non-Egyptians. One particularly relevant example is that of Russian/Armenian belly dancer Ṣāfināz who currently resides in Egypt