The spoken Omani Arabic of ‘Ibrī : A “Crossing Point” in Gulf dialects

‘Ibrī is located half-way in between Mascat and Dubai, and is very close to the Emirates border. This proximity facilitates young male citizens that look for job opportunities in the rich Emirates. Effectively, it is easy to find an occupation beyond the border: in Dubai, for the business sector; in Buraymi or Al-‘Ain for administration or health sector related professions (health sector for female nurses too); in various locations across the Emirates if serving as military or police staff (airport and border police includes female staff too). ‘Ibrī speakers, the majority of whom come back home after work, have daily contacts with their Gulf neighbours. This style of life makes the speech of ‘Ibrī inhabitants critical for developing two levels of analysis: 1-features of the ‘Ibrī Spoken Arabic, in the general frame of Omani Arabic; 2-tracks of contamination among Gulf variants, due to both recent and historically motivated ‘contacts and changes.’ Several pairs of variables must be taken into account: social, referring to badawiyy or ḥaḍariyy; geographical, referring to the inner part of the country, or to west/east and north/south sides. In principle, the area of ‘Ibri should be “ḥaḍariyy of the north”. Nevertheless, we find elements that go beyond this classification. Phonology, for example, shows a series of combinatorial possibilities that hardly fit a schematic and annotated classification; then, we may also find the gahwah syndrome in occasional ‘Ibri speeches. According to what emerged from my collection of data in the city, I offer here a general morpho-phonological description of the local register. I also provide unpublished Omani texts, composed by teachers of “dialect”, with examples of syntax and lexicon. I intend to demonstrate how strong is the mismatching between political and linguistic borders in the Gulf area

Echoes of Populism and Terrorism in Libya’s Online News Reporting

This article focuses on news reporting in Libya, assessing both official and citizen journalism. Special attention is paid to online resources, primarily spontaneous posts written in Arabic. Social media shows the emergence of citizen journalism together with so-called User-generated Content. Both have proved capable of creating legitimacy. Political inclinations, including Islamic ideology and its religious claims, are presented, supported, or criticized by ordinary citizens who post their comments and opinions on the web. Official press and news agencies have their social media profiles as well, sharing the same online space with nonprofessionals. Monitoring and analysis of reporting show that there is no relevant difference in journalistic models; nor do concerns between professionals and nonprofessionals vary. Libya appears today to be a mosaic of different interests: one that is interconnected and in conflict at the same time. These interests are vying to establish new supremacies in the country. Journalism in its various typologies faces pressure from the abovementioned interests, so it is negatively affected by rhetoric in both reporting and commentary. These preliminary arguments lead us to the core topics of populism – for which a definition is suggested – and reporting about terrorism in Libya. Against this background, we analyze news flows, sources, and other issues. I conclude with a brief review of the main issues, the characteristics of the Arabic narrative discourse, and the emerging Arabic lexico

El contexto histórico y el estatus de la lengua árabe en la Sicilia de Ibn Makki

Este artículo investiga la cuestión del árabe en Sicilia, desde la conquista por parte de los aglabíes hasta la llegada de los Normandos. Ciertamente, la lengua árabe entre el siglo IX y el XII fue una “lengua franca mediterránea”, utilizada en varias actividades y hablada por mucha gente, sobre todo por los hablantes no nativos. De ahí que se haya alejado del código estándar y observemos numerosas desviaciones en la fonología, la morfología y la sintaxis. Ibn Makkī llamó laḥn, error, cada desviación y recogió un listado de todos los principales errores que había oído en su obra Taṯqīf al-lisān wa-talqīḥ al-ǧanān. Él consideró dos perfiles de hablantes y dos niveles de lengua: ˁāmma o dialectal, hablada por el pueblo y ḫāṣṣa o lengua de élite, hablada por los educados. Tal y como él se refirió a la dimensión oral de la lengua, nosotros no tenemos bastantes evidencias documentales para comprobar las observaciones del autor. Solamente podemos intentar establecer una comparación con documentos de un periodo sucesivo, llamados ǧarāˀid. Sin embargo, es muy probable que el árabe se haya introducido en Sicilia a través de muchos canales, algunos independientes de los conquistadores norteafricanos.This article investigates the topic of Siculo-Arabic, from the Arabic conquest up to the arrival of the Normans in Sicily. It is undeniable that in between the IX-XII century Arabic has been a sort of “lingua franca” of the Mediterranean sea, and as such it was used for different purposes and spoken by various speakers, mostly non-natives. Due to common use, Arabic went far from the standard variety because of a great number of changes in phonology, morphology and syntax. Ibn Makkī tagged as laḥn, error, these changes, and he collected in his Taṯqīf al-lisān wa-talqīḥ al-ǧanān a list of errors that he had heard. He considered two profiles of speakers and two levels of the language: ˁāmma, the dialect spoken by the people, and ḫāṣṣa, the élite language spoken by the educated. Since Ibn Makkī refers to the spoken language, we cannot prove with documents his observations. We can only try to compare his study with some written documents, called ǧarāˀid, but belonging to a later era. In any case, it is highly probable that Arabic entered Sicily via different paths, some of them not related with the North African conquerors

Ibn Ḥazm in Cordoba and the typical features of the love topic. Ibn Ḥazm in Cordoba and the typical features of the topic of love

Se propone una relectura de la obra de Ibn Ḥazm y de las contaminaciones literarias relacionadas con el tópico del amor, guiada por factores históricos más que artísticos. De hecho, el autor vivió el periodo más tormentoso de la historia de al-Andalus, conocido como la era de los mulūk al-ṭawāˀif, la cual se caracteriza por las luchas y rivalidades para conquistar el poder en la Península Ibérica. La ciudad de Córdoba toma un papel central, tanto de eje político principal como de centro cultural, donde Ibn Ḥazm recibió el legado de la cultura y literatura árabo-islámica que luego le fue transmitido a la literatura europea. Un antecedente histórico importante, que seguramente favoreció las contaminaciones entre los dos repertorios literarios, árabe y europeo, se reconoce en la batalla de Barbastro. Después de tal evento, numerosas cantantes, qiyān, fueron deportadas como botín de guerra a las cortes de la Francia meridional, llevándose consigo el conocimiento artístico y literario y favoreciendo el desarrollo de la poesía trovadoresca. La comparación entre versos de las líricas de trovadores y del Collar de Ibn Ḥazm sugiere, por lo menos, la hipótesis de una contaminación debida a procesos de intertextualidad e interdiscursividad, si no de contacto directo.This article offers a rereading of the work by Ibn Ḥazm, and the literary contaminations related to the topic of love, guided by historical factors rather than artistic ones. In fact, the author lived during the stormiest period in the history of al-Andalus, known as the mulūk al-ṭawāˀif era, characterized by struggles and rivalries for power in the Iberian Peninsula. The city of Cordoba played the role of the main political axis and the cultural center, where the legacy of the Arab-Islamic culture and literature was received by Ibn Ḥazm, and then transmitted to European literature. In this regard, the Battle of Barbastro should be considered an important historical antecedent that surely favored contaminations between the two literary repertoires. After such an event, many singers (qiyān), were deported to the courts of Southern France, taking with them their artistic and literary background, and favoring the emergence and development of troubadour poetry. The comparison between the lyrics of troubadours and the texts of the Collar by Ibn Ḥazm suggests, at least, the hypothesis of a contamination due to intertextuality and interdiscursiveness, if not direct contact

Ibn Ḥazm en Córdoba y los rasgos típicos del topos del amor

Ibn Ḥazm in Cordoba and the typical features of the love topic. Ibn Ḥazm in Cordoba and the typical features of the topic of love. This article offers a rereading of the work by Ibn Ḥazm, and the literary contaminations related to the topic of love, guided by historical factors rather than artistic ones. In  fact, the author lived during the stormiest period in the history of al-Andalus, known as the mulūk al-ṭawāˀif era, characterized by struggles and rivalries for power in the Iberian Peninsula. The city of Cordoba played the role of the main political axis and the cultural center, where the legacy of the Arab-Islamic culture and literature was received by Ibn Ḥazm, and then transmitted to European literature. In this regard, the Battle of Barbastro should be considered an important historical antecedent that surely favored contaminations between the two literary repertoires. After such an event, many singers (qiyān), were deported to the courts of Southern France, taking with them their artistic and  literary background, and favoring the emergence and development of troubadour poetry. The comparison between the lyrics of troubadours and the texts  of the Collar by Ibn Ḥazm suggests, at least, the hypothesis of a contamination due to intertextuality and interdiscursiveness, if not direct contact..Se propone una relectura de la obra de Ibn Ḥazm y de las contaminaciones literarias relacionadas con el tópico del amor, guiada por factores históricos más que artísticos. De hecho, el autor vivió el periodo más tormentoso de la historia de al-Andalus, conocido como la era de los mulūk al-ṭawāˀif, la cual se caracteriza por las luchas y rivalidades para conquistar el poder en la Península Ibérica. La ciudad de Córdoba toma un papel central, tanto de eje político principal como de centro cultural, donde Ibn Ḥazm recibió el legado de la cultura y literatura árabo-islámica que luego le fue transmitido a la literatura europea. Un antecedente histórico importante, que seguramente favoreció las contaminaciones entre los dos repertorios literarios, árabe y europeo, se reconoce en la batalla de Barbastro. Después de tal evento, numerosas cantantes, qiyān, fueron deportadas como botín de guerra a las cortes de la Francia meridional, llevándose consigo el conocimiento artístico y literario y favoreciendo el desarrollo de la poesía trovadoresca. La comparación entre versos de las líricas de trovadores y del Collar de Ibn Ḥazm sugiere, por lo menos, la hipótesis de una contaminación debida a procesos de intertextualidad e interdiscursividad, si no de contacto directo

El contexto histórico y el estatus de la lengua árabe en la Sicilia de Ibn Makki

This article investigates the topic of Siculo-Arabic, from the Arabic conquest up to the arrival of the Normans in Sicily. It is undeniable that in between the IX-XII century Arabic has been a sort of “lingua franca” of the Mediterranean sea, and as such it was used for different purposes and spoken by various speakers, mostly non-natives. Due to common use, Arabic went far from the standard variety because of a great number of changes in phonology, morphology and syntax. Ibn Makkī tagged as laḥn, error, these changes, and he collected in his Taṯqīf al-lisān wa-talqīḥ al-ǧanān a list of errors that he had heard. He considered two profiles of speakers and two levels of the language: ˁāmma, the dialect spoken by the people, and ḫāṣṣa, the élite language spoken by the educated. Since Ibn Makkī refers to the spoken language, we cannot prove with documents his observations. We can only try to compare his study with some written documents, called ǧarāˀid, but belonging to a later era. In any case, it is highly probable that Arabic entered Sicily via different paths, some of them not related with the North African conquerors.Este artículo investiga la cuestión del árabe en Sicilia, desde la conquista por parte de los aglabíes hasta la llegada de los Normandos. Ciertamente, la lengua árabe entre el siglo IX y el XII fue una “lengua franca mediterránea”, utilizada en varias actividades y hablada por mucha gente, sobre todo por los hablantes no nativos. De ahí que se haya alejado del código estándar y observemos numerosas desviaciones en la fonología, la morfología y la sintaxis. Ibn Makkī llamó laḥn, error, cada desviación y recogió un listado de todos los principales errores que había oído en su obra Taṯqīf al- lisān wa-talqīḥ al-ǧanān. Él consideró dos perfiles de hablantes y dos niveles de lengua: ˁāmma o dialectal, hablada por el pueblo y ḫāṣṣa o lengua de élite, hablada por los educados. Tal y como él se refirió a la dimensión oral de la lengua, nosotros no tenemos bastantes evidencias documentales para comprobar las observaciones del autor. Solamente podemos intentar establecer una comparación con documentos de un periodo sucesivo, llamados ǧarāˀid. Sin embargo, es muy probable que el árabe se haya introducido en Sicilia a través de muchos canales, algunos independientes de los conquistadores norteafricanos

Studies on Arabic Dialectology and Sociolinguistics

This volume contains over fifty articles related to various fields of modern Arabic dialectology. All the articles are revised and enhanced versions of papers read on the 12th Conference of the Association Internationale de Dialectologie Arabe (AIDA) held in Marseille in June 2017. Since its first conference in Paris in 1993, AIDA members gather every two years in different country. The collection of the AIDA proceedings offer an updated insight of the development of the field. During the past few decadesthe the study of Arabic dialects has become an important branch of research covering a wide range of subjects from phonological analyses, morphosyntax, semantics to pragmatics, sociolinguistics, folk linguistics, studies on literacy and writings, cultural and artistic practices, etc. As many articles of this volume illustrate, the study of Arabic dialects explores different aspects of the languages and cultures of the contemporary Arab world. A remarkable feature is the growing and constant participation of young scholars from all around the globe

ˀAxu Šarmūṭe and His Relatives: Productive Genealogies for Arabic Embodied Curses

Insults and curses go hand-in-hand with the development of languages and civilizations, and constitute a field for multidisciplinary analysis. Sociology, gender studies, and linguistics are all involved in the investigation of this macro-topic. Insults and curses occupy an off-limits field, in comparison to the 1995 UNESCO Declaration of Principles on Tolerance: (1.3) “Tolerance is the responsibility that upholds human rights, pluralism (including cultural pluralism), democracy and the rule of law. It involves the rejection of dogmatisms and absolutism and affirms the standards set out in international human rights instruments”. In relation to Arabic language, we can proceed from the very old-fashioned Islamic curses toward the opponents of dār al-Islām, until we arrive to the modern hate speech and hollow insults, conveyed by social platforms. It is true that every addressee deserves a precise insult: laˁn, sabb, šatm, or qaḏf. Women and the human body play a leading role for communication effectiveness, for a sort of reverse ranking: insults give a privileged space to what is usually protected and sacred. Following a short introduction for framing the general question, I provide rude but effective examples of curses centered on women’s body and their descendants, analyzed in both standard and colloquial Arabic

Doha Assy, Nubi francesi (Ghuyum faransiyya), traduzione con introduzione e note di Letizia Lombezzi

Nubi francesi narra le vicende di un gruppo di Egiziani copti partiti verso la Francia napoleonica, in fuga dall’oppressione mamelucca e dall’obbligo del cedere il passo, riassunto nella frase “sta’ a sinistra, cristiano!”. I personaggi sono molto diversi tra loro per ruoli, appartenenza e personalità, tuttavia accomunati da uno stesso destino: l’alienazion

Contents and Methods for Teaching Spoken Arabic

Este libro proporciona un marco teórico y diversas pautas para aplicar la dialectología a la enseñanza, situándose en el ámbito de la lingüística aplicada. El desafío radica en llevar la dialectología más allá de la investigación descriptiva. ¿Por qué hay que promocionar el árabe hablado? ¿Cómo pueden los alumnos convertirse en hablantes? ¿Podemos diseñar plantillas morfológicas aplicables a diferentes variedades? El trabajo responde a todo ello a través de sus siete capítulos, y proporciona cuatro planes didácticos basados en teorías e investigaciones actualizada