Language, Society and Ideologies in Multilingual Egypt

Arabic and Berber in the Siwa Oasis

Valentina Serreli

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2024
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• eBook ISBN:
  9783111046518
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The book explores the change over time in language-society relations in a multilingual periphery of Egypt. It examines the role of language ideologies in the construction and negotiation of social identities in the processes of contact, maintenance and shift typical of multilingualism. Based on extensive fieldwork and interviews, it is the first of its kind to portray the inventory of linguistic and accompanying non-linguistic behaviors observed within and between different ethnolinguistic groups in the Siwa Oasis. It provides first-hand information about the linguistic habits of Siwan women, an aspect which is generally difficult to access in this gender-segregated community. The book sheds light on Berber-Arabic contact at the core of the Arab world and at a critical time when individual linguistic repertoires are expanding and Arabic is emerging as a powerful resource.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Notes on transcription and other conventions
• Introduction
• 1 Berber and Arabic in North Africa
• 2 Methodology: Listening to people’s voices
• 3 The Siwa Oasis community
• 4 Change and resistance
• 5 Language use and the texture of multilingualism in present-day Siwa
• 6 Language hierarchies and folk linguistics in present-day Siwa
• 7 Sociology of language in present-day Siwa: Finding dynamicity in stability
• Conclusion: Language ecology of the Siwa Oasis
• Index