In the context in which English functions as an international language and spatial and cultural distances are reduced due to the widespread use of the Internet and the media, the linguistic contacts among English and other languages are facilitated (Deshors 7, among others). The global diffusion of English leads to increasing multilingualism also in contexts in which it is a foreign language (Warschauer, Said, & Zohry 31) with speakers being in a constant tension between the desire of learning it to be citizens of the globalised world and the will of keeping their local language identity. This study, which is part of a wider research project, will focus on the case study of Egypt struggling with the concurrent use of English (Poese 5) and the (Egyptian) Arabic variety. More specifically, the main aim is to demonstrate that, because of the linguistic contact and tension, a code blending between English as the ‘Global language’ (Crystal), and (Egyptian) Arabic as the local language occurs resulting in the development of an emerging ‘glocal’ linguistic form in Egypt (Bruthiaux 165; Lewko iv-113, Al-Sayadi 3) which could be labelled ‘Egyptian English’ (EgyE). In order to reach this goal, a sociolinguistic analysis will be carried out by means of the examination of written and oral language, namely message-texts and audio clips by young Egyptian English users and videos from YouTube and Facebook pages. The corpus of Egyptian English will be specifically gathered and analysed for the purposes of the investigation.

Egyptian English’ as an emerging glocal language

Lucia La Causa
2022-01-01

Abstract

In the context in which English functions as an international language and spatial and cultural distances are reduced due to the widespread use of the Internet and the media, the linguistic contacts among English and other languages are facilitated (Deshors 7, among others). The global diffusion of English leads to increasing multilingualism also in contexts in which it is a foreign language (Warschauer, Said, & Zohry 31) with speakers being in a constant tension between the desire of learning it to be citizens of the globalised world and the will of keeping their local language identity. This study, which is part of a wider research project, will focus on the case study of Egypt struggling with the concurrent use of English (Poese 5) and the (Egyptian) Arabic variety. More specifically, the main aim is to demonstrate that, because of the linguistic contact and tension, a code blending between English as the ‘Global language’ (Crystal), and (Egyptian) Arabic as the local language occurs resulting in the development of an emerging ‘glocal’ linguistic form in Egypt (Bruthiaux 165; Lewko iv-113, Al-Sayadi 3) which could be labelled ‘Egyptian English’ (EgyE). In order to reach this goal, a sociolinguistic analysis will be carried out by means of the examination of written and oral language, namely message-texts and audio clips by young Egyptian English users and videos from YouTube and Facebook pages. The corpus of Egyptian English will be specifically gathered and analysed for the purposes of the investigation.
2022
linguistic glocalisation, new variety, Egyptian English, language variations, code blending
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11769/540059
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