The Use and Functions of English in Egyptian Social Media

This article examines the contemporary functions of English in Egypt through two interrelated lines of inquiry.First, it provides an updated account of the status and roles of English in the country, revisiting and extendingSchaub’s assessment in light of significant historical, socio-economic and linguistic developments over the past twodecades. Second, drawing on a qualitative linguistic analysis of a sample of posts and comments from Facebook, thestudy investigates how young Egyptians integrate English alongside Arabic in their everyday digital communication,creating patterns of code-switching, code-mixing and translanguaging. It also explores the communicative role ofEnglish in this digital user-generated content, suggesting that English is increasingly employed not only for pragmaticpurposes but also for creative expression and informal interpersonal interactions. By analysing the contemporaryfunctions of English and linguistic practices of young Egyptians online, this study also contributes to a broaderunderstanding of Egypt’s current sociolinguistic positioning within the world Englishes framework and evaluatesthe conceptual validity of ‘Egyptian English’ as a distinctive hybrid variety.