Glocal Arabic online: The case of 3arabizi

• Authors: Robert Michael Bianchi
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The term glocal has been used to describe phenomena that simultaneously blend both global and local elements (see Featherstone, Lash, & Robertson, 1995, p. 101). Nowhere is this more evident than in the existence of 3arabizi, itself a blended language composed of English and Vernacular Arabic, written in Latin letters but using arithmographemes, that is, numerals as letters to represent hard-to-transliterate sounds because they do not exist in English (see Bianchi, 2012).1 As part of a doctoral study investigating online language choice involving Arabic and English, this paper examines the unique stylistic and topical functions of 3 arabizi when compared with its linguistic forbears, that is, Arabic and English in a multilingual web forum. The findings indicate that 3arabizi is used for more informal, intimate and phatic communication than either Arabic or English, though these latter two languages or codes are not entirely formal in form and purpose either.

Keywords

EN

Arabic; English; script; CMC; glocal

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 483-503

Dates

published

2012-10-01

Contributors

author

Robert Michael Bianchi

• Virginia Commonwealth University

References

• Al Share, B. (2005). A sociolinguistic analysis of Jordanian Netspeak (JNS) (Unpublished master’s thesis). Jordan University of Science and Technology, Amman, Jordan.
• Androutsopoulos, J. (2007). Language choice and code switching in German-based diasporic web forums. In B. Danet & S. C. Herring (Eds.), The Multilingual Internet: Language, culture, and communication online (pp. 340-361). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Auer, P. (1998). From code-switching via language mixing to fused lects: Toward a dynamic typology of bilingual speech. Interaction and Linguistic Structures, 6.
• Baker, P. (2006). Using corpora in discourse analysis. London Continuum.
• Bentahila, A. (1983). Language attitudes among Arabic-French bilinguals in Morocco. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
• Bianchi, R. (2012). 3arabizi – When local Arabic meets global English on the Internet. Acta Linguistica Asiatica, 2(1).
• Callahan, L. (2004). Spanish/English codeswitching in a written corpus. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
• Crystal, D. (2001). Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Featherstone, M., Lash, S., & Robertson, R. (1995). Global modernities. London: Sage.
• Garside, R. (1987). The CLAWS word-tagging system. In R. Garside, G. Leech, & G. Sampson (Eds.), The Computational analysis of English: A corpus-based approach. London: Longman.
• Koutsogiannis, D., & Mitsikopoulou, B. (2003). Greeklish and Greekness: Trends and discourses of glocalness. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 9(1).
• Lee, C. K.-M. (2007). Multilingual, multiscriptal, and multimodal text-making: Instant messaging among young people in Hong Kong (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
• McLellan, J. (2005). Malay-English language alternation in two Brunei Darussalam on-line discussion forums (Doctoral dissertation). Curtin University of Technology, Perth and Sydney. Retrieved from http://adt.curtin.edu.au/theses/available/adt-WCU20060213.092157/
• Mujahid, A. M. (2009). Can there be Muslim English? Retrieved April 7, 2009, from http://www.soundvision.com/Info/education/muslimenglish.asp
• Nishimura, Y. (2003). Linguistic innovations and interactional features of casual online communication in Japanese. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 9(1).
• Palfreyman, D. (2001). Informal Latinized orthographies. Linguist List, 12(12-2760). Retrieved from http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/linguist/issues/12/12-2760.html
• Palfreyman, D., & Al Khalil, M. (2003). “A funky language for teenzz to use:” Representing Gulf Arabic in instant messaging. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 9(1).
• Pavlenko, A., & Blackledge, A. (2004). Introduction: New theoretical approaches to the study of negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts. In A. Pavlenko & A. Blackledge (Eds.), Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
• Smedley, F. (2006). Code-switching and identity on the blogs: An analysis of Taglish in computer mediated communication (Master’s thesis). Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, Australia. Retrieved from http://repositoryaut.lconz.ac.nz/theses/378/
• Tseliga, T. (2007). “It’s all Greeklish to me!” In B. Danet & S. C. Herring (Eds.), The multilingual Internet: Language, culture, and communication online (pp. 116-141). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Warschauer, M., El Said, G. R., & Zohry, A. (2002). Language choice online: Globalization and identity in Egypt. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 7(4).

Identifiers

DOI

10.14746/ssllt.2012.2.4.3