Intro: Arabic Sociolinguistics

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course is an introduction to how Arabic (both the Standard and the colloquial) is used in the different Arab societies and communities. We will study how the variation in Arabic is influenced by different sociological variables such as education, social status, politics, gender, and religion. Topics also include diglossia (native speakers’ use of Standard Arabic and the colloquial), switching between Arabic and foreign languages (code-switching), switching between Standard Arabic and the colloquial (diglossic-switching), the official status of Arabic and foreign languages in the Arab countries. The class will also cover the Arabic spoken by immigrant communities of Arab descent (Heritage Arabic), and the peripheral dialects of Arabic.