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23 - Vernacular Varieties in Recent Arabic Literature

from Part VI - Arabic Linguistics in Literature and Translation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2021

By
Eva Marie Håland
Edited by
Karin Ryding  and
David Wilmsen
Karin Ryding
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
David Wilmsen
Affiliation:
American University of Beirut
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Summary

Eva Marie Håland focuses on the field of literary sociolinguistics as she approaches the testy and as yet unsolved problem for Arabic about the nature of language in literary works, raising the issue of complex discourse coherence relations when two (or more) distinct variants are used. The long-held taboo on encoding vernacular Arabic in writing has seen its hold gradually diminish over time, especially during the last half-century, with rapidly accelerating changes in authentic dialogue and first-person narrative. Håland examines the shifting formulas and standards for vernacular writing and orthography, including blending, codeswitching, and hierarchies of registers used for different purposes, such as parodic stylization.

Keywords

vernacular in literaturegenrenarrativeregisterEgyptian Arabicfuṣḥāmmiyya
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics , pp. 565 - 582
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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