Valentina Serreli

Perceptual dialectology is a sub-branch of folk linguistics first systematized by Dennis Preston in the 1980s (e.g. Preston 1989, 1999). Through the technique of mental mapping, borrowed from cultural geography, perceptual dialectologists seek to discover the perceived distribution of speeches, populations, and prevailing ideologies. In the Arabic-speaking context, map task experiments were conducted by Theodoropoulou & Tyler (2014) among students at Qatar University, and by Hachimi (2015) among Moroccans of different age, gender, social class and origin, to identify dialect boundaries and labels across the Arabic-speaking world and to understand the underlying ideologies.
This paper discusses lay speakers’ perception of the linguistic boundaries in Egypt, based on a map-drawing experiment submitted to secondary school students, in the Egyptian Oasis of Siwa. Siwa is a Berber enclave situated 50 km away from the Libyan border, where the beginning of mass Arabization dates back to the 1980s and whose geographical and social peripherality limited dwellers’ mobility and contact with outsiders. The map task, which asked the students to locate on a map of Egypt languages and dialects spoken in the country, was part of a questionnaire administered in 2011, with the aim of understanding the patterns of language use in the oasis, through the study of speakers’ attitudes, beliefs and ideologies (Serreli 2011). The results show that the respondents are aware of the major linguistic boundaries within Egypt, although they did not pay the same attention to all areas: Siwa, the area around Marsa Matruh, the Nile Delta region and Upper Egypt were identified quite clearly by a great number of students, while the Sinai Peninsula was taken into account to a lesser extent and the oases were largely ignored. The paper also presents the respondents’ labelling choices, which tell us something about their ideas and judgements of Egyptian communities and their reciprocal relationships.

This article concerns identity work—both the semiotic processes through which it is accomplished and the motivation behind it. Specifically, this article focuses on ethnolinguistic identity: how ethnolinguistic grouping is sustained by linguistic ideologies and how rigid categorization is toned down in everyday practice. Using an empirical study of the relations of sameness and distinction established with the Siwan group by non-members through their use—or non-use—of the Siwi language, this article will attempt to show that, based on Siwi's acquired status as an icon of group identity, the language is used as a resource for identity work by non-members to express their position vis-à-vis the Siwan group.

The article presents the speakers’ perception of contact-induced linguistic change in the Egyptian oasis of Siwa, based on data collected during the authors’ doctoral research (Serreli 2016). The research explored language attitudes and ideologies in Siwa with a qualitative approach built on sociolinguistic and linguistic anthropological theories. Linguistic change is presented by speakers as a generational variation; it is attributed to the increased contact between the Siwi and Arabic languages that followed the wider socioeconomic change in the community in recent decades. Moreover, Siwi speakers hold a variety of attitudes towards linguistic change, appreciating phenomena perceived as adjustments to the current times, while criticizing those perceived as a betrayal or corruption of their native language.

The international conference Arabic in Africa: Historical and Sociolinguistic perspectives brings together scholars interested in the study of Arabic in Africa.

The Arabic language in Africa represents at one and the same time remarkable similarities in terms of language structure and socio-cultural status as well as well-profiled contrasts. Both of these coincide only partially with contemporary political, economic and geographic demarcations, such as have become established in MENA or Maghreb studies.

“Arabic in Africa” considers Arabic from different approaches, perspectives and disciplinary frameworks and in quite different sociolinguistic situations. Parameters include demographic weight (e.g. “national nonstandard standard” or very local small variety), institutional status (e.g. official language, national language, minority with no state support) and historical provenance.

We welcome contributions that approach Arabic in Africa from historical, descriptive and sociolinguistic perspectives. Topics include but are not limited to:

• Basic descriptive and theoretical linguistic perspectives on Arabic in Africa.
• Variation, prestige, unbalanced power in Arabic varieties in Africa
• Language contact involving Arabic, Arabic-based pidgins and creoles in Africa
• Arabic as L2, Arabic as lingua franca in Africa
• Arabic in Africa - Arabic in the Middle East: comparative historical and sociolinguistic perspectives
• Language politics and policies involving Arabic in Africa
• Ajami script, Arabic script in non-Arabic-speaking areas in Africa
• Arabic and Islam in Africa

During the coffee breaks there will be poster sessions where the conference participants will be able to interact with the presenters and discuss their research.

The conference will close with a roundtable discussion where distinguished scholars will synthesize the various ideas and research directions which have been presented and propose the state of the art on Arabic in Africa according to their own perspective. We are honored to count among our invited Raporteurs Prof. Jeffrey Heath (University of Michigan), Prof. Catherine Miller (CNRS, IREMAM), Prof. Fiona Mc Laughlin (University of Florida) and Prof. Stephan Prochazka (University of Vienna) and to have Prof. Jonathan Owens (University of Bayreuth) chairing the discussion.

The conference is funded by the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence and the Chair of Arabic Studies of the University of Bayreuth.

This edited volume pays tribute to traditional and innovative language contact research, bringing together contributors with expertise on different languages examining general phenomena of language contact and specific linguistic features which arise in language contact scenarios. A particular focus lies on contact between languages of unbalanced political and symbolic power, language contact and group identity, and the linguistic and
societal implications of language contact settings, especially considering contemporary global migration streams. Drawing on various methodological approaches, among others, corpus and contrastive linguistics, linguistic landscapes, sociolinguistic interviews, and ethnographic fieldwork, the contributions describe phenomena of language contact between and with Romance languages, Semitic languages, and English(es).

The book explores the change over time in language-society relations in a
multilingual periphery of Egypt. It examines the role of language ideologies
in the construction and negotiation of social identities in the processes
of contact, maintenance and shift typical of multilingualism. Based on
extensive fi eldwork and interviews, it is the fi rst of its kind to portray the
inventory of linguistic and accompanying non-linguistic behaviors observed
within and between different ethnolinguistic groups in the Siwa Oasis. It
provides fi rst-hand information about the linguistic habits of Siwan women,
an aspect which is generally diffi cult to access in this gender-segregated
community. The book sheds light on Berber-Arabic contact at the core of the
Arab world and at a critical time when individual linguistic repertoires are
expanding and Arabic is emerging as a powerful resource.