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Apollon Silagadze, Nino Ejibadze
Ivane Javakhishvili
Tbilisi State University, Georgia
saxelmwifo enis swavlebis sakiTxebi:
problemebi da gamowvevebi
Issues of State Language Teaching;
Problems and Challenges
Arabic (Egyptian) Bilingualism and the Problem of Teaching
ABSTRACT
In the Arabic world, particularly in Egypt, the linguistic situation is diglossic. For part of the society it
is bilingual; this is a layer of the society (educated society, as well as the student youth) which has an
English education. The specificity (and complexity) of the situation is that for this part of Egyptian society
native language is Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (Cairene speech – the standard variety of Egyptian
dialect), not Literary Arabic which they start learn from the zero level as not native speakers (it seems
that the school program is not enough).
The Arabic diglossia is the natural co-existence of literary and speaking forms of the language and
shows its specificity as follows: on one hand we have a special diversity of dialects, on the other (literary
Arabic) – two languages – Classical (fuóçā) and modern (standard). The first is only language of
scholarship, the second has full function but its communicational capacity is very limited by dialects.
Additional problem is that the literary standard language does not have its own graphical and orthographical
system and when uses classical system can not/do not notes its peculiarities (Arabic alphabet
is consonantal). Finally, on the place of Literary Arabic we have one graphical system i.e. one language
in a graphical expression which has two representants. It is possible to say that there is some kind of
heterography, when the same text (graphical language) can be read in two ways.
The above mentioned transfers the complexity on the level of bilingualism. The final result – not
enough level of knowledge in literary Arabic – is reflected in the practice of teaching process. When at
the universities (e.g. American University in Cairo) Literary Arabic is taught, course of the literary
grammar is read on the permanent regime of interlingual code-switching when the basic communicational
language is not Literary Arabic, but Egyptian Colloquial, and the object of code-switching is
English. This situation is conditioned by various factors.
In the Arabic world, in general, namely, in Egypt, the linguistic situation is complex and as a rule is evaluated
as diglossic. At the same time for a certain part of the population not only diglossia but also bilingualism is a
reality.
According to Ferguson, diglossia is “a relatively stable linguistic situation in which, in addition to the primary
dialects of the language (which may include a standard or regional standards), there is a very divergent, highly
codified (often grammatically more complex) superposed variety, the vehicle of a large and respected body of
written literature, either of an earlier period or in another speech community, which is learned largely by formal
spoken purposes but is not used by any sector of the community for ordinary conversation (C.A. Ferguson,
1971:16).
In case of diglossia we are dealing with a phenomenon when two linguistic forms are in a subordinated relation
to one another. In case of Egypt and Arabic countries, in general, the high, prestigious variant of the language
is Literary Arabic, whereas local dialects are forms of a comparatively lower status. “The linguistic situation
in the Arabic world is evaluated as diglossic, but some authors (S. Kaye, 1994:47) regard that in fact there
are “Many Arabics”, whereas the linguistic situation in the Arabic world in multiglossic. Such an approach to the
question is indeed close to the real picture: in Cairo, one might say, the general linguistic situation does not go
beyond diglossia, if we consider that here only two linguistic units oppose one another – the Cairo dialect and
Literary Arabic. In the peripheries the situation is different: each village has its own local dialect, along with this,
a great part of the population speaks the dialect widespread in the regional centre. Local residents have contacts
with inhabitants of nearby villages, hence, speak their dialects. Their majority periodically arrive in Cairo on
business and get acquainted with the Cairo speech as well. If such a village resident learns Literary Arabic (or
even without learning it), we are dealing with poliglossia. However, this is not the ultimate example of linguistic
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