The Arab world boast a population of more than 453 million people in 22 countries(WPR, 2022). Each of these countries adopts at least one variety of Arabic and each may be too different to the extent they are not intelligible or understandable to one another. Salameh (2011) questioned the relevance of existing variations to Arabic claiming that "Languages or dialects often perfunctorily labelled Arabic might not be Arabic at all" (P. 50).Standard Arabic (SA) is the official language and the only variety that is taught in schools and used in academic writing and formal settings across the Arab countries (Hole 2004; Sayahi 2014). For that SAis considered (arguably) the same across the Arab worlddespite some differences that may occur because of the interference from the local dialects (Holes, 2004), and therefore can be understandable by Arabs regardless of their local dialects.
Along with Arabic, English is widely used and deeply rooted in many Arab communities. The number of non-Arab expatriates in some Middle Eastern Countries, such as states in the Gulf as in the UAE, exceeds 85% of the total population (Al-Issa& Dahan, 2021). This makes English the preferred lingua franca in the community (Zoghbor, 2018), including communication among Arabs whose Arabic might be unintelligible to one another. This scenario threatens the Arabic language and national identity (Al-Suwaidi, 2018) which increased the demand to empower Arabic as a lingua franca. To that end, a call started to use a modified (almost a simplified) version of Arabic and is considered a middle ground between SA and the regional dialects. This variety is known as the 'White Dialect' (Al Ajami, 2019).
While the 'White Dialect' might have its proponents, it also has its critics especially among the advocates of linguistic purity over hybridity. This presentation introduces the two sides of the debate and the primary findings supporting the claim that despite the position of SA as a shared variety, Arab speakers modify their speech to achieve successful communication which is linguistically non-identical to the features of SA (although some of them, especially vocabulary, were borrowed to replace the vocabulary used in the interlocutors' dialects).
References:
Al Ajami, A. (2019). The White Dialect.Moldova:Al Noor Publishing.
Al-Issa, A., & Dahan, L. S. (2021). Language Loss and the ELT Professional.Advocacy for Social and Linguistic Justice in TESOL: Nurturing Inclusivity, Equity, and Social Responsibility in English Language Teaching. PP. 27 – 54.
Al-Suwaidi, J. S. (2018). United Arab Emirates Society in the Twenty-first Century: Issues and Challenges in a Changing World. UAE: Jamal Al-Suwaidi.
Holes, C. (2004). Modern Arabic: Structures, Functions, and Varieties. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Salameh, F. (2011). Does Anyone Speak Arabic? Middle East Quarterly, 18 (4), 47-60.
Sayahi, L. (2014). Diglossia and Language Contact: Language Variation and Change in North Africa.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
World Population Review (WPR 2022). Retreived from: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/arab-countries
Zoghbor, W. S. (2018). Teaching English pronunciation to multi-dialect first language learners: The revival of the Lingua Franca Core (LFC).System,78, 1-14.
