Papers by Anjela Al Raies
Probably, one of the biggest challenges that non-native learners encounter when they start to stu... more Probably, one of the biggest challenges that non-native learners encounter when they start to study Arabic is the complex sociolinguistic situation. This was described by Ferguson (1959, p. 336) in terms of diglossia, which is “a relatively stable language situation in which, in addition to the primary dialects of the language [...] there is a very divergent, highly codified (often grammatically more complex) superposed variety”. According to Ferguson’s dichotomy, the High variety (H) is used for official activities, religious sermons and political speeches, whereas dialect(s), or low variety (L) is the language of everyday conversation. Despite this division, many authors felt that the diglossic theory is unsuitable in describing the reality of Arabic. Indeed, they attempted to define a range of intermediate levels between H and L. Just to mention some authors: Blanc identified five levels (1960, p. 85): classical, modified classical, semi-literary or elevated colloquial, koineised...
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Papers by Anjela Al Raies