Globalization, Computer-mediated communications and the rise of e-Arabic

Dr. Anissa Daoudi University of Durham School of Modern Languages and Cultures Durham Globalization, Computer-mediated communications and the rise of e-Arabic Abstract In the context of the rapid transformation of new media and the new reality it is creating, my research focuses on the global growth of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in general and in the Arab world in particular. This paper’s objective is to highlight the extensive use of the new language (e-Arabic), which is contributing to the emergence of a new subculture. It is the language (e-Arabic) that mixes, borrows and adapts, uses numbers, Roman letters, Arabic script characters, emotions and words from other languages (English and French) to engage not only with the globalised discourse as such but also to examine the specific ways in which the local frames the global . The focus of this paper is to shed light on the impacts of globalization on Arabic (MSA and colloquial Arabic) at the single word, compound and phrase levels. The study does not only look at the literal language but also the metaphorical one. Arabic e-literature (novels) such as Nessyanne Com (2009) , Ayzza Atgawiz (2008) and Bannat al Riyadh (2005) are analyzed from a linguistic angle to give evidences of language change. The methodology used for this study varied from interviews, observations, printed material (novel) and Internet-based corpora. Key words: Computer-mediated communication, e-Arabic, corpora, frequency, cyber space, sub-culture Introduction It has become common currency, as I found out during field research in Algeria last summer, to hear a language that may come through as unintelligible even to native Algerians, unless they happen to be able to decipher the terminology of information technology embedded in it. Thus, if you seem lost in the new reality, you may be told (روحك‮ ‭ ‬اكتياليزي‭ ‮ ‬روح‭ (‬ruh aktualizi ruhak‭)‬,‭ (‬lit,‭ ‬go and update‭ – ‬French,‭ ‬actualiser‭ ‬-‭ ‬yourself‭); ‬or you may be called someone missing a file‭ (‬fichier‭ ‬هذاك‮ ‬خاصو‭ (‬hathāk‭ ‬khāsu fichieh‭)‬.‭ ‬And if you still do‭ ‬not‭ ‬get it,‭ ‬you will be advised:‭ ‬قرافي‮ ‬هذه‮ ‬لكلمات‮ ‬في‮ ‬راسك‭ (‬gravi hadh‭ ‬el-kalmāt fi rasik‭) (‬lit,‭ ‬burn-‭ ‬French,‭ ‬graver-‭ ‬these words‭ ‬in your head‭)‬.‭ ‬Nor is the case limited to Algeria‭ ‬or to common language,‭ ‬as I found out from the many internet sites,‭ ‬blogs and comments‭ ‬I consulted.‭ ‬For example,‭ ‬popular poets,‭ ‬ever sensitive to social change and often critical of it,‭ ‬have picked up the lingo‭ ‬and subjected it to their wit.‭ ‬We read from Egypt a comic love poem that starts with these lines:‭ يا‎‮ ‬مشطب‮ ‬حبك‮ ‬في‮ ‬قلبي‮ ‬ومكنسل‮ ‬منه‮ ‬الآهات ‎‮ ‬بعدك‮ ‬خلاني‮ ‬انهج‮ ‬واحرق‮ ‬كل‮ ‬الرامات (Lit. Oh you who have erased your love from my heart and cancelled [mkansil] sighs from it/ Being away from you left me panting and made me burn all the ram cards [ramat]) For more information see: id=http://www.shobiklobik.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=111074&whichpage=5 These are but two instances, both at the metaphorical level of language, that are symptomatic of a wide-ranging language change taking place in both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and local dialects, both at the literal and figurative levels, that research has barely began to address. The present paper proposes to contribute to shedding light on this phenomenon, mainly from a sociolinguistic perspective. The discussion of these changes is framed within wider debates on globalization, identity and dynamics of language change. In the same theme, I shed light on the development of Modern Standard Arabic as well as colloquial Arabic; including North African vis-à-vis the parallel emergence of e-Arabic. This paper attempts to fill the gap by highlighting both the direct and indirect influences of globalization in general and Information Technology (IT) in particular at the single word, compound word and phrase levels. I specifically look at what I call e-Arabic, this new form of Arabic that emerges from Computer Mediated Communication. It is that language that mixes, borrows and adapts, uses numbers, Roman letters, Arabic script characters, emotions and words from other languages (English and French in the case of this study) to engage not only with the globalized discourse as such but also to examine the specific ways in which the local frames the global. For this, I highlight some linguistic points related to lexical borrowings and how they manifest in this new language. I build my case gradually moving from the word level, highlighting how the adaptation of a borrowed phoneme into the native language and its use both literally and figuratively. I then, move on to the compound word level, showing how these words are formed and collocate with each other at the noun and verb levels, and again both metaphorically and literally. Finally the shift is to the phrase level, where I concentrate on the metaphorical use of e-Arabic, providing example from the Arabic internet corpus, data collected from interviews and observation. While doing that, I keep close view of the “frequency” variable as a means of statistically knowing how common these words, compound words or phrases are. Furthermore, I look at Arabic literature to find instances of e-Arabic use as evidence to support my initial idea of an emerging a new subculture in the Arab world. Globalisation and language change Globalization became an all-purpose catch word in both public and academic debates. It emerged as a buzzword in the 1990’s replacing in popularity what used to be known in the 1970’s as “interdependence” (Keohane and Nye JR, 2000). Globalization also has brought about “the intensification of consciousness of the world as whole” (Robertson, 1992, p.8). It is not new to say that the internet has become a strategic tool for most countries. It has evolved to the point that it can literally provide any service at one’s fingertips anywhere in the world. It has become a truly global communication network. Cyber-cafés have mushroomed everywhere in the world providing internet services. This resulted in a global growth of computer-mediated communication (CMC), which has led to changes in how language is being used, including inventive, faster and highly idiomatic composition and reading of texts (e.g., Crystal, 2004; Danet & Herring, 2007). Furthermore, studies on CMC highlight evidences of diffusion of oral discourse features into written language (Werry, 1996; Yates, 1996). Zuboff (1988) studied CMC from the “orality” vs. electronic “textuality” points of view. She notes that orality is by nature not recorded, while CMC can be printed, forwarded, manipulated and by its very nature always on records. This contrast reveals the mixture of informality in formal settings, which is the core of the long lasting heated debate in the Arab world. Similarly, in the case of the Arabic language, the phenomenon of separating the Standard Arabic, associated with the written form from the colloquial Arabic (’ammiya) used in the oral/spoken form had been the focus of debates over decades in academic and non-academic circles. In fact, the debate related to Arabic and globalization focuses on Modern Standard Arabic only without referring to the colloquial form. As a matter of fact, both globalization and colloquial Arabic (’ammiya) have been seen as equally “threats” to Arabic. The discourse about globalization as a source of threat or “language endangerment, in which European languages have been depicted as “killer languages” is not new (e.g., Crystal, 2000; Nettle and Romaine, 2000 and Hagège, 2000). It highlights the fact that “power has usually been invoked as an important factor that has favoured the language of the powerful over those of the dominated, hence less powerful, populations” (Mufwene, 2002: 164). Another factor that can be argued to make speakers favour one language over another is to do with prestige, which Mufwene (ibid) argues that it is not the only reason, what is particularly important is the benefit/gain, especially economic benefit a user will get by so doing. He goes further to argue that “languages have no lives that are independent of their speakers. Therefore, languages do not kill languages; their own speakers do, in giving them up, although they themselves are victims of socio-economic ecologies in which they evolve” (ibid: 175). There is no doubt that European colonialism has set the rules of supremacy for certain languages to exist by imposing the new socio-economic world. The latter, is crucial to linguistic changes. Similarly, Bourdieu (1991) argues that linguistic behavior is profit-driven. He argues that language should be viewed not only as a means of communication, but also as a means of exercising power according to the individual’s own interests. This power given to the language is argued further according to Bourdieu as a crucial element in the construction of social reality. All this has created a value and a status to these languages; known as “high” and “low” languages. As far as Arabic is concerned, the “low” status is given to colloquial Arabic (’ammiya) and the “high” one is for the literary/standard Arabic (Fusha), which could be modern or classical Arabic. The latter gets its “high” status from its association with Islam and pre-Islamic period (Eid, 2002). As for the former (colloquial Arabic), the case is more complicated, as there is no one colloquial language, but there are many variations depending on the geographical place, e.g., Algerian Arabic, Tunisian Arabic, Gulf Arabic…etc. Moreover, within the same category, for example in Algerian Arabic, one finds other variations such as the difference between the language spoken in the north vs. the south, the language used by old vs. young generations, the language spoken by Francophone vs. Arabophone Francophone educated Algerians are those who were educated under the French educational system before the independence in 1962and /or before the arabisation movement in the 1970’s where French was replaced by Arabic as the official language and the medium of education . educated Algerians and colloquial Arabic of the Arabs vs. Berbers Berber languages are also called Tamazight. It is the language of the indigenous people in North Africa. There are variations within the Berber language such as, Tashelhit and Taqbaylit. . Debate on whether or not colloquial can be included to maintain the naturalness and realism of the discourse was one of the important issues in the dialogue about the language of the written discourse used by Arab writers for a long period. This perceived dichotomy is engraved in the Arab speaker and writer’s mind alike. Therefore, to talk about publications in the colloquial (’ammiya) in the form of prose that is presented to readers as “novel” is beyond belief to a category of Arabs (e.g., purists). In Arabic literature, ‘ammiya is used in poetry, known as “nabati”, “malhun” and “zajal” and is a well established genre. As far as prose is concerned, as mentioned above, the debate was about the use of colloquial words or phrases in the text (in Fusha). However, new genre has been made possible through the “magic” use of the internet. This is a new phenomenon that started to spread over the Arab world, appearing in very conservative and moderate Arab countries alike, including Saudi Arabia, where a few publications appeared such as the one by Rajaa Alsanea, Girls of Riyadh, which first appeared in 2005 by Dar Al saqi and reached its seventh reprint in 2007. The latter, has become a controversial bestseller in the Middle East. The language used in the book is a mixture of Modern Standard Arabic, Saudi dialect, Lebanese dialect, Arabic-English and e-Arabic (Adil, 2007). This genre is still restricted to the youth generation that aims to explore the world of writing to communicate ideas to the society. What makes this kind of writing popular is that it takes place in a virtual world, free of all sorts of restrictions. What is dominant in these new novels are the detailed narrative element, the powerful ability to describe, the concentration on the main character and above all the use of a “funky” language. Other examples of publications in the colloquial are by Dar Al Shourouq, e.g., Ruz bi laban li shakhsain (2008) and Ayza atgawiz (2008) which were publications from blogs and emails. Their inclusion under the umbrella of literature is also another phenomenon that is stirring more and more debates, highlighting the views of those who argue that the internet weakened the Arabic language and those who argue that it enabled Arabs to have a “voice” globally. My selection of these books is not random; I chose to study writings by women from two distinctive countries from the Arab world; Algeria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The debate over the relationship between language and gender is not novel. In fact, it has become a core sociolinguistic issue since the 1960’s (Eid, 2002: 203). Furthermore, language choice in itself is a conscious decision which does not only reflect socio-cultural and political context but also serves in its change. In other words, language choice is crucial to language change. By this, I go back to what I discussed earlier that “languages have no lives that are independent of their speakers” (Mufwene, 2002: 175). Despite the fact that language choice is an individual matter, it nevertheless can include, exclude/distinguish the user from a group/s. This means that language choice does not affect the user only but it moves on to a larger scale (group/s). In other words, that language choice has deeper sociolinguistic implications. Furthermore, as Bourdieu argues, language cannot be separated from power. What this study set out to achieve and what makes it original is the fact it looks closer at language choice as a way of giving evidence of a broader phenomenon that is happening to Arabic which is “language change” as a whole. CMC research on Arabic The internet and its impacts on the daily lives of Arabs has been the focus of researchers in many fields over a decade. In the Middle East and North Africa, studies have been done for example, on “internet empowerment” such as, how the internet is empowering women in rural parts of the Arab world, who are illiterate and do not have even access to the necessary commodities like water and electricity, i.e., women living in underprivileged backgrounds (e.g., Davis, 2005). Similar studies on the economic empowerment through the use of information and communication technology (ICT) itself raises so many related issues/anxieties from anti-globalization groups who are aware of the ongoing hegemony of the north over the south both in ICT and in trade (Mitter and NG, 2005). The “hegemony” question has been and still is the “hottest” topic ever when dealing with globalization. As far as language (medium) used by internet users, computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been examined using contemporary critical social theory to this relatively new communicative medium in order to study its effects upon individuals and organization (Zuboff, 1989) and role of communication in the development of societies as a whole (Lawley, 1992). Habermas’s models of communicative theory have been applied by critical social theorist to a variety of empirical topics, including understanding the medium of CMC, and the patterns of interaction that have been observed in that medium. Again, what has received little if no attention is the linguistic side of research, the change that happens to sounds, letters and words. The coinage of words that emerge as a result of language contact received very little interest. As far as CMC in Arabic is concerned, research has barely begun and the studies conducted on Arabic are so far are around the theme of the medium used online (Warschauer, El Said and Zohry (2002, 2006); Palfreyman and Khalil (2003, 2006). In other words, they look at whether Arab internet users use Arabic scripts (in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or in colloquial Arabic; known as (’ammiya), Roman scripts in English or in Arabic but using Roman scripts) or mixture of both. In addition, the phenomenon of language choice online by Arabs was studied in relation with identity ((Warschauer, El Said and Zohry, 2007). Very little attention has been paid to the linguistic changes that are occurring to the Arabic language (both MSA and colloquial) through Information Technology (IT) in general and CMC in particular. Here, I refer to the new language that is emerging as a result of contact between languages; a language that I prefer to call e-Arabic. This new language contains instances of code switching, borrowings and calques. In this paper, I intend to concentrate on the observable fact of borrowing from foreign languages. This is by no means a new phenomenon. In fact, it initiated with the start of the first language contact between humans. However, what is worth noticing is the quantity of words, compound words, phrases both literal and figurative respectively borrowed from source languages (e.g. English). VI. Study This paper reveals preliminary results of a three year project on the impacts of new media on Arabic language in general and colloquial Arabic (’ammiya) in particular. Specifically, it focuses on Information Technology (IT) and how much borrowing is done in this subject. The borrowing includes both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and the colloquial Arabic (’ammiya) used in the everyday life where there is a natural use of the language. The emphasis of the study is to shed light on what I call e-Arabic, as mentioned above, and to give evidence from both spoken and written forms of the use of this new language. The focus of this research is to provide evidences supporting the idea of an emergence of a new subculture that is emerging in the Arab world, allowing its users to have a new linguistic identity. V. Methodology Data is collected using corpora made of 150 million internet based corpus (2006), which stores information about the frequency of words, collocations, phrases on the internet as a whole, including, Facebook, blogs, chat rooms and every Arabic website, 150 Arabic wikipedia corpus (2006) (containing 150 million words), Arabic legal corpus (2006) (of 12 million words) and Arabic computer science corpus (2009) (including 5 Million words) I would like to thank Dr. Latifa Al Sulaiti for her help and support with using the corpus . For more information on Leeds Corpus: http://smlc09.leeds.ac.uk/query-ar.html. Data was also collected from semi structured interviews and observation in Algeria, of both sexes from varied aged groups and different social and educational background. Furthermore, data was collected from observations during trips to Tunisia. Publications from blogs and emails are used as evidence to support arguments. VI Findings Borrowing Like most world languages, Arabic (both written and spoken forms) has absorbed numerous foreign words over the centuries. Many lexical borrowings were from Turkish and have survived mainly in colloquial such as the word /tāza/ meaning (fresh), /bagshish/ for (tip) and /dougri/ for (direct). By the end 19th and the beginning of the 20th century most of the Middle East and North Africa were colonized by either the French or the English and of course this helped tremendously in the change of both Standard and colloquial Arabic. In many cases, it is difficult to clearly define the direct origin of a borrowed term, as it could be a standard European vocabulary. By this I mean words like /telegrāf/, which could be from French (telegraphe) or English (telegraph) (see examples given by Rosenhouse, 2007 and Newman, 2002). In the contemporary period, the rapid growth of the field of Information technology and language contact has participated in language change. The latter, is manifested in the creation of a hybrid language or a completely new language, which I refer to as e-Arabic. As far as colloquial Arabic is concerned, new words have already made their way into Arabic dialects. In Algerian Arabic for example, while collecting data in a cybercafé, observing and recording the new words used by cybercafé users, verbs likeتشاتي‮ ‭ (‬tchati‭) ‬meaning‭ (‬to chat‭)‬,‭ ‬كليكي‮ ‭ (‬kliki‭) ‬i.e.,‭ (‬cliquer‭) ‬in English‭ (‬to click‭) ‬originating from French,‭ ‬were used extensively.‭ ‬These‭ ‬verbs are‭ ‬used and‭ ‬are‭ ‬adapted to the Algerian Arabic grammar and are formulated by keeping the original word‭ (‬either in French or in English‭) ‬and adding the appropriate prefixes and/or suffixes that make it sound like Arabic.‭ ‬For,‭ ‬I format the disk‭ ‬in English,‭ ‬is rendered into,‭ ‬أنفورماتي‮ ‬الديسك‭ (‬anfurmati aldisk‭) ‬in‭ ‬Algerian Arabic.‭ ‬As far as nouns are concerned,‭ ‬again a similar process happens to the word.‭ ‬For example,‭ ‬the‭ ‬word‭ ‬cybercafé,‭ ‬in Algerian is‭ ‬كافيه‭ ‬السيبار‮ ‭(‬el-siber Kafi‭)‬.‭ ‬I noticed that this language is used by‭ ‬internet‭ ‬users regardless of their age groups or educational‭ ‬background.‭ ‬For‭ ‬this paper,‭ ‬,‭ ‬my focus is not on how the word has been changed/adapted but on where it originates from‭? ‬The following list gives examples of verbs in Algerian Arabic: Verb level Source language تشاتي‎‮ ‭ (‬tchati‭) ‬to chat‭ ‬English كليكي‎‮ ‭ (‬kliki‭) ‬cliquer‭ ‬English‭ سوفقاردي‎‮ ‭ (‬sufgardi‭) ‬sauvegarder‭ ‬French قرافي‭ (‬gravi‭) ‬graver‭ ‬French As far are nouns are concerned, the following nouns are found while collecting data in Algeria (observation): Noun level Source language ايميل‭ (‬imail‭) ‬email‭ ‬English‭ بوات‭ (‬bouate‭) ‬boite‭ ‬French فلاش‎‮ ‬ديسك‮ ‬بلوتوث‭ (‬flāch disk‭) ‬flash-disk English الكونكسيون‭ (‬el-coneksiun‭) ‬connection‭ ‬French ‎‮ The above verbs can be used in past and present/future forms and can also be conjugated according the subject. The same example mentioned above, I format, in Algerian dialect is: أنفورماتي‭ (‬anformati‭)‬,‭ ‬he formats‭ ‬is‭ ‬أيفورماتي‭ (‬iformati‭)‬.‭ ‬What is noticeable is the source of language,‭ ‬as seen above‭; ‬these words originate either from French or English.‭ ‬As the latter is very limited in Algeria,‭ ‬I believe that the English words have made their way into Algerian dialect through French.‭ ‬Here,‭ ‬the borrowing did not happen directly but through the mediated channel of the French language.‭ ‬In fact,‭ ‬words like‭ ‬email,‭ ‬web,‭ ‬blogs‭…‬etc,‭ ‬are getting‭ ‬a‭ ‬universal status‭; ‬meaning that they exist in almost all languages of the world.‭ ‬I take this argument further to say that this language is part‭ ‬of‭ ‬an e-language,‭ ‬hence,‭ ‬the use of e-Arabic.‭ ‬As will be revealed later in this paper,‭ ‬this‭ ‬new‭ ‬language has made its way to different forms‭ (‬written and spoken‭)‬,‭ ‬literal and figurative,‭ ‬and is used at the word,‭ ‬compound word,‭ ‬collocation and phrase level.‭ ‬It is now used in literature in its broadest sense‭ (‬see below‭)‬. Linguistic features of borrowings This section summarises the main morphological, phonological and semantic features found in single-word as well as compound words and collocations English/French borrowings in colloquial and Modern Standard Arabic. At the MSA level, examples are as follows: Morphology: morphological changes involve several adaptations: Literal transfer without any changes Here, it is basically the case of maintaining the original word in the foreign language and using it in Arabic as it is without making any changes to it. Examples of IT words which made their way into Arabic without any change are كلستر‭ (‬cluster‭)‬,‮ ‬اوفيس‭ (‬office‭)‬,‭ ‬سوفت‮ ‬وير‭ (‬software‭) ‬and‭ ‬هارد‮ ‬وير‮ ‬hardware‮) ‭)‬.‭ ‬At this stage,‭ ‬statistical data is needed to see how often these words are used.‭ ‬Frequency‭ ‬is‭ ‬about the use of any word and how common it is.‭ ‬The more common it is,‭ ‬the more‭ ‬important it is to know.‭ ‬With the establishment of large computerised corpora in the English-speaking world,‭ ‬entries in dictionaries are now being presented with‭ ‬a‭ ‬note on their frequency.‭ ‬This is of course a very important addition,‭ ‬as it gives for example,‭ ‬learners which words are the most common to be learned.‭ ‬This is just one example of the benefits of working with frequency.‭ ‬Another crucial element to this study is related to the fact that frequency can be used by lexicographers to decide on which words to include‭ (‬institutionalise‭) ‬in a dictionary‭ (‬usually the more frequent a word is,‭ ‬the more likely‭ ‬for it‭ ‬to be included in a dictionary‭)‬.‭ ‬In the case of Arabic,‭ ‬the use of corpora is very limited and in case it is being used,‭ ‬to date,‭ ‬there is no presentation of frequency neither‭ ‬in‭ ‬monolingual nor bilingual Arabic dictionaries.‭ ‬The question that needs to be asked is whether high frequent words that belong to e-Arabic are going to be institutionalised‭ (‬i.e.,‭ ‬included in a dictionary‭)? ‬To have a clearer view about how frequent these words‭ ‬are,‭ ‬I use an Arabic internet based corpus.‭ ‬For example,‭ ‬the word‭ “‬web‭” (‬الواب,‭ ‬wāb‭)‬,‭ ‬has shown‭ ‬64‭ ‬examples in‭ ‬the first‭ ‬100‭ ‬lines that the Arabic internet based corpus generated.‭ ‬When the spelling of the same word changed slightly‭ (‬foreign words do not have one common spelling‭) ‬to‭ (‬الويب‭ ‬wib‭)‬,‭ ‬a higher score of‭ ‬84‭ ‬per‭ ‬100‭ ‬lines was found.‭ ‬This implies that the word is highly used.‭ ‬Similarly,‭ ‬the word‭ “‬format‭” (‬فورمات‭ ‬furmāt‭) ‬has generated a score of‭ ‬92‭ ‬examples in the first‭ ‬100‭ ‬lines.‭ ‬The study reveals high usage of these words according to the Arabic internet based website‭ (‬see methodology‭)‬.‭ ‬However for the sake of this paper,‭ ‬I list the above‭ ‬two‭ ‬examples only. ii. Adaptation to the morphology of the absorbing language The morphological adaptation varies from a change of a phoneme to a change of the whole words, for example: ديفايس‭ ‬:‭ ‬device‭ (‬/defais/‭ ‬by changing the‭ ‬/v/‭ ‬into‭ ‬/f/‭ ) ديسك‭ ‬:‭ ‬disk‭ (‬/disk/‭ ‬by lengthening the vowel‭ ‬/i/‭) The other morphological adaptation feature is that of pluralisation of a loan-word. One way of pluralisation in Arabic is by suffixation of a morpheme to the word. It is usually by adding the suffix /āt/ (feminine plural for foreign inanimate nouns even in the case of plural referent), for example, disk /di:skāt/‭ ‬ديسكات.‭ ‬In other cases such as‭ “‬card‭” (‬as in memory card‭)‬,‭ ‬there is an exception,‭ ‬where the plural of card is‭ ‬/kuru:d/‭ ‬or‭ ‬/kuru:t/‭ ‬and not‭ ‬/kārdāt/‭ ‬كرود‭ ‬or‭ ‬كروت. A frequent option of using loan-words is to combine them in collocations (i.e., are words that often g together. They could be made of two or more words), for example, “open file” is used as /yaftah milaf/ ‮ ‬ملفيفتح‭ ‬.‭ ‬In this case,‭ ‬it is an open collocation where the word‭ ‬/yaftah/‭ ‬lit.,‭ “‬open‭” ‬can be substituted with any other verb.‭ ‬Verb-noun collocation,‭ ‬are formed by adding a verb in Arabic and using the foreign word as it is,‭ ‬in some cases with some adaptation to the native language,‭ ‬for example: Operate / turn on/ switch on the computer = يفتح‎‮ ‬الكومبيوتر‭ (‬yaftah el-kambuter‭) Save a file = سوفقادري‮ ‬الفيشي‭ (‬sauvgardi el-fichie‭) Open the file = يفتح‮ ‬الفايل/‮ ‬الملف‭ (‬yaftah‭ ‬el-fail‭) Frequency related to collocations can also provide us with information about what words collocate with each other and also about how many times they appear in the whole corpus. For example, for the word “email” (in Arabic الاميل‭)‬,‮ ‭ ‬using the same corpus‭ (‬see Methodology section‭)‬,‭ ‬the following results are found: Examples Collocations Frequency in the Arabic Internet corpus (the whole corpus) الاميل‭ (‬email‭) ‬94‭ ‬times in‭ ‬100‭ ‬lines الاميل‎‮ ‬الخاص‭ (‬private email‭) ‬MSA 22030 الاميل‎‮ ‬على‭ (‬email on‭) 1662268 الاميل‎‮ ‬ده‭ (‬this email‭) ‬in colloquial Egyptian‭) 16928 الاميل‎‮ ‬بتاع‭ (‬the email of‭) ‬in colloquial Egyptian‭) 1719 From the above statistics, we notice that the word‮ ‬الاميل‮ ‬is very frequently used by Arabic-speakers.‭ ‬It also tells us that it is used both in colloquial and in MSA alike.‭ ‬The list of the words that collocate with the word‭ “‬email‭” ‬is long but,‭ ‬I chose the one with the highest score,‭ ‬not only to show how common they are,‭ ‬but also to provide evidence that the word is being used in natural communications and is being adapted to the native language‭ (‬both MSA and colloquial Arabic‭)‬.‭ Calques or loan translations (words borrowed from another language word for word).‮ ‭ From the internet-based corpus used, these are found: hard disk القرص‮ ‬الصلب‭ (‬al-kurs al salb‭)‬,‭ ‬secure chat‭ ‬تشات‮ ‬محمي‭ (‬tchāt mahmi‭)‬,‭ ‬desktop‭ ‮ ‬سطح‮ ‬المكتب‭(‬desktop‭)‬,‭ ‬electronic mail‭ ‬بريد‮ ‬الكتروني‭ (‬bari:d elektu:ni‭)‬,‭ ‬floppy disk‭ ‬مرن‭ ‬قرص‭ (‬kurs marin‭) ‬and mother‮ ‭ ‬boardاللوحة‮ ‬الأم‭ (‬el-lawha al-u:m‭)‬.‭ ‬Again,‭ ‬I searched for the frequency of these compound loan words.‭ ‬The following‭ ‬table shows the frequency Frequency Examples in Arabic In English Frequency in 100 lines القرص‎‮ ‬الصلب Hard disk 53 examples اللوحة‎‮ ‬الأم‭ Mother board 71 examples سطح‎‮ ‬المكتب Desktop 83 examples بريد‎‮ ‬الالكتروني Electronic mail 97 examples From the above table, we notice that the frequency of the above loan words is high. I selected the loan word that scored the least in the list which is القرص‮ ‬الصلب‭ (‬hard disk‭)‬,‭ ‬scoring‭ ‬53‭ ‬examples,‭ ‬I then searched for the‭ ‬frequency of the‭ ‬same entry as a‭ ‬collocation‭ ‬in the entire corpus,‭ ‬where‭ ‬a higher score of‭ ‬4882151‭ ‬is found.‭ ‬What we can now say is that both single and compound words score highly,‭ ‬showing that they are among the common words used by Arabs.‭ ‬So far,‭ ‬we have seen the literal use of the these words,‭ ‬the figurative mode will be highlighted in the following section,‭ ‬showing usage at the compound word and phrase levels. Figurative Language Metaphor is a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally stand for in order to suggest a similarity. For the sake of this study, I highlight the use of IT related metaphors used on the internet (corpus-based data). The metaphors found so far are in the form of compound words, for example, internet addict (مدمن‮ ‬انترنت‭)‮ ‬/mudmininternat/,‭ ‬the infected email‭ (‮ ‬الايميل‮ ‬المصاب‭) ‬el-imail el-musāb/‭ ‬IT gap‭ (‬الثغرة‮ ‬الالكترونية‭) ‬/el-thaghra el-ilktruniya/‭ ‬and smart phones‭ ‮(‬الهواتف‮ ‬الذكية‮) ‬Again,‭ ‬to have a complete picture about the frequency of metaphors,‭ ‬I searched‭ ‬for‭ ‬مدمن‮ ‬انترنت,‭ ‬i.e.,‭ ‬internet addict,‭ ‬for which I found‭ ‬6‭ ‬examples and for‭ ‬الهواتف‮ ‬الذكية‭ (‬smart phones‭) ‬29‭ ‬examples.‭ ‬Despite the low occurrences of these metaphors,‭ ‬the usage‭ ‬is not at all‭ ‬low‭ ‬because figurative language is not the language used all‭ ‬the time.‭ ‬However,‭ ‬this is by no means a way of saying that figurative language is rare.‭ Phrases Language change in Arabic goes further than the single or compound word level, to the phrase stage and not at the literal meaning only but it reaches the metaphorical level. For this, I selected few extracts from the interviews taken in Algeria to illustrate evidence of usage. ماكش‎‮ ‬مكونكتي‮ ‬معايا‭ (‬mākech mkounekti m’āya‭) (lit, he wasn’t connected) مرأة‎‮ ‬وعندها‮ ‬ويندوز‮ ‬تاع‮ ‬راجل‭ (‬mr‭’ ‬ā‭ ‬wa‭ ‘‬andha windouz ant‭’ ‬rājel‭) (it, a woman with man’s windows) أنفرماطيه‭ (‬anformatih‭) (fig, I will format him, lit: I will erase him from the surface of Earth)‎‮ The next section is about the grammatical adaptations made to the foreign words. It also gives an indication of what category of words is more likely to incur a change. Grammar Grammatical category What has been found so far shows that the majority of borrowings into MSA happen as nouns and not as verbs. There are few cases of Adjectives but, quantitatively, the number of nouns exceeds by far. Plurals/dual The plural in both MSA and colloquial is formed mostly by adding /āt/ (the feminine plural) as is the case of plurals of foreign words, e.g., /diskāt/ for (disks). There are some cases of irregular plurals, for example, /krūt/ as well as /kardāt/ for (cards). The dual varies in MSA and in colloquial (e.g Algerian Arabic) is simply formed by adding the word “zouj” زوج‭ (‬lit,‭ ‬two‭)‬,‭ ‬followed by the noun,‭ ‬e.g.,‭ ‬/zouj flāsh disk/‭ (‬two flash disks‭)‬.‭ ‬Dual varies from one colloquial Arabic to another.‭ Gender Gender is closely linked to the word in French. If the word in the source language is in the feminine form, then word borrowed in Algerian Arabic takes the same gender, such as, /labouat/ for (la boite) and if the word in French is in the masculine form, then the borrowed word into Algerian Arabic is in Masculine, such as, /el-siber/ for (le cyber). What I found interesting is the fact that most words originating from English, when rendered into French, they take the masculine form, for example, (le cyber, le site, le blog...etc). When these words are borrowed from French into Algerian Arabic, they take the same form as the French one. Word formation The nouns found so far are not highly inflectionally productive, for example, the word (email) can only take plural /emailat/ or dual /emailain/. Another example is the word, (telephone), which can be extended to /telifuni/ and /telifuniya/, plural /telifunat/ and dual /zouj telifunat/(in Algerian dialect). Phonology As far as Arabic treatment of the French/English phonemes is concerned, there is no great difference in the way other foreign words have been treated. By this, I mean that there are some changes that happen to foreign words regardless of whether they are IT related or in any other field. For example, the consonant /p/ changes to /b/: e.g. /brūgrām/ (program), as Arabic does not have the sound/p/. Another example is the fricative sound /v/ which changes into /f/ when used in Arabic, as in the word (virus) which takes an /f/ in Arabic instead of /v/. /fairus/‮ ‭ ‬فيروس.‭ ‬There is‭ ‬also a case of‭ ‬emphaticization,‭ ‬as in‭ ‬the word‭ (‬format‭) ‬in English,‭ ‬which‭ ‬becomes‭ ‬/farmata/‭ (‬فرمطة‭)‬.‭ As far as vowels are concerned, short vowels are lengthened when used in Arabic, for example, /u/ /u:/ : e.g. unicode /uniku:d/ To sum up, we have seen that language change is happening to Arabic, both MSA and colloquial Arabic and that is through CMC. This change is taking place, at different levels, the word, the compound word and the phrase. Furthermore, the change is happening at both the literal and metaphorical levels. Also, the adaptation is done in a systematic way, where the foreign word takes up a certain form/adaptation that makes it sound like a local/native word. In the next section, I will highlight the new Arabic literary scene, in the hope of providing evidence of language change rather than analyzing the literary work. E-Literature Before reviewing specific uses of language use in this literature, it is worth noting the context within which Arabic e-literature is operating. “Language is a means and not an end” is the motto that is motivating a high number of young bloggers to write, with the aim of being heard globally. As far as language is concerned, The argument is that standard Arabic, seen as a “high” language, has been for a long time the stumbling block against the vast majority of Arabic native speakers and is monopolized by a minority of the elite population. The same motto was once advocated by nationalist leftist movements promoting the social mission/role of literature, in narrowing down the gap between the elite (bourgeois) and the mass population (Azam, 2009). However, what was meant then was to encourage writers to interact with the mass population by using a simple language and engaging what matters to the people. That did not mean writing in colloquial though, as this option was rare or limited. The new writing, which emerged with the internet, made that possible. The emergence of new publications in colloquial Arabic written by internet users as “novels” is generating a heated debate, shifting the emphasis from whether or not Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) literature should include colloquial to insisting on writing in colloquial only. In a special edition of Al Majala al Arabiyya (2009), writers from around the Arab world express their views about the new phenomenon, which they call ‮ ‬حكواتي‮ ‬الانترنت‮ ‬/hakawati al internat/‭ “‬the internet story teller‭”‬.‭ ‬Their views vary‭ ‬between those who find‭ ‬this form of writing amusing and an addition to what is being‭ ‬written‭ ‬in‭ ‬MSA and those who view this genre as a temporary phase,‭ ‬which will fade out in the future,‭ ‬as it does not stand on solid grounds.‭ I review three novels published recently in the Arab world by female writers from different Arab countries to highlight the case of language change in each novel. I present evidence of CMC use in the novels despite the differences of language choice. By this, I mean that while for example, the language used by both Rajaa Alsanea in her book (بنات‮ ‬الرياض‭) ‬Girls of Riyadh‭ (‬2005‭) ‬and‭ ‬Ahlam Mosteghanemi in her latest‭ ‬novel‭ (‬نسيان‭ ‬Com‭) ‬Nessyane Com‭ (‬2009‭) ‬is‭ ‬a mixture of dialects‭ (‬Algerian,‭ ‬Egyptian,‭ ‬Lebanese,‭ ‬Saudi and‭ ‬e-Arabic‭)‬,‭ ‬Ayzza Atgawiz‭ (‬2008‭) ‬is in‭ ‬the‭ ‬Egyptian‭ ‬dialect and‭ ‬e-Arabic‭ ‬only.‭ ‬Moustaghanemi's novel mixes Arabic and English in its very title,‭ (‬نسيان‭ ‬Com‭) ‬Nessyane Com,‭ ‬thus‭ ‬using the medium I have been calling e-Arabic.‭ ‬It‭ ‬also includes‭ ‬a website address for readers to‭ ‬comment on the book,‭ ‬enabling both the readers and the writer‭ ‬to exchange ideas and interact with each other.‭ ‬This‭ “‬privilege‭” ‬is made available via the virtual sphere.‭ ‬The book‭ ‬is‭ ‬also‭ ‬accompanied‭ ‬by‭ ‬a CD‭ ‬of songs written by Ahlam in Standard Arabic and sang by a female Lebanese Singer‭ (‬Wehbe‭) ‬,‭ ‬aiming to support and reinforce the theme of the‭ ‬novel,‭ ‬which is‭ “‬forgetting and moving on in life‭”‬.‭ ‬In the different‭ ‬chapters‭ (‬articles‭) ‬in the book,‭ ‬the author uses MSA as the overall medium of writing‭; ‬she also uses Algerian and Lebanese‭ ‬Arabic,‭ ‬especially when she is cynical‭ ‬.‭ ‬There are few Qur‭’‬anic verses‭ ‬and poems both in MSA and Classical Arabic‭ ‬used by the‭ ‬writer‭ ‬as quotations at the opening of‭ ‬each‭ ‬chapter‭ (‬article‭)‬.‭ ‬Furthermore,‭ ‬English words‭ (‬in Roman‭ ‬script‭) ‬are used as in the case of the word‭ “‬Com‭” ‬in the title,‭ ‬the‭ ‬writer‭ ‬uses loan words‭ ‬As from e-Arabic,‭ ‬such as‭ ‬email‭ (‬ايميل‭ ) ‬and its plural form‭ ‬/emailat/‭ (‬ايميلات‭)‬,‭ ‬messages‭ (‬ميسّاجات‭) ‬/misājāt/,‭ ‬MSN‭ (‬م.‮ ‬أس.أنأ‭) ‬and‭ ‬chat‭(‬الشات‭)‬.‭ ‬This mixing of language does not stop at the literal meaning only,‭ ‬it goes further to the metaphorical use,‭ ‬for example,‭ ‬the‭ ‬Arabic‭ ‬expression‭ (‮ ‬قطط‮ ‬النت‭) ‬/kitat alnet/‭ (‬lit,‭ ‬net cats‭)‬,‭ ‬and,‭ (‬الرجيم‮ ‬الهاتفي‭ ) ‬/alriji:m alhatifi/‭ (‬lit,‭ ‬telephone diet‭)‬.‭ Similarly, Rajaa Alsanea (2005) writes in varied forms of Arabic including MSA, and colloquial from different parts of the Arab world, such as Saudi and Lebanese. Furthermore, she uses e-Arabic such as email (ايميل ) and its plural form /emailat/ (ايميلات). She employs English written in Arabic script such as security (السيكيورتي‭)‬.‭ ‬Alsanea‭ ‬goes further to‭ ‬bring into play‭ ‬the word‭ ‬أكنسل‮)‭) (‬in English:‭ ‬I cancel‭) ‬where the verb to‭ ‬cancel‭ ‬is‭ ‬adapted‭ ‬to the local language and‭ ‬is‭ ‬conjugated accordingly.‭ ‬The use‭ ‬of English is present at the beginning of each‭ ‬chapter‭ ‬on the left hand side,‭ ‬giving the‭ ‬text the‭ ‬format‭ ‬of‭ ‬an email.‭ ‬Roman letters and numbers to represent the missing letters‭ ‬are‭ ‬also‭ ‬used,‭ ‬such as the number‭ ‬7,‭ ‬which represents the‭ ‬/ḩ/‭ ‬in‭ “‬seerehwenfadh7et‭” (‬a.‭ Ghada Abdel’al’s novel Ayzza atgawiz (2008) is entirely in Egyptian Arabic. The language used is informal. It is written exactly the way it is pronounced, i.e., all the sounds are written down. English words are written in Arabic script, for example, (بليز ) /bli:z/ for please, (سوفنير‭) ‬/su:fini:r/‭ ‬for‭ ‬souvenir,‭ (‬فريندالبوي‮ ‭) ‬/boai ferind/‭ ‬i.e.,‭ ‬boyfriend.‭ ‬Concerning the figurative use of the language,‭ ‬the book contains a large number of sarcastic metaphors.‭ ‬I will stop at one which,‭ ‬in my opinion,‭ ‬gives an idea of how the writer views language‭ ‬of the past‭ (‬راحت‮ ‬واحدة‮ ‬فينا‮ ‬مطلّعة‮ ‬من‮ ‬شنطتها‮ ‬الابتسامة‮ ‬اللي‮ ‬شيلاها‮ ‬للمناسبات‮ ‬اللي‮ ‬زي‮ ‬دي-‮ ‬حلوة‮ ‬الحتة‮ ‬دي؟‮ ‬مش‮ ‬دي‮ ‬الاستعارة‮ ‬المكنية‮ ‬بتاعة‮ ‬البلاغة‮ ‬زمان؟‭) (‬in‭ ‬English:‭ ‬one of us went and took from her handbag a smile,‭ ‬which she saves for similar occasions,‭ ‬nice piece,‭ ‬don’t you think‭? ‬Isn’t this what‭ ‬ancient rhetoricians‭ ‬called metaphor‭?)" The translation is in this paper is my own..‭ ‬There is a clear feeling of disassociation from the‭ “‬old‭” ‬language.‭ ‬The author chose‭ ‬this‭ “‬new‭” ‬medium of expressing her views without‭ ‬stopping at the linguistic side,‭ ‬as she views that language‭ ‬as‭ ‬a medium and not an end in itself.‭ To sum up this section, the use of various types of languages is a further evidence that that change is affecting Arabic language in its different forms and is happening quickly. The change is taking place locally as a way of engaging not only with the globalised discourse as such but also revealing interests in the ways in which the local frames the global. In other words, while the experience is global, some writers choose to frame/express it in the most local of languages, the dialect. Others incorporate these realities into MSA or, in the case of Mostaganemi, for example, within a very poetic and highly elaborate Arabic style. The questions to be asked are: is the discourse on the use of e-Arabic going to replace the one about ‘ammiya and fusha? Is the reason for using e-Arabic justified by simply a need for maintaining the naturalness of the speech? It must be noted that the writers whose work is reviewed above entertain different relationships with CMC. Furthermore, while some were originally bloggers (Abdel'al), others are established writers whose fame rests on several published novels (Mosteghanemi), others still are emerging MSA writers (Alsanea). But while they are all different, they use e-Arabic and come under the influence of CMC. This would mean that the phenomenon is not only a marginal one; but rather has moved to the mainstream of Arabic literature. Conclusion A proper account of the extent of language change in the Arab world as a result of the globalization of CMC requires evidence from a variety of sources and an account of the specific ways in which loan words based in CMC have entered Arabic. Through a combination of data from corpora, blogs and field research in the Arab world, the present paper demonstrates that change occurred at the levels of word as well as phrase, in the literal as well as the metaphorical fields. Further evidence is detected in recent literature from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Algeria. Because language shapes social realities (Bourdieu, 1991), ideas and ideologies are handled and transmitted through language, changes affect the global and the local alike. Arabic, as a local medium, like any language, does not have immunity against change. Thus, the rapid change of IT in the world has speeded up the pace of linguistic change. In Arabic, the word email and blog are so widely used (as seen through the usage of he frequency factor in the corpus) that one does not know whether they should be considered loan words from one language, English, or simply part of a new language that is emerging globally, with no specific national language affiliation. The paper demonstrates that this new language is being used in MSA and the various Arabic dialects alike, both literally and metaphorically. The implications of this on the distinctions between the two and the future of MSA are being debated across the Arab world, in traditional media as well as the blogosphere. Furthermore, e-Arabic has found its way to literature and other forms of cultural expression, such as film and oral poetry and music. The speed and implications of this have been such that research has been at pains to keep pace. 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Websites: Booth, Marylyn translation reviewed by Alev Adil, 3rd August 2007 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/girls-of-riyadh-by-rajaa-alsanea-trans-marilyn-booth-460023.html. Davis, Suzan Schaefer. (2005). http://itidjournal.org/itid/article/viewPDFInterstitial/253/123 http://www.shobiklobik.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=111074&whichpage=5 PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 1