The Arabic language is a complex, diglossic language, with varying written
(fuṣḥá) and spoken (‘āmmīyah) forms. While the study of mixing between
fuṣḥá and ‘āmmīyah in spoken Arabic has received some scholarly attention,
far less attention has been paid to mixing in writing, which this study seeks
to address.
Badawi’s (1973) landmark study of Egyptian Arabic use identified five
language levels, assuming naturally that written Arabic exists as either
Classical or Modern Standard Arabic, while mixing between written and
spoken forms is reserved as a feature of Educated Spoken Arabic (ESA),
despite the proliferation of mixed literary works by renowned writers such as
Tawfiq al-Hakim, Yusuf Idris and Yusuf Sibai at the time. Since Badawi’s
(1973) study, studies of mixed Arabic have centred around ESA (Eid, 1988;
Bassiouney, 2006), uncovering to some extent the type and degree of, and
motivations for, mixing, which have been used as a backdrop for the
examination of mixed writing in this study. More recently, Høigilt & Mejdell
(2017), Mejdell (2014), Ibrahim (2010), and Rosenbaum (2000) have
identified occurrences of mixing in written Arabic.
The aim of this study therefore, is to take a holistic view of Arabic writing,
across different times and media, towards establishing a theoretical
framework for Egyptian Arabic writing, including fuṣḥá, ‘āmmīyah and socalled
‘mixed’ forms.
The catalyst for this study, as well as for the proliferation of mixed and
‘āmmīyah writing, has been the expansion of the internet and the rapid
increase in online writing. For Arabic at least, the Arab Spring and social
media within it, have played an important role in the widespread use of
‘āmmīyah in writing, which this study aims to place within the wider context
of Arabic writing.
