As a result of the diglossic situation of Arabic, informal written Arabic represents the different forms of spoken Arabic (Aboelezz, 2010; Palfreyman and Al Khalil, 2003). It is important to mention that the corpus collected for the current sub-study was for the spoken variety that is used in the middle region of Saudi Arabia i.e. Najdi Arabic. It also is important to mention that the data in this chapter include expressions from spoken Arabic written in both Arabic and in Arabizi. The main focus of the linguistic analysis in this section is on the expressions that have been written in Arabizi, since the focus in Chapters Four and Five was on spoken Arabic.
The following classifications for Arabic consonants and vowels were employed in Palfreyman and Al Khalil (2003). However, the examples were taken from the data of the current study.
7.2.1.1 Arabizi representation of Consonants
The findings of this study show that the Arabizi representation for several Arabic sounds is based on the pronunciation of this sound in English. For example, similarly to the findings of Palfreyman and Al Khalil (2003) and Yaghan (2008), the data of this sub-study show that the participants used the Latin letters : <s> and <t> to represent the sounds /s/ and /t/ respectively instead of the Arabic letters : <س> and <ت>. In addition, the findings of this study support the findings of the studies of Palfreyman and Al Khalil (2003) and Yaghan (2008) and show that the participants used the English representation for the sounds /θ/, /ð/, and /∫/ that stand for <th> as in “three”, <th> as in “father” and for <sh> as in “shark”. However, the data of the current sub-study also show that the sound /ð/ is also represented by the numeral 4. See Table 7.1.
One of the significant differences between Arabic and English orthography that has created some challenges in conveying the actual pronunciations of several words, is the absence of the equivalents of a number of Arabic sounds in English (Aboelezz, 2010). Nevertheless, while there are academic attempts to standardize the representation of these sounds, it can be said that the use of Arabizi has created an interesting solution for this problem. As shown in Table 7.1, Arabizi mainly depends on the use of Arabic numbers that have a degree of similarity either in shape or in the reflected shape to Arabic characters (Aboelezz, 2010; Palfreyman & Al Khalil, 2003). Furthermore, Arabic is characterized by the dots that are usually added above some letters to enable the reader to distinguish between their different pronunciations. While some of the dotted letters have exact correspondents in English such as <ن> which is represented by <n> in Arabizi, other dotted letters are represented by Arabic numerals followed by an apostrophe, see Table 7.1.
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42 Table 7.130 The Use of Arabic Numerals to Represent Arabic Sounds in Arabizi
Sound Arabic
representation
Arabizi representation
Example
& English translation
/ð/ voiced dental fricative that stands for <th> as in “father”
<ذ>* <4> e4a “if” “when”
/ħ/ (a heavy /h/-type sound) <ح> <7> 7loo “nice”, t7t “downstairs”
/ʕ/ (a tightening of the throat
resembling a light gargle) <ع> <3>
3ala “on”, ”over”, asma3
“listen” /t'/ (the emphatic version of
/t/) <ط> <6> 6ib “okay”
/s'/ (the emphatic version of
/s/) <ص> <9>
T9ade8 “you believe it (or not)”
/ʔ/ (glottal stop) <ء> <2> 2naaa “I”, Msaaa2 al5eer “good evening”
/x/ (final sound in Scots
'loch') <خ> <5> <7’>
Msaaa2 al5eer “good evening”, b7’eer “in a good health”
/ɣ/ (voiced version of above) <غ> <3’> El a3’anee “the songs”, /ð'/ (the emphatic version of
/ð/, the first sound in English "that")
<ظ> <6’> 6’rory “urgent”
/d'/ (the emphatic version of
/d/) <ض> <9’> Ma9’awy “a female name”
/g/ voiced velar stop. This sound is more common in the Najdi Arabic and some other spoken Arabic vernaculars.31
<ق>* <8> <g> 4o8eek 7lo “your taste is nice”, gal “he said”
*Only these two sounds have correspondents in English, while all other sounds stand for Arabic letters which do not exist in English.
Another linguistic feature found in this corpus is related to the differences in the pronunciation of the letter <ق> between CA and MSA varieties and the Najdi vernacular. While the sound /g/ is used to represent the pronunciation for this letter in the Najdi vernacular, the sound /q/ is used to represent the pronunciation of the same letter in both CA and MSA varieties. For example, the word gal “he said”
30 The classification in both Tables 7.1 and 7.2 is based on the classification in Palfreyman and Al Khalil (2003). 31 This sound does not have a correspondent in English when it is represented in CA and MSA varieties. When it is
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was used in this corpus and stands for the Najdi vernacular, is represented in both forms: qa:l or qa:la in CA and MSA varieties in accordance with the representation of the short vowels.
The findings also showed that while there is a degree of consistency in representing the Arabic consonants in Arabizi, there is also variation in the use of letters and numbers to represent some consonants. For example, the sound /ð/ was represented in two different forms: 'etha and e4a (“if” or “when”). Moreover, the two words that were taken from the corpus: tg9den “you mean” that is used to address singular feminine and the t89d “you mean” for singular masculine show that the letter <g> and the number <8> are used alternatively to represent the sound /g/. The data show that in some cases the use of the apostrophe to represent dotted letters can be placed either before or after the number that represents the letter such as the numeral 3 with the apostrophe that represents the letter <غ> that stands for the sound /ɣ/. Consider the following example:
f ‘3rft mama (“in my mum’s bedroom”) and 3’orfety (“my bedroom”).
7.2.1.2 Arabizi representation of vowels
Compared to the consonant system, the corpus shows that the use of vowels in Arabizi is optional and less consistent. The most frequent cases of Arabizi vowels are shown in Table 7.2.
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43 Table 7.2 The Representation of Vowels in Arabizi
Sound Arabizi representations
/ɨ/ <a> ra7t “I went”
/a/ <a> hala “hello”, ana “I” <aa> shokraan “thanks” <-> s-me “say besemellah “in the name of Allah”32
/a:/ (long /a/)
<a> fe bally “in my mind”,
aljay “the next” <aa> moyaa “water”
<aaa> Msaaa2 “evening” <aaaa> b,2rtaaaa7 “I’m going to have a rest”
/ei/ <ai> kaif “how” <ee> msaa2 al5eer “good evening” --
/i/ <e> momken? “is it possible?”
<ee> momkin? “is it possible?”
<-> momk-n “is it possible?” <y> amry “give order” <yyy> abyyy “I want” <i> abshri33 “be ready to receive good news” /au/ <o> lo sama7ty “if you permitted” <aw> law sma7ti if you permitted” -- /i:/ <ee> al7een “now” <e> jebely “bring me”
(Sing.Fem.Imp) --
/u/ <u> bukra “tomorrow” <o> 3’orfety “my bedroom” --
/u:/ <o> alesbo3 “the week” -- --
/o/ <o> moyaa “water” -- --
/o:/ <o> shlonk? “how are you?” <ou> elyoum “the day” --
The data show a high level of variability in the use of vowels in Arabizi. According to Yaghan (2008), the use of vowels can be optional and sometimes vowels are omitted. This tendency can be a result of one or two factors: both readers share the same linguistic background or the meaning of the word is clear from the context. For example, as shown in Table 7.2, various words were employed in different forms showing that writers knew that they shared a linguistic background and that the reader would understand without the writer having to consider the spelling rules of each word. The optional use of the letters <y>, <e> and <i> can also be seen in the suffix ي /i:/ that is usually added to the end of verbs and pronouns to address a single female in Najdi Arabic. For example: lo sma7t-y and law sm7t-i both stand for ول
تحمَس
ي (“if you permitt”) and asm3-e يعمَسا(“listen”).
The use of vowels in Arabizi also provides an interesting reflection of the significant differences between Arabic and English vowel systems. One of these differences is the use of consonants to represent Arabic
32 This expression is used to address a singular female in Najdi Arabic. It does not mean its literal meaning, but it is used the
requestee as a polite response that has the same meaning of “off course” or “sure” that are used as responses for an expression such as: “can I ask you something?”
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words in Latin characters without involving any vowels. As discussed previously, the writing system in MSA usually does not focus on the representation of the diacritics that stand for the short vowels. The focus in this variety is more on long vowels and consonants because they have a greater impact on spelling and the grammatical rules in written texts. The spoken forms of Arabic also share this linguistic feature with MSA when they are used as written forms. The impact of this phenomenon is evident in the use of consonants and vowels in Arabizi by native speakers of Arabic. Table 7.3 includes various words from the corpus that are used in Najdi Arabic and share the same linguistic feature i.e. the representation in orthography with consonants only.
44 Table 7.3 Arabizi Representation for Arabic Words with Consonants
Words represented by consonants only
Pronunciation Words represented by consonants and vowels
Pronunciation
t7t تحت “downstairs” /taħt/ mumkin? ؟نكمَم “is it possible?”
/mumkin/
bs سب “just” /bas/ marra ةرم “very” /marra:/
wsh شو “what” /wish/ Bsr3ah ةعرسب
“quickly”
/bsɨrʕah/
glt تلق “I said” /gilt/ bl bar ربلاب “in the dessert”
/bilbar/
The findings show the participants used Latin letters for the same pronunciation in Arabic without including any vowels. This tendency shows that the writer is assuming that the reader understands the meaning because both share the same linguistic background. However, some words shown in Table 7.3 were used in Arabizi with vowels despite the fact that their equivalents in Arabic orthography do not include any long vowels. The main reason is to avoid any ambiguity that might result if vowels were omitted.
The use of sounds in Arabizi also provides reflection for other linguistic features. The first feature is related to the suffix <ah> for the feminine ending in nouns and adjectives in the Najdi Arabic vernacular such as: moya-h هيوم “water”, furs-ah ةصرف “chance” and marra-h ةرم “time”34; or stands for endings in
verbs that refer to masculine objects such as: ba ʔkalm-ah همَلكاب “I will talk to him”. The corpus shows that the participants omitted the sound /h/ in the words: moyaa, for9a, marra and bklma respectively. The corpus shows that even words that were written in the Arabic transcript (Najdi Arabic) were affected by this feature. For instance, in words such as: bukra اركب “tomorrow” and liʔanu ونلْ “because it is…”, the final sound /h/ was omitted and the sounds that represent the short vowels were added to the end of
34 furs-ah ةصرف “chance” and marra-h ةرم “time” also exist in both CA and MSA. However the focus here is on the Najdi
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each word. The original forms of these words are bukra-h and liʔanu-h respectively. This tendency in fact distinguishes the modern feminine style of chatting which is considered amongst the younger generation as a “girlish” and “funky” way of writing.
The other grammatical feature is related to the use of the definite article in Arabic orthography. As mentioned, in CA and MSA the definite article is represented as al لا. However, the participants varied their use for it in Arabizi either as its form in CA and MSA such as: al-esbo3 عوبسلْا “the week” and al- jay ياجلا “the next”; or by representing it as: el as it is pronounced in the Najdi vernacular such as: el- yoom ويلام “the day” and el-nnor رونلا “the light”. The corpus also includes another form for the definite article as in: b.l.6ree8 قيرطلاب “on the way”. As mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, the pronunciation of the definite article varies in accordance with the sounds that proceed it although it is represented in the same form in Arabic orthography i.e. al لا. However, the corpus shows that the sound /l/ in the definite article was included even if it was silent as a result of a combination with one of the “sun letters” as in el-nnor رونلا “the light”. According to Palfreyman and Al Khalil (2003), the consistency of including the sound /l/ even if it is silent results from the impact of CA and MSA orthographies.
The findings of this study support the findings of the studies of Yaghan (2008) and Palfreyman and Al Khalil (2003) and show that the use of Arabizi is contextual and mainly dependent on the linguistic background that both the writer and reader share.
Additionally, the data showed that the use of Arabizi is related to the phenomenon of code-switching, defined as: A shift within the same speech exchange from one language (code) to another, where a language is identified as a distinct grammatical system or subsystem (Gumperz, 1982:59). It can be said that the phenomenon of code-switching here results from the impact of English as the language that is mainly related to modern technology for the younger generations (Aboelezz, 2010). Al-Kahtib and Sabbah (2008) also believe that one of the reasons for code switching while texting is because English has a special status amongst youth and educated individuals. Code-switching, hence, is seen as using a prestigious form of language. As shown from the data the occurrence of code-switching varied between borrowing single words or clauses from English. For example:
Aby el black ring eli knty labstaa ams.
I want the black ring that you were wearing yesterday.
Other abbreviations that are used in the common World Web Wide and cellular phone messages such as: plz, ok and the numeral 2 that stand for ‘please’, ‘okay’ and ‘too’ respectively were also found in the corpus. The findings of this study support the findings of Aboelezz (2010) which showed that code- switching can reflect another linguistic feature i.e. including English words as parts of Arabic scripts. For example, the use of the definite article as a suffix with English words as in: el channel and el black.
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It is also important to mention that since this sub-study focuses on the use of Arabizi amongst Saudi young females, the most linguistic features that distinguish verbs and pronouns are the affixes that show the feminine forms of these parts of speech such as: amry “give an order” and law samahtii, ‘would you mind’ that are both used to address single female subjects.
The following section focuses on the phenomenon of Arabizi from a sociolinguistic perspective and provides a wider scope for some of the aspects that were included in this form of requests (informal written requests written in both Latin and Arabic letters).