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Arabic teenagers’ attitudes to electronic writing in Arabizi

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Abstract

The globalization of English-based technology has caused the present-day Arab generation to rely on the use of the Latin script as the main writing system when communicating through the electronic medium in Spoken Arabic (SA). This has raised fears for the preservation of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), the traditional orthography of Arabic. This study presents the attitudes of Arab adolescents in northern Israel towards the use of Arabizi (Latinized Arabic) in Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), and towards MSA. The data were collected via a questionnaire completed by 8th grade students. The questions were divided into three different themes: (1) Demographic data, (2) The degree of control of communication with Arabizi in CMC, and (3) Subjects’ attitude towards Arabizi and MSA. The results show that although the students all use Arabizi and report that it is easier and more accessible to them, they consider MSA important and valuable, as it is related to their identity as Arabs.

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Notes

  1. Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) has been defined as “the practice of using networked computers and alphabetic text to transmit messages between people or groups of people across space and time” (Jacobs 2008:470).

  2. The term Arabizi was coined in the last two decades (Yaghan 2008) and is also known as the Youth New Era Language (due to its use among young people in particular (Ghazal 2014).

  3. Gorter (2006) distinguished between two main factors that affect multilingual aspects of writing. The first is "top-down" or, as Ivković named it, from above, where language planning is prescribed by administration and experts (Maguire 1995; Bradley 2010; Ivković 2015), and the second is “bottom-up” or from below, where linguistic practices are determined by mostly anonymous, non-expert users.

  4. Al-Tamimi and Gorgis (2007) mention that Latinized Jordanian Arabic might be described as a hybrid lingua franca or even a pidgin.

  5. However, it should be mentioned that very recently users of CMC have begun employing a written form of SA using Arabic letters. This new orthography lacks standardization and it is used in social media as well as discussion forums, SMS and online chat rooms (Maamouri et al. 2014).

  6. For further historical perspective, see Bani-Khaled (2014) and Hamdan (2017).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Learning Disabilities Department, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, 31905, Haifa, Israel

    Aula Khatteb Abu-Liel

  2. Psychology Department, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, 31905, Haifa, Israel

    Zohar Eviatar

  3. The Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, 31905, Haifa, Israel

    Aula Khatteb Abu-Liel & Zohar Eviatar

  4. Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, 31905, Haifa, Israel

    Bracha Nir

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  1. Aula Khatteb Abu-Liel
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  2. Zohar Eviatar
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Appendix

Appendix

The Questionnaire (in Arabic)

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Khatteb Abu-Liel, A., Eviatar, Z. & Nir, B. Arabic teenagers’ attitudes to electronic writing in Arabizi. J Cult Cogn Sci 5, 125–142 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41809-020-00057-2

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