The danger of diglossia in Arabic language: A study from historical and empirical perspective

Abstract

There are more than six thousand languages ​​in the world, and diglossia exists almost in every language. Diglossia is a linguistic phenomenon found in any language of the world; because there always has been existed a kind of conflict between a written literary language and a spoken colloquial language since the inception of languages. This common diglossia does not pose any major threat to the standard language. But the diglossia which poses a great danger to any language is the shift from standard language to the colloquial one in written form. The researcher believes that the Arabic language differs from other languages in terms of diglossia, in the contemporary reality, due to emergence of subversive campaigns by orientalists and expatriates to shift from standard language to the colloquial one in written form. In this article, the researcher talks about diglossia in Arabic languge and the extent of danger it poses to the Arabic standard language. In addition, the researcher discusses the impact of the written, audio and visual media on standard Arabic, as we see, at present, that the colloquial language is chasing away standard Arabic in the present media and means of communication with their moral influence and wide circulation in the digital world. The paper contains four chapters preceded by an introduction and followed by a conclusion. The researcher has adopted a historical and empirical approach in dealing with the subject, and explored through the study that linguistic diglossia poses a major challenge to the Arabic language due to the intense conflict between the standard Arabic and the colloquial after the emergence of subversive campaigns from expatriates and orientalists to replace the standard Arabic with the colloquial on one hand, and because of abandonment and neglect in its homeland by its speakers in the media, education systems and daily conversation on the other hand. Through this study, the researcher seeks to create public awareness among the new generation of Arab countries or concerned countries regarding the danger of neglecting standard Arabic and using dialects at its expense. He also hopes to motivate the public and private stakeholders to pay attention to promoting standard Arabic at the social, political and academic levels.