Abstract

ExcerptI. Introduction The politicizing of language that took place in Egypt before and after the January 25th revolution provides a rich environment for linguistic analysis on many levels. It is no exaggeration to say that discussion of language always feeds into politics through identity construction. As Paul Gee contends, language is in essence political: Politics is not just about contending political parties. At a much deeper level it is about how to distribute social goods in a society: who gets what in terms of money, status, power, and acceptance on a variety of…