The article examines bilinguism from the social and political perspective, discussing such phenomena as the language situation, language policy, language rights. The author defines the concept of a language situation and reveals the features of various types of a bilingual situation: horizontal and vertical bilingualism, balanced and unbalanced bilingualism. The article analyzes the language policy under the conditions of bilingualism and specifies the main points of its possible problematization. Diglossia is analyzed as a factor of language development; special attention (...) is paid to the evolvement of bilingualism in a diglossic situation. The article considers the possible statuses of national languages in a diglossic context and their statuses from the perspective of the balance of political forces. The author models the prospects for the development of national languages in diglossic contexts and analyzes destructive relation of diglossia to language evolution. The article reveals the phenomenon of exoglossia, its demonstrates its negative impact on the language process, the mechanisms of its influence through the education system. The phenomenon of bilingualism is related to the process of the formation of national identity, of the development of various models of diglossia and especially exoglossia. The article discusses language issues arising in the social and political life, determines the conditions of its actualization and aggravation on various historical stages. The author assesses prospects for the development of national languages in the context of globalization, in particular the possibility of the formation of the diglossic situation of the dominance of “global English” over national languages. The article concludes with the ways to overcome language conflicts and imbalances. (shrink)

Cognitive Science, Volume 46, Issue 7, July 2022.

The present study examines the extent to which sociohistorical and political contexts influence the language attitudes of Israeli-Druze students to Hebrew as L2 and to Modern Standard Arabic in Arabic-speaking schools. It is a pioneer explorative research study that compares students’ attitudes toward diglossia and L2. Using the Foreign Languages Attitudes and Goals Survey, the attitudes of second, fifth, and ninth graders in two different Druze schools were assessed. The results indicate a positive attitude towards L2 Hebrew, not only (...) for instrumental purposes but also for integration into Israel’s multicultural society. The positive attitude to L2 Hebrew is greater in older students, while the attitude to MSA becomes more negative among older students. Their low motivation to learn cultural heritage MSA may contribute to an understanding of how to teach it better or differently, as well as how to encourage future generations to learn it. (shrink)

This paper proposes the concept of digital mirroring to explore and contextualise post-Arab Spring digital feminism in the Levant within a critical discourse framework. Digital mirroring illustrates the way in which contemporary Arab feminist groups articulate their digital presence orienting toward the vertical dimension of their sociopolitical contexts and toward the horizontal dimension characterised by the digital practices of other feminist movements in the region. We observed this phenomenon through the analysis of a multimodal corpus of Facebook and Instagram posts (...) published by thirty-two institutionalised and non-institutionalised feminist groups in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria between 2011 and 2019. The analysis of the linguistic and the visual strategies of MENA feminist groups is grounded in contemporary sociolinguistic studies on Arabic diglossia and multimodality. Findings reveal the complex interplay of digital self-representation, local resistance, and transregional networking of Levantine women. We argue that a simultaneous analysis of the vertical and the horizontal contextual dimensions of digital mirroring is necessary to comprehend social media discursive strategies and their transregional breadth as a central component of contemporary Arab feminism and emancipatory discourses at large. (shrink)

Les médias réunionnais constituent un terrain d'observation des langues en contact, français et créole, particulièrement heuristique. L'article cherche à montrer comment, au cours de leur récente histoire, ces médias ont été étroitement liés à un débat sociétal extrêmement polémique, parce que lié à des enjeux statutaires et politiques. Il évoque ensuite comment leur propre production discursive laisse peu à peu la place à une cohabitation plurilinguistique, surtout dans l'audiovisuel.A study of the Reunionese media allows a heuristic approach to the observation (...) of both Creole and French, the native and official languages. This article aims to show how, throughout their short history, Reunionese media have always been deliberately committed to controversial societal questions which have raised statutory and political issues. The second part of the article deals with a gradual evolution in the use made by Reunionese media, especially radio and TV, of French and Creole. Creole has benefited from wider usage in the media which has helped improve the situation of diglossia which had prevailed until now in Reunionese society. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungDer Beitrag thematisiert die Genese der Sakralisierung der arabischen Schrift, die im vorislamischen Arabien eine untergeordnete Rolle spielt und mit der Verschriftlichung des Korans den Status eines sakralen Symbolsystems erreicht. Hier wird die These vertreten, dass die Sakralisierung der arabischen Schrift in Zusammenhang mit der Textgeschichte des Korans zu denken ist. Er ist Gefäß der göttlichen Offenbarung, deren Unverrückbarkeit auf das Speicherungsmedium der Schrift zurückprojiziert wird. Mit der Verschriftlichung des Korans wird nicht nur seine Kodifizierung und damit die Propositionalisierung des (...) Islams beabsichtigt, sondern auch die Einreihung des Islams in die schriftlich-monotheistische Tradition. Muslime sind fortan wie Juden und Christen auchSchriftbesitzer, wie der Koran sie charakterisiert. Ursprünglich ist der Koran einevirtuelle heilige Schrift. Koran, AT und NT unterscheiden sich in erster Linie im Medium: DerSchriftlichkeitder hebräischen Bibel und der christlichen Bibel steht dieMündlichkeitdes Korans gegenüber. Der Umschlag zu einer schriftlichen Form wird mit der arabischen Schrift vollzogen, die die frühen Muslime modifizieren, kodifizieren und einfrieren. Die Sakralisierung der arabischen Schrift hat bis in die Gegenwart hineinreichende Konsequenzen und trägt wesentlich zur Diglossie in der arabischen Welt bei. Religionswissenschaftlich interessant ist, dass im Fall der arabischen Muslime religiöse mit kultureller und auch nationaler Identität verschmelzen: Arabische Sprache und Schrift halten diese Symbiose zusammen. (shrink)