Global English and Arabic is a pioneering work in the field of linguistics, sociolinguistics and language contact for the newness of the issues and research presented in vol. 31 of the “Contemporary studies in descriptive linguistics” series. The book foregrounds how global English is affecting Arabic speakers in the Middle Eastern and North African countries, socially, linguistically, geopolitically, and culturally.
The originality and the significance of this volume lie in the new perspectives on the spread of Global English that it brings to readers. Throughout the twelve chapters in this book, we are introduced to a crucial phenomenon that is taking place among young Arab people primarily, and other age groups to a lesser extent. This phenomenon, though basically linguistic, has important cultural and social repercussions. Recognizing the impact of Global English—the lingua franca of the twenty-first century multicultural world—on the different varieties of Arabic as a language, as an identity, and as a culture, the main concern of the book is the long-term viability and resistance of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in the face of Global English. This volume will focus the attention of researchers, linguists, and Arabic speakers themselves on the worries of people in the Arabic speaking world, who may feel frustrated about maintaining their language, culture, and identity when they are so influenced by the economic, political, technological, and cultural authority of Global English.
The issues tackled in the book range from the role that learning English as a foreign language has in identity construction (Fatima Badry, Ch. 4), to the impact of English and its status in higher education (Chs. 5 and 6), to more controversial topics like the loss of the “Allah lexicon” because of the spread of English (Ch. 11, by John Andrew Morrow & Barbara Castleton). Although most of the chapters focus on Gulf countries, where English is used more than elsewhere in the Arab world, there are also papers that deal with the significant impact of English on Arabic speakers in North African countries. Elizabeth S. Buckner (Ch. 8), for example, discusses how the growth of English language learning in Morocco is contributing to linguistic, class, and cultural changes there.
