Mixed Styles in Spoken Arabic in Egypt ─ Somewhere Between Order And Chaos

Mejdell (Arabic language and culture, U. of Oslo) presents findings from a study of spoken academic discourse in Egypt, specifically variations in the linguistic choices made by several highly educated Egyptians in a specific setting--the panel presentation at a public seminar. Coverage includes an overview of the Egyptian language and the development of the status and functions of its language varieties, and the issue of intermediate forms or "mixed" styles. Subsequent chapters focus on the features chosen for investigation--complementizers, demonstratives, negation, relatives, and pronoun suffixation--all of which have binary variants in the two basic codes available to the speaker, the standard variety and the vernacular. The text concludes with a comparison and discussion of the author's findings on patterns of use of the various features. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Gunvor Mejdell, Dr. philos. (2005), University of Oslo, Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Culture. Her publications are mainly in the field of sociolinguistics, but also include contributions on Arabic literary and cultural issues.