INVESTIGATING THE USE OF ARABIC TERMS ON SOCIOPOLITICAL CONTEXT DURING THE ARAB SPRING

Yoyo Yoyo, Abdul Mukhlis, Thonthowi Thonthowi

Abstract


One of the significant features regarding to the Arab Spring that began in Tunisia on December 2010 and spread out through the Middle East countries, is linguistic challenges related to the use of Arabic terms on religion, social, and political issues. The research wants to investigate the significant role of Arabic language on escalating political and social issues (including religion) in the Middle East and the Arab world in particular during the Arab Spring. Besides, the research will explore the relations between language and politics both it used by the people (as protesters) or the regimes (as dictators). In order to achieve the mentioned objectives, the utilized methodology based on a framework of sociology of language and sociopolitical changes. The main data of the research collected from al-Masry al-Youm (an Egyptian independent news) especially on investigating the use of formal Arabic (fushā). Meanwhile, data collections of the use of colloquial Arabic (‘ammiyyah) during the Arab Spring collected randomly through social media. The paper finally found two major conclusions as follow: 1) the intensity of the use of a particular Arabic vocabulary indicates that the vocabulary has important referential meaning to an ongoing event; 2) the colloquial Arabic gets its momentum during the Arabic Spring that indicated by its frequent use in the Arabic slogans of the revolution. 

Keywords: The Arab spring; Arabic terms and slogans; language and politics.


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