Mixed Styles in Spoken Arabic in Egypt

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.

"... a testimony to a high level of scholarship."Mohammed Sawaie, International Journal of Middle East Studies, August 2008"Mejdell's language is pleasantly clear and detailed. All the theories and studies that are relevant to her research - such as Badawi's language levels, Mitchell's Leeds Project and Holes' lexical hypothesis - are considered and the hypotheses upon which she builds are well grounded and highlighted. The orgaization o fher investigation is substantial and systematic... In this solid, detailed and nuanced work, Mejdell has most certainly '(contributed) to the exploration of speakers' linguistic choices (and) their verbal strategies', which she states as her aim." Caroline Roset, Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, 104 (2009) 3"In conclusione, questo libro rappresenta uno dei più significativi e originali contributi all’intenso dibattito degli ultimi 30 anni sulla diglossia e la commutazione di codice in arabo egiziano: se ne raccomanda vivamente la lettura non soltanto agli specialisti di sociolinguistica, araba come generale, ma anche agli studiosi dell’uso del dialetto nella letteratura scritta in Egitto, tematica tanto largamente coltivata quanto spesso affrontata in modo superficiale e ripetitivo."Riccardo Contini, Quaderni di Studi Arabi 5-6 (2010-2011)

• CONTENTSPreface Chapter One: Arabic and the Issue of Standard LanguageChapter Two: Intermediate Forms—‘Mixed Styles’Chapter Three: Variants of Complementizers Chapter Four: DemonstrativesChapter Five: The Expression of NegationChapter Six: The Relative Phrase Chapter Seven: Pronoun Suffixation Chapter Eight: Results, Interpretation, and ConclusionsAppendix 1: Sequential presentation of variantsAppendix 2: Transcribed textAppendix 3: Translation of text Bibliography Index