Review
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
On Arabic Language Maintenance Among Arabs Living in Western Countries: A Review of Literature
Version 1
: Received: 15 March 2022 / Approved: 16 March 2022 / Online: 16 March 2022 (08:28:43 CET)
How to cite: Bouhdima, M. E. On Arabic Language Maintenance Among Arabs Living in Western Countries: A Review of Literature. Preprints 2022, 2022030226. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202203.0226.v1 Bouhdima, M. E. On Arabic Language Maintenance Among Arabs Living in Western Countries: A Review of Literature. Preprints 2022, 2022030226. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202203.0226.v1
Abstract
Arabic is present in the Arab world and beyond. It is used as an official (or co-official) language in the Arab World (this refers to the twenty-two member states of the Arab League). Also, Arabic has the status of a national language in Mali, Niger, and Senegal. Besides, it is spoken in linguistic enclaves in Nigeria, Cyprus, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. In addition, it is employed as the liturgical language in Muslim countries and countries with a Muslim minority all over Africa and Asia. As a result of the migration to Western countries since the end of the nineteenth century, Arabs and Arabic has been present in such countries. The presence of Arabs in Western countries raises the following question: Are these Arabs language maintainers or language shifters? The present article is an attempt to answer this question through reviewing a number of studies that have dealt with Arabic language maintenance among the Arabs living in Western countries (namely the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Greece, and France), deducing from these studies the major trends in Arabic language maintenance among these Arabs, and providing a critique of the studies.
Keywords
Arabic; Arabs; Language Maintenance; Language Shift; Western Countries
Subject
Social Sciences, Language and Linguistics
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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