The Arabic language and political ideology

Abstract

Broadly speaking, language serves two main functions in society. The first is an instrumental function: to serve as an effective means of communication. The second is a symbolic function, which includes the capacity of language to act both as a symbol (especially as an identity marker) and as an index (through the associations it invokes within the speech community). It also includes its role as a 'proxy' "to express extra-linguistic views and anxieties, as well as to hint at the political orientations of a group or individual" (Suleiman 2013, p. 16). In other words, at a symbolic level, language serves as a proxy for ideology. The concept of language ideology links the instrumental and symbolic functions of language in that the symbolic can be used to justify the instrumental: Silverstein (1979, p. 193) defines language ideology as "sets of beliefs about language articulated by users as a rationalisation or justification of perceived language structure and use". We may also speak of political language ideology: this is when language becomes politicised; when it is used as a proxy to maintain or challenge power relations, group identity and (a particular) social order in society. This chapter is about political language ideologies in the Arab world.

Impact of Linguistic Environment on Speaking Skills of Female Students at the Arabic Language Center Islamic Boarding School in Indonesia

“…Arabic language education for non-Arabs has been a focus since the 17th century, when the University of Cambridge in England began teaching Arabic (Aboelezz, 2016;ElHawari, 2020;Facchin, 2017;Lian, 2020). The United States also joined this effort in 1947 with the teaching of Arabic in U.S. Army schools (Badawi, 2023).…”