Transcript LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY IN EGYPT: REFUGEE LANGUAGES IN …

LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY IN EGYPT:
REFUGEE LANGUAGES IN CAIRO
Robert S. Williams
Cairo Refugee Language Project
The American University in Cairo
[email protected]
PowerPoint available at:
www.aucegypt.edu/faculty/rwilliams/downloads.htm
Language Diversity
linguistic diversity
linguistic diversity in Egypt: indigenous languages
linguistic diversity in Egypt: refugee languages
Language Diversity
How many languages are there in the
world today?
Between 5,000 and 6,000
Languages aren’t evenly distributed among
the world’s geographic areas.
China,which has a large land mass (over 9
million sq km) , has relatively few
languages at 235
Papua New Guinea, which is 18 times
smaller in land area (around 450, 000 sq
km), has more than three times as many
languages at 820
Language Diversity:
Egypt
Egypt has nearly 1 million sq km in land
area.
How many languages are spoken at home
by Egyptian citizens?
9
Heritage (First) Languages of Egypt
Modern Standard Arabic
Use in Egypt: Modern Standard Arabic is the
official language of Egypt, and as such is the
language of government, education, etc.
However, it is not a first language.
Areas of use outside of Egypt: Everywhere in
the Arab world
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central,
South, Arabic
Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Spoken Arabic
Number of Speakers in Egypt: 780,000 (1996).
Areas of Use in Egypt: Bedouin regions in Sinai and
along parts of the Red Sea coast, most of the way
to the southern border, along the whole east bank
until it reaches the Bedawi language
Number of Speakers in all countries: 1,610,000
Areas of use outside of Egypt: Also spoken in Israel,
Jordan, Palestinian West Bank and Gaza, Syria.
Alternate names: Bedawi, Levantine Bedawi Arabic.
Dialects: Northeast Egyptian Bedawi Arabic, South
Levantine Bedawi Arabic, North Levantine
Bedawi Arabic. Similar to some Hijazi dialects in
northwestern Saudi Arabia.
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South,
Arabic
Egyptian Spoken Arabic
Number of speakers in Egypt: 44,406,000
(1998).
Areas of use in Egypt: Cairo and Delta
Number of speakers outside of Egypt:
46,321,000
Areas of use outside of Egypt: Iraq, Israel,
Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Saudi Arabia,
United Arab Emirates, Yemen
Alternate names: none
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central,
South, Arabic
Other information: a normal Egyptian Spoken
Arabic, established the by the Egyptian
media, is used in Arabic-language media
produced in Egypt. It is based on
Cairene Arabic.
Egyptian Spoken Arabic
Dialects: North Delta Arabic, South
Central Delta Arabic, Cairene
Arabic.
Cairene is the most widely
understood dialect used for non
print media, both in Egypt and
throughout the secondary Arab
world.
It is an amalgam of Delta Arabic
and Middle Egypt Arabic, with
borrowings from literary Arabic.
Western Egyptian Bedawi Spoken Arabic
Number of speakers in Egypt: 300,000 (1996).
Areas of use in Egypt: Bedouin regions from
the edge of Alexandria west to the
Libyan border. Some in western oases.
Number of speakers outside of Egypt: 0
Areas of use outside of Egypt: none
Alternate names: Bedawi, Libyan Spoken
Arabic, Sulaimitian Arabic, Maghrebi
Arabic.
Dialects: Western Egyptian Bedawi Arabic,
Tripolitanian Arabic, Southern Libyan
Arabic, Eastern Libyan Arabic.
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central,
South, Arabic
Sa’idi Spoken Arabic
Number of speakers in Egypt: 18,900,000 (1996)
Areas of use in Egypt: Southern Egypt from the edge
of Cairo to the Sudan border.
Alternate names: Sa`idi, Upper Egypt Arabic.
Dialects: Middle Egypt Arabic, Upper Egypt Arabic.
The Middle Egypt dialect is in Bani Sweef,
Fayyuum, and Gizeh. Upper Egypt dialect is
from Asyuut to Edfu and south. Some might be
in Libya or the Gulf.
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South,
Arabic
Coptic
Use in Egypt: Coptic is considered an extinct
language, meaning that no people speak it as a first
language. However, the Bohairic dialect of Coptic is
still the liturgical language of the Coptic Church.It
probably became extinct in the 16th century.
Alternate names: Neo-Egyptian
Dialects: Bohairic, Sahidic.
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Egyptian
Siwi
Number of Speakers in Egypt: 5,000 (1995)
Areas of Use in Egypt: Northwestern desert,
Siwa Oasis, several isolated villages in
the western oasis
Number of Speakers in all countries: 0
Areas of use outside of Egypt: none
Alternate names: Siwa, Sioua, Oasis Berber,
Zenati
Dialects: Not closely related to other Berber
languages
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Berber,
Eastern, Siwa
Nobiin and Kenuzi-Dongola
Number of Speakers in Egypt: Nobiin (200,000:1996),
Kenuzi Dongola (100,000:1996)
Areas of Use in Egypt:. 40% in the Upper Nile Valley,
mainly near Kom Ombo; the rest in various cities
Number of Speakers in all countries: Nobiin (495,000),
Kenuzi-Dongola (280,000)
Areas of use outside of Egypt: Sudan: Northern
Province of Sudan
Classification of Nobiin: Nilo-Saharan, Eastern
Sudanic, Eastern, Nubian, Northern
Classification of Kenuzi-Dongola: Nilo-Saharan,
Eastern Sudanic, Eastern, Nubian, Central,
Dongolawi
Domari
Number of Speakers in Egypt: ??
Areas of Use in Egypt: mainly in Dakahlia
Governorate, north of Cairo
Number of Speakers in all countries: 1,876, 116
Areas of use outside of Egypt: Afghanistan, India,
Iran, Iraq, Isreal, Jordan, Libya, Palestine
West Bank & Gaza, Russia (Caucasus
Mountains), Uzbekistan, Sudan, Syria, Turkey.
Alternate names: Middle Eastern Romani, Tsigene,
Gypsy, Luti, Mehtar
Dialects: Nawar (Ghagar), Helebi
Classification: Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, IndoAryan, Central zone, Dom
Other information: The ethnic
group, known as Ghagar,, are
Mulsim. There are estimated
to be over a million strong in
Egypt.
Greek and Armenian
Number of Greek Speakers in Egypt: 42,000
(2004)
Areas of Use in Egypt: Alexandria
Classification: Indo-European, Greek, Attic
_________________________________
Number of Armenian Speakers in Egypt: 6,000
Areas of Use in Egypt: mainly Cairo
Classification: Indo-European, Armenian
Non-Indigenous Languages in Egypt
Of course Cairo is extremely cosmopolitan. People from all over the world live in Cairo, so
many languages are spoken here.
As you would expect, these languages include, besides every know dialect of Arabic, all of
the world’s major languages: Spanish, English, French, German, Chinese, Portuguese,
Russian, etc.
Refugee Languages in Egypt
In addition, there are probably over
100 ‘smaller’ languages spoken by
refugees from Cairo.
Cairo has a good sampling of
languages from Sudan, Eritrea,
Ethiopia, Chad, Somalia, and
languages from many other African
countries.
Many of these languages are
considered endangered.
Refugee Languages in Egypt
In addition, there are probably over 100 ‘smaller’
languages spoken by refugees from Cairo.
Cairo has a good sampling of languages from Sudan,
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Chad, Somalia, and languages
from many other African countries.
Though there are probably a million or so speakers
of refugee languages, most of these languages are
considered endangered.
Refugee Languages in Egypt: Ajang
Ajang, spoken in the Nuba Mountains area of the Sudanese
state of South Kordofan by around 10,000 people, is
represented in the Cairo refugee community.
There is a small Ajang speech community here, and Ajang is
used in homes and in social gatherings.
The refugee situation helps make Ajang an endangered
language, since it:
–
is only used in two domains
– is no longer the home language for Ajang speakers who
are married to refugees who speak other languages
Abdelbagi Daida
Ajang Researcher
The Cairo Refugee Language Project
The CRLP was founded in 2005 as a
research support project
We are a small group working with AUC’s
Forced Migration and Refugee Studies
program
We are working to:
– offer access to basic facts and statistics
about refugees and language in Cairo
– provide a site for storage and dissemination
of scholarship on these issues
– assist scholars in contacting and working
with speakers of various languages among
the refugee population in Cairo
– provide any assistance possible to scholars
conducting research in Cairo
AUC’s Main Campus,
downtown Cairo
CRLP
Ongoing Projects
At present, CRLP-based scholars are working
on
– the Cairo Community Interpreters Project
– basic fact gathering on refugee language
issues
– the Intercontinental Dictionary Series
– endangered language documentation
– Refugee schools faculty development
Sudanese refugees
at AUC’s FMRS Center
References
Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth
edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online
version: http://www.ethnologue.com/.
Comrie, B., Matthew, S., & Polinsky, M. Eds. (2002). The Atlas of Languages. Revised
Edition. New York: Facts on File
Comrie, B. (Ed.). 1990. The World’s Major Languages. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Torrosian, M. (2007). Personal communication.