Abstract

It is believed that the language of newspapers plays a major role in developing and reflecting the reality of the contemporary language in Egypt, where the Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA) have become much closer and the gap between them has shrunk (Badawi, 2012). The linguistic reality described in Badawi's model (1973) demonstrates the structure of the contemporary Egyptian community. He gives a horizontal picture of the spoken language used in Egypt at that time. This study aims at re-visiting Badawi's model and focusing on the language used in opinion articles in the current Egyptian newspapers. It explores and depicts the linguistic reality of the Language of Current Egyptian Newspapers (LCEN) in light of Badawi's model. The data under investigation was drawn from three widely read Egyptian newspapers, Al-Ahram, Al-Masry Al-youm, and Al-Tahreer. A sample data of opinion articles from the three newspapers was collected over a period of two months from 1st of November 2011till the 19th of December. The method used to collect the opinion articles under investigation is designed to cover issues from all the week days in order to get better representing data. The thesis analyzes the data primarily on MSA or Non- Modern Standard Arabic (NMSA) basis using the criteria Badawi used in his model. It is important to mention two points; the first is that where NMSA is concerned Classical Arabic is not included. The second is that the phonological criteria Badawi used are excluded because the data under investigation is all in the written form. The NMSA detected is classified under six different types they are: part of a song or a movie, proverbs, reported speech, slogans, loan-words, and common expressions. The findings of this study show that NMSA is incorporated in the opinion articles of the three newspapers under investigation at different degrees in both body of articles and headlines. Al-Ahram has the lowest percentage of NMSA while Al-Tahreer has the highest percentage and Al-Masry Al-youm comes in the middle. Reviewing the findings regarding the different types of NMSA, the current study show that the data extracted from the three newspapers provided enough NMSA types to be categorized under the identified six different types. Finally, it can be said that according to the findings of this study, LCEN has shown signs it has moved downward somewhere on Badawi’s measuring stick of levels of contemporary Arabic Language in Egypt. Consequently and according to Badawi's model, LCEN cannot be classified exclusively under level two, known as MSA, anymore.

Degree Name

MA in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language

Graduation Date

6-1-2013

Submission Date

May 2013

First Advisor

Taha, Zeinab

Committee Member 1

Aboelseoud, Dalal

Committee Member 2

Abdou, Ashraf

Extent

87 p.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Library of Congress Subject Heading 1

Diglossia (Linguistics) -- Egypt.

Library of Congress Subject Heading 2

Arabic language -- Discourse alysis.

Rights

The author retains all rights with regard to copyright. The author certifies that written permission from the owner(s) of third-party copyrighted matter included in the thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study has been obtained. The author further certifies that IRB approval has been obtained for this thesis, or that IRB approval is not necessary for this thesis. Insofar as this thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study is an educational record as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 USC 1232g), the author has granted consent to disclosure of it to anyone who requests a copy.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval

Not necessary for this item

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