Ursula Lindsey on the Various Arabics

We've had frequent discussions on this blog about the diglossia problem: the divergence between the Classical and Colloquial Arabics, and the concern that Modern Standard Arabic is dying or endangered.  Ursula Lindsey at The Arabist points to a piece she's published at Al-Fanar, a site devoted to Arabic educational issues. It's a good piece, more solid and less sensational than some of the wrting on the subject, and it deserves your attention:"The Arab World's Tangled Linguistic Landscape."

In her link at The Arabist,  she also notes something we've commented on as well in  the past:

During the uprising against Hosni Mubarak, there were two slogans: الشعب يريد اسقاط النظام ("The People Want the Fall of the Regime") was in Fosha, or classical Arabic and -- as that language does -- it traveled across borders, from one Arab country to the other. But in Egypt there was also another slog: ارحل يعني امشي ("'Depart' means get out!") which "translated" the Fosha word for "leave" into the Aameya one. The revolution spread alongside a classical slogan, but they also saw an eruption of colloquial Arabic, indispensible to satire and subversion, to "telling it how it is," into the stultified public discourse, and I think that will remain the case (look at Bassem Youssef, look at mahraganaat music).