HISTORY OF THE ARABIC LANGUAGE IN DURBAN
2.14 ARABIC LANGUAGE CONTACT AND SOME OF THE RESULTS
Apart from the fact that language choice is interlinked with the social grouping, a number of pressures influence the use of Arabic between speakers who come into contact with one another on a daily basis.
These could be through economic, administrative, cultural, political, historical, religious or demographic contact. The results are a switch in between languages in the same conversation which is a common phenomenon. Some of the options are discussed below
2.14.1 Code Switching
The Arabic language comes into contact with many of the spoken languages by the different groups of Muslims, as well as the relationships of Muslims with non-Muslims and the many members of the society who come with a host of language varieties.
When Muslim communities are drawn together, the contact situation produces a host of options. One such result is code-switching. The speakers of the different languages who come into contact with one another have to arrive at a degree of comprehension of the host language. This practice of using two or more languages and the modes of interpretation influences the role of the surrounding physical and social conditions of the Arabic language. Although other terms are bilingual or multilingual, this practice has become habitual over the process of time amongst Muslims. The necessity of engaging in this process is a normal daily requirement and society tends to follow suit using Arabic slogans and catch words.
In view of the above, Muslims tend to cause code-switching at any given time. These examples are reflected in the daily deities, the
greetings, the blessings, the Muslim names, the oath phrases and fragmentations of house-hold Arabic terms in the society.
Various reasons for code-switching have been proposed by researchers and linguists. Once such explanation is: "It involves the rapid and momentary shifting from one language into another. This alternation may occur many times within a single conversation and it is not uncommon within single sentences (Dulay, Burt and Krashen
1981:114-115). Another reason is that language switching does not occur simply because a speaker is unfamiliar with a word in another language, but rather that a word or phrase that is most readily available is the one that comes out of the speaker's mouth (Herbert 1992:11).
Because of the religion and the practice of Arabic, this influence is found in and around Durban in Muslim homes and communities.
2.14.2 Borrowing
Bakalla (1984:66) states that borrowing from other languages is not a new phenomena, it is in fact an old process which has affected many languages of the world, and is still a strong force which can affect modern languages whenever the opportunity arises. He further states that it is important to see borrowing as a process in language development as it displays a continuum from unassimilated borrowing to integration of borrowed items into the target language. Some linguists prefer to call this process adoption or loan-words as most items that are integrated assimilate into the target language and rarely
ever return to the donor language (Jadwat, 1998:79). It is noted that almost all of the African languages have borrowed from Arabic not only words but also expressions and concepts which are reflected in the daily expressions between Muslims such as greetings and the exchanges of cordial or courtesy phrases (Bakalla, 1984:17 ).
2.15 Arabic as a Lingua-Franca for Muslims
The Arabic language can fulfil the instrumental function of a lingua- franca. The Natal Muslim Council decreed in the 1950s that Arabic
should become the lingua-franca of Muslim religious life in South Africa (Islamic Resurgence 1995:95). The selection of Arabic as the Lingua-franca caused considerable debate before and after democracy as is evident in Urdu and Arabic, the two languages used for the religion of Islam. But, Arabic acceptance in education and Islamic private schools is attributed to the leadership of the ASC which promotes it through bursaries annually. Arabic is rightly regarded as the basic language of all who profess to follow Islam. The fact that Arabic has not become the lingua franca of Islam globally must be attributed to the fact that many Muslims prefer to reserve its usage solely for the religious arena.
2.15.1 Diglossia
Mahomed (1987:6) discusses the term diglossia which according to Mahomed was first introduced by Ferguson (1959) who says that the
nature of diglossia can be seen if we look very closely at the Arabic language. In his example, the language will be said to have a high and a low variety. He notes that one variety of the language is used in a stable manner for occasions of a more prestigious nature or higher function, i.e., school liturgy and serves as the object of scholarship and language management. It is also the vehicle of the major religious literacy traditions of the community. In the Arab world for example, classical Arabic is known as the language of the holy Quran and is no ones mother tongue.
Based upon the characteristic features of diglossia, Mahomed quotes Ferguson (1959) who proposed the following definition of diglossia:
"A vehicle of a large and respected body of written literature, either of an earlier period on in a specific speech community, which is learned largely by formal education and is used for most written and formal purposes, but is not used by any sector of the community for ordinary conversation." This definition rightly applies to the Arabic language as it is used in the society.
2.15.2 Arabic as a Standard language
Mahomed (1987:5) advocates that there are two main types of Arabic, the standard language used for formal and literary purposes and the localised vernaculars used in the affairs of everyday life. Standard languages are believed to have autonomy and historicity. A standard language refers to the written and formal form of language. It is taught
in schools, used in publications and in the media. Arabic is noted for all of these functions defined as the standard, with a codified form.
Mahomed distinguishes between the high prestige and the Modern standard which is accepted by the whole Muslim world for religious purposes, and as such, serves as a model to a larger speech community. The Arabic Language serves as the standard and fulfils the functions of all of world literature and is universally recognized as such.
2.16 CONCLUSION
Arabic has the greatest potential for mass communication. It has already developed the categories and vocabulary requisite of language in an advanced society. It can cope with the trans-national or multinational trend of all modern economics.
No other modern language has shown such mighty capacity for extension, growth and Islamization. It has met with such enthusiastic acceptance from broad segments of other tongues, because of its healthy compromise between the major tongues of civilization.
Therefore, no one language has come to symbolise unity or integration in the way that the Arabic language has among the different races, nations and cultures