WHAT IS WHITE ARABIC? NEW LABELS IN A CHANGING ARAB WORLD

Arabic has been traditionally described as a canonically diglossic language (Ferguson, 1959), with Standard Arabic (SA) as the high variety and spoken vernaculars as low varieties. Further research has proven that the actual linguistic landscape in Arabic speaking countries does not reflect this dichotomy, but rather a layered continuum where different varieties (and sometimes languages) interact, fulfilling different communicative functions and carrying multiple symbolic values. In this sea of varieties, the metalinguistic label «White Arabic» has gained prominence in the last decade, coinciding with the emergence of an increasingly interconnected Arab world. Although the notion of WA was treated peripherally in previous scientific studies (Al-Rojaie, 2020; Dufour, 2008; Germanos, 2009; O’Neill, 2017), none of these deal with the term as a main object. There seems to be no clear consensus regarding the definition of White Arabic – data hints at different understandings of the concept in Lebanon, Jordan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Thus, this study aims at exploring the speakers’ understandings and perceptions of this notion by analyzing metalinguistic comments made by speakers in qualitative interviews, as well as in media (podcasts, newspapers, blogs, etc.) and social media platforms (facebook, youtube, twitter, etc.). The data is complemented by findings from qualitative questionnaires conducted among speakers from five of the abovementioned Arabic speaking countries.