Asian Englishes
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Creative hybridity over linguistic purity: the status of English in the United Arab Emirates Sarah Hopkyns, Wafa Zoghbor & Peter John Hassall To cite this article: Sarah Hopkyns, Wafa Zoghbor & Peter John Hassall (2018) Creative hybridity over linguistic purity: the status of English in the United Arab Emirates, Asian Englishes, 20:2, 158-169, DOI: 10.1080/13488678.2017.1415518 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2017.1415518
Published online: 31 May 2018.
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Asian Englishes, 2018 VOL. 20, NO. 2, 158–169 https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2017.1415518
Creative hybridity over linguistic purity: the status of English in the United Arab Emirates Sarah Hopkynsa, Wafa Zoghborb and Peter John Hassallc a
Academic Bridge Program, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE; bUniversity College, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE; cUniversity College, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE
ABSTRACT
Currently, the linguistic landscape in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) can be described as dynamic, complex and multifaceted. This article discusses the status of English in the UAE with three key periods of language change being identified, based on Schneider’s ‘dynamic model’ of postcolonial Englishes. The increasing impact of English as a lingua franca, and the recent shift towards English Medium Instruction at all levels of Emirati education are then explored before examining attitudes towards English with reference to the ‘Englishization vs. hybridization’ debate. It is argued that rather than English and Arabic being used in a binary way representing linguistic purity, the UAE’s linguistic landscape is more complex and dynamic. Emiratis are increasingly using multiple forms of linguistic hybridity such as ‘white dialects’, ‘Arabizi’, ‘translanguaging’ and ‘code-switching’, which are reshaping Emirati language use and additionally influencing local identities.
ARTICLE HISTORY
Received 12 November 2017 Accepted 1 December 2017 KEYWORDS
linguistic hybridity; language contact; language change; United Arab Emirates; identity
1. Introduction The United Arab Emirates, commonly referred to as ‘the UAE’, is one of the youngest countries of the world and arguably the one which has undergone the most change in terms of wealth, infrastructure, demographics and linguistic landscape during the last 50 years. The UAE, which shares borders with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman, started as seven Trucial Sheikdom States of the Arabian Gulf coast, with the United Kingdom being given control of their defence and foreign affairs in a series of treaties made in the 1800s. After over 150 years of British rule of what was then a mostly poor population of Bedouin tribes, traders and pearl divers thinly dispersed across bare desert lands, in 1968 the British announced their planned departure, and three years later, on 2 December 1971, the UAE was formed. After the discovery of oil in the UAE in the late 1950s, economic and social conditions changed dramatically due to the newly acquired petrodollars being pumped into the economy, the infrastructure and society. Today’s Arabian Gulf could be described as a parallel universe when comparing it with its circumstances less than five decades ago (Hopkyns, 2017). Dramatic changes CONTACT Sarah Hopkyns
[email protected]
© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
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in wealth, demographics, infrastructure and lifestyle are a result of industrialization, urbanization, modernization and, perhaps most strikingly, globalization in terms of the English language and all that accompanies it. Bristol-Rhys (2010), when describing the rapid changes that have taken place in the UAE since the discovery of oil, includes the descriptors ‘breathtaking’, ‘mind-boggling’, ‘stunning’ and ‘unbelievable’. In order to facilitate completion of such fast-paced development, huge numbers of foreign workers and advisors were needed. They were, and still are, attracted by enticing salaries and packages compared with those in their home countries. As a result of such an influx of foreign workers, by 2011 the total population of the UAE was 8,264,070 and of that number the local Emirati population represented a minority of approximately 11% (O’Neill, 2017). Such dynamic change and varied language contact have inevitably affected the linguistic landscape of the UAE in multiple ways. The following sections will explore such changes, including the current use of linguistic hybridity or ‘language play’ in its many forms, through code-switching, translanguaging, white dialects and Arabizi. Such linguistic hybridity distances Emiratis from ‘language purity’ (binary use of one variety of Arabic and inner-circle English). Although such a movement away from language purity has traditionally been viewed negatively in many areas of the world, such as China (Xu & Deterding, 2017), Japan and Korea (Kiaer & Bordilovskaya, 2017), attitudes are starting to change as the ‘ability and power to modify a language, to invent new words, to stretch it to its limits and to play with it are viewed as essential components of a language functioning in all domains of a society’ (Xu & Deterding, 2017, p. 117).
2. Three periods of linguistic change in the UAE Using Schneider’s (2007) ‘dynamic model’ of postcolonial Englishes, three major periods of language change were identified in the UAE. Firstly, the ‘foundation phase’ (1820–1966) when English was introduced; secondly, the ‘phase of exonormative stabilization’ (1966– 2004) when English became established as a language of administration and education; and thirdly, ‘the phase of normalization’ (2004–present) when inhabitants began constructing new identities through language contact, with linguistic consequences (Boyle, 2012; Schneider, 2007). 2.1. The foundation period (1820–1966) Prior to 1820, merchants from India had traded with Arabian Gulf ports for hundreds of years and many of them had become temporary residents for the pearling season. This group of transient visitors made up the ‘adstrate’ (Schneider, 2007) as distinct from the colonial and indigenous communities. The adstrate community at this time was influencing the Arabic language. The coastline had become restless with occasional violent conflicts breaking out and thus came to be known as the ‘Pirate Coast’. In 1820, mainly to protect their trade route to India, the British signed treaties with the rulers of the separate Emirates and, in effect, enforced truces with those involved in conflict at sea. Hence, these lands became known as the ‘Trucial States’ (Heard-Bey, 2002). The British colonial powers brought English with them but at first most communication was conducted in Arabic or via translators (Walker, 1999). Characteristic of its nature as an ‘exploitation colony’
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(Boyle, 2012), only a select few colonials speaking educated British English began to be housed ashore until a landing strip was built in Sharjah in the 1930s and oil exploration teams arrived. From the 1940s, very basic bilingualism began to appear amongst a few members of the merchant classes and within the ruling families (Boyle, 2012). It was not until oil began to flow in the 1950s that significant interaction between language groups began to take place. Expatriate professionals using English were employed to oversee oil production and the indigenous Arabs started to learn English in order to gain employment as drivers, cooks, watchmen and labourers. In 1952, the British brought in English-speaking specialists to initiate projects in public works, technical education, health services and communications, thus further increasing English-speaking employment opportunities for the indigenous people. 2.2. The exonormative period (1966–2004) In 1966, Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan came to power in Abu Dhabi and began to rule the Trucial States. Two years later, in 1968, the British withdrew all their troops East of Suez. Normally a major abandonment such as this would lead to a speedy departure of any colonial settlers, but counter to expectations the reverse took place. The exploitation of oil and gas provided employment for hundreds of the indigenous population and encouraged dramatic development of the country under the guidance of foreign professionals. According to Boyle (2012), ‘the British community grew from a few thousand at the time of independence to about one hundred thousand’ (p. 319). The English language quickly became the acrolectal lingua franca of the country because not only was English used in the oil and gas industry, but it also began to be used in aviation, shipping and commerce. In addition, the South Asian migrant workers, comprising a large section of the community, came from many language backgrounds and hence tended to use English at the acrolectal level and Urdu at a basilectal level (Ahmed, 1984). English was considered a language of prestige and modernization for the indigenous community (Davidson, 2007). However, the number of foreigners continued to rise and soon the Emiratis themselves became a linguistic and ethnic minority in their own land. In addition, following the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the proportion of non-Gulf Arabs, who had previously provided the professional workforce in fields such as education, engineering and medicine throughout the Gulf, fell from 72% in 1975 to 25–29% in 2002 (Fox, Mourtada-Sabbah, & Al-Mutawa, 2006). From 1990, these non-Gulf Arabs were replaced by South Asian professionals mainly from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, who eventually comprised 50% of the Gulf workforce (Fox et al., 2006). In effect, this demographic change radically increased the number of users of English in the UAE. 2.3. The nativization period (2004–present) ‘Nativization’ is the most recent period of Schneider’s (2007) ‘dynamic model’ applicable to the UAE and this is a period which is ongoing and not yet well defined, since at present there remains an exonormative positioning that refers more to ‘English in the UAE’ rather than an endonormative ‘UAE English’. Karmani (2005) suggests that the UAE government became anxious to modernize and westernize the educational system since they were concerned that an outdated educational system involving methods such as rote learning might
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reinforce extremism. This exonormative stance towards English as a modernizing influence was reaffirmed by the Abu Dhabi Education Council in 2009 which recruited 456 native English-speaking teachers to replace non-Gulf Arab teachers in a move to improve English language ability in the schools. According to Boyle (2012), this third phase of Schneider’s (2007) ‘dynamic model’ commenced in 2004 following the appointment of Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan as Ruler of Abu Dhabi and President of the UAE, following which the Abu Dhabi government initiated rapid diversification of its economy (Davidson, 2009). This expansion focused on involvement in high-technology and heavy industry, including construction of aircraft, ships and oil rigs, development of ‘future energy’ projects such as the zero-carbon ‘Masdar City’ and nuclear power plants, and expansion of luxury and cultural tourism. Commitment to such projects led to an accelerated increase of the expatriate population from 3.3 million in 2005 to 7.24 million in 2010 (Al-Khouri, 2010).
3. The status of English in the UAE today Due to the UAE’s history, its unique demographics and the impact of globalization, English is now omnipresent in everyday public life and, to a lesser extent, in private life too. The UAE could be said to have a superdiverse (Blommaert, 2016) linguistic landscape as it is estimated that approximately 100 languages, including Urdu, Malayalam, Hindi, Singhalese, Bengali, Farsi and Tagalog, are spoken in the UAE by 200 different nationalities (Habboush, 2009). With a large number of the UAE’s expatriate workers coming from partly Anglophone countries such as India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines (Troudi, 2007) and majority Englishspeaking countries such as the United Kingdom and the USA, English, more than other languages, has become a very practical tool used as a lingua franca at ‘all levels of society’ (Randall & Samimi, 2010). 3.1. English in public domains The fact that the official language in the UAE, Arabic, is not the one spoken by the majority of residents is an extremely unusual phenomenon. As Randall and Samimi (2010, p. 44) state, ‘there can be few societies in the world where a second language is necessary to carry out basic shopping tasks, from buying food in supermarkets to clothes in shopping malls’, explaining that almost all aspects of daily life can be accomplished without ever using Arabic. On a social and practical level, English is essential for all manner of daily transactions such as requesting information from a hotel receptionist, making a doctor’s appointment or enjoying time in malls and cinemas. This dominance of English can be observed when walking into popular Abu Dhabi or Dubai bookstores where English publications clearly outnumber the Arabic. Similarly, it is noticeable that the free weekly magazine Abu Dhabi World is readily obtainable in English, compared with the separate Arabic version which is not so easily available in public places. Furthermore, when perusing the popular Time Out magazine which is published solely in English, the list of establishments and events catering to expatriate lifestyles and festivals such as Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Diwali and Chinese New Year are clearly noticeable. This demonstrates the dominance not only of the English language in the UAE but also of cultural norms associated with the multicultural residents of the country, including the residents from inner-circle countries.
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3.2. English in private domains English in the UAE is also increasingly influential in the private realm. In addition to children being immersed in English at nurseries to give them a ‘head start’ (Badry, 2011, p. 91), the hiring of foreign maids, who also act as nannies, babysitters, companions, cooks and teachers, has become, as Taha-Thomure (2008, p. 190) explains, ‘a semi-new trend’ in Arab societies such as the UAE. English-speaking nannies, who are hired by 94% of Emirati families (Dubai Statistics Centre as cited in Ahmed, 2014), use basic English to communicate with the children in their care. English is also used between family members engaged in private discussion. This was found in a study by Johannsen (1996) which used Arabic questionnaires to assess how often Emirati university students used English and with whom. Perhaps surprisingly, the most common area in which students used English every day after ‘with servants’ was ‘with siblings’. The students commented that they interacted in English with their sisters and brothers so that their parents would not understand, resulting in the use of ‘English as a secret language’ (Johannsen, 1996). Hassall’s (2004) study, which was modelled on Johannsen’s earlier study, used English questionnaires with Emirati university students and supported Johannsen’s findings with regard to English being used as a ‘secret language’ between siblings. O’Neill’s (2016) study, a decade later, produced similar findings, with Emirati university student participants commenting on their often choosing to use English at home with siblings rather than Arabic. O’Neill’s participants, however, commented on older family members disapproving of this, feeling that the use of English and even Arabizi (using a creative mix of Arabic and English) was ‘invasive in the home context’ (O’Neill, 2016, p. 26). Hopkyns’ (2014) study found that the use of Anglicized names as well as using only English or Arabizi on social networking sites such as Twitter was commonplace among Emirati youth. Considering the various ways in which English penetrates home life, Burden-Leahy (2009, p. 536) proposes that ‘there is a pattern emerging of Arabic being replaced by English as the main language in some Emirati homes’. 3.3. Increase of English medium instruction at all levels of education In conjunction with English being used as a lingua franca in public and private domains, there has been a sudden and seismic shift in terms of the amount of English used at all levels of education in the UAE. Mirroring the pace of general change, this increase in the amount of English in education has been far from gradual. In Abu Dhabi, as Gallagher (2016) explains: the recent radical reformation of the state school system has included a shift in the medium of instruction from the traditional use of ‘Arabic-only’ to teach all school subjects, to include the use of ‘English-also’ as a medium of instruction from kindergarten onwards. (p.139)
English medium instruction plays a particularly significant role for the core subjects of science and mathematics, whereas Arabic is the medium of instruction for subjects such as Arabic language and Islamic studies. Although the UAE’s largest and most established government university, UAE University established in 1976, was originally of Arabic medium, in 2005 it changed its medium of instruction to English with teaching materials being chosen to reflect an inner-circle variety of English which was deemed to be the language of business in the future, and therefore most likely to assist graduates to secure employment (Fox et al., 2006). Currently, the primary instructional language at all of the UAE’s federal universities is English, excluding majors in Islamic Studies and Shari’a Law. Due to this abrupt switch
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to English medium instruction from kindergarten onwards, Solloway (2016b) describes Emirati education as having been ‘de-Arabicised’ with English replacing Arabic as ‘the language of education’ in the UAE. English as a medium of instruction in higher education is very much a global phenomenon (Dearden, 2015) from Korea (Cho, 2012), to Finland (Lehikoinen, 2004) and France (Coleman, 2006). However, rather than a partial or gradual approach towards internationalizing education, the UAE’s search for the ‘silver bullet’ (Aydarova, 2012, p. 285), accelerated by the growing impact of globalization in multiple domains, has led to a more dramatic approach. In addition to importing western models of education as is common worldwide, higher education in the UAE has been more thoroughly westernized by ‘relying on Western faculty and administrators to implement and lead their reforms’ (Badry & Willoughby, 2016, p. 208). 3.4. ‘Englishization vs. Hybridization’ debate Known as the ‘Englishization vs. Hybridization’ debate (Hopkyns, 2016), attitudes towards the effects of English on local languages vary. Journalists in the UAE are quick to report on the negative effects of English on local cultural identity and the Arabic language by focusing on the seductive nature of English, declining levels of Arabic and the need for bolstering local cultural identity. These issues, which are regularly discussed by the federal authority of the UAE during Federal National Council meetings, relate especially to English and Arabic in education. In addition, many parallels have been drawn between the spread of English and the loss of Arabic in the UAE by scholars in the region (Findlow, 2006; Hopkyns, 2017; Solloway, 2016a). While some see the dominance of English as an extension of British and American imperialism, others argue that ‘hybridization’ (Pieterse, 1995) or ‘glocalization’ (Robertson, 1995), in which local versions of imported language and cultural artefacts are created, overpowers ‘Englishization’. In this sense, ‘a synergetic relationship between the global and the local’ (Block & Cameron, 2002, p. 3) exists rather than the dominance of the former over the latter. English, in this way, is used voluntarily and creatively adapted by local communities with such ‘hybridization’ taking multiple forms.
4. A move towards linguistic hybridity in the UAE In order to appreciate the nature of linguistic hybridity in the UAE, it is first important to outline the complexity of the Arabic language itself in the Gulf and in the Arabic-speaking world at large. 4.1. Diglossia in Arabic Arabic, which is a Semitic language having a grammatical system similar to Assyrian, Aramaic, Hebrew and Ethiopian, is used in approximately 23 countries (Swan & Smith, 2001). In each country there are two main varieties: Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Non-Standard Arabic (NSA). MSA is a simplified version of Classical Standard Arabic, the language of the Quran, the holy book of Islam, and it is taught in schools throughout general
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education in the Arab-speaking world, used in the mass media in all Arab countries and used for all communications of an official nature. NSA includes the vernaculars of everyday use and differs in each country significantly at phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic levels to the extent that Yorkey (1974) considers the differences among the vernaculars in the Arab region more distinct than differences between UK, US and Australian English, while Brame (1970) argues that the differences between Arabic varieties seem to be exaggerated as these differences occur in vocabulary and syntax more than phonology. Whether one agrees with Yorkey or Brame, it is clear that the diglossic nature of Arabic has made learning and using the language more complex for its users due to MSA being used in some domains (education, media, formal events) and NSA, such as the Emirati dialect Khaleeji, being used in others (at home, with friends and family). As can be seen from Figure 1, which describes the heterogeneity of Arabic, the fact that NSA does not have a standard written form means that reading and writing are often negatively affected due to the variation between the version of Arabic being spoken in everyday contexts and what is being taught via textbooks at school. It could be
Figure 1. Heterogeneity of Arabic. KG: Kindergarden.
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considered that the diglossic nature of Arabic also makes English more appealing due to its comparative simplicity as a language. 4.2. Linguistic hybridity within and across languages in the UAE The extreme diversity within the UAE community makes it a place where several modes of accommodation in communication can be observed. In settings where English is the preferred lingua franca (ELF) amongst interlocutors who share neither the first language nor the culture (Patent, 2017), maintaining intelligibility rather than native-like pronunciation is expected to be the target (Walker & Zoghbor, 2015). There are several ways in which Emiratis are moving away from inner-circle models of English and thereby reshaping the use of English and Arabic in today’s UAE. Table 1 presents the types of linguistic hybridity that occur. 4.2.1. Code-switching and translanguaging Bilingual speakers in the UAE often use code-switching. Several scholars provide definitions for this term (Bokamba, 1989; Hymes, 1974), stating that it is the swapping between or combining of systems of two or more distinct languages. This can occur at different linguistic levels; at the grammar level, at word or phrase levels, or at style levels. While code-switching is usually discussed in relation to the use of two or more languages, Hymes (1974) uses the term to also refer to switching between different aspects of the same language. In this sense, the interchange between the words and grammatical systems of MSA or any NSA dialect could come under the category of ‘code-switching’ within the same language. Going beyond code-switching, translanguaging refers to the practices of bilinguals whose aim is to maximize communication potential, so it includes, but it is not limited to, code-switching (Garcia, 2009). Hassall, Rice, O’Neill, Bailey-Seffar, and Boilard (2007) demonstrate a common example of translanguaging used by Emiratis, as seen in the following sample from an Emirati university student in Dubai. Here the majority of the sentence is in English with the Arabic word ‘haram’, meaning ‘forbidden’ (in religious contexts) or ‘bad/unfair’ (in social contexts), punctuating the sentence: On Wednesday, I had a class at eleven o’clock in Block A, to be exact in Room A25. I felt hot in the class because the A/C was off. I told my teacher I felt ‘haram’, so he told me to write about it. Then I wrote, ‘I feel “haram’’’.
Haram, which is the opposite of another common Arabic word halal, is regularly used in a natural way by Arabic and non-Arabic speakers in English conversations and serves to ease communication through mutual understanding.
Table 1. Types of linguistic hybridity occurring in the UAE context. Form of hybridity Definition Languages involved Scope of use Formal/informal
Code Switching Switching between two or more languages Two or more distinct language systems Written and spoken Formal/informal
Translanguaging Switching between two or more languages Arabic and English (minimum) Written and spoken Formal/informal
White dialect A dialect that is close to Standard Arabic (SA) Dialects of Arabic language Spoken Informal
Arabizi Using Latin script while writing in Arabic Arabic and English Written Informal
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4.2.2. White dialects Another type of hybridity which is rarely discussed in English publications, is white dialects. This term refers to hybridity within the Arabic language rather than between languages. It is used by speakers intentionally or unintentionally to maximize communication potential, as with translanguaging. It also represents attempts by linguists to protect the Arabic language and maintain its position as the language of the Arabic identity and everyday life. At the 2016 Arabic Conference in Dubai, Ahmed Esmael provided justifications for a middle ground between all dialects of Arabic, and he referred to this middle ground as ‘While Dialect’. Unlike MSA, which is naturally assumed to be the default version of Arabic used between Arabic speakers, white dialects are more fluid in nature in that they are the linguistic product that interlocutors produce while communicating. Depending on the interlocutors and the context, white dialects might be closer to MSA than to the Khaleeji dialect, or might, for instance, be closer to the Kaleeji dialect than to the Jordanian dialect or another alternative. In this sense, the linguistic features of a white dialect between two people might differ according to the people involved. This strategy contributes to the protection of the Arabic language and is an alternative to combining Arabic with English, which is becoming extremely popular with Emirati youth. 4.2.3. Arabizi A further type of linguistic hybridization in the UAE can be seen through the emergence of ‘Arabizi’ (sometimes known as ‘Arabish’), which is a mix of Emirati Arabic or Khaleeji and English used mainly in online written contexts (Yaghan, 2008), particularly among the younger generation. Arabizi, which is a combination of the word Arabi (Arabic) and Engliszi (English), involves the mixing of English and Arabic words using Arabic script, or most often a modified Latin script (Bianchi, 2012; Palfreyman & Al Khalil, 2003), and the use of English numbers to replace Arabic sounds that have no spelling equivalent in English (Al Fardan & Al Kaabi, 2015). For example, the Arabic letter ‘( ’عain) is represented as the English number ‘3’. The Arabic word for ‘eye’ would, therefore, be written as ‘3ain’. The notion of ‘Arabizi’ has become popular recently due to advances in technology, the increased use of the Internet, mobile use and social media communication (e.g. Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp). Using Latin script for writing Arabic words online is generally deemed easier than using the Arabic script due to the dominance of English on the Internet and with communication devices, since not all cell phones are Arabic friendly and may not support the Arabic language in their built-in systems. For this reason, Arabizi has become a practical solution to meet the sudden increased need for technology (Al-Shaer, 2016; Yaghan, 2008). It is worth noting that although Arabizi has become popular among young Emiratis due to technology use, the trend of replacing the Arabic script with the Latin script is not new. The first mention of this was in 1880 by Wilhelm Spitta in his book Vulgardialectes von Agypten Grammatik des Arabischen (The Rules of Slang Arabic in Egypt), followed by Vollers’ work (1890), Willmore’s work (1901), Abdul Aziz Fahmi’s work (1943) and more recently by Kamal Ataturk in Turkey (Yaghan, 2008). There is, however, opposition to this due to feelings that the use of Arabizi, or similar adaptations, threatens not only the Arabic language but also Muslim and Arab identity, considering the deeply rooted connection between the Arabic language, including its script, and The Quran (Esmail, 2016). Views on Arabizi are, therefore, often conflicting, with Emirati youth generally preferring to use English and Arabizi over Arabic in informal social media contexts in order to facilitate
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communication, in contrast to older Emiratis who regularly express their concerns that its excessive use might weaken the position of Arabic as the language of their national identity. This was found to be the case in studies by Hopkyns (2017) and also O’Neill (2016).
5. Conclusion The current linguistic landscape of the UAE reflects the history of English in the region as well as its superdiverse population. Due to the increase of English in almost every aspect of daily life, concerns have been raised over the effects of English on the Arabic language and identity. However, as English is likely to remain prominent as a global language and lingua franca for the foreseeable future, adapting and combining English and Arabic in creative ways can give speakers a greater sense of ownership. Furthermore, using the forms of hybridity explained here often aids communication and helps forge new identities. The way in which this is happening in the UAE is varied and arguably exciting, especially for the younger generation who are very much the creators of emerging language change. Although this article gives an overview of the past, present and future directions of English in the UAE, as language is dynamic and ever-changing it is important to regularly revisit the issues appearing here. As Blommaert (2016) stated in his plenary talk at the Third International Conference on Language, Linguistics, Literature and Translation in Muscat, Oman, in today’s superdiverse linguistic landscape, ‘language always moves, it is never at rest, it is never ready, it is never standing still’. Likening the dynamic nature of language to a model not sitting still for a painting, Blommaert explains that if the model is constantly moving, it is very hard to paint the picture. Similarly, it is often difficult to paint a picture of language, especially in the UAE’s particularly dynamic environment, when language never stops moving. There is clearly great potential for further investigation into language use in the United Arab Emirates.
Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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