A stroll on a linguistic tightrope : a study of urban Israeli Palestinians' language attitudes and reported usage

Abstract

Israeli Palestinians have since the establishment of the state of Israel in many ways been standing with one foot in each camp. This thesis explores to what degree this complex sociopolitical situation is reflected in their attitudes towards, and reported usage of the codes in their linguistic repertoire, with particular focus on Arabic: fuṣḥâ and Hebrew: Ashkenazi Hebrew (AH) and Mizrahi Hebrew (MH). Israel’s language policies lead to Hebrew playing the role as a high variety for many Israeli Palestinians, a role traditionally filled by fuṣḥâ among Arabic speakers. The thesis further explores how the Arabic diglossic language situation influences their language attitudes and reported usage. I assumed that the general attitudes towards fuṣḥâ are positive, it being a link to their Arab and/or Palestinian identity, culture and history. I further assumed that the attitudes towards Hebrew are generally negative as it is the language of the ‘superior other’, while at the same time it plays an important role for the Israeli Arabs as it is the language of the state. I found that although most of the informants report to mix Hebrew lexical items into their Arabic speech, many express a wish not to mix. However they explain their relatively frequent mixing with that they can only find the Arabic equivalent in fuṣḥâ, and that the usage of fuṣḥâ lexical items often is considered strange as it makes the style more formal. The use of fuṣḥâ is thus considered a marked choice in many contexts, also where it would be the normal code choice in most Arab countries, such as when lecturing. Hebrew, both MH and AH has prestige in certain contexts. The speakers report to often choose to use AH, MH and fuṣḥâ intentionally in order to make salient different elements of their identity, be it Israeli or Palestinian/Arab, depending on the context, and on what they wish for the particular interaction. In this way we see that the complex sociopolitical situation of the Israeli Palestinians and the Arabic diglossia has a clear impact on their language attitudes and reported usage.