ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a critical review of the English-speaking research pertaining to the multiple ways in which social status correlates with the use of language in the Arab world. It argues that social status is more appropriate and encompassing a factor that can explain sociolinguistic and dialectal differences in the Arab world, inasmuch as it captures issues of hierarchy and thus prestige without presupposing the rigid structure of social class. The chapter discusses diglossia from the perspective of two Arab scholars, Yasir Suleiman and Abdulkafi Albirini, who have tried to theorize diglossia from two different but complementary perspectives: Suleiman has tried to theorize the structure of diglossia and Albirini has delved into the functions of diglossia. It suggests future directions Arabic sociolinguistic research in order to tackle the complex relationship between language and society from a social status perspective.
