ABSTRACT
Arabic is a diglossic language, with the High form, usually referred to as ‘Standard’ or ‘Modern Standard Arabic’, associated with scholarship and religious practice and the Low, or colloquial, form used in informal interactions and displaying considerable regional variation. This contributes a layer of complexity to language maintenance and shift in Arabic, as the language may have different meanings to different cultural groups. In this chapter, we present the findings from a qualitative study exploring the perspectives of eight second and third generation Arabic-background Australians in Sydney. The findings revealed the complexity underlying language choices. We describe the participants’ experiences with their heritage language, and identify and analyse some of the key factors which they perceive as influencing their own language maintenance and shift over time. We see agency as key to the understanding of the process, and thus we focus on the factors our participants perceive as being within or outside their control. We propose a model of the interaction of three states, identity, ability and use, with agentively and non-agentively positioned factors. The study also highlights the integral and varied role that language plays in constructing, positioning and performing the participant’s ethnic and religious identities.
