ABSTRACT

The phenomenon of separating Standard Arabic, which is associated with the written form, from the colloquial Arabic used in the oral/spoken form has been the focus of debates for decades in academic and non-academic circles. Rethinking Arabic linguistics entails questioning the simplified definition that restricts a language spoken by more than 250 million people into dichotomies between fusha and ‘ammiya which remain unchangeable over time. The Arabic cyberspace was already active and Arab users, particularly the youths in most countries–for example, Egypt–had established language to communicate between each other. Netspeak, a term associated with the Internet language coined by Crystal has been affecting languages globally, including non-European languages such as Arabic. Arabic socio-linguistics in particular needs to contextualize the various changes that have affected Arab societies, including the Internet revolution, to include the transformations that have taken place in the Arabic language, both in standard Arabic and in the vernaculars.