Introduction

This is the third volume in a series of studies whose aim is to elucidate the role of language in society in the Middle East and North Africa. The first volume Arabic Sociolinguistics: Issues and Perspectives (Curzon Press, 1994) sought to investigate issues of identity, language loyalty and variation as they pertain to Arabic in both the modern and pre-modern worlds. The second volume Language and Identity in the Middle Eastand North Africa (Curzon Press, 1996) dealt with therole of language in articulating issues of national and ethnic identity in relation to Arabic, Berber, Hebrew, Kurdish, Turkish and a host of Central Asianlanguages. The present collection of papers builds on the findings and premises of these two volumes by (a) linking the facts of variation in language use to issues of identity, (b) adopting an expanded definition of the Middle East which includes the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, and (c) considering the use of Middle Eastern languages in their diasporic existence. The languages which form the main focus of this volume are Arabic, Berber, Persian, Turkish and, to a lesser extent, English as a language of international communication in the Middle Eastern context. However, the majority of the papers deal with Arabic, with special emphasis on issues of language, variation and identity as they pertain to the Palestinians in Jordan, the Occupied Territories and Israel.