Language and Identity in Modern Egypt

Reem Bassiouney is Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Applied Linguistics at the American University in Cairo. Her academic books include, Functions of code-switching in Egypt (2006), Arabic Sociolinguistics (2008), Arabic and the Media (2010), Arabic Language and Linguistics 2012 (co-ed). Her research and publications focus on topics in Arabic sociolingusitics, including code-switching, language and gender, leveling, register, language policy and discourse analysis. She is also an award winning novelist.

• Introduction; 1. Identity and beyond: Setting the framework of analysis; 2. A historical overview of the development of national identity in modern Egypt with reference to language: The formative period; 3.“Arabic” indexes amidst a nation and a nation-state: Ideologies, attitudes and linguistic realities; 4. Social attributes of Egyptian identity; 5. Narration and identity construction; 6. The politics of identity and linguistic unrest: The case of the Egyptian revolution; 7. Conclusions; List of abbreviations

This study provides an interesting insight into the link between identity and language in a barely investigated diglossic context, combining sociolinguistics and discourse analysis.'