Multilingualism in Dubai: Shaping Linguistic Identity - A Case Study

This case study examines multilingualism in Dubai, focusing on how linguistic identity is shaped in a diverse society. The study employs Labov’s model of Narrative Enquiry and Bourdieu’s theory of practice to analyze the language choices and experiences of a young Emirati woman named Shaikha...Read More

MULTILINGUALISM IN UAE
MULTILINGUALISM IN DUBAI- UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: CASE STUDY
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INTRODUCTION
The fact that the basis of development in a country is completely dependent on a natural
resource, oil, is very intriguing and shocking. The earlier or traditional modes of occupation were
more varied than now. In the past, Emirates was a relatively humble country, whose citizens
made a living mainly from maritime occupations which include fishing and engagement in trade
with other regions such as the East Africa region, Iran and the Indian sub-continent (Zahlan,
2016). The discovery of oil led to widespread opportunities in this country since a large pool of
experts were brought in to offer labor services to an economy that was growing at a very high
percentage.
As a result of the increased entry of migrant labor from other nations, the demographics of
this country also changed leading to Emirates being a smaller number of the population in their
home country (Al-Gazali, Alwash, & Abdulrazzaq, 2005). This made it a necessity for the
natives to adopt English as their second language so as to aid in communication with other
groups of people who come from all over the world looking for opportunities. As a result of the
development of the multilingual society in this region, the natives tried to mix Arabic and
English so as to communicate easily. This is because it has become a requirement for people to
develop multilingual capabilities .The advantages and benefits of globalization and diversity can
be tempting, for the current youth of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is because they are the
first generation growing up during this fast transformation in the UAE, making the appropriate
social and linguistic choices can be quite stimulating (O’Neill, 2017).
It is easy for one to distinguish locals from foreigners since the natives are stereotyped in terms
of their linguistic and cultural identities. In this paper, I will use the Labov’s model of Narrative
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Enquiry, to investigate how a local's multilinguistic identity is shaped and sometimes stereotyped
in a diverse society like Dubai, through the eyes of a young female Emirati called “Shaikha”.
Multilingualism in UAE’s local society
Multilingualism has become a global trend in every country. Even for those countries
which are known to be the most monolingual. There must exist a certain group of people that
speak a language other than the language spoken in those countries. Multilingualism can be
defined as the use of more than one language either by an individual or a group of speakers.
According to O’Neill (2016), stated that many local Emiratis see themselves as multilingual
individuals, but also think of languages as circumscribed, isolated units that function in particular
dominions. In Dubai, multilingualism is seen as a national demographic, where English
specifically is considered as a crucial part of the personal and career improvement. Hence,
families try to develop linguistic knowledge of both English and Arabic in their children. Still,
many families are placed within a firm language philosophy where Arabic, especially Emirati-
Arabic, presents the Emirati identity, whereas the standard Arabic symbolizes a larger Arabic
and Muslim identity. This means that a firm strategy of only Arabic, is followed by the family.
English is not totally neglected but it is allocated outside, in school, work and interactions with
non-Arabic speakers. This made other families adapt more flexible heteroglossia, in which the
walls between the two languages demolished, and Emiratis started using both a linguistic and
nonlinguistic means to communicate. For example, they started using a term called Arabizi, to
represent their mix between Arabic and English.
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Method
The Theory of practice
This paper investigates the linguistic choices in a multilingual situation. The
study employs Bourdieu’s theory of practice to examine the given contexts.
His work is helpful here as it classifies the basic factors of social habits in
relations to individual dispositions (Habitus), individual capabilities (Capital),
and the social spaces where the capital function (Field). The following
equation illustrates this collaboration (Bourdieu 1984: 101 as cited in
O’Neill ,2017):
Habitus +capital + field = practice
Collection of data based on storytelling reveal the reasons that cause
language choice, especially in the young generation’s daily speeches.
However, although this ethnographic sample on native cultural observation
can draw attention on the complexity of identity, it cannot be achieved
totally through a single analysis. Thus, it is crucial to consider sociocultural
linguistics within complex methods in a large and inclusive research
(Bucholtz, 2005).
The participant’s multilingual identity:
Multicultural and multilingual identities likely appear when individuals interact with
people from distinguished backgrounds on a multicultural and multilingual basis (Jackson,
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2014).There is also a high chance that they will develop mixed identities that combine various
cultural and linguistic features. This in turn will help them to communicate in their lives (Kraidy
2005; Kramsch 1993, 2009 as cited in Jackson, 2014). People can develop a sense of belonging
to a particular culture and language as they had previously experienced living and experiencing it
(Greenholtz, & Kim, 2009).
I choose a participant from a similar linguistic background and culture, to be able to
have a clear analysis of the data and limit misinterpretation, since I have better
understanding of my Saudi culture in comparison to others. Shakiah is 33 years old
Emirati female, mother of two boys living in Dubai. She came from a family of a wealthy
linguistic capital; her mother is a French-Moroccan who speaks French and Moroccan Arabic
(MA).
Her father is an Emirati who speaks modern standard Arabic (MSA) German (from his studies in
Germany), Emarati Arabic (EA) along with Farsi and English. Her husband is a Palestinian who
speaks Palestinian Arabic (PA) and English. She does not speak German or French, but she grew
up hearing it from her parents. She learnt English during her schooling and working years. She
has been improving it while living in Canada for a couple of years. Now she speaks MA, EA, PA, MSA,
English, she has also developed a “habit” of using an Arabic accent that eases her communication, called
white Arabic (WA). This is a modern accent developed by young Arabs via using common Arabic words
that are easy to understand, e.g. instead of saying ,Sert elbeet (I went home) she would say Rohet elbeet,
Sert is an EA word ,while Rohet is WA word which is common in most Arabic speaking countries.
Because many Arabic variation exist in Dubai, WA is seen as a monolingual outcome of a highly diverse
society (O’Neill, 2017), or as Bourdieu’s refers to, a “field”.
Since her childhood, Shikha had always struggled with her linguistic identity. Her mother talked
to her in MA when she was a child and so she calls it her mother tongue. She has an emotional
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bond with it such that she sometimes uses it with her children as she said, “it is the way I have
been cuddled”. However, as she didn’t practice it in a Moroccan “Field”, since she was
raised in Dubai, she is not fluent in it like a native. She has faced some
discrimination because of that when she visited her Moroccan relatives. The same
can apply for her EA, due to the influence of her MA, she also could not speak EA
fluently, which produced adverse effects in her social circles, then that with her
Moroccan relatives. In school, her EA linguistic insufficiency triggered other Emarati
students to bully her and call her names like “Miss Half-half” along with endless
questions of why she is different. She dropped from school at the final year of high
school. While this decision was mainly because of finical problems, she stated that
her experience with negative stereotypes in school also affected her. (Martin, & Nakayama,
2013) sated that, as a result of stereotyping, people tend to make assumptions about an individual
based on the perceived image people have on the group that he or she belongs to. This makes
communication difficult since such stereotypes are injurious to individuals.
Although multilingualism was appreciated, and her father encouraged
heteroglossia at home, he always insisted on his children to speak EA, since
the Emirati identity was considered to be the sociocultural prestige one in
UAE, but due to her mother tongue negative interference (i.e. MA), it was not
easy to speak EA fluently. She communicated with her father in EA and with
her mother in MA, she was also introduced to MSA from reading books in her
father’s library, as books in Arabic are not written in vernacular but rather in
standard Arabic. Using MSA is a leading ideology in UAE and the rest of the Arab as the perfect
language of household, nation-state, faith, privet and public sector education. This Arabic national
alignment, referred to by Schulthies, (2015) as the “ideology of linguistic sameness”
With time, she managed to overcome these difficulties and became fluent in
both dialects. She was also introduced to a new dialect in Arabic which she
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uses the most now in her daily life along with English. Shaikh married a
Palestinian guy “Salim” and they have two children together, Adnan 4 years
old and Jasem 16 months. Although Salim was born in Palestine, he does not
own a palatinate passport (due to the occupation of his country), instead he
has a Jordanian passport, therefore their children are Jordanians, as well as
Canadians (since they were born there). However, none of the four speak
Jordanian Arabic, and they use PA and English in their daily life. Sometimes
Shaikh uses other linguistic recourses to express herself, she stated that, at
the begging of their relationship, Salim will speak to her in PA and she will
respond with whatever comes with it, PA, EA, WA, or English. She mentioned
an incident when they first declared their love to each other. Salim directly
used PA, while she struggled deciding on which linguistic option she should
use, although she strongly wanted to use MA as it has the most emotional
capital for her. It felt awkward, so she consciously used PA and English.
However, if they are fighting she will subconsciously shift to MA as she knows
that she will find the words she is looking for, she also may use PA, but she
will resort some English words to express her points fully.
Regarding their children’s languages, Shaikha thinks that building their English knowledge is as
important as their Arabic, since they are both Palestinians and Canadians. Though, heteroglossia
became very obvious in her older son Adnan speech, who will occasionally use Arabizi, such as:
“Mama gallet”: don’t touch (mum said don’t touch). While Shaikh in the past would not use
Arabazi because she thinks it is a sign of linguistic weakness, she is more tolerant nowadays with
her children, and she start to use it herself. Shaikha sees English as an escape from her linguistic
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and indexical complications of her three different Arabic dialects that are followed with many
serotypes.
English also played a major role in her workplace, as UAE has a widespread opportunity
available, the country witnessing a high number of people from other nationalities coming in to
work. As a result of this diversity in languages and culture among the employees, English
became the lingua franca in the UAE private sector, which is Shaikh’s work environment. It
eased her communication with her co-workers and got her to socialise and learn different
languages and make friends that are not sidelined based on their cultural or linguistic
background. It was when she developed her WA that she met many Arabs with linguistic
diversity, wherein they try to use as much as common words of Arabic between their languages,
WA is a term used by Arabic celebrates referring to the accent they use to reach the Arab world-
wide audience (Schulthies, 2015)
CONCLUSION
Shaikh’s case study showed through her unique background and language proficiency, a
linguistic tendency that established a multilingual setting and lead to conscious and unconscious
decisions on the language choice in certain social setting. Her decisions are also influenced by
her language ideology as to which language is better compared to others (O’Neill, 2017).
The Bourdieu’s method, which includes the equation:
Habitus +capital + field = practice,
can help explain Shaikh’s multiple linguistic identities as shown through her flexible dispositions
(Habitus), development of a skill in adapting different and new linguistic
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styles (Capital), and living in a place with a huge linguistic diversity where
this Capital can be practiced (Field).
People like Shikha who identify with multilinguistic identities, are faced with stereotypes mostly
negative. These individuals put a lot of effort in improving their language and literacy practices.
They have also made efforts to learn other languages so as to aid in their interaction with other
people from different backgrounds. These multi-linguistic habits provide them with a rich
linguistic capital in several language varieties and expose them to a diverse environment in
educational, professional, and family contexts. This helps in reduction of stereotypes, prejudice,
discrimination and exclusion as people became many well acquainted with different cultural
practices. As the case of linguistic diversity of local Emirates is relatively new and rarely
studied, research in this area is highly recommended.
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MARY BUCHOLTZ, & KIRA HALL. (2005). Identity and interaction: a sociocultural linguistic
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