The Role of Diglossia in the Arabic Language a Cross-National Study

A description of Arabic without mentioning the term diglossia would be incomplete. Diglossia is defined as two forms of the same language that are used by the same person under different conditions (Fedda, & Oweini, 2012). Arabic has two forms: Standard Arabic (StA), which is the literary form used for reading and writing among all Arabic speakers, and the spoken form (SpA), which Arabic speakers use for daily verbal communication. The present study examined language use among two groups of Arabic-English children. The sample included 80 children, 40 Arabic-English bilingual children from Saudi Arabia and forty Arabic-English bilinguals from Canada (ages 8-10 years). Demographic information was collected through a questionnaire completed by the parents of each child. Parents in Saudi Arabia stated that children use Standard Arabic 3% to 5% of the time for the groups, while they use spoken Arabic approximately 95% of the time with parents, siblings, and friends. Although children in Canada used Standard Arabic a similar amount 9% to 5% of the time, they use spoken Arabic 84% of the time with parents and show much lower percentages of Arabic use with siblings and friends. Additionally, children in Canada use English 42% to 95% of the time to communicate with parents, siblings, and friends, which contrasts with lower levels of English use by children in Saudi Arabia. These findings emphasize the low levels of exposure to Standard Arabic (literary form) in young children in Saudi Arabia and Canada which could inhibit their reading and writing.
Keywords: Diglossia, Standard Arabic, Spoken Arabic, and bilinguals