A new writing system? Developing orthographies for writing Arabic dialects in electronic media

Abstract

This paper is set within the context of Electronic Amiyyas (EA) written dialects in Facebook used by youth in the Arab World. In recent years, electronic writings have begun to replace print writing in many circumstances. Similar to the printing press, this new technology has also influenced the written colloquial forms of languages, since youngsters all over the world are formulating and devising new conventions for writing their indigenous spoken languages electronically. This linguistic development is now occurring in many languages in the world, and Arabic is just one example. Chinese youngsters, for example, are also deviating from the standard Chinese writing system by mixing spoken and written language features in order to facilitate the written use of oral dialects on the Internet. In Japan, young Japanese employ colloquial language online, for example, by using eccentric spelling which reproduces actual articulation in the typed message. This pattern of electronic writings is particularly salient in diglossic languages, such as Arabic, Persian and several languages of the Indian subcontinent such as Tamil, Sinhala, Telugu and Bengali. In such cases, the invention of a new writing system for the spoken language might endanger the formal written language. In this research, I describe the development of new systems for writing colloquial Arabic dialects. I am studying the consonantal system of Electronic Amiyya in several countries in the Arab World. This is the first empirical study of this kind. The purpose of the study is to examine the differences in this system amongst the different users in different countries and to investigate any occurring standardisations.