Abstract
It is believed that the language of the newspapers plays a major role in developing and reflecting the reality of the contemporary language in Egypt, where Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA) have become much closer and the gap between them has shrunk (Badawi, 2012). The linguistic reality described in Badawi’s model (1973) mirrors the linguistic structure of the contemporary Egyptian community. This structure, from a horizontal point of view, shows that the contemporary Arabic in Egypt can be classified into five levels that are adjacent, namely classical Arabic, modern standard Arabic, colloquial of the cultured, colloquial of the lightened and colloquial of the illiterate.
Since Badawi established his model, little research had been done on the language of newspapers in light of his model. Moreover, until recently when defining None-Modern standard Arabic (NMSA), it is introduced as “the spoken variation used by Egyptian people in daily conversations…, and it is used in a very limited way in written texts as in reporting dialogues (Warschauer, El Said, & Zohry, 2006).
This descriptive study aims at providing answers to the following research questions: 1- where does the Language of Contemporary Egyptian Newspapers (LCEN) used in opinion articles (headline vs. body of the article) lie according to Badawi’s model? 2- What types of NMSA are used in these opinion articles?
A sample data of opinion articles in three widely read Egyptian newspapers was collected over a period of two months; from 1st of November till the 19th of December 2011.
The study analyzes the data primarily on MSA or NMSA basis using the criteria Badawi used in his model. The NMSA has been classified under six categories to differentiate the types of NMSA incidents.
The findings of this study show that NMSA is incorporated in opinion articles of the three newspapers under investigation at different degrees in both body of articles and headlines.
Finally, it can be said that according to Badawi’s model, LCEN cannot be anymore classified exclusively under level two, known as MSA, and it has moved downward somewhere on his measuring stick of levels of contemporary Arabic Language in Egypt.
This study depicts a more accurate and in-depth descriptive picture of the language used in opinion articles in some of the current Egyptian newspapers. It also helps teachers of Arabic as a foreign language when teaching Arabic in general and media classes in particular.
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