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Mahmoud Eid 87
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considered prevalent in Arab societies: endurance and rectitude; loyalty and
dignity; generosity, courage, and self-respect; and pride, rivalry, and revenge.
The most common basic cultural values include: a) collectivism; b)
hospitality; and c) honour. Collectivism is reflected in social life in the Arab
region, which is characterized by “situation-centeredness,” in which loyalty
to one’s extended family and larger “in-group” takes precedence over
individual needs and goals. Impressed on children very early, hospitality
reflects a desired personal quality and symbolizes status. Hospitality predates
the zakat (the Muslim duty of giving 2.5% of one’s wealth to the poor, which
serves to counterbalance disparity between rich and poor). Certain occasions
require elaborate displays of hospitality; these include marriage, burial,
circumcision, the completion of house building, and during the holy month of
Ramadan, village wide visiting and sharing of meals. Honour, or ‘ird, is a
controlling value, legitimating the family structure and the “modesty code”
required of both men and women. Honour is manifested in sexual conduct
and behaviours which exhibit or regulate manliness, such as the number of
sons a man fathers and the extent of hospitality one bestows. One’s honour
determines one’s image. The key to saving face is the assiduous avoidance of
shame. As primary possessors of ‘ird, men – including fathers, brothers,
father’s brothers, and paternal cousins – strictly enforce norms related to
honour by ensuring that the women of their family conduct themselves
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properly and, thus, maintain a chaste reputation.
In research on language and verbal communication patterns, studies
related to the Arabic language have focused primarily on: a) the multiple
forms of Arabic; b) code-switching; and c) communicative style. As one of
the six official languages of the United Nations, Arabic is spoken by
approximately 200 million people, excluding non-Arab Muslims. While the
classical Arabic of the Qur’an, (Islam’s Holy Book) is considered the highest
and unequalled language, other forms of Arabic also exist. Modern Standard
Arabic, or Fusha, is the language of governments, media, and public and
religious speakers. Colloquial Arabic dialects have developed within
countries, and are the languages of everyday interaction. Because of the
variability of local dialects, it is inaccurate to assume that Tunisians and
Iraqis, for example, readily understand one another in intercultural
interaction. Egyptian Arabic, however, is more readily understood in the
region than the multitude of other local dialects, mainly due to Egypt’s far-
reaching and popular film industry. Arabic speakers not only code-switch
between the different forms of Arabic, many also code-switch between
Arabic, French and/or English, the latter languages borrowed during colonial
occupation. As a rhetorical device, code-switching allows bilinguals to select
contextually appropriate speech which carries certain connotations,
emphasizes certain points, and regulates the flow of discourse. Whether
communicating in Arabic or other languages, research indicates that native