This project supports the research of a linguistic anthropologist from Johns Hopkins University in a field project studying language usage in Egypt. The official language is Classical Arabic, a language whose source is the Koran and which is used in prayer and in all official documents as well as in commercial uses. Egyptian Arabic is the native language of elite and non-elite Egyptians, and is the vehicle of communication of daily life, poetry, folklore, songs and proverbs as well as film and TV. Using participant observation and structured tests and interviews the investigator will study how average Egyptians relate to the classical language, distinguishing categories by gender, social class and age. The usage of classical Arabic as a symbol of pan-Arab Islam will be studied. This research is important because Islam is a dynamic force in the world from the Balkans to the middle East and through the former USSR. Increased understanding of the sources of solidarity and tension of language usage in an Islamic country will help us know how to deal with reactions of Islamic societies to encroaching modernism, persistent tradition, and to understand the differences between `Arab` and `Islamic`.
