Globalization, Computer-mediated Communications and the Rise of e-Arabic

Abstract

AbstractThis article highlights an as yet overlooked consequence of the expansion of computer-mediated communication in the Arab world, the emergence and extensive use of a new language (e-Arabic). This is a language that mixes, borrows and adapts, uses numbers, Roman letters, Arabic script characters, emotions and words from other languages (English and French) to engage not only with the globalized discourse, but also to examine the specific ways in which the local frames the global. Using an analysis of the language used in e-literature (novels) such as Nessyane Com (2009), 'Ayza atgawiz (2008) and Banat al-Riyadh (2005), this article explores whether globalization processes have changed modern standard Arabic (MSA) and colloquial Arabic at the level of the single word, compound and phrase levels, while also examining the metaphorical language that has emerged.