The Sociocultural Use of the Arabic Word عيب Eib 'shame' among the YemeniWomen "Thanks to language, Man became man." Descartes

Abstract

The current paper attempts to explore the sociocultural use of the Arabic word عيبEib 'shame' among the Yemeni women. Language, as the main tool of communication, sometimes has to be used in a very tough and vague manner by its users, especially by those who are uneducated. This paper tends to tackle the issue of using the Arabic word Eib by Yemeni women in some daily linguistic situations. The word Eib is found to be used in a wide-range situation by Yemeni speakers to carry meanings that are not corresponding with the meaning in the selected Arabic dictionaries. The common misuse of the word Eib among Yemeni speakers, especially women can be attributed to two main factors; cultural and religious, as it has been inferred from the data obtained from the informants. Yemeni speakers, use the word Eib to express their anger or loathing against behavior, saying, writing, etc. that goes against either the social norms based on cultural beliefs or religious instructions. The misuse of the word Eib is common not only among ignorant people but also among some educated ones. Some linguistic uses are inherited from one generation to another rather.
 Key Words: Eib ' shame', Culture, Religion, Yemen, Gender