Language practices and language management in a UK Yemeni community

Abstract

Through observation, questionnaires and, particularly, ethnographic interviews with parents, pupils, teachers and community organisers associated with a Yemeni complementary school, this paper develops a portrait of language repertoires, practices and preferences in a Yemeni diasporic community in a northern English city. Also investigated are the language ideologies and the linguistic culture animating language management practices through which conservation of the heritage language and culture is pursued. One central finding is that despite strong affiliations to Arabic and active efforts to maintain Arabic skills in younger UK-born individuals of Yemeni heritage there appears to be a shift underway towards English-dominant bilingualism in this younger generation. There remains, however, considerable variability between individuals in language repertoires and Arabic language proficiency, and this significantly qualifies generalisations about language shift. The paper also comments on the secular and religious discourses found in discussions of the reasons for complementary school attendance, and on the efforts made by parents to secure the home as an Arabic-speaking space. The paper concludes with the observation that this study of a Yemeni community helps highlight a diversity within the UK Muslim population that popular discourses tend to overlook.

Keywords:

• language shift
• bilingualism
• Yemeni
• Arabic
• heritage language

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the pupils and parents who participated in this study as well as the head teacher and teachers of the complementary school, who made this study possible and who generously gave of their time. I also acknowledge with gratitude the help of the following Arabic native speaker research assistants: Diana Al Jahromi, Laila Makdid and Marah Aboud. Thanks also to three anonymous reviewers for their useful comments.

Notes

1. See also Li Wei and Hua (2010) on a perceived hierarchy of varieties of Chinese, with Mandarin (Putonghua) the most highly valued.

2. Yemeni Arabic is itself a convenient label for a whole cluster of localised or clan-related sub-varieties or dialects.

3. There is some controversy about the relationship of classical (fusha: al-turat) to MSA (fusha: al- asr), though most regard the latter as a modernisation of the former. Also, though classical diglossia posits a degree of functional compartmentalisation of H and L varieties, there is in fact evidence of many speakers style-shifting in the same speech event, that is, exploiting the indexical values signified by different varieties to achieve particular discourse effects (see Bassiouney 2006).

4. General Certificate of Secondary Education.

5. English for Speakers of Other Languages.

6. Arabic language interviews were transcribed and translated into English.

7. But they are not necessarily so, when it comes to understanding the subjects’ subjectivities, attitudes, values and ideologies.

8. See Acknowledgements.

9. Based on field notes and observations.

10. The discontinuity between the variety spoken in the home and that required in formal education has, of course, long been a preoccupation, and cause of concern, in a number of Arab countries (see e.g. Al-Wer 1997).

11. This is an informal transliteration of Yemeni colloquial Arabic. Items identifiable as of classical/standard Arabic are underlined. English translation is in italics.

12. See also quote (4) above.

13. Personal communication with a senior administrator in the YCA.