Pride, shame, and guilt: socio-emotional aspects of the encounter between the Bedouin and Fellahi dialects

ABSTRACT

This article examines the encounter between two Arabic dialects, one in use in Arab communities in central Israel (originally a community of farmers – Fellahin) and one in use among Bedouins who migrated to the area from the southern Negev area. We relied on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 18 participants representing four Bedouin migrant generations. The findings indicated that Bedouin migrants perceive the Bedouin dialect as a different language, which they have to ‘translate’ to the local Fellahi population. A clear inter-generational distinction was found in the willingness to switch from the Bedouin to the Fellahi dialect or to mix the two. Migrant parents have more negative feelings about mixing the Bedouin and Fellahi dialects than children who did not experience migration. Linguistically, the first generation exhibited differentiation, hybridity, and a tendency to avoid integration into the local population in an attempt to preserve the Bedouin dialect. This pattern dwindled in subsequent generations – the second tended to adopt an ‘intermediate’ dialect, whereas the third tends to mix the two and use each one according to the home or public spheres. Further conclusions and implications are also considered.

KEYWORDS:

• Dialect
• Bedouin
• Fellahi
• identity
• migration
• Israel

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Many tensions affect the relations between the Bedouin population and the state. Although many Bedouins have renounced their previous life patterns, state investment in the Bedouin cities is far lower than that in Jewish cities in the area (Yiftachel 2008).

2 According to Abu-Bakr (2004), Arabic dialects have not received appropriate attention among Arab linguists due to the fear of harming the standing of literary Arabic as a cohesive factor, as opposed to the dialects that can deepen differences between Arabic speakers.

3 The first author is Bedouin and she interviewed male participants in the presence of her own male relatives, as part of the accepted cultural code.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eman Abo-Zaied Arar

Eman Abo-Zaied Arar is a PhD student in the School of Education, Tel-Aviv University. Her studies focus on language, identity and culture, as well as meeting points with language teaching, and language teachers' identity.

Michal Tannenbaum

Michal Tannenbaum is a senior lecturer and the head of the Program for Multilingual Education, Tel Aviv University. Her research interests focus on linguistic patterns of minority groups, psychological and emotional aspects of immigration, inter-group relations, and multilingual educational policy.