Vulgar and Literary Arabic in Nineteenth-century Egypt A Study of Three Textbooks

This paper describes the use of colloquial Egyptian Arabic, Classical Arabic and mixed/Middle Arabic in textbooks written in the second half of the nineteenth century by native speakers of Egyptian Arabic. These textbooks were written in a period of increasing contact between Egypt and the West and were aimed at teaching foreigners Egyptian Arabic, which would be useful for them while travelling or doing business in Egypt. The books were meant to be used as conversational tools, focusing on practical information presented in word lists, useful sentences, and dialogues, and sometimes also containing a section on grammar. Some also focus on more formal language, such as used in letter writing. The Arabic in these works is written either in transcription, in Arabic script, or both.