by Kyle Martin and Arielle Pinto
Kyle is a senior at Strath Haven High School looking forward to choosing a college major in the coming year. Arielle is a junior at Haverford College, where she is a Philosophy major. Listen to their #LanguageStory here, which includes a contribution from Swarthmore College junior Erick Gutierrez.
Kyle is a senior at Strath Haven High School looking forward to choosing a college major in the coming year. Arielle is a junior at Haverford College, where she is a Philosophy major. Listen to their #LanguageStory here, which includes a contribution from Swarthmore College junior Erick Gutierrez.
Listen: Arabic in Center City.
| Arabic is the fastest growing language in the United States. According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, “the number of people ages 5 and older who speak Arabic at home has grown by 29% between 2010 and 2014 to 1.1 million speakers, making it the seventh most commonly spoken non-English language in the U.S”[1]. Indeed, the presence of the Arabic language is palpable in the streets of Philadelphia, particularly in Center City, where Halal food trucks adorned with some Arabic signage are widely dispersed. | |
What began as an attempt to research the semiotic landscape created by these trucks turned into an investigation of the use of the Arabic language in Philadelphia, following an interview with Mr. Amine Helali (an operator of one such truck). From here, we spoke with Professor Benjamin Smith, an Arabic professor at Swarthmore College. We asked them questions about the languages they use in different contexts, and they told us about what they gathered from their own experiences. From both of these interviews, it seemed to us that English has a considerable importance in this community.
Amine Helali is an Algerian food truck vendor who works on the Avenue of the Arts, a largely cosmopolitan, dynamic and artistic neighborhood in Center City. After reading about the French street artist JR’s mural of Ibrahim Shah, a Pakistani food truck vendor, whose image formerly stood on one of the facades of the Graham Building in Center City[2], one of us got inspiration, and decided to further investigate the people working in this business. Amine told us about his multilingual background in Arabic, French, Spanish and English. In his work, he uses all of those languages, but for different purposes...
Amine Helali is an Algerian food truck vendor who works on the Avenue of the Arts, a largely cosmopolitan, dynamic and artistic neighborhood in Center City. After reading about the French street artist JR’s mural of Ibrahim Shah, a Pakistani food truck vendor, whose image formerly stood on one of the facades of the Graham Building in Center City[2], one of us got inspiration, and decided to further investigate the people working in this business. Amine told us about his multilingual background in Arabic, French, Spanish and English. In his work, he uses all of those languages, but for different purposes...
Insights From a Food Truck Vendor.
With customers, apart from English, Mr. Amine Helali communicates in French, Arabic and Spanish. With his colleagues however, he uses English, as most of them are from Pakistan and not proficient in Arabic. The food truck business seems to be confronted with people of many different origins, both customers and vendors. Between vendors especially, English is therefore the unifying factor of communication. In this case, it seems that English plays an important role, not as a language of prestige but as a pragmatic tool of communication.
Speaking with a Professor of Arabic.
Our conversation with Professor Smith gave us a great deal of insight into how Arabic’s multitude of varieties come together, as well as his own experiences using both Modern Standard Arabic and its colloquial variants (himself being most familiar with the Levantine dialect). As he explained this all to us, Professor Smith informed us that Philadelphia, despite having some people of Arab descent, lacks a significant, well-established Arabic speech community. Another assertion that he made was that the neighboring city of Allentown, just a short drive north of Philadelphia, has a very well established Syrian population which, over several generations, has been dropping Arabic in favor of English. He mentions that people are no longer teaching Arabic to their children, which emphasizes another aspect of English in this community: its dominance and perceived greater importance over Arabic.
Arabic-English Bilingual Realities.
Though the number of native Arabic speakers is increasing in the United States, it would appear that English’s usefulness as both a communicative tool between members of differing communities and as a prestige language in many settings has an impact on how well the Arabic language stands the test of time here. The necessity of English in work-related settings (as emphasized by Mr. Helali, who uses English both with customers and with colleagues) could be one reason of many as to why English proficiency is given higher priority by those with the capability of passing Arabic down to their children, but whatever the reason, the decline of Arabic’s prevalence in Allentown shines light on the unfortunate reality for many non-English languages spoken here in the United States, as well as similar situations in other countries.
When a language is given prestige over other languages spoken in the same landscape, it facilitates the dominant language in overtaking the other languages. We see this here in southeastern Pennsylvania with English over Arabic (as well as with other languages), just as it can be seen in other examples (Swahili over other languages in Tanzania, as we discussed in class, Hindi and English over other languages in India, etc.). As certain languages are promoted by society (even in less conscious ways, such as it simply being expected that people here know English), we open the door for linguistic homogenization and the loss of many minoritized languages throughout the world.
When a language is given prestige over other languages spoken in the same landscape, it facilitates the dominant language in overtaking the other languages. We see this here in southeastern Pennsylvania with English over Arabic (as well as with other languages), just as it can be seen in other examples (Swahili over other languages in Tanzania, as we discussed in class, Hindi and English over other languages in India, etc.). As certain languages are promoted by society (even in less conscious ways, such as it simply being expected that people here know English), we open the door for linguistic homogenization and the loss of many minoritized languages throughout the world.
What We Learned.
This project taught us a lot about interviewing, about the field of sociolinguistics, about how language and anthropology go hand in hand. We got more insight into the composition of the food truck business, who the employees are and where they are from. Moreover, by interviewing the halal food truck vendor, we understood that reaching out to individuals outside of the academic realm is very valuable in sociolinguistic research. It was interesting to get the perspective of an language instructor such as Professor Smith, and a businessman and practitioner such as Mr. Helali. We also learned more about the Arabic language itself, its’ dialects and registers, and about the community of Arabic-speakers in the United States. Lastly, we learned how to edit audio recordings using Adobe Premiere, a valuable skill for us in the future. This was a very worthwhile experience, and we are eager to learn more about Arabic in the United States, from different perspectives, such as Arab-Americans. Thank you to all of our interviewees and collaborative partners.
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