My mission

Because of its existence as a written language, and the fact that in Britain, written media like novels and online articles are far easier to come by than Arabic speakers, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the variety of Arabic that foreigners like me tend to be exposed to most (see this page for a run-down of the different sorts of Arabic). The spoken dialects, on the other hand, rarely make it out of their original communities, except in a few cases such as exported Egyptian films, Lebanese music and, of course, with immigration.

If the language won't come to me, then I will go to it. As such, I have brought myself to one of those communities, where I can distance myself from English and, to a lesser extent, from MSA which I have studied for the past two years. I am immersing myself in Alexandria, a city stretched along the Mediterranean coast with a rich history and the second biggest population in Egypt.

The distinctions between spoken dialects of Arabic are not clear cut, and the transition occurs within countries as well as across borders. In Egypt are several dialects, including the Cairene variety as heard on state radio, the more charming Sa'idi dialect that narrates life along the Nile, the distinct, rolling dialect of the Bedouin roaming the Sinai, and whispers of the Libyan dialect that have been blown across dunes from the west.

The dialect of Alexandria is close to that of Cairo's, but I will do everything I can to hear the dialects we collectively call Arabic in all its forms. These are dialects without a standardised writing form, and as such a very limited literature. The only way it is brought to life is by its many millions of everyday speakers, and it is through experiences with them, both the mundane and the unforgettable, that I will discover this language.