A Study of the Evolution of Modern Egyptian-Arabic Slang Through Some Modern Egyptian-Arabic Novels

The present paper embarks upon ascertaining the chronological advance in the modern Egyptian-Arabic slang usage over a span of more than one hundred years, from the earlier decades of the twentieth century to the first decade of the twenty-first. The sociolinguistic survey is implemented via a close reading of modern Egyptian-Arabic fiction works authored in different stages in recent Egyptian history, and which have been mostly written in informal, colloquial language. The conversational parts of these modern novels yield, via a sociolinguistic exploration, several slang expressions that have been subject to many changes with the passing of time, yet special reference is given to four books of fiction as typical epitomes of the sequential eras. A big number of modern Egyptian-Arabic movies have been fashioned out of narrative works, so if media productions are considered as windows for informal language, recent and contemporary fiction might be one of the chief sources where a reader can learn about the various slang idioms and how these terms have developed all through ages. This study pays meticulous attention to the following modern novels: Ihsan Abdel-Quddus' Ana Hurra (I am Free) (1954),Yusuf Al-Qaeed'sLaban Al-asfour (The Sparrow's Milk (1994)Khaled Al-Khamissi'sTaksy (Taxi)(2006) –Youssef Maaty'sKalamAbeehGeddan (Very Dirty Words)(2009). Lexicographers have noted that a significant shift happened in Egyptian-Arabic prose writing in the early decades of the twentieth century, in which a further amount of everyday speech began to enter the narrative style. Due to its sociological and scholastic weight, both the marks and the minute down-to-earth progress of such change is the focus of this study. Modern Egyptian-Arabic slang register has grown in Egyptian-Arabic novels from around the 1920s to the 2010s.