The Egyptian Dialect for a Democratic Form of Literature: Considerations for a Modern Language Policy

This paper compares two different ways of approaching literature and language in Egypt. In particular, I concentrate on the use of colloquial Egyptian in literature, and more specifically in prose. I look at the ideas of Ṭaha Ḥusayn on Egyptian dialect and juxtaposes them with those of intellectuals and writers contemporary to Ḥusayn such as Salama Musa and Muṣṭafa Mušarrafatu, the first Egyptian author to write a novel entirely in patois. In a radio interview, Nagib Maḥfuẓ described dialect as a disease affecting his fellow countrymen and preventing them from attaining social as well as technical progress. In Ṭaha Ḥusayn’s opinion, dialect is unworthy of being called a language and unfit to fulfil the aims of intellectual life. On the other hand, intellectuals like Salama Musa maintain that the use of dialect, even as an official language, and a linguistic reform are the most important prerequisites for the progress of Egypt. Extremely interesting, moreover, is Musa’s idea that the use of colloquial language in literature would give birth to a literature for everybody, that is a popular or democratic literature.