Thread by @oldlevantine

Excellent must-read essay.
Couple of things I would've worded differently:
1- The Lebanese speak Lebanese period, NOT Lebanese Arabic, just like the French speak French, NOT French Latin;
newlinesmag.com/argument/how-a…

2- Lebanese is a language, NOT a dialect (the word dialect is a statement of power, not observation and NOT analysis);
3- Diglossia is a linguistic situation where two or more languages (NOT necessarily only "varieties of the same language") coexist in a subordinate relationship

(a High language that is learned and NOT natively spoken, vs. a Low language that is natively spoken and subordinated to the H.) #JoshuaFishman expanded Ferguson's restrictive definition to include unrelated languages (eg, Alsatian vs. French) in the diglossic relationships...

Ultimately, diglossia is just a fancy (Greek) way of saying bilingualism: Di = Bi = Two; Glossa = Lingua = Tongue/Language. Incidentally, the term diglossia was coined by French Arabist William Marçais to describe the linguistic situation in the French Maghreb.

Marçais used the terminology "two or more RELATED languages" and NOT "dialects of the same language" and indeed meant it in a derogatory sense describing "Arabic" as an: «idiome sémitique affligé d'une incurable diglossie» (a Semitic idiom afflicted with an incurable diglossia.)

Marçais further stressed «l'arabe classique; plus ou moins connu des seuls lettrés, est l'unique langue qui soit normalement écrite, mais ce n'est qu'une langue écrite» (Classical Arabic, more or less familiar to only those literate in it, is the only language ordinarily written;

but it remains ONLY a written language.)
4- John Myhill is a linguist, not a language professor;
5- For more on this fascinating topic (and to #AraboFascists and purists a deplorable topic,) I would highly recommend #NiloofarHaeri's #SacredLanguageOrdinaryPeople,

#MoutaphaSafouan's #WhyAreTheArabsNotFree #JohnMyhill's #LanguageReligionAndNationalIdentityInEuropeAndTheMiddleEast #TahaHusayn's #FutureOfCultureInEgypt and #CharifChoubachy's #LeSabreEtLaVirgule, which I review in this combustive essay:
meforum.org/3066/does-anyo…