L’IMAGE comic series: Amina’s story

Alt-Text with long description

 

 

COMIC

​ Content Note: Brief depiction of linguistic microaggression on p.7.

 

 

[Page 1, Title Page]

Upper left corner of page reads: UofT L’IMAGE Project: Language, Identity, Multiculturalism and Global Empowerment

 

Subtitle over light blue box: The lived experiences of real multilingual students at U of T

 

Title over bright red box: Amina’s story**

 

Under the title banners, the character Amina smiles at the readers. She has medium skintone and is wearing a black hijab and large aviator-style glasses. She has long lashes, and she is also wearing white headphones around her neck over her headscarf. She is wearing a beige cardigan and what appears to be a brown-ish shirt.

 

Bottom left corner of page shows the University of Toronto logo.

 

Bottom right footnote: **Some stories in the L’IMAGE comic series employ pseudonyms at the request of the featured student.

 

[Long description of text and images in the comic strip:

The comic strips in the L’IMAGE comic series uses the font Ames, which is the standard font for comics. Ames is an all-caps font. However, Alt-Texts for this project are not written in all-caps so that they will be more accessible for screen readers.

The comic artist for the series is Dr. Ai Taniguchi. Her drawing style can be described as: Japanese manga inspired, cute, large eyes, intentionally sketchy and unpolished line art, simplified, expressive. The comic strips are all digital, but she uses a pen that mimics the line weight of a traditional fountain pen. Her line art is on average 0.5mm in width (relatively thin), but the line weight varies and looks hand-drawn.

The title page of each comic strip is in color. It has a University of Toronto color scheme: navy blue, light blue, and bright red. The background is white with a navy blue frame. The references and acknowledgements page and the “About the L’IMAGE project” page also have this University of Toronto color scheme.

The comic strips themselves are black and white, and employ digital screen tones for shading and backgrounds. Narrations are written inside rectangular boxes, unless otherwise noted.]

 

[Page 2]

 

Top panel: Amina is smiling at the readers with closed eyes and open mouth. The background is a pattern of scattered square grids.

 

Amina’s narration: Hi! My name is Amina! I’m a 1st year international student at U of T.

 

Bottom panel: A geographically savvy reader would recognize the background as a silhouette of Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates.

 

Amina’s narration: I am from the United Arab Emirates! I speak Arabic and English, and I’m also currently studying German.

 

 

[Page 3]

 

Top panel: The background has a four by three grid of national flags. For the average Canadian reader, it can be inferred based on context that these are flags of some nations that speak Arabic. For the more geographically savvy reader, they would recognize the flags of these nations, although some are hard to tell apart because the image is in grayscale: Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Jordan.

 

Amina’s narration: I feel like in Canada, people tend to group “Arabic speakers” together as one giant category. In reality, there are many different varieties of the Arabic language!

 

Bottom panel 1: There is a spotlight on Amina and she is looking upwards at the narration and is gesturing upwards with her left hand.

 

Amina’s narration: There’s Gulf Arabic (which I speak), Egyptian Arabic, Levantine Arabic, and Maghrebi Arabic, just to name a few. There are more!!

 

Bottom panel 2: There is a light-skinned young man with dark hair speaking to Amina. The flag of Morocco is seen above his right shoulder. He is saying, Do you have the sarut? Sarut is written in the Arabic alphabet. Amina has her mouth slightly agape as if confused, and there is a question mark coming out of her in a speech bubble. The UAE flag is seen above her left shoulder.

 

Amina’s narration: Each dialect sounds different! I can usually understand Egyptian Arabic and Levantine Arabic, but I don’t think I would be able to completely understand Maghrebi Arabic speakers!

 

[Page 4]

 

Top panel: A map of the Khaleeji region is seen towards the right side of the panel. The average Canadian reader would probably recognize the fat boot shape of the Arabian peninsula. The map has the following countries labeled: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar.

 

Amina’s narration: Gulf Arabic is spoken in the Khalleji region of Eastern Arabia. Even within “Gulf Arabic”, there are different dialects: UAE Arabic, Kuwait Arabic, Oman Arabic, and Bahrain Arabic just to name some examples.

 

Bottom panel: The top and the bottom of the panel are lined with a series of national flags, presumably Khaleeji nation flags. We see six young people: someone with long hair, someone wearing a hijab wrapped tightly around her head, a short haired person wearing round glasses, a short haired person, a young man wearing a head wrap and a long, floor-length shirt dress, and a young woman wearing a hijab more loosely.

 

Amina’s narration: At U of T, I am a member of the Khaleeji Students’ Association, which is an organization consisting of students from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain. When we meet, we can hear many different kinds of Gulf Arabic in the room – and they all sound pretty different!

 

[Page 5]

 

Entire panel: To the left of the panel, there is a white young woman with light colored hair and light colored eyes, looking excited. Based on the context, she’s probably a German speaker. Amina is to the right of the panel, holding out her headphones to the other girl. Handwritten text depicting Amina’s speech reads, “Welche Art Musik magst du?”. Considering Amina is learning German, this is probably German.

 

Amina’s narration: I love being multilingual, because I can connect with people of different cultures.

 

[Page 6]

 

Entire panel: The top and the bottom of the panel are lined with an Arab-inspired, lace-like pattern. The centre of the page features text written in the Arabic script: اللي ما يعرف الصقر يشويه

 

The transliteration and translation is provided below it: illi ma y'arf al saqr yishweeh, ‘He who does not know/recognize a falcon will grill it.’

 

Amina’s narration: I also feel like there are just some things that feel natural to express in Arabic as opposed to English (or vice versa)! I like that my multilingualism allows for me to express myself in many different ways.

 

[Page 7]

 

Top panel: A white person with light short hair has their left hand in front of their mouth as if gasping and they look positively shook. Handwritten text depicting their speech reads, “omg what are you so angry about”.

 

Amina has a comically annoyed and slightly confused facial expression. She’s holding a smartphone, and if you look at the phone screen closely, it can be seen that she is speaing to her mom. There is a question mark above Amina’s head to the left, indicating her confusion. Handwritten text next to her depicting her speech reads, “I’m…not.”

 

Bottom panel 1: There is a heart with Arabic script over it: حبیبي

A non-Arabic speaker would probably infer that this is a word related to love.

 

An Arabic speaker would likely recognize this as the script for “habibi”, which means ‘my love’.

 

Bottom panel 2: We can see an upset Amina, with tears coming down her right cheek. We can’t see her eyes and there is a shadow over her. There is a small Arabic script over her right shoulder. A non-Arabic speaker would wonder what sadness she’s expressing.

 

A UAE Arabic speaker would likely recognize this as ليش؟, or laish? which means ‘why?’.

 

[Page 8]

 

Top panel 1: From the back, we see Amina and another woman wearing a hijab. The woman has tears in her eyes and is looking at Amina. Amina is calmly smiling at her and is saying something in Arabic, written in Arabic script. A non-Arabic speaker would wonder what reassurances Amina is giving her. An Arabic speaker would likely recognize that she is saying الأمور بتتحسن al'umur bitit'hassan, which means ‘things will get better.

 

Top panel 2: A metallic plate with a metallic bowl and small metallic cups on it. The metallic bowl contains what appears to be something like donut holes with sesame seeds on them. There is dark liquid in one of the cups. Next to the plate, we see what appears to be a tall, skinny metallic pot for liquids with an intricate design on it.

 

Readers with knowledge about Emirati cuisine would recognize the dough balls as luqaimat balls, and the metallic pot as a traditional coffee pot.

 

Amina’s narration: And I celebrate my culture in Arabic.

 

Bottom panel: Many five-petaled flowers and sprigs of leaves cover the bottom of the panel. Sparkly circles in the background evoke feelings of inspiration.

 

Readers with from the UAE would likely recognize the flower as Tribulus Omanense, the national flower of Dubai.

 

Amina’s narration: Arabic is beautiful.

 

 

[Page 9]

 

Amina is smiling confidently at the readers. We can see in this panel that she is wearing an oversized balloon-sleeved cardigan and plaid pants. She is quite fashionable. Sparkly hexagons are scattered in the background, evoking feelings of inspiration.

 

Amina’s narration: My name is Amina. Arabic is my home.

 

 

[Page 10]

 

Page title: About the L’IMAGE project 

Project PI and comic artist: Ai Taniguchi, Assistant Professor, UTM Department of Language Studies 

Research Assistant: Haili Su, MA Student, UTSG Department of Linguistics 

Special thanks to: Gilbert Lin, Assistant Director, Intercultural & Global Initiatives, UTM International Education Centre 

With the generous support of: UofT International Student Experience Fund, UTM Department of Language Studies, UTM International Education Centre 

Learn more: http://www.lingcomics.com 

Bottom right of page shows the University of Toronto Mississauga logo and the University of Toronto logo. 

 

 

 

[Page 1]

 

Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!

Main title, over red banner: Arabic

 

Arabic is a Semitic language spoken in the Arab world across the globe, in the Arabian peninsula, the Levant, Egypt, North Africa, Iraq, parts of Iran, and more. It is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, with more than 300 million people who speak some variety of it as their first language, and many more who speak it as an additional language. Arabic can be divided into two distinct varieties: a highly standardized variety called Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) that that is learned in school and is used in formal spoken and written communication in the Arab speaking world (sometimes called “High” or “H” variety) and other varieties of Arabic used in everyday communication (sometimes called “Low” or “L” varieties).

 

There is a map of the Middle East at the bottom of the page. We can see the following territories: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Turey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestinian territories, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia. The average Canadian with at least a high school education in world geography would probably recognize the fat boot shape of the Arabian Peninsula where Saudi Arabia is found, and recognize the fact that countries to the west of Saudi Arabia like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt are in north Africa.

 

Footnote at bottom reads: Image credit: tunasalmon/Shutterstock.com

 

 

[Page 2]

 

Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!

Main title, over red banner: Arabic

 

Arabic is traditionally written from right to left in a cursive style, using the Arabic script. The Arabic script consists of just consonants, and doesn’t traditionally have symbols for vowels. Sometimes diacritics are used to indicate long vowels to help learners of Arabic. Arabic has what is called templatic or root-and-pattern morphology, which means that each word has a “base” set of (usually three) consonants serving as the root, and a “template” that is applied to it to derive words. For example, k-t-b is the root for words related to writing: so words like write (verb), dictate (verb), writer (noun), and book (noun) all share this same root. The examples below are from Modern Standard(ized) Arabic.

 

Note: the following text contains the Arabic script.

 

• أَكْتُبُ‎    'aktubu 'I write'

• أُكْتِبُ‎    'uktibu 'I dictate'

• كَاتِبٌ‎    kātibun 'writer'

•  كِتَابٌ‎   kitābun 'book'

 

 

We will learn more about templatic morphology in a lesson on Hebrew!

 

L’IMAGE Aji si smiling and pointing at the k-t-b words.

 

Long description of Arabic script: To a non-Arabic speaker’s eyes, the Arabic script looks like a cursive text where a lot of the letters are joined together. Imagine a long horizontal brush pen stroke, with vertical lines of various lengths coming out perpendicularly on top of the the horizontal line. Sometimes, especially at edges, vertical or diagonal lines extend below the horizontal line. Sometimes, there are small dots below or over the lines, either in isolation or usually in series of two or three dots. Diacritics are often indicated with small circular strokes and lines.

 

 

[Page 3]

 

Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!

Main title, over red banner: Arabic

 

 

Linguists think that there are at least 30 different varieties of Arabic! In this lesson, we will cover the profile of 6 major varieties of the Arabic language.

 

1. Modern Standard(ized) Arabic (MSA)

2. Egyptian Arabic

3. Levantine Arabic

4. Mesopotamian Arabic

5. Maghrebi Arabic

6. Peninsular Arabic

 

We recommend that you listen to the song  Kol Al Lahgat (‘All the dialects’) by Tamer Hosny (Egyptian singer) while you read this infographic --- the chorus of the song has the phrase ‘very much’ from various Arabic varieties!

 

L’IMAGE Aji is smiling and pointing at the list of Arabic varieties.

 

We see various expressions written in the Arabic script at the bottom of this page:

 

هلبا، هلبا
برشا، برشا
مرة، مرة
كتير، كتير
بزاف، وايد
أوي، أوي

 

 

An Arabic speaker may recognize the writings to say:

 

halba halba (Libyan Arabic)

barsha barsha (Tunisian Arabic)

marra marra (Saudi Arabic)

kteer kteer (Levantine Arabic)

bizzaf waayid (Moroccan and Gulf Arabic)

awi awi (Egypian Arabic)

 

 

[Page 4]

 

Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!

Main title, over red banner: Arabic

 

 

Modern Standard(ized) Arabic (MSA) is the standardized variety of Arabic that is used across the Arab world. It is taught in formal education, and is used in literature, newspapers, newsbroadcasts, official speeches, legal documents etc. MSA is an official language of 23 sovereign states, such as Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, and United Arab Emirates. It is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

 

MSA is a descendant of Classical Arabic, which includes Qur’anic Arabic. Qur’anic Arabic (i.e., the Arabic that is used in the Qur’an) is a liturgical language of Islam, meaning that it is primarily used in religious contexts by Arabic and non-Arabic speaking Muslims all over the world. Classical Arabic also includes the Arabic that was used in pre-Islamic poetry and literature in the pre-modern era.

 

Note that the distinction between Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic is a distinction made in Western scholarship of Arabic. In the Arabic-speaking world, both varieties are known as ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ‎   al-ʻArabīyah al-Fuṣḥā    , which translates into ‘The most eloquent language’) and distinguished from vernacular Arabic varieties (which are called al-‘āmmiyya in the Middle East and al-dārija in North Africa, which translates into ‘the common or everyday language’).

 

‘very (much)’ in MSA:

جـدّاً                               كثيراً

                                      jiddan                    katheeran

 

 

L’IMAGE Aji is smiling and pointing at the word jiddan.

                                                                  

 

[Page 5]

 

Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!

Main title, over red banner: Arabic

 

 

Egyptian Arabic is the most widely spoken Arabic dialect, with more than 100 million speakers worldwide. While Egyptian Arabic has a high concentration of speakers in Egypt, it is understood  in many parts of the Arab-speaking world due to the popularity of Egyptian films and music. There is considerable regional variation within Egyptian Arabic.

 

One neat feature of Egyptian Arabic, especially the variety spoken in Cairo, is how the /ʒ/ (the sound in measure) can be pronounced as [g] (as in go). For example, the word jameel (/ʒami:l/) ‘beautiful’ would be pronounced as [gami:l] in Cairene Egyptian, as opposed to [ʒami:l] in Levantine Arabic.

 

 

 

‘very much’ in Egyptian Arabic:

أوي

awi

At the bottom, we see a drawing of Umm Kulthum  (1898-1975), Egyptian Singer.

We also see a drawing of a scene from Al Motazawegoon – المتزوجون ‘The Married Couples’, Egyptian play. We see a woman with long hair wearing a white dress, and a man with a mustache wearing a collared shirt. The drawings are both in grayscale, except navy blue.

 

 

 

[Page 6]

 

Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!

Main title, over red banner: Arabic

 

 

Levantine Arabic is primarily spoken in the Levant (Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Turkey), but like Egyptian Arabic, it has a high comprehensibility across the Arab world.

 

In Arabic, one way of indicating possession is using an expression that can be approximated as “of” in English. In Levantine Arabic varieties, this expression is typically [tabaʕ] (pronunciation in the International Phonetic Alphabet).

 

l-bēt                tabaʕ-a

the-house      of.3sf

‘Her house’

 

Another variant is [ʃēt], which can be found in Palestinian (Jerusalem) Arabic:

           

l-bēt                ʃēt-i

the-house      of.1sg

‘My house.’

 

These possessive expressions vary quite a bit from one variety of Arabic to another! For example, the same expression would be diyal in Moroccan Arabic, mtɛ:ʕ in Tunisian Arabic, ħagg in Saudi Arabic, and bita:ʕ in Egyptian Arabic.

 

‘very much’ in Levantine Arabic:

كـتـيـر

kteer

 

 

L’IMAGE Aji is smiling and pointing at the word kteer.

 

[Page 7]

 

Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!

Main title, over red banner: Arabic

 

 

Mesopotamian Arabic  is a group of Arabic dialects spoken in the Mesopotamian basin of Iraq, southeastern Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Kuwait. There are two major varieties of Mesopotamian Arabic, one spoken largely by Muslims (Gilit Mesopotamian Arabic) and another variety spoken largely by non-Muslims (Qeltu Mesopotamian Arabic).

 

‘very much’ in Iraqi Arabic (specifically Muslim Baghdadi Arabic):

كـلّـش

killish

 

 

Maghrebi Arabic is a group of related Arabic dialects spoken in the Maghreb, which is the western and central North Africa region. This region includes Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. French loanwords are noticeable in Maghrebi varieties like Algerian Arabic, Mauritanian Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, and Tunisian Arabic as a result of French colonization. For example in Algerian Arabic, ‘bicycle’ is فيرو vilo, which comes from the French word vélo. It can also be bisklet/biskleta, from French bicyclette. In Moroccan Arabic, it is بسكليت (biskliit) or بشكليت (bishkliit).

 

‘very much’ in Moroccan Arabic and Algerian Arabic:

بـالـزّاف

bizzaaf

 

‘very much’ in Libyan Arabic:

هلبا

halba

 

‘very much’ in Tunisian Arabic:

بـرشا

barsha

 

 

 

Two icons in the shape of bicycles in mangenta are seen at the bottom of the page.

 

[Page 8]

 

Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!

Main title, over red banner: Arabic

 

 

Peninsular Arabic is a group of Arabic dialects spoken in the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Southern Iran, Southern Iraq). Peninsular Arabic includes varieties like Hejazi Arabic, Najdi Arabic. Sometimes the term “Gulf Arabic” is used to refer to Arabic varieties in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE).

 

 

 

 

 

‘very much’ in Saudi Arabic (spoken in Saudi Arabia):

مـرّه

marra

 

‘very much’ in Gulf Arabic:

وايـد

waayid

 

L’IMAGE Aji speech bubble: Check out the resources on the next page to learn more about the Arabic language!

 

[Page 9]

 

References

 

Al-Wer, E., & Horesh, U. (Eds.). (2019). The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Sociolinguistics. Routledge.

Bousmat, A., Nadjemi, A., & Keddouci, O. (2022). Linguistic Borrowing from French into Spoken Algerian Arabic by Adults, Case of Study (Doctoral dissertation, Universite Ahmed Draia-Adrar).

Fischer, W., & Jastrow, J. (1980). Handbook of Oriental Studies. Leiden: Brill.

Hachimi, A. (2013). The Maghreb‐Mashreq language ideology and the politics of identity in a globalized Arab world. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 17(3), 269-296.

Horesh, U. (2015). Structural change in Urban Palestinian Arabic induced by contact with Modern Hebrew. Semitic Languages in Contact, 198-233. Brill.

Lucas, C. & Manfredi S. (2020). Introduction. Arabic and Contact-Induced Change. Language Science Press, 1-33.

Ryding, K., & Wilmsen, D. (2021). The Cambridge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics. Cambridge University Press.

Watson, J. (2011). Arabic dialects. In: Weninger, S, Khan, G, Streck, M and Watson, JCE, (eds.) The Semitic Languages: An International handbook. Handbücher zur Sprach und Kommunikationswissenschaft / Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science. Walter de Gruyter.

Versteegh, K. (Eds.). (26 Nov. 2007). Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, Volume 3.  Brill.

 

Learn more

 

1. Arabic dialects: https://welcome2jordan.com/arabic-dialects/

2. How to say "very much" in various Arabic varieties: https://blogs.transparent.com/arabic/how-to-say-very-much-in-arabic-10-different-ways/

3. Versteegh, K. (2014). Arabic Language. Edinburgh University Press.

4. Holes, C. (Ed.). (2018). Arabic Historical Dialectology: Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Approaches (Vol. 30). Oxford University Press.

5. Lucas, C., & Manfredi, S. (Ed.) (2020). Arabic and Contact-Induced Change. Language Science Press.

6. Owens, J. (2006). A Linguistic History of Arabic. Oxford University Press.

7. Owens, J. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguistics. Oxford University Press.

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Acknowledgement

 

Expert Consultant**

Atiqa Hachimi

Associate Professor

Department of Historical and Cultural Studies

University of Toronto Scarborough

 

Yasmine Abou Taha

Postdoctoral Fellow

Department of Historical and Cultural Studies

University of Toronto Scarborough

 

**Errors, if any, are the PI’s oversight.

 

 

[Page 10]

 

Page title: About the L’IMAGE project 

Project PI and comic artist: Ai Taniguchi, Assistant Professor, UTM Department of Language Studies 

Research Assistant: Haili Su, MA Student, UTSG Department of Linguistics 

Special thanks to: Gilbert Lin, Assistant Director, Intercultural & Global Initiatives, UTM International Education Centre 

With the generous support of: UofT International Student Experience Fund, UTM Department of Language Studies, UTM International Education Centre 

Learn more: http://www.lingcomics.com 

Bottom right of page shows the University of Toronto Mississauga logo and the University of Toronto logo. 

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