Arabic Greeting Etiquette: A Linguocultural Aspect

The article examines speech communication with the example of the various forms of greetings in a number of dialects of the modern Arabic language. The relevance of the study is caused by the intensified contacts between Russia and the Arab world. The theoretical significance is caused by the need to specify the relation between the peculiarities of Arabic as of today and the social, religious and everyday culture of the region. The study aims to identify the most popular forms of greetings in the Arabic language and its five dialects (Levantine, Egyptian, Moroccan, Iraqi and the dialect of the Arab Gulf) widely used across the Middle East and Northen Africa. The following tasks were set: 1) to verify the hypothesis that Arab countries share universal forms of greeting; 2) to outline the specific features of local greetings in the Middle East; 3) to analyze the greeting formulas with regard to the religion, gender, age and social status of speakers; 4) to investigate and hypothesize the origins of linguistic transformations. The materials for the study were collected by the author in the course of involved observation and included field notes from Jordan and interviews with Arab students of the Kazan Federal University. The materials were processed with the help of content-analysis and expert assessment. The study has showed that in the Arab language there exist universal forms of greetings, with local specificities understandable for all those living in the region. The analysis proved that apart from religion, linguocultural factors are at play leading to original multiple-words formulas reducing to one or two words with the same meaning. The reductionist trend is also observed in the phonetical structure of the words, especially among the youth. Providing commentary to the usage of greeting in Arabic, the study is of practical relevance to a wide range of readers because it clarifies the cultural code and helps avoid misunderstanding.