Rap and Islam in France: Arabic Religious Language Contact with Vernacular French Benjamin Hebblethwaite
[email protected] 1. Context 2. Data & methods 3. Results 4. Analysis Kamelancien My research orientation: The intersection of Language, Religion and Music Linguistics French-Arabic • Interdisciplinary (language contact • Multilingual & sociolinguistics) • Multicultural • Multi-sensorial Ethnomusicology • Contemporary (rap lyrics) Religion This is a dynamic approach that links (Islam) language, culture and religion. These are core aspects of our humanity. Much of my work focuses on Haitian Vodou music. --La fin du monde by N.A.P. (1998) and Mauvais Oeil by Lunatic (2000) are considered breakthrough albums for lyrics that draw from the Arabic-Islamic lexical field. Since (2001) many artists have drawn from the Islamic lexical field in their raps. Kaotik, Paris, 2011, photo by Ben H. --One of the main causes for borrowing: the internationalization of the language setting in urban areas due to immigration (Calvet 1995:38). This project began with questions about the Arabic Islamic words and expressions used on recordings by French rappers from cities like Paris, Marseille, Le Havre, Lille, Strasbourg, and others. At first I was surprised by these borrowings and I wanted to find out how extensive this lexicon --North Africans are the main sources of Arabic inwas urban in rap France. and how well-known --Sub-Saharan Africans are also involved in disseminatingit is outside the of religiousrap. lexical field that is my focus. The Polemical Republic 2 recent polemics have attacked rap music • Cardet (2013) accuses rap of being a black and Arab hedonism that substitutes for political radicalism.