The univocity of difference: bilingualism and linguistic awareness in Ceuta

Abstract

The Arabic of Ceuta is spoken in the Spanish city of Ceuta and it has its own features, borrowings from Spanish language and code-switching. In Ceuta, Standard Arabic is not clearly present in the mother tongue, except in the religious sphere and in some private language courses. We believe that the best term to use to reflect the status of the Arabic of Ceuta would be “minorization”. Our intention is to extend the definition of the bilingualism of Ceuta studied by some scholars and establish other aspects of this phenomenon to better understand the situation of the Spanish bilingual citizens residing in this city.