Keywords: mobilité, trajectoire, arabe, biographie langagière, récit mobility, trajectory, Arabic, language biography, narrative

Introduction

"I learned Arabic in Libya", a young Gambian man who had recently arrived in France told me in 2015, four years before I embarked on this research. At the time, this state ment chal lenged my percep tion of the migratory move ment between Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. It was influ enced by Euro centric media narrat ives that portrayed Libya 1 Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya solely as a horrific gateway to Europe, discarding the complexity of migratory motives and traject ories. However, many social scient ists have emphas ized the nonlin earity of these irreg ular mobil ities, describing them as "step wise migra tions" (Brede loup and Pliez 2005;Schapen donk 2007). Indi viduals often under take long and complicated jour neys guided by projects rather than predefined destin a tions.

Their plans and strategies regu larly mutate in response to the obstacles and oppor tun ities they may encounter. Whether their primary destin a tion is North Africa or Europe, migrants heading north often stay in Maghreb coun tries, some times for years.

The linguistic dimen sions of these migratory move ments have received limited atten tion in studies exploring their motiv a tions, methods, and impacts. However, these mobil ities involve multiple linguistic adapt a tions as each stage of the journey is char ac ter ized by distinct soci o lin guistic settings. The multi fa ceted inter ac tions give rise to new commu nic ative prac tices, including Arabic prac tices, a perfect illus tra tion of the non-linearity of migratory journey. In this paper, I argue that studying the diverse emer ging prac tices of Arabic provides valu able insights into the soci o lin guistic dynamics of transna tional mobility networks. In addi tion, it allows to outline personal, social, and geograph ical traject ories as well as the lived exper i ences of indi viduals engaged in these movements.

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This paper presents and discusses a narrative language biography that describes an elab or a tion of a prac tice of Arabic along transcontin ental trajectory, first in Libya then in Europe, through encoun ters with Arabic speakers from different origins and hetero gen eous language prac tices. The speakers' narrative and language uses will be examined using the analyt ical tool of repertoire, which allows to correlate language prac tice with indi vidual life traject ories across geograph ical and social topo graphies (Blommaert 2008), with the linguistic resources avail able in partic ular spaces (Penny cook and Otsuji 2014), with language ideo lo gies, and with the lived exper i ences of language (Busch 2015).

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In order to situate the narrative in a larger context, the first part builds on the existing liter ature on migra tion in Libya to identify macro-geopolitical elements that have shaped and recon figured the migra tion land scape in Libya and the settings in which migrants Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya come into contact with Arabic. I will then discuss motives for acquiring new language uses in response to power dynamics and social envir on ments. In the second part, I share and comment on excerpts from the narrator's linguistic biography, before analyzing the reper toires employed during the narra tion. The last section focuses on the speaker's discourse on Arabic and its vari eties that allows to better appre hend his lived exper i ence of the language. Finally, I summarize the main argu ments and discuss this language elab or a tion in rela tion to soci o lin guistic settings as well as to the speaker's projects, struggles, and strategies. I argue that the speaker has developed a unique language use, and that his reper toire and repres ent a tions of Arabic reflect his personal trajectory in transnational settings, as well as his feel ings of social affil i ation and nonaffiliation.

Theor et ical framework

The narrat ives of traject ories and language use are approached through the frame work of the soci o lin guistics of mobility, which focuses on "language-in-motion" (Blommaert 2010, p. 21). This framework provides pertinent concepts to grasp the soci o lin guistic complexity of a cultur ally glob al ized world in which language practices are trans formed by the mobility of both speakers and linguistic resources. Rather than thinking of language in rela tion to stable geograph ical loca tions, this frame work aims to insert language "in a spec trum of human action which is not defined purely in rela tion to temporal and spatial loca tion, but in terms of temporal and spatial traject ories" (Blommaert 2010, p. 37).

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The liter ature on the soci o lin guistics of mobility builds on a crit ical post struc tur alist under standing of language and linguistic bound aries that chal lenges a percep tion of languages as static, delim ited, and separate entities (Silver stein 1979;Penny cook and Makoni 2007;Irvine and Gal 2000). Like other post struc tur alist approaches to language (e.g., translan guaging), this frame work shifts away from language as system and acknow ledges the hybridity and the fluidity of linguistic prac tices. The liter ature employs thus the notion of "reper toire" as an altern ative to languages as bounded entities (Busch 2012). The reper toire was first defined by Gumperz as "The Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya totality of linguistic resources […] avail able to members of partic ular communities" (Gumperz 1972, p. 20-21 in Blommaert andBackus 2011). Several scholars revised the notion to propose altern at ives to the "speech communities", the point of depar ture in the original concept, as it has been defied by "phenomena such as increased mobility, migra tion or parti cip a tion in transna tional networks of commu nic ation" (Busch 2015, p. 3). Blommaert recon cep tu al izes the reper toire as related to "indi vidual life trajectory" (Blommaert 2008). Penny cook and Otsuji use the term "spatial reper toire" to consider the avail able language resources in a partic ular space (Penny cook and Otsuji 2014).

Hence, the reper toire, linked to spaces and trajectories: dispenses with a priori assump tions about the links between origins, upbringing, profi ciency, and types of language, and it refers to indi viduals' very vari able (and often rather frag mentary) grasp of a plur ality of differ en tially shared styles, registers, and genres, which are picked up (and maybe then partially forgotten) within biograph ical traject ories that develop in actual histories and topographies (Blommaert and Rampton 2011, p. 5).

Busch expands the concept of reper toire to include two further dimen sions: the first is "language ideo lo gies," because "personal attitudes to language are largely determ ined by the value ascribed to a language or language variety in a partic ular social space" (Busch 2015, p. 9). The second is "the lived exper i ence of language" considering that: 7 the emotion ally charged exper i ence of outstanding or repeated situ ations of inter ac tion with others […] keeps alive the process of inscribing language exper i ence into body memory, or more specific ally into the linguistic reper toire, whether a specific exper i ence is charged with feel ings of well being or of discomfort (Ibid.,p. 11).

To explore these two dimen sions, she proposes comple menting the spatial approaches to reper toire from an observer's perspective with "a first-person perspective based on biograph ical narrat ives" (Ibid., p. 6). The language biograph ical approach recognizes "the hetero geneity and the singu larity expressed in the indi vidual stories" (Busch 2016, p. 2). At the same time, its main interest is not in the Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya unique ness of a story, but "what its apparent singu larity can reveal about specific dimen sions of language prac tices and ideo lo gies that are neglected when taking an assumed 'average' speaker as represent ative for a certain group" (Ibid., p. 9). This study follows Brigitta Busch's meth od o lo gical approach to language narrative biographies and also takes into account the recom mend a tions of other scholars who study narrat ives related to migration.

These scholars emphasize the need to consider the micro-context and inter ac tional prop er ties of the narrat ives in addi tion to the macro-sociopolitical context (Pavlenko 2007;Canut 2021;De Fina and Tseng 2017). De Fina and Tseng argue that narrat ives collected in inter views are repres ent a tions of language prac tices, and that these prac tices can be better observed through ethno graphy. However, in contexts where ethno graphy is unfeas ible (as is the case in this research), they insist on the import ance of analyzing these repres enta tions in detail and with atten tion to "the social and linguistic context of utter ance" (Ibid., p. 391).

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To my know ledge, no published study in the frame work of language and mobility exam ines the effects of migra tions and contacts on Arabic uses from a transna tional perspective. This is despite the signi ficant flows of people to and from predom in antly Arabicspeaking regions, as well as the increased inter ac tions between speakers of different vari eties of Arabic in the diaspora and through digital commu nic a tion chan nels. It is neces sary to note here that the term "Arabic" does not refer to a homo gen eous language, but rather to a linguistic continuum that encom passes diverse standard and non-standard, written, and oral vari eties, vari ables, registers, and styles. One of the aims of this study is precisely to high light (and celeb rate) this heterogeneity.

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Methods of data collec tion and presentation

The first part of this paper is based on data that was collected, as part of an ongoing doctoral research, in three European local ities: Palermo (June -September 2019), Paris (October 2019 -February 2020), and Marseille (February 2021 -March 2022). All the Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya parti cipants in this research were in Libya after 2011 and reported learning and using Arabic there. They come from different states in the West African region, but they have under taken similar trajectories, exper i enced the same migratory policies, and have moved in related networks. This is not an attempt to ignore indi vidual social and linguistic back grounds; they will be high lighted in the analysis that adopts a biograph ical approach.

I collected narrat ives about migra tion traject ories and language practices through semi-structured qual it ative inter views (18 in total, of which 10 have been tran scribed and analyzed so far). The inter views ranged from 30 minutes to 3 hours. They focused on indi vidual traject ories, forms of social iz a tion and inter ac tion, and language prac tices in the local ities crossed. I cover these topics with openended ques tions, but often ask more direct follow-up ques tions related to the speakers' percep tions of the languages they mention.

12 Besides inter views, obser va tions and informal exchanges took place during my inter mit tent work as an Arabic-French-English inter preter over a period of six years, in formal and informal hosting struc tures for newcomers in France. Encoun ters with parti cipants in Paris were facil it ated by social workers at an asso ci ative recep tion center. In Sicily and Marseille, due to the different polit ical and admin is trative func tioning of the recep tion centers there, I relied on informal encoun ters and personal rela tion ships to meet interviewees.

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The second part of the paper is an in-depth analyze of one narrative collected in Marseille. I met Abdelhakk 1 through a common Sudanese friend. We discussed the research theme before the inter view, which took place two weeks later in my apart ment. The setting was therefore informal. We recorded twice in the same day. The total length of the record ings is 94 minutes.

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The profile of the researcher influ ences the contact with the participants and the research results. Being a migrant from Syria myself seemed to facil itate contacts and create a sense of compli city with the parti cipants. For example, when talking about conflict, irreg ular border cross ings, and being a foreigner, some openly referred to the Syrian war and migra tion. In their narrat ives, many parti cipants highlighted their encoun ters with Syrians along their jour neys. Furthermore, I am iden ti fied as an Arabic speaker, which obvi ously influ ences the discourse about Arabic and Arabic speakers. On the linguistic level, I used Arabic as the main medium of commu nic a tion, employing mixed reper toires mainly from Levantine and standard Arabic, and to a lesser extent from North African vernacu lars (which I developed in France). I took care to avoid terms that are highly restricted to a certain variety and to adapt my reper toires to the inter locutor. I also used English, French, and Italian when my inter locutors took the initiative.

Contexts of language elaboration

Geopol it ical elements shaping Libya's migratory landscape Libya has histor ic ally been part of a dynamic Saharan space char acter ized by the move ment of people (Pliez 2006). Since the 1960s, however, the country has become partic u larly attractive to inter national immig rants, as oil exploit a tion has fueled rapid economic growth (Jacques, Romd hani and Pres ti anni 2012). The regime of Muammar Gaddafi (1979Gaddafi ( -2011) ) The North African migratory land scape has been reshaped by the EU's exclu sionary migra tion policies. Since the early 2000s, EU strategies to extern alize its border control have been imple mented through multi lat eral (EU-North African states) and bilat eral (e.g., Italy-Libya) agree ments to combat the so-called "illegal migration" 2 .

As a result, access to North African coun tries has become increasingly diffi cult and living condi tions for migrants have deteriorated.

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The uprising against the Gaddafi regime in 2011 and the armed conflict forced some 800,000 migrants to flee, according to the Inter na tional Organ iz a tion for Migra tion (Libya's total popu la tion at the time was 6.2 million). More migrants soon arrived. Because of the Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya civil war and the chaos that followed, Libya's borders became less controlled by the state, while the influ ence and power of inter national traf ficking networks increased (Morone and Favier 2020).

Border crossing became easier, but once inside Libyan territory, migrants were often victims of arrest, torture, deport a tion, and trafficking (Jacques, Romd hani and Pres ti anni 2012). Crimes are committed like wise in the traf fickers' ware houses or in the deten tion centers for "Combating Illegal Immig ra tion". It should be noted that those centers were built under Gaddafi with Italian funds, and operated later by mili tias that receive European finan cial support as part of the politics of border control extern al iz a tion (Ibid.).

Despite the war and the high risks, the country main tains a strong economy and relies heavily on migrant workers in the service sector. As a result, it continues to attract migrants of different profiles and projects, whether their primary inten tion is to stay in Libya or to transit through it, also because of the obstacles to going else where. According to the IOM, at least 625,638 migrants from 44 coun tries were living in Libya in 2020 (Inter na tional Organ iz a tion for Migra tion 2020), which is about 10% of the popu la tion. However, the number of migrants is often under es tim ated due to the irreg u larity of entry and stay. Migrants with different profiles and origins gather in both national and transna tional groups, often in specific districts of Libyan cities.

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Descrip tions of soci o lin guistic settings in Libya and contexts of contact with Arabic

The narrat ives collected for this study portray Libyans as mono lingual Arabic speakers and Arabic as the dominant medium of inter action in Libya. The data do not mention the possib ility of using other languages with indi viduals who hold economic, polit ical, and social power. Parti cipants describe an informal labor market where the ability to commu nicate in Arabic is a prerequisite for access. This is high lighted as the main motiv a tion for learning the basics of this language, and they emphasize that commu nic a tion in the work environ ment is predom in antly in Arabic. Inter est ingly, in some inter views conducted mainly in English or French, parti cipants showed a tend -Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya ency to use Arabic terms when describing their work-related activities in Libya.

Among the motiv a tions for learning basic Arabic, access to work is not the only factor directly related to power struc tures and hierarchies in Libya. Some openly identify the ability to under stand Arabic as a means of gaining protec tion and power in a hostile environ ment. Yet, it is important to consider other social aspects and dynamics. Many parti cipants mention the acquis i tion of Arabic or other languages such as French, Bambara, or Wolof in Libya through inter ac tions with other migrants, colleagues, co-residents, and friends. This phenomenon under scores the soci o lin guistic diversity of transna tional mobility networks high lighted in the narrat ives. As in the following excerpt from Abdel hakk's narrative: 21 yaʿnī lībyā aslan yaʿnī zayy (.) 3 mā (1.5) zayy ḥ osh kebīr (.) issā entum fil-ṭ ābeq ar-rābeʿ s ̣ aḥ ? (.) fī talga yaʿnī ṭ ābeq el-awwal fī nās (.) ṭ ābeq et-tānī fī nās (.) tālet wū rābeʿ(.) yaʿnī ajnās yekhtelef yaʿn (2) fī marrāt mas ̣ riyīn fī talga tawānsā (.) wū marrāt talgā sūdāniyīn wū tshādiyīn wū nījer (.) yaʿnī yekhtelefū kida (.) Fa ʾanā sakantā kān fī mas ̣ riyīn wū tawānsa wū senegālyīn wū tshādīn wū sūdānyīn (.) kida yaʿnī 4 I mean Libya in the first place is like (.) not (1.5) like in a big house (.) you are on the fourth floor right? (.) you find some people on the first floor (.) people on the second floor (.) on the third and the fourth (.) Different kinds of people I mean (2) some times Egyp tians (.) you find Tunisians (.) Some times you find Sudanese (.) Chadians (.) and Niger (.) I mean they differ like that (.) For me where I lived there were Egyp tians, Tunisians, Sene g alese, Chadians, and Sudanese (.) like that I mean Abdel hakk -Recording 2 -Min 5 Arabic is also a language spoken by other migrants. The term "Arabic," in the parti cipants' narrat ives, is not used only to refer to local varieties in Libya. Just as Abdel hakk, many mention encoun ters and daily inter ac tions with Arabic-speaking migrants from different coun tries, in work places, shared housing, and even in prisons. For instance, the descrip tions of the social envir on ment in the prisons of "Direc tion for Combating Illegal Migra tion" under line the pres ence of other "Arabs" (e.g. Egyp tians, Moroc cans and Sudanese) that undergo the same Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya repressive policy. They share the status of irreg ular migrants. Arabic speakers thus are placed on different levels of the social hier archy in Libya.

The elab or a tion of Arabic use in North Africa is influ enced by macro geopol it ical factors, global and local power struc tures as well as migratory projects, strategies, and activ ities. For those who choose to stay and work in Libya, acquiring commu nic ative basics of the language may be motiv ated by the need to generate income and navigate the local social dynamics and hier archies. Other social factors come into play as Arabic can serve as a commu nic ative medium with Arabic-speaking migrants. Thus, the rela tion ship to the language and its vari eties becomes more complex, as it can be both a language of the dominant and the dominated.

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Further more, according to both narrat ives and to obser va tions, the use of Arabic is not limited to predom in antly Arabic-speaking locations. It can be prac ticed in any context where it proves to be a useful medium of commu nic a tion, including European local ities. Some parti cipants report having stopped using Arabic once they left Libya, whereas others say that they still use it in Europe, either as a main medium of commu nic a tion in their daily life or only on specific occasions.

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In what follows, I share and analyze the narrative of a speaker who continued to use Arabic in his daily life in Europe, to under score the complexity of the factors that guided his language use in Libya and beyond. I then examine the reper toires employed by the narrator and his discourse on Arabic to better under stand his rela tion ship to a language shaped by this experience.

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Focus on one narrative on Arabic acquis i tion and use: Abdelhakk The narrative language biography

Abdel hakk is an only child, raised by his mother in a village in the center of Niger 5 , where, as he describes, everyone speaks only Hausa. He has been to the "koranic" [school], but he stresses that he Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya did not learn any language there, nor reading or writing. I asked in which language he and the other students were taught to recite the Koran: lā qorʾāniyya nagrū bī lugha darijiyya yaʿni mā nagrū ʿarabiyya […] tagrā min nagrā qorʾān dʿīf (.) dʿīf shadīd yaʿnī (.) mā nafham minnū (1.5) masaln yaʿnī (.) 'inta tagrā wi yifah himak bel (.) bel hausā yaʿnī mosh yifah himak bil bil ʿarabī (.) laʾinna huwwa mosh yetkallam ʿarabī ʾaktar. Faniḥ nā mū mā ʿārfīn ʿarabī

No in the Koranic we read in collo quial (vernacular) not in Arabic [...] you read from the Koran in a weak way (.) very weak I mean (.) We don't under stand it (1.5) I mean for example, you read and he [the teacher] explains to you in (.) in Hausa I mean. He doesn't explain to you in (.) in Arabic. Because he himself doesn't speak Arabic that much (.) So we don't know Arabic Recording 1 -Min 9

Abdel hakk was 17 years old when he started his journey. He left his home village and headed directly to Sabha, a southern city in Libya, without a clear idea of what to expect there. He explains that after two diffi cult days on the streets, a Libyan man led him to a building mostly inhab ited by Niger iens. He stayed there and was able to commu nicate with the others using Hausa. But, as he describes in the following excerpt, he quickly real ized that in order to work, he had to learn some Arabic: That would mean that he was exposed to different vari eties of Arabic since the very begin ning of his language acquisition. 28 Shortly after, he explains, a Libyan contractor engaged his services as a casual daily worker on construc tion sites. In the following excerpt, he describes acquiring new reper toires of Arabic during work: 29 awwal marra kān saʿeb innā ash-shughla neshteghel (.) yīqūl entā muwēn mā tafham ʿarabī walā tafham kida kēf neshtegholū ? (.) khalās ̣ ḥ amdellah fī nasīb 'innū neshteg holu maʿāū (1.5) bʿd yomēn talāta yomēn talāta (.) neʿallem kalema kalmatēn kalema kalmatēn (.) ḥ atta al-ḥ amdellah ligīt mustawwa shwayya kida fīl-ʿarabīyya The first time it was diffi cult for me to do the work (.) [The contractor] was saying where are you from? You don't under stand Arabic and you don't under stand that (.) how can we work? (.) But thank God it was destined for me to work with him (1.5) After two three days two three days (.) I was learning a word or two a word or two (.) until I attained a certain level in Arabic thanks to God Recording 2 -Min 13 While he was mainly using Arabic in his work envir on ment inter actions, he reports that he still used Hausa in his daily life, partic u larly when commu nic ating with Niger iens and Nigerians with whom he was living. Since working on construc tion sites wasn't regular, he explains, he started working in a "barraka", a green grocer's shop, for an Egyp tian employer. He comments, saying that in the city of Sabha, all the green gro cery stores are held by Egyptians.

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After two years of living in Sabha amid the second Libyan civil war, and due to the increasing intensity of armed confront a tions, he moved to Tripoli, only to discover other kinds of diffi culties. He started consid ering trav el ling further, espe cially after learning that his mother in Niger had passed away, as he explains. Nonethe less, he Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya had to collect money to realize this project. In Tripoli, he worked again on construc tion sites, but this time for a Syrian contractor. He describes pluri lin gual inter ac tional dynamics in the two-room apartment that he shared with three of his co-workers: a Sudanese, a Guinean, and a Sene g alese. In his words, the Sene g alese and the Guinean commu nic ated in French and in "another language they had… like a mother tongue". In the following, he describes how he commu nic ated with Amadou, the Sene g alese who was closest to him: yaʿnī yiḥ ebba nitkallam maʿāh nitwannas maʿāhū kitīr (.) yaʿnī aqrab s ̣ adīq an kamān (1.5) yaʿnī hūwa yitkallam faransī wu 'ānā mush nitkallam faransī (.) lāken kān jīt ṭ rāblos 'anā baʿref ʿarabī bitāʿ lībiyā shuwayya yaʿnī (.) fa hūwa yaʿref ʿarabī lībiyā basīṭ yaʿnī (.) fa khlās ̣ kunnā nitwannas bisuʿūba yaʿnī (.) fīl-bidāya bisʿūba lāken al-ḥ amdilla yafhamnī wa nafhamū ʿādī yaʿnī (1.5) kunnā ʿāyshīn kida I mean I liked to talk to him to spend a lot of time with him (.) He was my closest friend too (1.5) he speaks French and I don't speak French (.) but when I came to Tripoli I knew a little bit of Libya's Arabic (.) and he knew some basics of Libyan Arabic (.) So we used to commu nicate with diffi culty (.) In the begin ning with diffi culties but gladly he under stood me and I under stood him normally I mean (1.5) We used to live like this Recording 2 -Min 3 Arabic in his narrative isn't used only with "native" Arabic speakers, whether from Libya or other Arabic-speaking coun tries, but with anyone with whom he shared reper toires of Arabic and not Hausa. In the last excerpt, when he exposed the languages that Amadou could speak, he only mentioned French, even though he had earlier stated that Amadou spoke another language "like a mother tongue" (but which he did not name). We will see later that Abdel hakk differ en tiates between two types of languages: "a mother tongue" and "general language", the latter refer ring to a language that is more widely shared.

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Abdel hakk recounts his journey with a joyful tone and gener ally positive terms. Yet, his tone shifts to one of hesit ancy and unease as he recalls the hard ships he endured while in Libya. The depriva tion of Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya rights opened the door to all sorts of abuses and exploit a tion, which he exper i enced firsthand:

A: […] fa tajī nafsā l-sanā ʾalfēn w tamantashar jā wasal fayakūn as'ab min ʾalfēn w sabtaʾshar (1.5) fa kulli sanā yikūn asʿab min as-sanā alākẖar M: min ʾayy nāḥ iye kān as ̣ ʿab ? A: wallaī min nāḥ iyat el-ʾamnī wa min nāḥ iyat āāāh (2.0) ʾannu humma el-lībiyīn aslan mā biḥ ibbū fi n-nās es-sūd (.) mā biḥ ebbūhum kitīr yaʿnī fī lībīā (2.0) fā (.) khlās ̣ yaʿnī kulla sanā intā tiwājih suʿūbāt katīr yaʿnī (1.5) Fa w/ law intā mā metfakker ʾinnū fil ʾākhra we kidā (.) innū tikūn\tā (.) tinteḥ er wu taʿmel ʾayya ḥ āja (.) yaʿnī ʾihāna katīr biʾahānūk katīr marrat fī lībīā (.) yaʿnī ʾintā tesht a ghel (.) marrāt (.) mā/ kan law ishtaghltā maʿ lībī mā yaʿṭ īk fulūsak(1.5) law intā tigūl ʿaṭ īnī fulūsi yishil yiwaddīk lilshurṭ a (1.5) wish-shurṭ a yimsikak fil aaa fi es-sijin A: […] then when the year 2018 arrives, it turns out to be even harder than 2017 (1.5) Each year is harder than the previous M: In which terms harder ? A: In terms of security and in terms of aaah (2.0) that the Libyans they don't like black people in the first place (.) They don't like them much I mean in Libya (2.0) so (.) each year you face many diffi culties I mean (1.5) So and/ if you don't keep the Day of Judge ment in mind and all (.) You would be/ you would suicide or do anything (.) I mean they humi liate you a lot and many times in Libya (.) I mean some times(.) you work (.) and not/ if you work with a Libyan he won't give you your money (1.5) If you ask him for your money he would take you to the police (1.5) and the police will put you in prison Rec 2 -Min 20

After living for five years in Libya and surviving four long deten tions in the prisons managed by the "Depart ment for Combating Illegal Immig ra tion", he managed to cross to the other side of the Medi terranean. But to his surprise, he says, the boat did not land in Italy, which he had heard of before, but in Malta. There, he was imme diately imprisoned for entering the country irregularly. "The place is an island", he discovered three months later when he was released from deten tion. Getting out of the country was going to be complic ated and expensive, and he had to work to collect the money to finance Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya this trip. So, as he describes, he headed to the main square to find a job as a daily worker. He was thrilled to find a Syrian contractor again.

Fa 'anā etʿawwadta 'innū eshteghel s ̣ bbāgh wū ḥ ājāt dāk (.) Fa gābaltā sūrī fagulta al-ḥ amdillah fā hāzā aḥ san ḥ āja lay (.) Li'annū nafham minnā wayafham minnī aktar yaʿnī (.) khlās ̣ eshtaghaltā maʿāhū I'm used to working as a painter and that stuff (.) So, when I met a Syrian, I said thank God, this is the best thing for me (.) Because I under stand him, and he under stands me more I mean (.) So I worked with him Rec 2 -Min 38 Abdel hakk states that he worked along side a Sudanese and a Sene galese for this contractor, and that Arabic was the main language of commu nic a tion in the work place. Since the Sene g alese did not speak Arabic, the Syrian contractor commu nic ated with him in English and then trans lated for the other two when neces sary. Although Abdelhakk began to under stand English during his stay in Malta, as he says, he primarily used Arabic both at work and in his place of resid ence.

He lived in the main deten tion/recep tion center for migrants in Hal Far, where he spent most of his time with Arabic-speakers from Sudan.

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A few months later, he explains, he managed to get out of Malta and arrived in France. He was sent by the French admin is tra tion to a recep tion center in the south. He says to have started learning French with local elders volun teering to teach the basics of reading, but that he prac ticed French the most with an Arabic-speaking Moroccan resident: 36 fakhalās itʿarraftā maʿa maʿa wāḥ da (.) sūkā (.) ismahā sūkā (.) min maghreb(.) fakhlās ̣ hīya bardū tab'an taʿref titkallam ʿarabī (.) ʿarabī bitāʿā s ̣ aʿb shuwayya lāken nitfaham ʿādī […] hīya qāʿda fī s-sakan mā nafs es-sakan lāken mā bʿīda minninā zayy khamasta'shar dagīg kida […] nitwannas maʿāhā ktīr (.) fa hīya taʿref faransī miṭ awila shuwayya (.) fa marrāt titkallam an bil-faransī (.) fa 'ānā nitkallm lahā bil-faransī (.) wū ʿashān kida shuwayya shuwayya tʿallamtā faransī Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya Then I met a woman (.) Suka (.) her name is Suka (.) from Morocco (.) she also knows how to speak Arabic of course (.) her Arabic is a little diffi cult but we under stand each other normal [...] She was in the resid ence not the same resid ence but not far from us (.) like fifteen minutes away [...] we used to talk a lot (.) she knew French (.) she was there since a while (.) so she used to speak to me in French some times (.) and I replied in French (.) This is why little by little I learned French Rec 2 -Min 54

Based on this extract, we could say that Abdel hakk's acquis i tion of French reper toire through commu nic a tion with Suka was facil it ated by his prac tice of Arabic. His state ment "Her Arabic is a little diffi cult, but we under stand each other" reflects an open ness toward unfamiliar vari eties: as he does else where, he emphas izes the possib ility of intel li gib ility and commu nic a tion. When discussing Suka's use of French reper toires, he justi fies it by saying that "she was there since a while", although it is very possible that she used French reper toires before living in France, consid ering the soci o lin guistic land scape in North-West Africa and the wide spread pluri lin gual prac tices that include French reper toires. However, it seems that he draws on his own exper i ence here when he makes direct links between unexpected language prac tices and the mobility of the speaker.

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Abdel hakk was later trans ferred to a recep tion center in a small Provencal city. He was admin is trat ively based there when we met. He considers being in this city prob lem atic because he has very limited oppor tun ities for social iz a tion. He reports that the only person he knows in the new city is a Nigerian who was trans ferred to the same resid ence at the same time, with whom he commu nic ated in Arabic: 38 huwa kān sakan fī lībiyā fatra (.) fa baʿref bitkallam lugha lībīyya shuwayya shuwayya (1.5) fa ʾanā law ṭ alʿtā min ghurfa fa nitwannas maʿahū (.) law mā ligītū (.) 'anā nogʿod fī ghurfa yaʿnī He had lived in Libya for a while (.) So he knows how to speak the Libyan language a little bit (1.5) If I get out of the room I chat with him (.) other wise (.) I stay in my room Rec 2 -Min 49 Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya For this reason, he further explains, he tries to go as often as possible to the Parisian region where he stays with friends who are Arabicspeaking Sudanese and Chadians that he met earlier on his trajectory. And he expressed his inten tion to move to the capital to be around them.

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When describing his strategies to learn Arabic upon his arrival in Libya, Abdel hakk mentioned watching videos in Arabic. During the inter view, he stated that he still consumes multi media in Arabic, but now for enter tain ment purposes. He accesses YouTube with his phone and uses voice search to look up videos since he doesn't have literacy prac tice of the language. Among his favorite musi cians, he named a Sudanese singer, Nancy Ajaj, who has a "tender and sensuous voice" (sōt rahīf wu ḥ assas); a Lebanese singer, Miryam Fares; and a Tunisian singer and rapper called Balti. He said that he also likes to watch "funny clips", of which he mentions a prank show by a Syrian YouTuber and a Sudanese cartoon: 40 fī musalsalāt kartōniyya sūdāniyya kidā yaʿnī (.) bi tamsīl mudablaj (2.0) blēl (.) wāḥ ed bigūlu blēl (.) hādā niḥ ebbu katīr yaʿny There's a Sudanese cartoon like that (.) with dubbing (2.0) Blail (.) it is called Blail (.) I like this one a lot Rec 2 -Min 48 Different vernacu lars of Arabic are used in these videos. He is conscious of the linguistic plur ality and speaks expli citly about it when I ask him in which language he watches videos: 41 Bilugha 'arabiyya(.) Bass 'ayyi lugha 'arabiyya kān (1.5) Nasma' 'ayyi lugha l'arabiyya masalan(.) Bitā' tawānsā wu ssūrīyīn (.) tsa (.) shinu gasdī (.) lībiyā (.) 'ayya ya'nī betakallam 'arabī 'anā nishufā In Arabic language (.) but I mean no matter which Arabic language (.) I listen to any Arabic language like the one of Tunisians, and Syrians (.) tsa (.) To summarize, in Abdelhakk's narrative, the acquis i tion of Arabic was first motiv ated by his need to access jobs in Libya. Yet, along the trajectory he used Arabic prag mat ic ally, real izing his projects and building social connec tions even in Europe. Abdel hakk did not speak English, Maltese, nor Italian when he arrived in Malta, and did not speak French either when he arrived in France. Thus, Arabic turned out to be a useful medium of commu nic a tion and social izing with other mobile or "de/reter rit ori al ized" speakers (Jacquemet 2005) including those for whom Arabic is not a first language (the Sene galese flat mate in Tripoli, Libya, and the Nigerian co-resident in a recep tion center in France). Arabic prac tice seems to have facil it ated his acquis i tion of French reper toires through inter ac tion with a Moroccan woman he met in France.

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Besides, the role of media is high lighted in Abdel hakk's narrative. He reports watching videos and series to learn Arabic when he first arrived in Libya. At the time of the inter view in 2022, he declared still consuming digital media in Arabic for enter tain ment purposes, mentioning audi ovisual produc tions from Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, and Lebanon. The diversity of language resources appears to be further enhanced through exposure to mobile digital media. This diversity of resources and orient a tions is reflected in the reper toire that Abdelhakk employs during our inter ac tion, as we shall now see.

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The reper toires employed during the narrative interview

Abdel hakk distin guishes vari ation in Arabic use and refers to vari eties with respect to coun tries (e.g., Algerian, Syrian, Soudanese, etc.). In this section, I examine speech form to identify some of the repertoires he employed. Only basic and easily iden ti fi able features will be discussed, such as the verbal prefixal pronouns that distin guish western and eastern vari eties, and lexical items that indicate specific vari eties. These are compared to the vari eties of Arabic as documented in Arabic dialect o logy. Mean while, I remain conscious of the fluidity of borders between docu mented languages and between the reper toires used by one speaker. The choice was made here to refer to both the largest geo-linguistic group ings tradi tion ally iden ti fied in the linguistic liter ature as Eastern (Oriental) versus Western Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya (Maghreb) Arabic 6 , and to smaller regional dialect group ings (e.g., the five groups in Versteegh and Versteegh 2001) and national groupings.

Biograph ical, personal and "polynormative"

Abdel hakk employes hetero gen eous reper toires of Arabic during the inter view. In the present tense, he uses mostly western Arabic pronouns like in nitkallam-nitkallamu (I speak-we speak). Yet he uses the eastern Arabic prefix b-with few specific verbs as in 'anā baʿref (I know) and biḥ ibbū (they like). Some times, he mixes both systems as in kunta ana binishtaghal (I was working) where the verb has both the western n-and the eastern b-, thus creating an uncon ven tional and innov ative speech form.

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His speech contains lexical items that point to specific verities like zōl (man/person) that is used exclus ively in Sudan, and kida (like this) used in Sudanese and Egyp tian Arabic. For "house" he uses exclusively the name ḥ osh, as in Libyan vari eties and to a lesser degree in Iraqi varieties. He also employs equi val ents from different vari eties to desig nate the same object. For example, to say "cell phone" he uses three jawwāl, naqqāl (that seems to be widely used in Libya) and telefōn. For "money" he uses gorūsh (used in Sudan and to a lesser degree in Saudi Arabia) and fulūs (very widely used in North Africa and in different parts of Asia).

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These reper toires point to different Arabic vari eties. In that sense, they can be qual i fied as "poly norm ative", to use Blommaert's term, that is: "reflecting the avail ab ility of normative-functional 'standards' in a complex super di verse envir on ment" (Blommaert 2018in Schneider 2021, p. 40). The speaker has delt with different norms of Arabic with the different speakers and medias. His speech draws from a unique combin a tion of resources related to his indi vidual geographical and social trajectory which are being rein ter preted, rearranged, and employed with respect to his commu nic ative object ives and strategies during inter ac tion. This process gives an idio syn cratic and highly personal speech form and indic ated a creative reor gan iz a tion and appro pri ation of reper toires used.

Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya

Fluid, nego ti ated, adapted to interlocutor

Not surpris ingly, during our conver sa tion, Abdel hakk seems to select from his reper toires what he believes would be the most comprehens ible to me, his inter locutor. This process is made explicit in the following excerpt in which he describes his work as tiler in Libya, and tries to find a 'Syrian' equi valent for a 'Libyan' lexical: 48 Esh-shughul maʿrūf yaʿnī fil-bidāya fī (1.5) gazza (.) fī lībyā yigūlū gazza laken mā ʿāref bes-sūrī tigūl shinū (.) Bigūlū erramla (1.5) es-sūrī er-ramla (.) raml taʿrafī saḥ ? (.) khalās ̣ nijībū erramla w baʿdēn nijībū ez-zillēs hādā wa ismantī w khalās ̣ (.) Nakhlit wa nijīb/ esh-shughl wāḍ eḥ yaʿnī

The work is known I mean in the begin ning there is the (1.5) gazza (sand) (.) In Libya they say gazza but I don't you how you say it in Syrian (.) They say ramla (sand) (1.5) in Syrian the raml (sand) (.) you know raml right ? (.) So we bring the ramla and then we bring the tiles and the cement and that's it (.) We mix and bring/ The work is clear I mean Rec 2 -Min 7

The ques tion he addresses to me is further evid ence of nego ti ation of meaning. In the following, he continues using the more widely used synonym that he perceives Syrian, using it both in feminine and in mascu line form. It is to be noted that for "tiles", he employs the term zillēs, which is used exclus ively in North Africa. This illus trates a relevant distinc tion of reper toires and a process of speech accommod a tion with respect to these categories.

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He employs the lexical zōl (person), which is, as mentioned above, usually restricted to Sudanese vari eties. He used it twelve times during the inter view, and on three occa sions he comple mented with equivalents. He employes shakhs ̣ only once, here in example (b). This is the lexical that I employ during our inter ac tion to say person, beside wāḥ ed (one). On the contrary insān, in example (a), is a lexical he uses frequently (24 times). It is a lexical shared in different vari eties but not always used as "person".

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Inter est ingly, he is conscious of the adapt a tions and verb alize this process in the following excerpt: 52 'anā nitʿawwad ʿala ayyi 'insān yaʿnī (.) ayyi 'insān (.) assā msalan 'insān masalan yitkallam masalan min jazāyer (.) fa ʾanā bengdar niḥ āwel nitkallam baʿḍ / jozʾ min lugha jazāʾiriyya ḥ atta hūwa yifham minnī shuwayya (.) yaʿnī mā yegder yizbuṭ nī belzabṭ I adapt to any person I mean (.) any person (.) like for example a person who speaks from Algeria for example (.) I can try to speak some/ partially Algerian language so he can under stand me a little (.) I mean he won't be able to pin me down exactly This quote illus trates aware ness of the diversity of reper toires of Arabic and of the reper toires the speaker employs. When he estimates that his inter locutors have different set of reper toires, he would accom modate his speech by choosing from his reper toires what he believes to be the most effi cient to achieve mutual under standing. This state ment also reflects a sense of mastery over his reper toire, which he can accom modate to suit his commu nic ative goals.

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Percep tion of Arabic and its varieties

Abdel hakk's discourse on language some times contains labels and categories that conform to wide spread beliefs about language, or language ideo lo gies. However, at other times, he offers much less common commentary on language. For instance, he refers to Arabic as a linguistic unity distinct from other languages, which is a common percep tion in Arabic-speaking regions and sub-Saharan Africa due to various histor ical and polit ical factors, by both Arabic and non-Arabic speakers (Miller 2009, p. 234). However, he uses an unfa miliar label for this linguistic whole: a "general language." Abdel hakk describes his first encounter with Arabic and says that in his region in Niger, when he used to go to the well to bring water, he had heard strangers say "salām"(Hello), but he didn't know at that time what kind of language it was. Then he comments: faʾanā ʾawwal kunta beʿraf lugha ʿarabī zayy lughat ʾumm yaʿnī (.) mā ʿāref ʾinnu ʿarbī hiya lugha ʿāmma w dowal katīr bittkallam ʿarabī Before I thought that the Arabic language is like a mother tongue l mean (.) I didn't know that Arabic is a general language and that many coun tries speak Arabic Rec 2-Min 28 He uses the term lugha ʿāmma (general language) to describe Arabic, in oppos i tion to lughat ʾumm (mother tongue). I under stand the opposition general language / mother tongue as lingua franca / vernacular in academic terms. This inter pret a tion also works for the other matches of the term, for example when listing the languages spoken by his flat mates in Tripoli: "French, and another language they had (1.5) like a mother tongue". Later in the inter view I ask him if he considers Hausa a general language, as it is spoken in different coun tries too. He says: 55 lissa nās mā mā bitkallmū hāūsā ktīr yaʿnī (.) illā 'insān el-lugha bikhus huwwā yitkallam People still don't speak Hausa that much I mean (.) only a person who is related to this language speaks it Rec 2 -Min 48 Abdel hakk would have had a different percep tion of Hausa and its diffu sion if he had trav elled West rather than North. Regard less, he seems to exclude it from the category of general languages because he believes that it is only spoken as a "first" language. This would mean that he perceives Arabic as a general language as it is used by speakers from different linguistic back grounds, and not only as a "first" language.

In his narrative, Abdel hakk distin guishes vari eties of Arabic and refers to them geograph ic ally, using state names, conforming to common use, as "gener al izing labels are commonly used to refer to dialect types spoken in the respective coun tries" (Palva 2006). Despite the fact that "national bound aries often do not corres pond to regional dialect bound aries -the Arabic of north eastern Algeria is surely closer to that of north western Tunisia than it is to the dialect of Arabic spoken in south western Algeria, yet both are perceived and treated as Algerian Arabic" (Walters 2007).

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He refers to regional vari eties as languages -Arabic languages -and still uses the term "Arabic language" as a generic label. He eval u ates the vari eties according to a perceived "diffi culty" (to be under stood) and "famili arity". Inter est ingly, the adjective "diffi cult" is the most often used to describe what he calls "the Arabic of Libya": 58 liʾannā lībiyā ʾanā kuntī fī bilādhom (.) famahmā lugha saʿba faʾanā tʿawwadta ʿalō Because Libya I was in their country (.) So no matter how difficult the language is I got used to it Rec 1 -Min 16-17

The pronoun "their" in "Libya, I was in their country" seems to reflect a feeling of other ness or alien a tion. A few minutes later in his narrative, he qual i fies this "Libyan language" again as the most difficult Arabic he has ever been confronted with, which is a strong statement since Libya is the only domin antly Arabic-speaking country he has lived in. One can assume that it is the most familiar to him. When asked why, he makes an explicit link between a reper toire and the emotional exper i ences asso ci ated with it: 59 A: tayyeb ḥ atta as ̣ diqāʾī el min nījer mā bafhamū/ yaʿnī anā bitkallam mā bafhamū nihāʾī (.) liʾannī ʾanā taʿallmta ʿarabī min musalsal wu Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya ḥ ājāt kida (.) liʾannā hummā bītkallamū ʿarabī bitāʿ lībīā bītkallamū shwayya shwayya (1.5) laken ʿarabī tānī mā bafhamū minnū (1.5) faʿarabī bitāʿ lībiyā innū s ̣ aʿb yaʿnī mukhtalef min ʿarabī tāʿ sūriyā we es-sūdān w jazayer w ḥ ājāt yaʿnī (1.5) yekhtalef minhum ktīr (.) ʿarbī btāʿ āā (1.5) shenu ismā (.) lībiyā (1.5) fareg katīr minhom yaʿnī (2) hūwa s ̣ aʿb (1.5) as ̣ ʿab ʿarabiyya anā wājhtā ʿarabī bitāʿ lībīā M: wallah (1.5) kīf / lēsh bitḥ iss innō kān as ̣ ʿab shī lak ? A: tayyeb liʿannu (1.5) lībiyā huwā mufh balad tāʿ(.) ʿāmna (.) mafīsh ʿamni (.) Famman intā tikūn fī makān mā fī ʿamnī (1.5) faʿintā khāyif katīr (2) fakulli marra yaʿnī intā titlaʿ fī sh-shāreʿ wāḥ ed yitkallam kalām mush kuwayyes (.) khlās ̣ intā tikrah el-balad we tikrah el-lugha za/ aslan yaʿnī (.) khalās ̣ mā geder fehemt minhom ʿaktar (.)ʿarabī bitāʿ lībiyā (.) kān asʿeb ketīr yaʿnī (.) humma asʿbīn will-lugha al-ʿarabī bitāʿom asʿb A: ok even my friends that are from Niger don't under stand/ I mean when I speak they don't under stand at all (.) Because I learned Arabic from series and this kind of things (.) Because they speak the Arabic of Libya they speak it a little (1.5) but [when it's] another Arabic they don't under stand it (1.5) The Arabic of Libya is like diffi cult I mean different from the Arabic of Syria and Sudan and Algeria and stuff I mean (1.5) it's very different from them (.) The Arabic of aa (1.5) what is it called (.) Libya (1.5) big differ ence I mean (2) It is diffi cult (1.5) That hardest Arabic I have ever been confronted to is the Arabic of Libya M : really (.) How / Why you feel that it was the hardest for you ? A : Ok because (1.5) Libya is not a country of (.) secure (.) There is no security (.) So when you are in a place that is not secure (1.5) you feel very afraid (2) Each time I mean you go out to the street someone says words that are not good (.) So you hate the country and you hate that language itself I mean (.) So I couldn't under stand much from them (.) the Arabic of Libya (.) It was very diffi cult I mean (.) They are diffi cult and their Arabic of difficult Rec 1 -Min 16-17 First, he differ en ti ates in this passage his own Arabic from "the Libyan Arabic" and attrib utes this differ ence to a process of learning Arabic through audi ovisual media. He distin guished the Arabic spoken in Libya from all forms of Arabic, listing "Sudanese", "Syrian", and "Algerian". On the purely linguistic level, this might sound little convin cing. However, what he expresses here in clear terms are not opin ions on the language but on the speakers, and the negative feelings of fear, insec urity, exclu sion, and humi li ation that he exper ienced in Libya and that he asso ci ates to the reper toires employed by locals.

In a coun ter move, Abdel hakk seems to have disso ci ated "Libyan Arabic" from all other forms of Arabic, on which he has gener ally a positive discourse. A language that he uses in his inter ac tions with other mobile Arabic speakers he met along his journey, and who consti tuted his social network: 61 fī bʿḍ al-nās, ḥ ati ḥ āliyyan fī bʿḍ en-nās bigūlū anā sūdānī yaʿnī (laughing) liʾan anā nitkallem ʿarabī katīr (2) faḥ atta ḥ āliyyan as ̣ ḥ ābī fī bārīs kullohom sūdānyīn wu tshādiyīn yaʿnī (.) fakẖalās ̣ hummā/ il bigūl illā bigūl intā yaʿṭ ū intā sūdānī aw intā tshādī (.) anā gullom lā anā min nījer (.) fayestaghrabū annō kēf intā/ min es-saʿb innū niwājih wāḥ ed min nījer yitkallam ʿarabī (.) Fa ānā khalas nitkallam ʿanhom wagt lībiyā we kida Some people, even in the present, some people say that I'm Sudanese I mean (laughing) (.) Because I speak Arabic a lot (2) even in the present my all friends in Paris are Sudanese and Chadian I mean (.) so they/ when someone makes a guess they say either you're Sudanese or you're Chadian (.) I tell them I'm from Niger (.) That surprises them like how you/ it's rare to find someone from Niger that speaks Arabic (.) So I speak to them about the period of Libya and so on Rec 2 -Min 45

The way he describes the variety of Arabic, categor ized with respect to states, seems to express his lived emotional exper i ence and his feel ings of affil i ation/non-affiliation (Busch 2012). His negative percep tion of what he categories as Libyan Arabic is related to his exper i ence in the country and echoes a disaf fil i ation related to his struggles and the feel ings of humi li ation because of the deprava tion of right and of liberty, of other ness in face of racism that were discussed higher in his narrative.

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What Abdel hakk expresses here is his social affil i ation to other individuals and groups with whom he commu nic ates in Arabic. In the last excerpt, he mentions to be assim il ated by strangers to a social Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya BIBLIOGRAPHY BLOMMAERT Jan and BACKUS Ad, 2011, "Repertoires Revisited: 'Knowing Language' in Superdiversity", vol. 67, p. 1-26. different Arabic-speaking coun tries in Africa and Asia, valuing his ability to under stand different reper toires of Arabic. His use of the media is a signi ficant indic ator of his rela tion ship with the language, which goes beyond mere commu nic ative neces sity to include pleasure and enjoyment.

Based on the narrative and its analysis, I have argued that Abdel hakk have reappro pri ated the hetero gen eous linguistic resources to which he was exposed along his trajectory and elab or ated a unique repertoire -an indi vidual, poly norm ative idiolect. Yet, this personal language is fluid and adapt able, allowing him to commu nicate effectively with a wide range of speakers who have different uses of the language. In this narrative, Abdel hakk disso ci ates his language use from the settings that initi ated his Arabic acquis i tion in Libya and focuses on his agency in the process and on the forms of soci ab ility that he builds around him along his journey. He has thus developed a language in the Derridean sense (Derrida 1996), his own rela tion ship to language. 67 While this prelim inary analysis has shed light on various aspects of the language biography discussed, there are still many unex plored dimen sions that warrant further invest ig a tion. Studying the different narrat ives of these emer ging prac tices seems prom ising in various fields, allowing us to reflect on language and migra tion in a nonbinary way (country of origin -host country), and on language at the inter sec tion of power dynamics, resist ance, and agency. Furthermore, at a time when the mobility of speakers and linguistic resources are fluid i fying linguistic bound aries, it provides oppor tunities to observe the soci o lin guistic muta tions related to the use of Arabic in transna tional settings, and to parti cipate in rethinking Arabic in itself, beyond the estab lished categories, in a more real istic and inclusive way, in which fluidity and vari ation are inherent characteristics. The data is tran scribed using inter na tional system, with kh for ,/خ/ gh for ,/غ/ sh for ش/ /, q for ,/ق/ ' for ,/ء/ ' for /ع/ 5 Some inform a tion about the speaker is hidden to main tain anonymity. Tunisia,Algeria,and Morocco. 7 This formu la tion may under score racial iz a tion processes, meaning "a black 'native' Arabic speaker", as he had said in another moment that he is often mistaken for a Sudanese in France. In other narrat ives, Sudanese nationals are also mentioned in the discourse on Arabic as a legit imate example of the asso ci ation of speaking Arabic and being racial ized as black. This aspect deserves a separate in-depth study using crossed narratives.

ABSTRACTS

English

In the course of transna tional, irreg ular, step wise mobil ities between West Africa, North Africa and Western Europe, many migrants develop communic ative prac tices of Arabic. Within the frame work of the soci o lin guistics of mobility and using a biograph ical approach, this paper exam ines a narrative of Arabic acquis i tion and use along a seven-year journey from Niger through Libya, Malta, and then France. It aims to provide first-person insights into the soci o lin guistic dynamics and factors that influ ence language prac tice during mobility. The first part situ ates the narrative within the Libyan soci opol it ical context and migratory land scape and under lines the social diversity of mobility networks, drawing on other collected narrat ives and obser va tions. The narrative describes a multisituated acquis i tion and exposure to different vari eties and norms of Arabic through inter ac tions with mobile speakers and engage ment with digital media. Through an analysis of the narrator's Arabic speech form, the study high lights the hetero gen eity of his linguistic reper toire, the fluidity of his language use, and the processes of reappro pri ation and accom mod a tion. It also explores the rela tion ship between the speaker's reper toire and his emotional exper i ences as expressed through his discourse on Arabic and its vari eties. Ulti mately, this paper argues that the speaker has developed a unique use and percep tion of Arabic that reflects his personal, geograph ical, and social trajectory, as well as his feel ings of affiliations/non-affiliations.

Français

Au cours des mobi lités trans na tio nales, irré gu lières et par étapes entre l'Afrique de l'Ouest, l'Afrique du Nord et l'Europe occi den tale, de nombreux migrants déve loppent des pratiques commu ni ca tives de l'arabe. Dans le cadre de la socio lin guis tique de la mobi lité et en utili sant une approche biogra phique, cet article examine un récit d'acqui si tion et d'utili sa tion de l'arabe au cours d'un voyage de sept ans du Niger vers la Libye, Malte puis la France. Il vise à fournir un aperçu à la première personne de la dyna mique Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya socio lin guis tique et des facteurs qui influencent les pratiques langa gières au cours de la mobi lité. La première partie situe le récit dans le contexte socio po li tique et le paysage migra toire libyens et souligne la diver sité sociale des réseaux de mobi lité, en s'appuyant sur d'autres récits collectés et des obser va tions. Le récit décrit une acqui si tion multi si tuée et une exposi tion à diffé rentes variétés et normes de l'arabe par le biais d'inter ac tions avec des locu teurs mobiles et d'usages des médias numé riques. En analysant la forme du discours arabe du narra teur, l'étude met en évidence l'hété ro gé néité de son réper toire linguis tique, la flui dité de son usage de la langue et les processus de réap pro pria tion et d'accom mo da tion. Elle explore égale ment la rela tion entre le réper toire du locu teur et ses expériences émotion nelles telles qu'elles s'expriment à travers son discours sur l'arabe et ses variétés. En fin de compte, cet article soutient que le locu teur a déve loppé un usage et une percep tion uniques de l'arabe qui reflètent sa trajec toire person nelle, géogra phique et sociale, ainsi que ses sentiments d'appartenance/non-appartenance.

  16

  27ʾanā kān kunta fi sabhā fa mā nafhām ʿārabī yaʿnī 'illā ghēr as-salām […] fa lībiyā 'intā mā taʿrēf ʿārabī mā gādēr tishteghel (1.0) fā anā taqrīban ʿindī ūsbūʿēn lākīn fī bāʿḍ īlʾʾas ̣ diqāʾ yifhāmū ʿarabī shwayyā shwayyā yishtoghulū (1.0) fa ʾanā mā nafham ʿarabī gāʿed fīl-ʾbēt […] fa 'anā badēta nishūfa vīdyo ʿarabīyya katīr (.) khalās ̣ anā badēt nifham ʿarabī shwayyā shwayyā shwayyā shwayyā shwayyā (.) lamman shaher fa 'anā ṭ alaʿtā bʿed dā I was in Sabha and I didn't know a word of Arabic other than Salam (hello)[...] In Libya if you don't know Arabic you can't work (.) I was there for around two week and some friends who under stood Arabic a little bit were able to work (.) but me because I didn't under stand Arabic I was sitting at home [...] So I started watching a lot of Arabic Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya videos (.) That was it (.) I started to under stand Arabic, little by little, little by little (.) and that during a month then I went out Recording 2 -min 12 He states having used audi ovisual media to learn Arabic. But in which variety of Arabic? So, I ask him "what kind of videos?" He mentions Egyp tian series and Turkish series dubbed in Arabic by Syrian actors.

50'

  ayyi zōl mashghūl 'ayyi insān mashghūl every man is busy every human is busy Rec 2 -Min 36 Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya kān ānā law mā ʿindī mathalan anuary aw māʿindī ayy ḥ āja (.) fa ānā khalās nirjaʿ bārīs li'annā 'anā itʿwwadtā bārīs ketir min [city] (.) [city] mā fī baʿref zōl yaʿnī mā baʿref shakhs ̣ yaʿnī If I don't have [to get] mail for example or anything (.) I go back to Paris simply because I got used to Paris more that [city] (.) In [city] I don't know a man I mean I don't know anyone I mean Rec 2 -Min 52

  what do I want to say (.) Libya (.) No matter which one if they speak Arabic I watch Rec 2 -Min 48 Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya

  For an account of these agree ments, see Brede loup and Pliez 2011.

	Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to
	Europe via Libya
	BLOMMAERT Jan and RAMPTON Ben, 2011,	Transnational Narratives of Migration
	"Language and superdiversity: a	and Exile, Universitetsforlaget, p. 18-44.
	College. London: Tilburg University and King's position paper", Diversities, vol. 13, n 2, o	p. 381-396. "Narrative in the study of migrants", DE FINA Anna and TSENG Amelia, 2017,
	BLOMMAERT Jan, 2009, "Language, Asylum, and the National Order", Current Anthropology, 2009, vol. 50, n 4, p. 415-441. o	DERRIDA Jacques, 1996, Le monolinguisme de l'autre, ou la prothèse d'origine, Paris, Galilée (coll. « Incises »), 135 p.
	BLOMMAERT Jan, 2010, The Sociolinguistics of Globalization, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.	International Organization for Migration, 2020, Libya -Migrant Report 30 (March -April 2020) | DTM.
	BREDELOUP Sylvie and Pliez Olivier, 2005, « Migrations entre les deux rives du Sahara », Autrepart, vol. 36, n 4, p. 3-20. o	IRVINE Judith T. and Gal Susan, 2000, "Language ideology and linguistic and identities., Santa Fe: School of differentiation, in P. V. Kroskrity (eds.)", Regimes of language: Ideologies, polities,
	BREDELOUP Sylvie and PLIEZ Olivier, 2011,	American Research Press, p. 35-83.
	"The Libyan Migration Corridor", in Philippe Fargues (eds.); Demetrios Papademetriou (eds.), Improving EU and US Immigration Systems' Capacity for Responding to Global Challenges:	JACQUEMET Marco, 2005, "Transidiomatic practices: Language and power in the age of globalization", Language & Communication, vol. 25, n 3, p. 257-277. o
	Learning from experiences, European	JACQUES Geneviève, ROMDHANI Massoud
	University Institute.	and PRESTIANNI Sara, 2012, Libya: The
	BUSCH Brigitta, 2012, "The Linguistic Repertoire Revisited", Applied Linguistics, vol. 33, n 5, p. 503-523. o NOTES BUSCH Brigitta, 2015, "Linguistic 1 Pseudonym repertoire and Spracherleben, the lived experience of language", Working Papers in Urban Language and 2 3 Literacies, paper 148, 16 p. Tran scrip tion key:	Hounding of Migrants Must stop, fidh Migreurop, Justice Without Borders for Migrants. MAKONI Sinfree and PENNYCOOK Alastair (eds.), 2007, Disinventing and reconstituting languages, Clevedon, [England], Buffalo ; Multilingual Matters (coll."Bilingual education and bilingualism"), 249 p.
	BUSCH Brigitta, 2016, "Biographical (.) brief interval approaches to research in multilingual (2s) timed pause in seconds settings: Exploring linguistic repertoires", in Researching / cut-off	MILLER Catherine, 2009, « Enjeux des dénominations de l'arabe en Afrique sub-saharienne » in Naming languages in Sub-Saharan Africa: practices, names,
	Multilingualism, Routledge. 4	categorisations, Carole de Féral (eds.),
	CANUT Cécile, 2021, "Can 'migrants'	p. 233-254.
	speak? Voices, narratives and performances" in Camilla Erichsen Skalle and Anje Müller Gjesdal (eds.),	MORONE Antonio M. and FAVIER Olivier, 2020, « Les migrations africaines dans la Libye post-2014 : guerre, crise

  Applied Linguistics, vol. 28, n 2, p. 163-188. PENNYCOOK Alastair and OTSUJI Emi, 2014, "Metrolingual multitasking and spatial repertoires: 'Pizza mo two minutes coming'", Journal of Sociolinguistics, vol. 18, n 2, p. 161-184. SCHAPENDONK Joris, 2007, "Staying put in moving sands: The stepwise migration process of sub-Saharan African migrants heading north" in Ulf Engel and Paul Nugent (eds.), Respacing Africa, Brill, p. 113-138. SCHNEIDER Britta, 2021, "Creole prestige beyond modernism and methodological nationalism: Multiplex patterns, simultaneity and non-closure in the sociolinguistic economy of a Belizean village", Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, vol. 36, n 1, p. 12-45. SILVERSTEIN Michael, 1979, "Language Structure and Linguistic Ideology", in The elements: A parasession on linguistic units and levels., Paul Clyne, William F. Hanks, and Carol L. Hof bauer (eds), Chicago, Chicago Linguistic Society, p. 193-274 VERSTEEGH C. H. M. and VERSTEEGH Kees, 2001, The Arabic Language, Edinburgh University Press, 292 p. WALTERS Keith, 2007, "Language Attitudes", in Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics, Versteegh C. H. M and Eid Mushira (eds.), Leiden; Biggleswade, Brill, p. 650-664. Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya 6 Eastern vari eties include those spoken in Sudan, Egypt, Levantine, and Gulf varieties. The Western category includes vari eties spoken in Libya,

	économique et politiques
	d'endiguement », Migrations Société,
	vol. 179, n 1, p. 29-42. PALVA Heikki, 2006, "Dialects: Classification", in Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics, Versteegh C. H. M and Eid Mushira (eds.), Leiden; Biggleswade, Brill, p. 604-613. PAVLENKO Aneta, 2007, "Autobiographic Narratives as Data in Applied Linguistics", o	o
	o
	o

Developing one's own language: a narrative of Arabic acquisition during mobility from West Africa to Europe via Libya entourage of Chadians and Sudanese, because he speaks Arabic well 7 . As discussed earlier, these social rela tions seem to have influ enced both his reper toire and media preferences.

Concerning his percep tion of his own language, Abdel hakk asso ci ated his mastery of Arabic with his stay in Libya, but says that when he speaks Arabic other Niger iens, who know "Libyan" solely, will not under stand him at all, as he speaks "another Arabic". He does not assim ilate his speech form to any variety he mentions and insists that it cannot be "pinned down." He attrib utes this differ ence to a process of learning from audi ovisual content. His language does not fit in the national categor iz a tion he repro duces in his discourse on Arabic varieties.

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Discus sion and future directions

Abdel hakk's detailed narrative describes unmon itored language acquis i tion through audi ovisual media, activ ities, and social iz a tion with speakers from different back grounds during his seven-year journey from Niger to Libya, Malta, and France. This narrative provides insights into a complex process of language elab or a tion in rela tion to migra tion policies, mobility constraints, local and global hier archies, as well as the speaker's strategies, social network, projects, and means to realize his plans. Initially motiv ated by his need to access the labor market in Libya, his use of Arabic seems to have facil it ated his integ ra tion into the labor market in Malta. It was a tool to finance his travel, to over come obstacles to mobility, and to build social connec tions with other mobile Arabic speakers in Libya, in Malta, and later in France.

65

An important theme in his narrative is the use of digital media. Although Abdel hakk has an exclus ively oral use of the language, the voice-based research func tion allows him to benefit from new techno lo gies and to access a wide range of audi ovisual media through his phone. He repeatedly reports that he learned Arabic by watching series on YouTube upon his arrival in Libya, emphas izing his autonomy in language acquis i tion and distin guishing his form of language use from the local "Libyan Arabic". During the inter view, he says that he continues to consume media in Arabic for enter tain ment purposes. He talks about his favorite shows and singers from