Convivial linguistic practices: lived togetherness through language in the United Arab Emirates.

I explore four types of convivial linguistic practices described by my participants: language sharing, benevolent interpretation, language checks, and respectful language choices. Keywords: conviviality; multilingualism; small stories; United Arab Emirates EN conviviality multilingualism small stories United Arab Emirates 1 28 28 01/18/22 20220101 NES 220101 1 Introduction This paper takes up I conviviality i as an analytical tool to investigate everyday language choices made by foreign residents living in Ras Al Khaimah, a small city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Some of this broken Arabic must be mixed with other languages, body language or hand language ... [I use this language because] I think he knows that we are Arabic and I feel that if we spoke in English [or fluent Arabic], that maybe he will not understand and will make that these ladies are very arrogant. All of these divisions are navigated with specific language practices that involve choices of what language to use with whom and how best to deploy it. 4 Methods This paper draws on data from a larger project that investigated the language practices and policy orientations of foreign residents in Ras Al Khaimah. [Extracted from the article]