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LITERARY CODE-SWITCHING
decanter. ‘Bikfi, sorry, that’s plenty.’”*° An example of a metalinguistic com¬
ment is when the authorial voice draws attention to Midhat’s pronunciation
of French: “Despite his shyness, his accent was improving, and he pronounced
‘le thorax’ and ‘le capillaire’ with the precision of a foreigner.”* The detailed
discussion of the relexification in the next section also underscores, among
other things, that Midhat’s sense of disparity largely has a linguistic basis.
UNCOMFORTABLE ENCOUNTERS: “ENCHANTED
TO MAKE YOUR ACQUAINTANCE”
After along journey, from Nablus to Alexandria and then subsequently by boat
to Marseille and by train to Montpellier, Midhat is welcomed at the Montpel¬
lier train station by Jeannette Molineu. This is the occasion for the first of many
awkward intercultural misunderstandings. Midhat wrongly takes Jeannette
to be Frédéric Molineu’s wife. Not being used to unrelated men and women
intermingling, it puzzles Midhat that she, rather than his male host, comes to
collect him. At the house he is welcomed by Molineu and Midhat introduces
himself politely: “Good evening, my name is Midhat Kamal. Enchanted to
make your acquaintance.”** This unidiomatic phrase or relexification—in
English one would rather say ‘Pleased to meet you’ or more archaically ‘A
pleasure to make your acquaintance’-—immediately evokes the French expres¬
sion enchanté de faire votre connaissance and makes the readers pause. This
break encourages them to dwell on Midhat’s uneasiness in his new environ¬
ment. Even though he studied French at a French-styled lycée in Constan¬
tinople, also referred to in the novel as Konstantiniyye, its transliterated Ara¬
bic name,” his French is still far from fluent. This is also confirmed by the
narrative comment “There were several words in this speech that Midhat did
not understand,” after Molineu addresses him in French: “On Monday, je crois
qu’ilya une affaire d’inscription, and then, you know, tout va de l’avant.”# The
comment somehow reassures readers who do not know French by highlighting
the main character’s disconcertment over not understanding everything that
is being said, at the same time drawing them into Midhat’s confusion and
uneasiness. On the same page, Midhat’s difficulty in understanding French is
further underlined by inserting another relexified expression “The lining of
36 Hammad: “The Parisian or Al-Barisi”, 12.
37 Tbid., 31.
38 Tbid., 11.
3 Ibid., 7.
40 Ibid., 12.
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