Oldal 34 [34]
OCR
LITERARY CODE-SWITCHING decanter. ‘Bikfi, sorry, that’s plenty.’”*° An example of a metalinguistic comment 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 Montpellier 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 expression enchanté de faire votre connaissance and makes the readers pause. This break encourages them to dwell on Midhat’s uneasiness in his new environment. Even though he studied French at a French-styled lycée in Constantinople, also referred to in the novel as Konstantiniyye, its transliterated Arabic 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. .32 +
