Egyptian satirists claimed cultural authority by mocking rulers’ Arabic accents

Evidence

There is an interesting uneasiness about economic and political power within Sanüa's humorous linguistic depictions. Both the Ottoman elite and the British officials are cut down to size by their accents and grammatical mistakes when speaking in colloquial Arabic, and they are further humiliated by the witty asides of the Egyptian characters confronting them.These portraits, or dramatic cartoons, also reveal another side to the issue of authority, as they stress the rightfulness, or normalcy, of Egyptian authority. Egyptians may not have been at the source of economic and political power in their society, but Sanüa’s assertion of linguistic dominance shows where cultural power lay. The Egyptian characters are thus able to undermine foreign domination of their society.Yet, in a fascinating exercise of linguistic anxiety, they undermine the dominance of others only by imitating and mocking the speech of authority. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 361