Speakers of every human language use words or phrases pragmatically, as discourse markers. Some of these discourse markers (for example, English “mm-hmm”) can be used by a listener to tell a speaker that he is paying attention to what is being said and understands it. This is what linguists call a “back-channel” marker. It tells the principle speaker that he may go on talking. Other discourse markers can be used by the principle speaker to prompt the listener to speak briefly without taking center stage in the discussion. Such prompts – for example, English “y’know what I’m saying?” – elicit a short backchannel response from the listener (ex. “uh-huh…”) but do not invite him to take a full turn in the conversation.

One aspect of culturally-appropriate listening that may be unique to conversations among Arabic-speaking Muslims is the existence of a set of prompts and responses that have at least two functions: 1) they allow the speaker to ask for confirmation that his words have been heard and understood without at the same time giving his turn in talk to a listener (as we have explained); and 2) they demonstrate that both the speaker and a listener are members of the Muslim community. Probably all backchannel prompts and responses in all languages serve the first function, but instances of backchannel prompts that also identify the religious affiliation of the speakers are rare.

One of these distinctive sets of prompts and responses in Arabic is the following: After a Muslim mentions the Prophet Muħammad, either by name or by title (i.e. as /an-nabi/ “the Prophet”), he is required to add the expression /SaLLa (a)LLaahu `alee-h wa-sallam/ “May God bless him and grant him peace/safety.” When a Muslim listener hears this phrase he is expected to respond with /`alee-h iS-SaLaat wa-s-salaam/ “[may there be] blessings on him and peace.” Ordinarily the first speaker will pause for a moment to allow the listeners to respond without causing an overlap between his speech and theirs; then he continues. And ordinarily the listeners stop speaking immediately after making the required back-channel response (/`alee-h iS-SaLaat wa-s-salaam/). Even though they have been briefly granted a turn in talk they do not keep it but immediately yield the floor to the first speaker. Taking advantage of this opening for back channel response by trying to say more than the stock phrase is considered extremely rude and disrespectful to both the first speaker and to his religion. So there is very little overlap between speaker and listener.

Note that when a non-Muslim listener responds with this backchannel phrase, it causes confusion. Once, when I was engaged in conversation with an Arabic speaker from the Hijaz, I made this response. Because she assumed that I was a Christian, she was startled to hear me utter this very Islamic phrase. She had to laugh in pleased surprise.

Another set of phrases that serves both functions are the prompt /SaLLu `ala n-nabi/ “Bless the Prophet” and the response /aLLaahumma SaLLa `ala rasuuli lláah/ “O God, bless the Messenger of God.” Another version of this response is /aLLaahumma SaLLa `ala sayyid-ina muħámmad/ “O God, bless our Lord Muħammad.” This set is most appropriate during a heated discussion or debate, during which two or more speakers approach a third person with their conflicting interpretations or ideas and ask him to comment on them. He listens to them argue and then, when he has decided that he has heard enough to have formed an opinion, he interrupts them by saying /SaLLu `ala n-nabi/ “Bless the Prophet.” Note that the verb has an imperative plural suffix; he is ordering both of the people in his audience to produce the appropriate backchannel response. After saying it they fall silent and wait for the speaker’s opinion or comment. The prompt and response is actually a call for everyone to behave in a pious, reasonable, and God-fearing manner; it reminds them that all are members of a single moral community and should treat each other with respect. For this reason, it might be preferable to translate the prompt as “Bless our Messenger of God” rather than “Bless the Messenger of God.” The notion that all three people present share a belief in a common, shared prophecy is certainly what gives this phrase its elocutionary force.

At any rate, after both the prompt and response have been said, the person who has been asked to give his opinion or judgment has the floor and is allowed to speak for as long as is needed to communicate his ideas. In other words, the other two people, by pronouncing the religious response, pledge to listen without interrupting.

Not everyone actually obeys these conventions, especially when there is nothing serious or important at stake. When I was doing my doctoral research among the Rashaayda Bedouin of Sudan, I heard an exchange between a mother and her sly and witty adolescent son. She was scolding him for some minor infraction, as she often did, and in response he smiled and said /SaLLi `ala nabii-č/ “Bless [fem. singular] your [fem. singular] Prophet.” In effect, he was telling her to be quiet and give him a chance to reply to her scolding, without accepting any obligation on his own part to be silent and respectful. This brought her up short, and in spite of herself she smiled. But this clever manipulation of verbal etiquette would not have been tolerated if the issue had been more serious or had involved people outside of the family.

I should point out that /aLLaahumma SaLLa `ala sayyid-ina muħammad/ “O God, bless our Lord Muħammad” is not always used as a response to a prompt for a backchannel marker. Sometimes it is used to keep one’s turn in talk while one is struggling to remember something. Another one of my informants used it as an implicit request for me not to begin my turn in talk until she could complete her turn successfully. The pitch contour of this expression differed, however; it was pronounced it with a rather flat intonation, placing the stress of the entire phrase on the second syllable of /aLLaahumma/ and maintaining a flat stress afterwards. Thus we could transcribe it as /aLLaahumma SaLLa `ala sayyid-ina muħammad/ “O God, bless our Lord Muħammad……” to indicate no rise or fall in loudness or pitch at the end of the phrase. In contrast, when this phrase is used as a response to a prompt for a backchannel marker, the stress for the entire phrase is on the second syllable of /muħámmad/, followed by a clear drop in loudness and pitch at the end of the sentence (the verbal equivalent of a “period” or “full-stop” in writing.) It could be, then, that when such expressions are used for different conversational purposes, they also have contrasting intonation contours.

William C. Young
[Dr. Young is a cultural anthropologist and linguist who conducted ethnographic research among the Rashaaydah in Sudan. His ethnography is The Rashaayda Bedouin: Arab Pastoralists of Eastern Sudan (Harcourt, 1995).]