This article documents a recent sociolinguistic phenomenon
at work in the Arabian Peninsula.Being Badu used to be associated with
a pastoral lifestyle, but sedentarism turned this lifestyle into an ethnic identity.The sedentary population lived within the walls
2015 AMIN ALMUHANNA AND JEAN-FRANCOIS PRUNET 315
of densely populated Kuwait City (KA madinat li?kweet), while the nomadic
population moved in search of pastures in the sparsely populated remainder of
the country.Since the beginning of the twenty-first century,
some young people of Badu origin (also known as Bedouin) have been using
numeric codes to refer to their tribes in digital media, such as social networks,
and in public areas, such as bumper stickers on cars and graffiti.1
 These codes
express pride in their heritage and are used and discussed openly.The nomadic population of
Kuwait, on the other hand, was concentrated in and around the town of Jahra
(KA il?jahraa, MSA al?jahraay), about thirty-two kilometers from Kuwait City,
but it moved freely within Kuwait as well as between Kuwait and KSA, Iraq,
Qatar, or Iran.In Kuwait, both Hadhar and Badu are now sedentary and, although the Hadhar
dialect and lifestyle define the contours of a national melting pot, dialectal and
social differences remain between these two co-cultures, as we see in the next
sectionThe epicenter
of this phenomenon is probably the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), but these
codes also exist in the State of Kuwait (henceforth Kuwait) and the State of
Qatar (henceforth Qatar).Its urban dwellers are called Hadhar (KA sg. Rdo
iriy, pl.
Rado
ar, MSA sg. Rado
ariyy, pl. Rado
ar).Different Badu groups embraced nomadism
to different degrees-some of them being quite sedentary-but all practiced
pastoralism, an activity that, in dry areas, requires mobility to find water and
grass.They lived in the walled city of Kuwait
City, which was divided into four districts called jibla 'prayer direction' (MSA
qibla), oarg 'East' (MSA oarq), il?waso
ato
 'the center' (MSA al?wasato
), and il?Members of this group are known as Badu (KA sg. bduwiy, pl.
badu, MSA sg. badawiyy, pl. badw).Prior to 1960, the population of Kuwait
was distributed over two areas.2.