In this article I analyze the family language policy of trilingual transnational families (Arabic, Turkish, French or German) through a comparative study of their intergenerational language practices in France and Germany. This study is based on a multi-sited ethnography, with recordings of individual interviews and socially situated heterogeneous language practices involving two families of three generations with similar trajectories and socioeconomic and linguistic profiles. The analyses of their language practices demonstrate that family language policy is based on individual freedom of choice; it is not explicit, fixed or rigid but unconstrained and fluctuating. With respect to the inherited familial languages, contrary to expectations, I observe that they are maintained relatively well, especially in the case of Arabic; this is true even for the youngest participants, the third generation. I show that the factor supporting the maintenance of Arabic in the third generation is the grandparents' alignment with the youngest participants' language choice as well as their caring attitude, expressed mainly in Arabic, but also, though less regularly, in Turkish.

Scholars in Arabic dialectology are widely concerned with the linguistic effects of societal bi-and multilingualism. The present chapter intends to illustrate a non-aprioristic and computer-assisted method for the study of Arabic in multilingual settings. Taking examples from two different sociolinguistic situations, we will illustrate new solutions for annotating and analyzing plurilingual corpora by means of a multilayered annotation system based on JAXE.