Kuwaiti Arabic : a socio-phonological perspective
Diglossia manifests itself on various linguistic levels, one of which is phonological. It poses a linguistic âstruggleâ for speakers in the Arab world through the functional distribution that exists between the Arabic language and its varieties. This is the main drive behind diglossia. These varieties are part of the same language; hence, the term âdiglossic-switchingâ is employed when describing the alternation of speakers from one level to another. The extreme functional dichotomy in treating diglossia, such as that of Ferguson (1959) High Level and Low Level has since been replaced with a more flexible and realistic interpretation, whereby the speech situation is to be seen as one of continuum constituting a gradient of speech levels co-existing between the two extreme poles: Modern Standard Arabic (H or acrolect) and the colloquial (L or basilect). First, this study examines diglossic switching in Kuwaiti Arabic along four main dialectal phonological variables. These are [Ä], [g], [j], and [y]. The occurrences of each of the four phonological variables are correlated concurrently with four sociolinguistic variables (age, gender, religious affiliation, and area~origin) and six recording groups
Al-Qenaie, Shamlan Dawoud
Kuwaiti Arabic : a socio-phonological perspective. Diglossia manifests itself on various linguistic levels, one of which is phonological. It poses a linguistic âstruggleâ for speakers in the Arab world through the functional distribution that exists between the Arabic language and its varieties. This is the main drive behind diglossia. These varieties are part of the same language; hence, the term âdiglossic-switchingâ is employed when describing the alternation of speakers from one level to another. The extreme functional dichotomy in treating diglossia, such as that of Ferguson (1959) High Level and Low Level has since been replaced with a more flexible and realistic interpretation, whereby the speech situation is to be seen as one of continuum constituting a gradient of speech levels co-existing between the two extreme poles: Modern Standard Arabic (H or acrolect) and the colloquial (L or basilect). First, this study examines diglossic switching in Kuwaiti Arabic along four main dialectal phonological variables. These are [Ä], [g], [j], and [y]. The occurrences of each of the four phonological variables are correlated concurrently with four sociolinguistic variables (age, gender, religious affiliation, and area~origin) and six recording groups
kuwaiti arabic socio phonological perspective manifest various linguistic level phonological pose linguistic struggle speaker arab_world functional distribution exist arabic_language variety main drive behind variety part language hence term employed describe alternation speaker level another extreme functional dichotomy treat high_level low_level since replace flexible realistic interpretation whereby speech situation see continuum constitute gradient speech level existing extreme pole modern_standard_arabic colloquial first study_examines switch kuwaiti arabic along four_main dialectal phonological_variable occurrence phonological_variable correlate concurrently sociolinguistic variable age_gender religious affiliation area origin record group