Accommodation Patterns in the Speech of Arabic-Speaking Children and Adolescents

A Variationist Analysis

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7903809
AutoresOurooba Shetewi (0009-0005-3175-0095, autor de correspondencia)
Año2023
Volumen8
Número4
Páginas236
Fecha de publicación2023-10-17
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaLanguages (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2226-471X • E-ISSN: 2226-471X
EditorialMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/languages8040236
OpenAlexW4387702319
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas78

This paper presents a variationist analysis of patterns of speech accommodation by 40 Arabic-speaking children and adolescents (aged 3–17) experiencing dialect contact in a Bedouin speech community near Damascus, Syria. It examines participants’ use of the phonological variables (θ), (ð), and (q), and the morphophonological feminine suffix (-a) in recorded sociolinguistic interviews and play sessions with two female fieldworkers, a local and an urban speaker, in order to investigate accommodation patterns across different interlocutors. Accommodation patterns were influenced by age, gender, and the linguistic variable under examination. Convergence to the urban interviewer was most evident in the realization of (q), whereas little convergence, and indeed variation, occurred in the realization of (-a), and more convergence occurred in the speech of girls and speakers younger than 15. Divergence and maintenance emerged in the speech of 15–17-year-old male speakers. These patterns are analysed in light of Accommodation Communication Theory and issues of identity and linguistic prestige in Arabic. Accommodative behaviour in the speech of participants exhibits their awareness of the social value of the phonological variables under investigation and demonstrates a high level of sociolinguistic awareness and competence

Accommodation · Arabic · Linguistic competence · Linguistics · Prestige · Realization (probability · Sociolinguistics · Variation (astronomy · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology