Language, migration, and urbanization

The case of Bethlehem

Bibliographic Data

ID3988765
AuthorsMuhammad Amara (corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume43
Issue5
Publication date2005-01-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLinguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0024-3949 • E-ISSN: 1613-396X
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/ling.2005.43.5.883
OpenAlexW2115692616
LanguageEN
Citations received15

The town of Bethlehem provides a unique case for testing the relations between language, migration, and urbanization. This article explores one aspect of the complex Bethlehemite case. We intend to reveal how urbanization and migration are reflected in the sociolinguistic changes of the Arabic spoken in the town. Whereas most residents formerly used a variety of Arabic similar to that spoken in Palestinian villages, emerging social identity issues seem to have produced new distinctions. Younger women and some Christian men are tending to adopt an urban pronunciation like that of nearby East Jerusalem, at the same time as the speech of younger educated Muslims is showing the growing influence of the standard variety of Arabic. By relating the use of linguistic variants to changes in identity, this study shows that Bethlehem is a town in transition, being transformed from its previous status as a Christian Arab town into an important Palestinian and dominantly Muslim city

Aesthetics · Arabic · Archaeology · Art · Economic growth · Geography · Identity (music) · Immigration · Linguistics · Pronunciation · Sociolinguistics · Sociology · Transition (genetics) · Urbanization · Variety (cybernetics) · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy