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8 - Sociolinguistic Variation and Variation in Sociolinguistics

from Part II - Arabic Variation and Sociolinguistics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2021

By
Uri Horesh
Edited by
Karin Ryding  and
David Wilmsen
Karin Ryding
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
David Wilmsen
Affiliation:
American University of Beirut
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Summary

Uri Horesh discusses how sociolinguistic theory and research are expressed and investigated in Arabic. He focuses on variation, stating that ‘Arabic as a natural language… exhibits and has always exhibited, a vast degree of variation’. He explores gender, class, and age as variable factors in language change, and the effects of urban/rural differences. Horesh aims to specify how research in Arabic linguistics can enrich concepts in sociolinguistics, especially as pertains to phonological processes. He examines Labov’s concept of chain shift for both vowels and consonants in Arabic dialects, and suggests how both quantitative and qualitative research findings in Arabic can contribute to sociolinguistic theory.

Keywords

dialectphonologysociolinguisticsvariationdiglossiaPalestinian Arabic
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics , pp. 181 - 198
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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