The Impact of Topic on Hybrid Forms: The Case of Arabic in Morocco

One of the basic and well-established developments of Arabic diglossia is the notion of continuum, which was proposed by linguists who were critical of Ferguson’s classic model to reflect the existence of more than two varieties between the poles of pure H and pure L. Studies done on spoken Arabic in Morocco (Youssi 1983, 1995, Afkir 2015) or in other Arabic speech communities (Blanc 1960, Badawi 1973, Bassiouney 2006, Mejdell 2006) have all shown that Arabic language variation is to be viewed as a hierarchy of ‘levels’ or ‘varieties’ between the poles of pure H and pure L. The Arabic forms which mix features from both Standard Arabic (SA) and Moroccan Arabic (MA) are referred to as ‘hybrid’, ‘mixed’, and ‘intermediate’ forms. The present study seeks to explore to what extent the variable of topic has an impact on Moroccan speakers’ shifts to these hybrid forms. The data consists of 24 000 words produced in television panel discussions. This type of programs was chosen because it constitutes a semi-formal or ‘hybrid context’ (Eid 2007) where one may expect speakers to move along the diglossic continuum and produce mixed Arabic. The choice of one of the different varieties of Arabic is certainly motivated by shifting value systems attached to them and by their social meaning to the Moroccan speech community. The frequency-based quantitative analysis in this study has revealed that in addition to all these variables that are at play when codes interact, topic stands out as a variable that also predicts a specific form of Arabic. More importantly, hybridity is constrained by the way a given topic fits in the communicative habits of a speech community and should hence be approached within the framework of the socio-cultural context of the latter

Semitic Dialects and Dialectology

Characterised by the multiplicity and diversity of research and methodology, the European tradition of Semitic linguistics has always supported fieldwork and highly valued the data obtained in this way as it allows to create an interesting dynamic for linguistic studies itself. In the spirit of this tradition and to uphold it, the present book is a collection of articles based on data gathered primarily during field research expeditions. The volume is divided into two parts—Studies on various specific linguistic issues and Texts containing previously unpublished transcriptions of audio recordings in Arabic dialects, Maltese and Jibbali/Shehret.Die europäische Tradition der semitischen Linguistik, die sich durch Vielfalt der Forschungsmethoden auszeichnet, hat dialektologische Feldforschung immer hoch geschätzt, da die gewonnenen Sprachaufnahmen im Kontext der älteren Sprachformen gesetzt werden und somit eine hochgradig interessante Dynamik in der Sprachwissenschaft ermöglichen. Im Geiste dieser Tradition und um sie aufrechtzuerhalten, ist das vorliegende Buch eine Sammlung von Artikeln, deren Daten vor allem während der Feldforschung gesammelt wurden. Der Band gliedert sich in zwei Teile - Studien zu verschiedenen spezifischen linguistischen Fragestellungen und Texte mit bisher unveröffentlichten Transkriptionen von Audioaufnahmen in arabischen Dialekten, Maltesisch und Jibbali/Shehret

Studies on Arabic Dialectology and Sociolinguistics

This volume contains over fifty articles related to various fields of modern Arabic dialectology. All the articles are revised and enhanced versions of papers read on the 12th Conference of the Association Internationale de Dialectologie Arabe (AIDA) held in Marseille in June 2017. Since its first conference in Paris in 1993, AIDA members gather every two years in different country. The collection of the AIDA proceedings offer an updated insight of the development of the field. During the past few decadesthe the study of Arabic dialects has become an important branch of research covering a wide range of subjects from phonological analyses, morphosyntax, semantics to pragmatics, sociolinguistics, folk linguistics, studies on literacy and writings, cultural and artistic practices, etc. As many articles of this volume illustrate, the study of Arabic dialects explores different aspects of the languages and cultures of the contemporary Arab world. A remarkable feature is the growing and constant participation of young scholars from all around the globe

Semitic Dialects and Dialectology

Characterised by the multiplicity and diversity of research and methodology, the European tradition of Semitic linguistics has always supported fieldwork and highly valued the data obtained in this way as it allows to create an interesting dynamic for linguistic studies itself. In the spirit of this tradition and to uphold it, the present book is a collection of articles based on data gathered primarily during field research expeditions. The volume is divided into two parts—Studies on various specific linguistic issues and Texts containing previously unpublished transcriptions of audio recordings in Arabic dialects, Maltese and Jibbali/Shehret