The Use of the [ts] Variant in the Arabic Bedouin Dialects


  •  Mahmoud Salman    

Abstract

This paper is a sociolinguistic study of the speech of people who belong to Bedouin tribes, namely, the Anizi tribe, in Saudi Arabia. The speech of forty-eight informants from this tribe has been observed and analyzed with the aim of noting variations in the speech of this group and identifying possible correlations with selected extra-linguistic factors. Because the variant [ts] of the (K) variable is the key feature of the dialect of this group, it will be used as a basis in investigating this variation. The study shows that the /ts/ sound, which is not widely known or used by a large percentage in the Arab world, is still categorically used in the speech of the members of this tribe within the tribe’s domain. It frequently appears in a high percentage in the speech of the older generation as well as the young. The study also shows that its use drastically decreases in other settings. Complex psycho-linguistic and socio-linguistic factors have been found to be crucial in determining whether the variant is preserved or abandoned within the different settings.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
  • ISSN(Print): 1923-869X
  • ISSN(Online): 1923-8703
  • Started: 2011
  • Frequency: bimonthly

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