In the Arabic-speaking world, sociopolitical upheaval, extended conflict and population displacement have triggered extensive contact between mutually intelligible varieties of the language. Notwithstanding these developments, Arabic sociolinguistic research on dialect contact settings remains limited to certain well-documented areas (e.g., Al-Wer 2020), with markedly less research targeting other locales believed to be highly propitious to convergent change, such as the long-term contact situation in Lebanon involving Lebanese and Palestinian Arabic (Fityan 1981; Hennessey 2011). Furthermore, few studies are embedded in a (comparative) variationist sociolinguistic framework (Owens 2013), and even fewer studies are articulated from a socio-historical perspective incorporating diachronic data sources with which to better understand the process of language change in Arabic (Owens 2013). Much previous research on Arabic dialects is also based on investigations of phonological variation (Al-Wer and de Jong 2018), with correspondingly less attention paid to (morpho-)syntactic variation (Choueiri 2019). The present study aims to address existing lacunae in the research literature by investigating the outcomes of dialect contact in Beirut between Palestinian Arabic (PA), the minority variety, and Lebanese Arabic (LA), the majority variety. Drawing on the framework of comparative variationist sociolinguistics (Poplack and Tagliamonte 2001) as well as research on dialect contact (Britain and Trudgill 2005), this study combines synchronic and diachronic data sources to compare three variables in LA and PA: a phonological variable, involving the word-medial raising of /a:/ to [e:] (e.g., [ka:n] alternating with [ke:n] 'he/it was'); and two morpho-syntactic variables: verbal negation and future temporal reference. The overarching aim of the research is to examine the extent to which PA shows evidence, as gauged from linguistic constraints on variant selection and variant repertoires, of becoming more structurally similar to LA in different linguistic components (Cheshire, Kerswill, and Williams 2005). The synchronic data come from 45 hours of spontaneous speech recorded in Beirut from 39 Palestinian and 27 Lebanese speakers stratified by age, sex, and level of education, generating 7,671 tokens representing the three targeted variables. A further 15,381 tokens of these three variables come from two diachronic datasets. The first is a sub-set of speech recordings from the Palestinian Oral History Archive, an online compendium of interviews with first-generation (older) Palestinians in Lebanon, recorded between the 1990s and early 2000s. The second diachronic dataset is the Lebanese Popular Theatre Corpus (LPTC), based on 34 televised plays dating from the 1960s and performed in colloquial LA. Results reveal that the [e:] variant, a stereotypical feature of LA, but not emblematic of PA spoken in Beirut (Hennessey 2011), is virtually absent from the speech of the older Palestinian generation in the synchronic and diachronic datasets, but it increases significantly in the speech of young (third-generation) Palestinian speakers, who replicate the linguistic conditioning of variant selection in LA. These results bolster the inference of contact-induced change in PA due to the influence of LA. With respect to verbal negation, the findings show that there is convergent change in terms of overall variant rates in this variable system in PA. Evidence suggests that this variable system is undergoing dialect levelling as a result of contact, with socially marked minority variants diminishing over time in the speech of educated Palestinians. The future temporal reference system, however, seems to be less amenable to contact-induced change, despite similarities in surface forms between LA and PA. Results indicate that this variable system is undergoing an internal change in PA independent of contact with LA, which is led by young, educated speakers, in line with what has been observed in PA spoken outside Lebanon (AbuAmsha 2016). Viewed in the aggregate, the results show that even though it is claimed that (morpho-) syntactic variables may be less susceptible to convergent change than phonological variables (Cheshire et al. 2005; Hinskens et al. 2005), we do not find a neat division between phonology and morpho-syntax. Word-medial imala is overtly commented on and explicitly identified by the targeted Palestinian speech community as a marker of Lebanese speech. Its iconic association with Lebanese speech patterns renders it particularly susceptible to long-term dialect accommodation for some Palestinians. Verbal negation is also subject to social evaluation, as gauged from explicit speaker meta-commentary, and socially marked exponents appear vulnerable to attrition over time. By contrast, the expression of the future temporal reference appears less socially indexical than the other variables and is not subject to normative commentary or overt correction. These differences implicate the social salience of the targeted variables as a key factor influencing their susceptibility to convergence. Situating the results in a wider perspective, the findings highlight the utility of the comparative variationist framework in elucidating the process of language change in spoken Arabic, especially in PA as spoken in Beirut, as well as in distinguishing contact-induced change from internally-motivated change. The results of this study indicate that the effects of dialect contact, and critically, the existence of contact-induced change cannot be fully understood without using a multi-faceted comparative approach incorporating horizontal and vertical comparisons. The results converge in demonstrating that an empirically accountable quantitative approach based on actual speech data is capable of transcending the limitations of alternative frameworks of analysis that have been used to investigate change in dialect contact scenarios in the Arabic-speaking world.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This study represents a sociolinguistic contribution to the analysis of Past Participle Agreement (PPA) in [avoir+PP] constructions. In spoken French, this agreement is marked only for gender, and is subject to much variation in the production of speakers of French. The objectives of this thesis are twofold: firstly, to observe the variable in the context of production, by a quantitative study of several corpora. Variation in the production of PPA is tested against linguistic factors, such as the position of the participle in the verbal group where it appears. Social and stylistic factors are also considered, notably the socioprofessional category of the speaker. These analyses reveal that agreement is conditioned by a complex interaction of these factors. The second objective is the design of a Matched Guise Test, based on scripted conversations. This test was carried out with a view to measuring the extent to which the presence or absence of marked PPA, often considered a typical result of normative pressures, affects the stereotypical social representation of a speaker. Differences in informants' judgements were modest, and two issues are discussed with regard to this: firstly, the validity of the methodology, and secondly, the evaluation of PPA as a sociolinguistic marker. Both parts of this thesis reflect the methodological issues pertaining to the investigation of a rare variable.

The research project takes a hard look into the linguistic challenges faced by foreign migrant workers and informal traders in Gauteng province, South Africa. The research makes a panoramic view into the linguistic challenges faced by foreign migrant workers and informal traders. The focus of the research is on the challenges regarding language use in business domains. It dissects into business communication dynamics and the cultural contexts in the developing economies of Southern Africa. The study focused on finding out language challenges for immigrants as a consequence of migration. The research undertakes to discover language policy frameworks operating in industries and informal business environment in Gauteng. It seeks to establish the strategies that could be used to solve the language problems faced by foreign migrants taking into consideration that most of the immigrants in the construction industry and informal sector are semi-literate or illiterate. In other words, the research explores alternatives and the different roles of different organizations in the approach to language challenges when doing business. The study attempts to make some recommendations that can rescue immigrant challenges. These include language training programmes and changing attitudes as they have to learn the indigenous languages used in Gauteng province. The discussion reviews the sociolinguistic aspects in view of the changing demands of the developing economies of Africa where languages are used as vehicles for economic development and technological innovation. It attempts to reflect on why European languages continue to dominate business operations in Africa while African languages remain marginalized. / African Languages / (D. Litt et Phil. (African Languages))

Text in Afrikaans / Die term "Alternatiewe Afrikaans" is die afgelope dekade telkens gebruik in taalpolitieke publikasies, maar tot dusver is daar relatief min gedoen om die begrip te analiseer, om die "Alternatiewe Afrikaanse beweging" histories te kontekstualiseer, en om die "beweging" se taalpolitieke uitgangspunte en publ ikasies krities te evalueer as ideologiese teenpool vir Standaardafrikaans of "Establishment Afrikaans". Hierdie proefskrif poog om, na aanleiding van 'n analise van die politieke faktore rondom die opkoms en "kanoni sering" van Standaardafri kaans, die totstandkoming van (wit) Afrikanerhegemonie en die daarmee gepaardgaande breuk in die Afrikaanse taalgemeenskap, die ontstaan van die term "Alternatiewe Afrikaans" en die taalpolitieke "agenda" van die "Alternatiewe beweging" te ondersoek. In die eerste hoofstuk word die taalsosiologie en taalpolitiek as studieterreine ontleed en terme soos "politiek", "mag" en "ideologie" en die verskei e wyses waarop hull e met taa 1 in verband gebri ng kan word, word ondersoek. Die "Kritiese Linguistiek" word onder die loep geneem en die hegemoniemodel van Gramsci word bespreek as deelteoretiese raamwerk vir hierdie studie. In die tweede hoofstuk word die taalpolitiek van Standaardafrikaans bespreek aan die hand van die volgende temas: Afrikanernasionalisme en Afrikaans, die politisering en mitologisering van die ontstaansgeskiedenis van Afrikaans, en die Afrikaanse taalbewegings. Tel kens word "alternatiewe", ontmitologiserende beskouings teenoor "standaardbeskouings" van die temas gestel. Die ontsluiting van 'n alternatiewe hegemonie, verbind met die "Alternatiewe beweging" en "People's Education", word in hoofstuk 3 bespreek en die term "Alternatiewe Afrikaans" word ontleed. Daar word besin oor die "Alternatiewe beweging" as "taalbeweging". In die vierde hoofstuk word die ideologie van "bevryding" in 'n aantal tekste wat met "Alternatiewe Afrikaans" geassosieer word, geanaliseer aan die hand van verskeie tegnieke uit die kritiese diskoersanalise. Manipulatiewe en propagandistiese diskursiewe praktyke word uitgelig. Die "depolitisering" en "demokratisering" van Afrikaans word in die slothoofstuk bespreek. Daar word aangetoon dat "Alternatiewe Afrikaans" deur 'n duidelike polities-mobiliserende agenda onderle word, dat die varieteit 'n verpolitiseerde "ideologiese metalek" van Afrikaans is en uiteindelik 'n etiket is vir " 'n ideologie van bevryding" ten opsigte van die heersende hegemoniese strukture / During the past decade the term "Alternative Afrikaans" has frequently been used in publications on language politics. Until recently little has been done concerning the analysis of this term and the contextualisation of the "Alternative Afrikaans movement". The politico-linguistic premises and publications of the "Alternative movement", as an ideological opposition to Standard Afrikaans or "Establishment Afrikaans", have not yet been sufficiently and critically evaluated. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the origin of the term "Alternative Afrikaans" and the politico-linguistic "agenda" of the "Alternative movement", with analogical reference to the political factors surrounding the rise and "canonisation" of Standard Afrikaans, the establishment of (white) Afrikaner hegemony and the concomitant division within the Afrikaans language community. In the first chapter the sociology of language and language politics are discussed, and terms such as "politics", "power" and "ideology" and the various ways in which they may be connected with language, are examined. The field of "Critical Linguistics" and Gramsci's hegemonic model are discussed as partial theoretical frameworks for this study. In the second chapter the language politics of Standard Afrikaans is discussed on the basis of the following themes: Afrikaner Nationalism and Afrikaans, the politicisation and mythologising of the ontogenesis of Afrikaans, and the Afrikaans language movements. "Alternative", demythologising views, contrary to the "standard" views on these themes, are discussed. The develpment of an alternative hegemony, linked with the "Alternative movement" and "People's Education", is considered in chapter three and the term "Alternative Afrikaans" is analysed. The "Alternative movement" is analysed as "language movement". In chapter four the ideology of "liberation" in a number of texts associated with "Alternative Afrikaans" is analysed on the basis of various techniques used in critical discourse analysis. Manipulative and propagandistic discursive practices are highlighted. The "depoliticisation" and "democratisation" of Afrikaans are considered in the final chapter. It is argued that "Alternative Afrikaans" is based on a specific agenda of political mobilisation, that this variety is a politicised "ideological metalect" of Afrikaans and ultimately a "label" for an "ideology of liberation" with regard to the prevailing hegemonical structures / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / D. Litt. et Phil. (Afrikaans)