Linguistic variation in relation to social variables

A large number of published studies have focused on the study of the social antecedents of language variation (e.g. Abdel-Jawad, 1981; Abdul-Hassan, 1988; Al-Dashti, 1998). Research methodologies developed in the West have been adopted to investigate issues in Arabic sociolinguistics such as sex- differentiated sociolinguistic behaviour (Walters, 1991). A quantitative approach has sometimes been adopted to study the relationship between the formal aspects of language and social factors, such as gender, social class, age, ethnicity, religion, identity and locality. Out of all these factors, language variation in relation to social class has deserved considerable attention.

3.4.1.1 Linguistic variation in relation to social class

Social class is one of the social variables that mark people’s unequal access to power, valued resources and career opportunities within a specific social setting. Different criteria can be used to distinguish social class in the social system. In the case of most Arab societies, individuals may inherit their social class based on historical factors such as family ties or tribal affiliation, or they may gain social status and move up and down the social ladder as a result of their education or financial and occupational factors (Nydell, 2012). Unfortunately, few studies have investigated the relationship between social class and language variation in the Arab world due to the difficulty of defining social class in most Arabic-speaking communities (Albirini, 2016).

Mitchell (1978), for example, states that there is a relation between social class and assimilation. Mitchell found that an educated upper-middle-class female was able to avoid assimilation in some test phrases. Speakers who belong to the high social class, for example, pronounce the initial glottal stop /ʼ/ as in ʼil- ibwāb ‘the doors’ while other speakers don not pronounce the glottal stop /ʼ/ as in l-ibwāb. Haeri (1996) also investigated the correlation between phonological

features (i.e. the palatalisation of the sounds /t, d, ṭ, ḍ/ as well as the use of /q/) and social class in Egypt. Four indicators were used in her study: parents’ occupation, type of school attended, neighbourhood of residence, and profession. The data was collected using interviews, recorded television and radio programmes, and production, comprehension and elicited-response experiments. She concluded that the women who belong to the high social class use more weak palatalisation (i.e. dental stops are produced with friction) than women in the lower social class (see also Geenberg, 2012). However, there is a general lack of in-depth sociolinguistic studies on the actual speaking practice of the Cairene population.

3.4.1.2 Linguistic variation in relation to education

Another social variable is level of education. In some Arab communities, there is a correlation between education and social class. Access to education gives individuals opportunities regarding “expansion in social contacts, interaction with speakers of other dialects, exposure to different social values, etc.” (Al- Wer, 2002, p.3). The linguistic variety used by more educated speakers, regardless of whether the innovative forms are identical to or different from SA features, comes to be considered as a prestigious variety. In the education systems of countries such as Egypt, upper class Egyptians attend international schools where the teaching is conducted in foreign languages such as English and French, as discussed in section 3.4. In this case, acquisition of foreign languages is considered as a marker of high social class as confirmed by Dashti and Dashti (2017) study in which 400 tweets tweeted by Kuwaitis in twitter and by interviewing 50 students. They found that Kuwaitis heavily use English loan words in Twitter and in their daily conversation to show that they are well-educated and to establish relationships of power.

In Saudi Arabia, Al-Rojaie (2013) investigates the effect of social factors such as level of education on the patterns of variation in the affrication of /ʧ/ for /k/ in the stem the informal speech of 72 speakers of Qaṣīmī, a local dialect of Najdi Arabic, spoken in the Qaṣīm province in central Saudi Arabia. Al-Rojaie found that educated speakers tend to use the common phonological features of SA /k/, whereas uneducated speakers use the local variant /ʧ/. This finding is confirmed by ALAiyed (2018) who found that religious preachers, who are all

highly educated, use SA variants of features to gain the respect of their audience.

3.4.1.3 Linguistic variation in relation to ethnicity and religion

Ethnicity and religion are also social variables that may influence linguistic variation. Various ethnic and religious groups may use different linguistic features that mark their speech. Convergence or divergence towards or away from the linguistic variety of one or more ethnic or religious groups is motivated by different reasons, such as identity factors, power relations and socio-political circumstances. Miller (2005) argues that power relations and shifts in power are essential factors in the variation and change observed in these ethnic or religious varieties.

A number of studies have examined the changes affecting communal dialects. For example, Blanc’s (1964) study on language change in Baghdad investigated the differences between two varieties: the gilit variety, which is similar to the Bedouin dialects of southern and Western Iraq and is spoken by Muslims, and the qiltu variety, which is similar to the sedentary dialects of northern Iraq and is spoken by Christian and Jewish communities in Baghdad. The distinction between these two varieties emerged after the migration of Bedouins from the Arabian Peninsula. This migration promoted the variety spoken by Muslim residents due to the power relation of Bedouin immigrants and the sharing of a religious identity between them (Blanc, 1964).

The same seems to be true in Bahrain, where Holes (1983) notes that the Shi’a Bahrainis have a tendency to switch from variants marked as the Shi’a Bahrainis variety (a sedentary variety) to variants marked as the Sunni variety (Bedouin variety). In the light of Blanc’s study, Abu-Haidar (1991) investigated the change affecting the Christian variety in Baghdad. He found that several marked features in the Christian dialect are influenced by variants marked as the Muslim dialect. The reason behind the favourable attitude towards the Bedouin variety is that this dialect represents the “social group in which political and commercial power is concentrated, and whose dialect as a consequence has acquired a locally prestigious status”; for example, in Bahrain the Sunni variety, which is similar to the Bedouin variety, is the variety of the ruling family of Bahrain (Holes, 1983, p.38). In the same vein, Holes (2018) finds that reports

from the first half of the 20th _{show that certain members of the Jewish}

communities in countries such as Egypt prefer to use features of the Muslim dialect instead of the Jewish dialect, which was the continuation of an old ‘sedentary’ dialect for the sake of social prestige. Thus, ethnicity and religion are not the only factors involved in shaping linguistic variation; in fact, the political and commercial power of a specific social group over other groups plays a significant role in shaping linguistic variation.

These findings show that individuals in the Arab world share the same positive attitude towards the use of SA varieties as these varieties have enjoyed higher prestige and superiority than other varieties due to three main linguistic, historical and religious external factors associated with them. The QA variety is generally ranked as a low-prestige variety, although the variety is viewed positively as a variety used to show solidarity. Arabic speakers have a favourable attitude towards English and French as the languages of individuals who belong to a high social class and who have a high level of education. The findings also reveal that there are particular marked linguistic features associated with the speech of individuals who belong to a low social class, have a low educational level and are from a peripheral region. The next section discusses how Egyptian film-makers and producers have attempted to create a form of variety that can be easily recognised and interpreted by Egyptian as well as other Arab audiences.