LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 21:9 September 2021
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

Celebrate India!
Unity in Diversity!!

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2021
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA
Custom Search

Retention and Maintenance of Palestinian Dialect of Almafraq in Jordan:
A Sociolinguistic Study

Mansour Ayed Naser Al-Sarhan

Abstract

Palestinian has been one of the Jordanian dialects, came into existence after the Arab-Israeli wars when a great number of Palestinian refugees came into Jordan. This paper particularly focuses on the Palestinian dialect of Almafraq which is a minority Jordanian community, and their language maintenance is an interesting example for any sociolinguistic study. This article is based on the findings of an academic research among the Palestinian living in Almafraq and surrounding areas. This article is a case study of the Jordanian-Palestinians’ retention and maintenance of Palestinian dialect.

Keywords: Jordan, Palestinian Dialect, Language Contact, Sociolinguistics, Language Attitude.

Introduction

Arabic is considered as the most widely spoken, out of the living Semitic languages, belonging to the Afroasiatic family (Watson, 2002). Arabic can be broadly categorized into two standard varieties: Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. Classical Arabic, also known as Fu??a, is the standard language used in the pre-Islamic period among the Quraish tribe. Modern Standard Arabic, also referred to as contemporary Fa?i?, is the form of language used in formal domains, such as academics, media, religious discourse, and conferences. Additionally, Arabic contains a large number of dialects spoken in around 60 countries that differ from one another in different linguistics levels. These dialects may not be mutually intelligible to speakers from other regions (Huneety, 2015; Mashaqba et al., 2020; Watson, 2002).

Recent studies on the sociolinguistics of Arabic dialects have demonstrated that in addition to the Standard Arabic that holds prestige and power across the Arab World, there exists, in all Arabic-speaking countries, at least one additional supra-local or regional variety, generally spoken, that holds considerable prestige for ordinary Arabic speakers (see e.g., Abd-El-Jawad, 1987; Abu-Haidar, 1989; Al-Amadidhi, 1985; Al-Rojaie, 2013; Bassiouney, 2017; Holes, 1995). These studies have shown that speakers speaking local varieties tend to shift to the non-standard supra-local variety, be it the dialect of Amman, Almafraq, Baghdad, Cairo, or Manama, perhaps because it is more accessible to speakers than the Standard Arabic.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Mansour Ayed Naser Al-Sarhan
PhD Research Scholar
Aligarh Muslim University, India
masserhan1984@gmail.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.