A sociolinguistic study of dialect contact in Arabia : Ghamdi immigrants in Mecca

• Main Author: Alghamdi, Najla Manie
• Published: University of Essex 2014
• Subjects: 492.7
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.653062

This study investigates the changes that occur in the speech of Ghamdi migrants in the city of Mecca within the framework of dialect contact. Those migrants migrated from AI-Bal), a rural area in the south-western region of Saudi Arabia, to the city of Mecca in the Hijazi region. The data were collected through sociolinguistic interviews with 49 Ghamdi speakers. Three social variables are used namely, gender, age and regionality. The speakers were divided into four age groups 14- 29, 30- 45, 46- 61 and 62+; they were also classified into six groups according to the regionality variable, which are: indigenous, near- indigenous, fairly indigenous, fairly interloper, near-interloper and interloper. This investigation was motivated by the obvious linguistic differences between rural Ghamdi and urban Meccan dialects. Five linguistic variables are examined: the interdentals (8), (0) and (D) and the diphthongs (ai) and (aw). These variables represent some of the most salient features that distinguish between the migrants' (Ghamdi) traditional dialect and the dialect of Mecca. Regarding the diphthong variables, the results showed that there is a change in progress toward monophthongs. In general, the levelling in the speech of Ghamdi migrants was clear; they abandoned the Ghamdi salient features (diphthongs) in favour of the Meccan features (monophthongs). By contrast, the study found a relatively high rate of preservation of the interdental sounds, the heritage Ghamdi features. The study argues for the emergence of a pan-Saudi dialect in which almost all regional linguistic markers are eliminated such as, diphthongs and stops.