Dialect Convergence in Egypt: Minia Arabic converging to Cairene Arabic stress

Minia Arabic Converging towards Cairene Arabic Stress

Saudi SadiqThe University of York

ss1272@york.ac.uk PARLAY (Postgraduate Academic Researchers in Linguistics At

York)September 6th, 2013

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Outline Background Present study Definition of the variable Data collection procedures & sample Results and discussion References

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Standard and non-standard: Contact and impact The effect of a standard dialect on other dialects has been shown in many dialect-contact studies (Al-Rojaie, 2013; Britain, 2005; Gibson, 2002; Hilton, 2010; Kerswill, 2001).

Linguistically, this is the outcome of contact between the standard dialect and the non-standard dialects through diffusion, levelling, convergence, etc.

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Parlay 2013Standard and non-standard: Contact and impact (contd.) Socially, it is a result of urbanization, mobility, migration (Kerswill, 2006) and spread of education, mass media and social media in which the standard dialect is commonly the main means.

All of these factors lead to diffusion of the standard dialect with its prestige in a hierarchical way from a “large city to city, to large town, to town, village and country” (Britain, 2002, p. 623).

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Prestige, diffusion and convergence In western sociolinguistics, a standard dialect is prestigious. No difference between standard and prestige (Trudgill, 1972).

In Arabic sociolinguistics, however, standard and prestige are not the same (Ibrahim, 1986). The standard is either Classical Arabic or Modern Standard Arabic, both of which are written and not used as mother tongues.

A prestigious variety is usually the dialect of the capital.

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Prestige, diffusion and convergence (contd.)

Because the capital dialect is the main means in media and arts, used by the upper-middle class, it acquires prestige, diffuses and speakers of other less-prestigious dialects converge to/imitate it.

This convergence is mainly due to contact between speakers of the prestigious dialect and the less-prestigious dialects.

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Present studyMinia Arabic Converging towards Cairene Arabic Stress

Cairo Minia

North of Egypt 250 km south of Cairo

Metropolitan capital Small city

Population: 16 million 4.8 million and about

and 8 million commuters 100.000 commuters

More than 12 universities 1 university

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Cairo Railway Station Minia Railway Station

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Cairene Arabic (CA) A highly prestigious variety in Egypt and the Arab world

Used by celebrities, politicians and high society in Egypt

Used in all types of Egyptian media Considered the Egyptian regional standard variety

It diffuses outside Cairo, in all regions8

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Minia Arabic (MA) MA is the dialect of Minia Being in the middle of Egypt, MA receives effects from the north (Cairo) and south (other Upper Egyptian dialects)

MA is the only Egyptian variety that has two distinct sub-varieties (North Minia Arabic and South Minia Arabic) (Woidich, 1996)

So, it is full of many variants and chosen for investigation

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Present study aims Investigating how CA is diffusing and affecting other Egyptian varieties.

As a case study, how CA is affecting MA In particular, investigating how CA stress is diffusing and affecting MA and how MA speakers accommodate to it.

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Present study hypotheses

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MA females converge more than males

MA young people converge more than the old

MA urbanites converge more than villagers

The higher education, the

more convergence

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Introducing Variables under Study: Syllable weights in Arabic

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Definition of the variables studied Focus on how MA speakers avoid their dialect stress and converge to CA stress

CA and MA share similarities in stress placement rules except in

1. HLL (CVC.CV.CV) words which are most frequent in both CA and MA. While in CA, the penult is stressed (a), the antepenult is stressed in MA (b). a. CA: [madˈrasa] ‘school’

b. MA: [ˈmadrasa] ‘school’

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Definition of the variables studied (contd. 2)2. LLLL (CV.CV.CV.CV) words which are not so frequent but act as markers. In CA, stress is placed on the penult syllable (a). In MA, stress is placed on the preantepenult (first) syllable (b).

a) CA: [dˁɑrɑˈbɪtʊ] ‘she hit him’

b) MA: [ˈdˁɑrɑbɪtʊ] ‘she hit him’

Focus will be on HLL and LLLL words.

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Parlay 2013Data Collection Methods A. Careful Speech Style:1. Picture questionnaires: suitable forpeople who cannot read or write, direct and does not make the participant read (reading in Arabic is not done in colloquial)2. Closed questions: when it was difficult to use a picture (what do you say when blablabla?)B. Casual Speech Style:1. Open interviews: (How do you spend your weekend?)

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Data Collected Approximately, 36 hrs. of recordings were obtained from 63 participants.

Tokens obtained: 2839 tokens Mean: 45 tokens HLL syllable: 98.8% tokens LLLL syllable: 0.7%

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Sample 34 males and 29 females (Gender) 29 villagers, 27 urbanites and 7 born in villages and migrated to town (Residence type)

34 (18-30 years old), 19 (31-45 years old) and 10 (above 45): Age (3 age groups representative of the population pyramid)

14 postgraduates, 33 university graduates and students, 12 high school graduates, 2 basic education graduates and 2 non-educated (Education).

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Sample (contd. 1)Residence Gender

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Sample (contd. 2)Egyptian Population Age

(CAPMAS, 2013)Age mean (33 years)

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Sample (contd. 3)Education

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Sample (contd. 4): Social network indexDesigned to measure the effect of CA on MA speakers and how this leads to their convergence to CA stress1. Occupation and contact (1-4)2. Work/study place (1-4)3. Nature of contact with people in Minia (1-4)4. Visits of MA speakers to Cairo (1-4)5. Having relatives, friends and/or colleagues

from or in Cairo (1-4)6. Age-specific contact (1-4) High score = loose network Low score = dense network

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Data Collection Considerations The researcher has had deep contact with most participants (relatives, friends, classmates, workmates and neighbours).

Picture questionnaires and closed questions were the same with all participants.

Open interviews dealt with personal topics (favorite dishes, watching TV, etc.) and avoided formal topics (political, religious, etc.) as this might have led participants to use Educated Spoken Arabic.

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Results

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Results by Statistical Tests Results were analyzed by Linear Regression Model in SPSS

Using the enter method, a significant model emerged F5,2833=575.946, p< 0.0005.

Adjusted R square = .503 Significant variables are shown below: Predictor Variable Beta p

gender .116 p < 0.0005 age .043

p =.005social network .393 p <

0.0005 education -.437 p <

0.0005 residence .044 p=

.001

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Education and Gender: R2 = 0.367

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Network score and Gender: R2 = 0.353

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Education and Social Network: R2 = 0.353

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DiscussionHypotheses revisited

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MA females converge more than males

MA young people converge more than the old

MA urbanites converge more than villagers

The higher education, the

more convergence

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Hypotheses validated Gender: right hypothesis though the gap between males and females is not that big.

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Hypotheses validated (contd. 1) Education: right as hypothesized. There is clear evidence that the higher education, the more convergence.

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Hypotheses validated (contd. 2) Social network: right as hypothesized. There is clear evidence that the higher network score (loose network), the more convergence.

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Discussion: Gender Gender has been shown as a very significant factor in language change, and it is so here, though it is still less significant than education and social network.

Why significant? Young females in Egypt are more anxious to get married and this requires prestige in appearance as well as in language.

Young females are more anxious to have white-collar jobs (banking, teaching) and this requires prestige too.

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Discussion: Gender (contd. 1) With middle-aged and old females, being a mother is very important. Mothers are responsible for raising children and guiding children starts from language guidance.

Ex: Do not say [ħanak] (MA). Say [bʊʔ] (CA). (mouth).

Even if not a young girl or a mother, a female in Egypt is usually a symbol of ‘being different from a male’ and this leads to adopting a different way of speaking (including convergence to CA, the prestigious dialect).

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Discussion: Education and social network (contd. 2) Education and social network are shown as the most significant factors behind convergence to CA stress.

Why? In fact, education and social network can never be separated in Egypt. Commenting on education in the Arab world and its role in building loose social networks, Enam Al-Wer (1997) says,

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In most cases, college and university education involves leaving one’s home town

and interacting with speakers from different linguistic backgrounds. Educated speakers appear to be leading linguistic changes, most often in the direction of urban … regional standards. (p. 259).

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Discussion: Education and social network (contd. 4) So what? Education involves spatial mobility: going to school and university

Education involves distorting the dense network and making it loose

Education also involves social mobility: being educated in Egypt is still an advantage in itself and an aspect of social status

Thus, high education and a loose network are the most significant factors behind convergence to CA stress.

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What next? This study is the first to examine stress convergence in Arabic sociolinguistics, but it is not enough to prove MA convergence to CA in general.

Other variables should be examined to offer a broader picture of MA convergence to CA, including stigmatized, salient sounds (consonants and vowels).

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REFERENCESAl-Wer, E. (1997) Arabic between reality and ideology. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7 (2), 251–65. Al-Rojaie, Y. (2013). Regional dialect leveling in Najdi Arabic: The case of the deaffrication of [k] in the Qaṣīmī dialect. Language Variation and Change, 25(01), 43-63. Britain, D. (2002). Space and spatial diffusion. In P. Trudgill, J. K. Chambers & N. Schilling-Estes (Eds.), The Handbook of Language Variation and Change (pp. 603-637). Oxford: Blackwell Britain, D. (2005). Innovation diffusion:‘‘Estuary English’’and local dialect differentiation: The survival of Fenland Englishes. Linguistics, 43(5), 995-1022. CAPMAS. (2013). Egypt in figures 2013. Retrieved July 24, 2013 from Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics: http://www.capmas.gov.eg/pdf/EgyptInFigure/EgyptinFigures/Tables/English/pop/population/index.htmlGibson, M. (2002). Dialect levelling in Tunisian Arabic: Towards a new spoken standard. In A. Rouchdy (Ed.), Language Contact and Language Conflict in Arabic: Variations on a Sociolinguistic Theme (pp. 24-40). London: Routledge.Hilton, N. H. (2010). Regional dialect levelling and language standards: Changes in the Hønefoss dialect. (Unpublished PhD Thesis), The University of York.Ibrahim, M. H. (1986). Standard and prestige language: A problem in Arabic sociolinguistics. Anthropological linguistics, 28(1), 115-126. Kerswill, P. (2001). Mobility, meritocracy and dialect levelling: The fading (and phasing) out of Received Pronunciation. In P. Rajamäe & K. Vogelberg (Eds.), British studies in the new millennium: The challenge of the grassroots (pp. 45-58). Tartu: University of Tartu.Kerswill, P. (2006). Migration and language. In U. Ammon, K. J. Mattheier & P. Trudgill (Eds.), Sociolinguistics/Soziolinguistik: An international handbook of the science of language and society (2 ed., Vol. 3, pp. 1-27). Berlin: De Gruyter.Trudgill, P. (1972). Sex, covert prestige and linguistic change in the urban British English of Norwich. Language in society, 1(2), 179-195. Woidich, M. (1996). Rural dialects of Egyptian Arabic. Egypte/Monde Arabe, 27, 325-354.

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Thank You

Questions?????

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So many Thank are due toParticipants, Paul Kerswill, Sam

Hellmuth, Marton Soskuthy, Adel El-Sherif and Basma El-Mahallawi

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