A change in the usage of negators in Abha Arabic through dialect levelling
Other Title(s)
التغير في استعمال أدوات النفي في لهجة مدينة أبها
Author
Source
Journal of King Abdulaziz University : Arts and Humanities
Issue
Vol. 24, Issue 1 (31 Dec. 2016), pp.291-307, 17 p.
Publisher
King Abdulaziz University Scientific Publishing Center
Publication Date
2016-12-31
Country of Publication
Saudi Arabia
No. of Pages
17
Main Subjects
Abstract EN
The current study adopts a quantitative approach to investigate the usage of the four negators in the Abha dialect, namely mā, lis, lim, and lā.
The Abha dialect, which is spoken in Abha city in southwest Saudi Arabia, seems to be making less frequent use of some of these negative particles, which is resulting in being simplified in the dialect.
Previous studies have shown that young educated speakers drive this simplification process.
This study shows that in case of negators, there is a kind of ‘levelling’ taking place among middle-aged speakers and that a major shift in usage is being led by younger speakers.
Our results show that the negator mā substitutes the other negators lis, lim and lā in some cases.
This substitution is occurring in both verbal and non-verbal predications.
Changes seem to occur among ʕasīri speakers more than among Qaћṯāni speakers.
One possible explanation is that this change is indicative of a shift towards a variety of Abha dialect that is used by the Qaћṯāni and that is regarded as more prestigious, but this does not seem to be the case as these negative particles are also becoming less used by Qaћṯāni speakers.
Overall, the results show that both groups are levelling their own dialects towards a common variety.
American Psychological Association (APA)
al-Azraqi, Munirah Ali. 2016. A change in the usage of negators in Abha Arabic through dialect levelling. Journal of King Abdulaziz University : Arts and Humanities،Vol. 24, no. 1, pp.291-307.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-716988
Modern Language Association (MLA)
al-Azraqi, Munirah Ali. A change in the usage of negators in Abha Arabic through dialect levelling. Journal of King Abdulaziz University : Arts and Humanities Vol. 24, no. 1 (2016), pp.291-307.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-716988
American Medical Association (AMA)
al-Azraqi, Munirah Ali. A change in the usage of negators in Abha Arabic through dialect levelling. Journal of King Abdulaziz University : Arts and Humanities. 2016. Vol. 24, no. 1, pp.291-307.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-716988
Data Type
Journal Articles
Language
English
Notes
Includes bibliographical references : p. 304-306
Record ID
BIM-716988