Syntactic change in the Use of gid : language contact evidence in Abha dialect

Abstract EN

Abstract.

Since the mid-nineteenth century, people from various villages in the southwest of the Arabian Peninsula, who had distinctive dialects, have migrated and settled around the Abha Valley.

Communication between these different groups of people in Abha is resulting in the development of a distinctive dialect, one of the features of which is the variation in the use of particles.

One of these particles, gid, conveys the meaning of assuring the hearer that what is being said will occur or has occurred already.

Some functions and uses of gid are becoming simplified.

For example, younger speakers limit their use of gid to specific syntactic contexts.

In the present study, syntactic change in the use of the particle gid in Abha is documented and light is shed on the change in use of gW over different generations as a result of some sociolinguistic variables.