TITLE:
Phonological Variation in Hijazi and Cairene Arabic: The Case of the Uvular Stop /q/
AUTHORS:
Baraa A. Rajab
KEYWORDS:
Phonological Variation, Hijazi Arabic, Cairene Arabic, Diglossia, Modern Standard Arabic
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Modern Linguistics,
Vol.11 No.6,
December
1,
2021
ABSTRACT: This small scale, qualitatively based, exploratory study aimed at exploring and analysing voice pattern production of eight participants (2 male and 6 female) by eliciting their voice patterns generated from reading forty-three words from a word list and also, from reading a short paragraph. Furthermore, the study aimed at exploring the phonological variation in the spoken Arabic of two regions: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (Hijazi Arabic—HA) and Cairo, Egypt (Cairene Arabic—CA) and also, examines the role of age, sex, educational level and region on this variation. In particular, the study explored the correlation of voice patterns production as they relate to the non-linguistic factors such as age, gender and educational level. The analysis of the gathered qualitative data was carried out by transcribing the recorded data and coding each voice pattern in question. The results indicated that there is more variation in CA speakers than in HA speakers and also, there are some gender influences on phonological production.