+

Language variation and change in two Palestinian Arabic varieties: Gaza and Jaffa Uri Horesh uri.horesh@northwestern.edu William Cotter cotterw@gmail.com

+Palestine

+Jaffa

+Gaza

+Gaza: Feminine Ending (ah)

[ɣazza] vs [ɣazze] ~ ‘Gaza’

[kbiːra] vs [kbiːre] ~ ‘big (f)’

[maglu:ba] vs [magluːbe] ~ ‘maqluba (type of food)’

[ħilwa] vs [ħilwe] ~ ‘beautiful (f)’

•  Palestinian Arabic generally raises the feminine ending to a vowel in the neighborhood of [e], however it does so conditionally and the actual degree of raising varies.

•  There are Palestinian communities, however, whose dialects are typically viewed as non-raising dialects, e.g. Bedouin dialects in the Naqab desert.

•  Egyptian Arabic, including the dialects of Cairo, Sinai Peninsula, Upper Egypt, are also considered to be non-raising dialects.

+Phonological constraints

n  This value is inhibited in the context of ‘emphatic’ consonants and ‘gutturals’ as well as other low consonants: /x/, /ɣ/, /q/, and sometimes /r/. (Owens 2006)

n  /r/ – generally speaking – acts as a raising inhibitor, except in cases where there is an underlying /i/ in the preceding syllable.

n  Pharyngeal consonants, /ʕ/ and /ħ/, also shown to be inhibitors of the raising of the feminine ending (Al-Wer 2007)

n  Active in the Naqab except following emphatics and back consonants. /h/, /ħ/, and /ʕ/ not inhibitors of raising (Shawārbah 2012)

+Findings from Gaza

 

Age [a] [e] % [e] Total 17-39 248 12 5% 260 40-64 307 29 9% 336 65+ 88 10 10% 98 694 Table  1:  Distribution  of  the  feminine  ending  (ah)  by  age  among  Gazan  speakers    

Age [a] [e] % [e] Total 17-39 141 26 16% 167 40-64 103 40 28% 143 65+ 49 57 54% 106 416 Table  2:  Distribution  of  the  feminine  ending  (ah)  by  age  among  Jaffan  speakers  

 

Dialect Background Total Tokens % [e] Log Odds Factor Weights Jaffa 416 30% (N = 123) 0.821 0.694 Gaza 694 7% (N = 51) -0.821 0.306 Rbrul  results  for  [e]  realization  for  feminine  ending  (ah)    by  dialect  background  (R²  =  0.204  p=  2.82  e-­‐20)  

•  Among indigenous Gazans the feminine ending was not variable. Realized as [a] almost categorically.

•  Among Jaffan speakers the feminine ending showed a generational decline in the use of the raised [e] variant.

+Jaffa: Voiced pharyngeal (ʕ)

(ʕ) ➝ [ʕ] ~ [SyllVoc] ~ [CompLeng] ~ [ʔ] ~ ∅ Additional variables: (dˤ) ➝ [dˤ] ~ [d] (tˤ) ➝ [tˤ] ~ [t] (sˤ) ➝ [sˤ] ~ [s] (C1C1) ➝ [C1C1] ~ [C1] (Vː) ➝ [Vː] ~ [V]

+Organization of multivariate analysis

Dependent variable: Binary

Dependent variable: Continuous

Application value = ∅

Application value = any lenition

Entire data set (Jaffa + West Bank control

group) Jaffa data only

+Results

R2=0.304  

Age group (p<0.001) Factor Log-odds Tokens 36-60 0.349 762 14-35 0.314 798 61+ -0.662 332

 

Sex (p<0.0005) Factor Log-odds Tokens Female 0.233 923

Male -0.233 969  

Occupational group (p<10-6) Factor Log-odds Tokens

Teenager 0.562 336 Blue

collar 0.463 307

Service -0.374 128 White collar

-0.651 1121

Language of primary/secondary schooling (p<10-11)!Factor! Log-odds! Tokens!

Hebrew! 0.726! 277!Mixed! 0.34! 224!Arabic! -1.066! 1391!

 !

Level of regular contact with Hebrew speakers (p<0.05)!Factor! Log-odds! Tokens!

2! 0.608! 1207!1! 0.145! 213!0! -0.753! 472!

 !

Hebrew proficiency as assessed by researcher (p<0.005)!Factor! Log-odds! Tokens!

0! 0.775! 472!1! -0.775! 185!2! -0.775! 1235!

 !

Position of (ʕ) in word (p<0.005)!Factor! Log-odds! Tokens!

Cluster! 0.668! 77!Onset! 0.147! 1323!Coda! -0.815! 492!

Rbrul results for Jaffa & West Bank (binary: deletion)

+Results

R2=0.203 Age group (p<0.0005)

Factor Log-odds Tokens 36-60 0.619 535 61+ 0.246 579

14-35 -0.865 1388  

Education (p<0.05) Factor Log-odds Tokens

Current pupil 1.185 601

Primary -0.137 153 Secondary -0.501 572 University -0.547 1176

  Language of primary/secondary

schooling (p<10-9) Factor Log-odds Tokens

Mixed 0.35 450

Hebrew 0.201 434

Arabic -0.551 1618

Position of (ʕ) in word (p<10-17) Factor Log-odds Tokens

Cluster 0.276 105 Onset 0.058 1591 Coda -0.335 806

 

Pairwise interaction—Age group: Education (p<0.05) Factor:Factor Log-odds Tokens

14-35:University 1.037 787 36-60:Primary 1.037 0 61+:Primary 1.037 153

14-35:Secondary 0 0 14-35:Current pupil 0 601

36-60:Secondary 0 297 36-60:Current pupil 0 0

61+:Secondary 0 275 61+:Current pupil 0 0

14-35:Primary -1.037 0 36-60:University -1.037 238 61+:University -1.037 151

Level of regular contact with Hebrew speakers (p<0.05) Factor Log-odds Tokens

2 0.186 2060 1 -0.186 442

Rbrul results for Jaffa only Bank (binary: all lenition)

+Results

Rbrul results for Jaffa & West Bank (Continuous: social factors only)

R2=0.056!Sex!

Factor!Coefficien

t! Tokens! Mean!

Male! 0.098! 1554! 2.651!Female! -0.098! 1615! 2.41!

Occupational group!

Factor!Coefficien

t! Tokens! Mean!

Service! 0.3! 215! 2.372!White collar! 0.298! 1773! 2.57!

Blue collar! -0.082! 580! 2.697!

Teenager! -0.516! 601! 2.3!

Language of primary/secondary schooling!

Factor! Coefficient! Tokens! Mean!

Arabic! 0.575! 2285! 2.68!Mixed! -0.089! 450! 2.378!

Hebrew! -0.485! 434! 1.885!

Realization of pharyngeals in Hebrew speech!

Factor! Coefficient! Tokens! Mean!

Pharyngeal! 0.243! 476! 2.668!

Partial! 0.02! 732! 2.527!0! -0.041! 1294! 2.325!

No Hebrew data! -0.222! 667! 2.823!

+Future directions

Pseudonym Year of birth Sex City

Umm Khalil 1928 f Jaffa

Dina 1933 f Gaza Bianca 1935 f Jaffa Layla 1943 f Gaza

Maryam 1990 f Jaffa

Sabihah 1993 f Gaza Salem 1948 m Jaffa Ahmad 1956 m Gaza Sabeer 1960 m Gaza Yazid 1971 m Jaffa Jamil 1981 m Jaffa Tamim 1983 m Gaza Wajdi 1985 m Gaza Tariq 1987 m Jaffa

+Future directions

Additional phonological variable: (q) In the Jaffa vernacular, this phoneme is invariably realized as a glottal stop [ʔ]. In Gaza, it emerges as a variable, whereby the traditional Gaza dialect manifests it as a voiced velar stop [ɡ] (Salonen 1979/80, de Jong 2000), but a glottal stop exists as well. So far we have discovered that in Gaza, female speakers of Jaffa heritage arelikely to favor the [ʔ] realization for (q) while male speakers appear to have adopted the voiced velar [ɡ] realization for this variable.