International Journal of Language and Linguistics

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Beni Snous Speakers’ Linguistic Accommodation in an Urban Contact Context

Received: 21 December 2017    Accepted: 02 January 2018    Published: 22 March 2018
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Abstract

Within a rural-urban contact context, the present paper investigates linguistic accommodation of rural speakers (originally from Beni Snous valley, south-west of Tlemcen-Algeria) being in frequent and regular contact with urban speakers in the neighbouring city of Tlemcen. Gender marker is the selected linguistic variable which is used to address a female person. This variable has a reduced form [-i] and a neutralised form ∅ in the speech of Tlemcen speakers. However, Beni Bahdel speakers tend to diphthongise it by adding the suffixes [-ij] and [-ej]. Thus, the aim is to examine whether these rural commuters to the city of Tlemcen have accommodated their speech to the input variant forms [-i] and gender neutralisation ∅ or they still maintain their native variant form. By means of quantitative and qualitative methods, data analysis has revealed that linguistic accommodation has been attested in the speech of these speakers. Some social factors dictate the accommodative behaviour of these rural speakers to urban speech, as women are likely to maintain their native speech while men are prone to accommodate their speech. Such linguistic behaviour is reinforced by social-psychological factors towards both their native speech and urban speech.

DOI 10.11648/j.ijll.s.2017050301.18
Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 5, Issue 3-1, June 2017)

This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Arabic Sociolinguistics

Page(s) 58-66
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Linguistic Accommodation/Non-Accommodation, Diphthongisation, Urban/Rural Speech, Attitudes

References
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[17] JAHR, E. H (1998) Sociolinguistics in Historical Language Contact: the Scandinavian Languages and Low German during the Hanseatic Period. In JAHR, E. H. (ed), Language Change: Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics. Germany: Walter de Gruyter.
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Author Information
  • Department of English, Tlemcen University, Tlemcen, Algeria

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  • APA Style

    Fatma Kherbache. (2018). Beni Snous Speakers’ Linguistic Accommodation in an Urban Contact Context. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 5(3-1), 58-66. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.s.2017050301.18

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    ACS Style

    Fatma Kherbache. Beni Snous Speakers’ Linguistic Accommodation in an Urban Contact Context. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2018, 5(3-1), 58-66. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.s.2017050301.18

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    AMA Style

    Fatma Kherbache. Beni Snous Speakers’ Linguistic Accommodation in an Urban Contact Context. Int J Lang Linguist. 2018;5(3-1):58-66. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.s.2017050301.18

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijll.s.2017050301.18,
      author = {Fatma Kherbache},
      title = {Beni Snous Speakers’ Linguistic Accommodation in an Urban Contact Context},
      journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
      volume = {5},
      number = {3-1},
      pages = {58-66},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.s.2017050301.18},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.s.2017050301.18},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.s.2017050301.18},
      abstract = {Within a rural-urban contact context, the present paper investigates linguistic accommodation of rural speakers (originally from Beni Snous valley, south-west of Tlemcen-Algeria) being in frequent and regular contact with urban speakers in the neighbouring city of Tlemcen. Gender marker is the selected linguistic variable which is used to address a female person. This variable has a reduced form [-i] and a neutralised form ∅ in the speech of Tlemcen speakers. However, Beni Bahdel speakers tend to diphthongise it by adding the suffixes [-ij] and [-ej]. Thus, the aim is to examine whether these rural commuters to the city of Tlemcen have accommodated their speech to the input variant forms [-i] and gender neutralisation ∅ or they still maintain their native variant form. By means of quantitative and qualitative methods, data analysis has revealed that linguistic accommodation has been attested in the speech of these speakers. Some social factors dictate the accommodative behaviour of these rural speakers to urban speech, as women are likely to maintain their native speech while men are prone to accommodate their speech. Such linguistic behaviour is reinforced by social-psychological factors towards both their native speech and urban speech.},
     year = {2018}
    }
    

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    Y1  - 2018/03/22
    PY  - 2018
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    T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
    JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
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    PB  - Science Publishing Group
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    AB  - Within a rural-urban contact context, the present paper investigates linguistic accommodation of rural speakers (originally from Beni Snous valley, south-west of Tlemcen-Algeria) being in frequent and regular contact with urban speakers in the neighbouring city of Tlemcen. Gender marker is the selected linguistic variable which is used to address a female person. This variable has a reduced form [-i] and a neutralised form ∅ in the speech of Tlemcen speakers. However, Beni Bahdel speakers tend to diphthongise it by adding the suffixes [-ij] and [-ej]. Thus, the aim is to examine whether these rural commuters to the city of Tlemcen have accommodated their speech to the input variant forms [-i] and gender neutralisation ∅ or they still maintain their native variant form. By means of quantitative and qualitative methods, data analysis has revealed that linguistic accommodation has been attested in the speech of these speakers. Some social factors dictate the accommodative behaviour of these rural speakers to urban speech, as women are likely to maintain their native speech while men are prone to accommodate their speech. Such linguistic behaviour is reinforced by social-psychological factors towards both their native speech and urban speech.
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