Effect of TV and internal vs. external contact on variation in Syrian rural child language

This study examines the influence of TV and internal/local and external/urban contact on the use of (q) (realized as rural [q] or urban [ʔ]) in the speech of 50 children ages 6-18 from the village of Oyoun Al-Wadi, Syria. The influence of TV is measured by the number of hours spent watching TV programs/serials in Syrian (Damascene) Arabic (DA). The effect of external contact is measured by the amount of time spent in contact with urban family members and friends by visiting them or being visited by them. The effect of internal contact is measured by the amount of time spent in contact with local friends who use [ʔ] predominantly. In the mixed effects model, only internal contact emerged as statistically significant. Those with no or very low internal contact use [q] more than those with more internal contact. These results are surprising as one expects more exposure to urban TV serials and external urban speakers would lead to higher use of the non-local [ʔ]. These findings indicate that the use of rural and urban variants is not related to the strength of external contact/social networks nor to the abundance in watching urban TV serials. Their use is mainly related to one’s surroundings and peers, gender, age, and the social interpretations/meanings of variants and how they situate the speaker as rural/masculine or urbane/feminine. Children use the sound that allows them to project a specific identity, demonstrating their competence in the associated social meanings and ability to adjust their speech accordingly.

Dr. Habib specializes in sociolinguistics particularly language variation and change. She is also interested in bilingualism, cross-cultural communication, Child and adolescent language and Second Language/Dialect Acquisition, phonology, Pragmatics, and Syntax. Her research is interdisciplinary as it combines a number of subfields of linguistics, applying formal linguistic theory such as Optimality Theory and the Gradual Learning Algorithm to sociolinguistic variation. She has also applied qualitative and quantitative methods of analyses to sociolinguistic variation and change. Her present research deals with dialectal variation in the Arab World particularly the colloquial Arabic of rural migrant speakers to urban centers and the change that their speech undergoes because of social factors, such as prestige, age, gender, and residential area, contact, etc. She is also interested in the influence of urban dialects on rural ones without undergoing migration to urban centers. She is currently investigating the spread of urban linguistic features in the Syrian Arabic of rural children and adolescents.

Monday, February 19, 2018 at 4:00pm to 6:00pm

Patton Hall (RLP), 1.302E
305 23RD ST E, Austin, Texas 78712

Event Type

Academics

Departments

College of Liberal Arts

Target Audience

Students, Staff, Faculty, Alumni, General Public

Website

https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/mes/ev...

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