Sentence Prosody and Register Variation in Arabic
Diglossia in Arabic differs from bilingualism in functional differentiation and mode of acquisition of the two registers used by all speakers raised in an Arabic-speaking environment. The ‘low’ (L) regional spoken dialect is acquired naturally and used in daily life, but the ‘high’ (H) variety, Mode...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Languages |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/7/2/129 |
| _version_ | 1797485285010833408 |
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| author | Sam Hellmuth |
| author_facet | Sam Hellmuth |
| author_sort | Sam Hellmuth |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Diglossia in Arabic differs from bilingualism in functional differentiation and mode of acquisition of the two registers used by all speakers raised in an Arabic-speaking environment. The ‘low’ (L) regional spoken dialect is acquired naturally and used in daily life, but the ‘high’ (H) variety, Modern Standard Arabic, is learned and used in formal settings. Register variation between the two ends of this H–L continuum is ubiquitous in everyday interaction, such that authors have proposed distinct intermediate register levels, despite evidence of mixing of H and L features, within and between utterances, at all linguistic levels. The role of sentence prosody in register variation in Arabic is uninvestigated to date. The present study examines three variables (F0 variation, intonational choices and post-lexical utterance-final laryngealization) in 400+ turns at talk produced by one speaker of San’ani Arabic in a 20 min sociolinguistic interview, coded for register on three levels: formal (fusħa), ‘middle’ (wusṭaː) and dialect (ʕaːmijja). The results reveal a picture of key shared features across all register levels, alongside distinct properties which serve to differentiate the registers at each end of the continuum, at least some of which appear to be under the speaker’s control. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T23:16:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-67b99993e2ac4c469955176e6132a68e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2226-471X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T23:16:37Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Languages |
| spelling | doaj.art-67b99993e2ac4c469955176e6132a68e2023-11-23T17:34:26ZengMDPI AGLanguages2226-471X2022-05-017212910.3390/languages7020129Sentence Prosody and Register Variation in ArabicSam Hellmuth0Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UKDiglossia in Arabic differs from bilingualism in functional differentiation and mode of acquisition of the two registers used by all speakers raised in an Arabic-speaking environment. The ‘low’ (L) regional spoken dialect is acquired naturally and used in daily life, but the ‘high’ (H) variety, Modern Standard Arabic, is learned and used in formal settings. Register variation between the two ends of this H–L continuum is ubiquitous in everyday interaction, such that authors have proposed distinct intermediate register levels, despite evidence of mixing of H and L features, within and between utterances, at all linguistic levels. The role of sentence prosody in register variation in Arabic is uninvestigated to date. The present study examines three variables (F0 variation, intonational choices and post-lexical utterance-final laryngealization) in 400+ turns at talk produced by one speaker of San’ani Arabic in a 20 min sociolinguistic interview, coded for register on three levels: formal (fusħa), ‘middle’ (wusṭaː) and dialect (ʕaːmijja). The results reveal a picture of key shared features across all register levels, alongside distinct properties which serve to differentiate the registers at each end of the continuum, at least some of which appear to be under the speaker’s control.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/7/2/129Modern Standard ArabicSan’ani ArabicdiglossiamultilingualismprosodyF0 |
| spellingShingle | Sam Hellmuth Sentence Prosody and Register Variation in Arabic Languages Modern Standard Arabic San’ani Arabic diglossia multilingualism prosody F0 |
| title | Sentence Prosody and Register Variation in Arabic |
| title_full | Sentence Prosody and Register Variation in Arabic |
| title_fullStr | Sentence Prosody and Register Variation in Arabic |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sentence Prosody and Register Variation in Arabic |
| title_short | Sentence Prosody and Register Variation in Arabic |
| title_sort | sentence prosody and register variation in arabic |
| topic | Modern Standard Arabic San’ani Arabic diglossia multilingualism prosody F0 |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/7/2/129 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT samhellmuth sentenceprosodyandregistervariationinarabic |