Phonetic and phonological variation in the speech of rural migrants in a Jordanian city

This study investigates the phonetic and phonological variation in the speech of
Fallahi (rural) migrants in the town of Irbid. This variationist investigation focuses on
four linguistic variables: (Q), (D), (8) and (d3) across four social variables: social class,
gender, education, and age. The spread of non-local urban features in the speech of the
Fallahi people living within the same area and having similar kinship, social and
cultural backgrounds is the focus of investigation. This kind of analysis considers the
competing status of the two extreme levels of the Arabic language continuum.
Therefore, it reshuffles the images associated with Standard Arabic as the most
prestigious variety in Arabic. Then, it re-examines the underlying role of education as a
variable that covers some degree of outside contacts rather than being a direct and
independent variable by itself. This claim goes in line with the general diglossic nature
of Arabic and its competing prestigious levels. The data obtained from the 72
informants of the current study shows that gender and social class are the most
important variables that have significant effect on the use of the non-local prestigious
features in Jordan. Within this frame, it appears that women are more innovative than
men although their degree of outside contact is surrounded by cultural, social and
sometimes religious restrictions. It is also clear that the correlation between the nonlocal
variants and social class is very high: the higher the social class the lower the local
rural features. This will add a lot to the general locus of innovation that stems from the
younger female informants at the higher-class level. This kind of variation gives space
for the role of 'identity' as a pressure that forces especiaIIy the men to use the local
indigenous features. In addition to that, it traces the domains of Standard Arabic to
show that it is domain-restricted rather than being used spontaneously in different social
contexts. To examine the nature of the standard linguistic variants that are also used in
one of the dialects in Jordan, a lexico-phonological test is suggested. This test comes as
an indicator of whether these variants are used in their standard or colloquial capacity.