A sociophonetic account of morphophonemic variation in Palestinian Arabic

Abstract

This study presents findings from sociolinguistic fieldwork on Palestinian Arabic conducted in the Gaza Strip. The sample includes 15 speakers who are indigenous residents of Gaza City, representing three age groups and both genders. Linear mixed effects analyses are presented on the vowel raising of the Arabic feminine gender marker; a word final vocalic morpheme. The traditional dialect of Gaza City is reported to realize this morpheme consistently as [a] (Bergsträßer 1915), with all other Levantine city dialects raising the feminine ending to [ɛ, e] or [i] except after back consonants (Al-Wer 2007). Results indicate robust sociophonetic variation in the realization of this vowel across age generations. In comparison to the elderly generation in the sample, younger speakers realize this vowel significantly lower and backer in their casual speech. These results reflect what appears to be a change in progress happening across generations in the traditional dialect of Gaza City as a result of dialect contact happening in the Gaza Strip between speakers of difference varieties of Palestinian Arabic.