| Description |
This thesis investigates speech accommodation and dialect leveling in three episodes of the Al-Jazeera program ﻣﻤفتوﻭﻮحﺡ ﺣﺤوﻭﻮاﺍرﺭ ḥuwār mɛftūḥ "Open Dialogue", with particular focus on the phonological change of /ḍ/ > [ð]̣ (or ظﻅﻆﻇﻈ < ضﺽﺾ ), so that a word like اﺍيﺿﻀ ا /ʔaɪjɪḍan/ ‘also' > [ʔaɪjɪðạn] in the Tunisian dialect. This study also looks at the phonological change of ظﻅﻆﻇﻈ /ð/̣ > [ẓ] in the Egyptian dialect, as well as lexical and syntactic differences between the use of relative pronouns and particles of negation. The episodes examined vary in their inclusion of speakers from across the Arabic-speaking world, and cover a range of speaking styles from reading to debating, to panel discussions, and street interviews. This thesis posits that Arabic speakers reduce dialect differences when interacting with others not familiar with their dialect, illustrating how Arabic speakers strike a balance between the mutually comprehensible "standard" and their dialect inclinations. While the Egyptian panel maintains both phonological and lexical characteristics of their dialect, the in-studio Tunisian guests predominantly use the standard language. However, there are significantly more dialect features in the speech of on-the-street iv Tunisians. Based on the data set, the Egyptians are able to maintain their dialect in the media setting because it is widely understood throughout the Arab world. Since the Tunisian dialect is not as commonly understood, the Tunisian studio guests use the standard to reach a pan-Arab audience. This sociolinguistic study illustrates the complexities of how Arabic-speakers manipulate their language depending on the social context and their audience and challenges the notion of diglossia. Furthermore, this thesis provides a description of some characteristics of Tunisian Arabic, which has not been well studied in the literature. |
