Postgraduate Theses & Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14154/68006
Browse
3 results
Search Results
Item Restricted Sociolinguistic Variation in the Use of Negation Patterns among Qassimi Arabic Speakers(Qassim University, 2024-10-24) Almohaimeed, Noorah Abdullah; Alrojaie, Yousef IbrahimThis study investigates the use of negation markers within the Qassimi Arabic (QA) dialect, spoken in northcentral Saudi Arabia. It explores the types of negation markers employed by speakers across various grammatical contexts and examines how social factors such as age and gender influence their usage. Using a survey-based approach, data were collected from 60 QA speakers, categorized by age (young, middle-aged, old) and gender (male, female). The analysis revealed a diverse set of fifteen negation markers, each with a distinctive syntactic structure. This indicates the significant influence of morpho-syntactic factors in determining the choice of negation markers across different contexts. Notably, the study identified new negation markers unique to QA, such as mahnash, mabush, maħnnab, mahib, manab, mahunb, and mameish, and emphasized the distinction between preverbal and postverbal negation. The statistical analysis showed that age significantly influences the choice of negation markers, with clear generational shifts evident in marker usage. Older speakers tended to favor traditional markers that are characteristic of their generation, while younger speakers preferred markers perceived as more modern and concise. Middle-aged speakers exhibited a blend of both traditional and modern markers, demonstrating a transitional linguistic behavior influenced by both older and younger generations. This generational variation suggests that negation markers carry perceived social meanings that differ among age groups, reflecting broader trends in linguistic evolution within the Qassimi community. Gender, though comparatively less than age, also influenced the selection of negation markers. The study found statistically significant differences in marker usage between males and females, but these differences were context specific. Male speakers were more likely to use conventional and locally recognized markers, whereas female speakers showed a tendency towards innovative and perhaps more socially progressive markers. This gender-based variation highlights an emerging linguistic shift, particularly among females who are adopting new forms of negation markers, potentially as a means of expressing social identity and modernity. The research implies a strong connection between social identity and language variation within the Qassimi speech community. It suggests that the choice of negation markers is not merely a linguistic preference but also a reflection of social identities and cultural shifts. This finding is crucial for understanding how language evolves in response to social dynamics and how different social groups contribute to this evolution. Furthermore, the study considers the broader socioeconomic changes that have influenced Saudi society in recent decades. The rapid urbanization and economic development in the country have led to increased mobility and interaction among people from different dialectal backgrounds. This has likely contributed to the linguistic changes observed in the Qassimi community, as speakers adapt their language use to navigate the multilingual and multicultural urban environment. The study underscores the importance of considering local sociolinguistic contexts when studying language variation and change. The findings contribute to the broader field of sociolinguistics by providing empirical evidence on how social factors such as age and gender shape language use in specific communities. Keywords: Qassimi Arabic, negation markers, sociolinguistic variation, morphosyntactic variation15 0Item Restricted Phonological constraints and repair strategies of Standard Arabic words adapted into Qassimi Arabic(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-09-30) الطريفي، رسيل; الحودي، متعبStandard Arabic words underwent numerous phonological changes when they are adapted into Qassimi Arabic (QA), a dialect spoken in the central regions of Saudi Arabia. This study focuses mainly on the phonological constraints of QA grammar and repair strategies used by Qassimi speakers when they adapt Standard Arabic (SA) words. Qassimi Arabic phonology has been investigated by several researchers (Alhoody and Aljutaily, 2020, Almotairi, 2015, Alqahtani; 2020; among others), but, to my knowledge, none has investigated the words that QA has borrowed from SA and their phonological changes after adaptations. To fill this particular gap, this study analyzed more than 100 SA words that are currently used in QA to discover the phonological processes that occur after adaptation. The data used in this study was collected from daily life conversations by the researcher, who is a native speaker of QA. A list was made from the collected words and to further ensure the accuracy of the collected data, five other native QA speakers were asked to verify the data. The analysis was divided into two sections, one focuses mainly on the segmental changes that occur on consonants and the other is about the segmental changes at vowel levels. The analysis showed that SA words undergo several types of modifications to conform to QA phonological constraints, including insertion of some sounds, deletion, and substitution.69 0Item Restricted An Analysis of Intonational Patterns in Qassimi Arabic (QA): An Acoustic Study(Qassim University, 2023-04-27) الجمعان، لمياء عيد مبارك; Aljamaan, Lamya Eid Mubarak; الجطيلي, محمد; Aljutaily, MohammadThe world's languages and dialects depend heavily on intonation for the formation of meaning, and different intonations can convey different ideas or meanings. This thesis employs the autosegmental-metrical (AM) framework to examine the intonational patterns of declarative sentences and yes/no questions as spoken in Qassimi Arabic (QA) to determine the general intonational patterns in this dialect and whether generalizations about them are possible. The participants were 20 Qassimi Arabic speakers aged 20–40 years. Participants were introduced to a story written in QA, followed by two types of sentences (declarative sentence and yes/no question) that they were asked to read. Praat software was used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that, in declarative sentences, QA speakers tended to have a final low boundary tone as L-L%, L%, while in yes/no questions, QA speakers tended to have a final high boundary tone as L-H%, H%, and H-H%. ANOVA analysis confirmed that there were significant differences between the F0 values of the declarative sentences and yes/no questions, such that the F0 of yes/no questions had higher values than the declarative forms in all participants regardless of their gender. These findings are similar to those in many studies of Arabic varieties, including ones of Farasani Arabic, Hijazi Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, and Lebanese Arabic. However, there were some unexpected patterns in the results as well. First, in declarative sentences, some statements ended with high tone, as H%, L-H%, while others showed a rising intonation and then a lowering tone, as in H*+L%, and H-L%. Second, in yes/no questions, the unexpected intonational patterns were H-L%, L-L%, and L%. These unexpected patterns occurred because participants read the stimulus as if they were reading a paper or were accidental and unrepeated. Nevertheless, these unexpected patterns were not frequent, which is why two repetitions were implemented to ensure that the results were not produced by accident.72 0