Child Dialect Variation and Change: Case of Amman Speech Community, Jordan

Abstract

This paper investigates variation in the speech of Jordanian children in addition to its social and psychological motivations and outcomes. The data is collected via the task of naming images accompanied with field observation. The sample involves 29 participants aged between 5 and 13 stratified according to their gender. The study examines the dialectal realizations of qāf including the urban [ʔ], the rural [g], and the standard [q] in the performance of children. The results of the present research show that child language variation and mixing is not only developmental but also socially governed. Acquiring and performing one`s gender identity appears to be an important factor in shifting along with developing a bi-dialectal competence and social consciousness. All these motivations bring the outcome that children are participating in the process of accommodation and,therefore, are enhancing dialect change in Jordanian Arabic. Keywords: child language variation, competence, rural, urban, accommodation, change, gender, awareness