Enregistering the Badawī Dialect in Jāzān, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This study uses the concept of enregisterment to trace the development and construction of the Badawī dialect in Harūb, Jāzān, Saudi Arabia. The analysis shows that the salient linguistic feature ch used in Harūb has become enregistered with Badu identity in terms of ideologies of linguistic differentiation. This paper is an ethnographic study that explores the meaning of Badu which has been localized to the Jāzān region. The historical and social processes of isolation, modernization and marginalization have given rise to discursive practices of naming and drawing boundaries around ways of speaking in Jāzān. Finally, this paper highlights the ideological nature of language and calls for more studies in Arabic linguistics to consider the “total linguistic fact”.