Abstract
This study investigates lexical variation, which is due to more education, more mobility, and widespread use of the social media, in the dialect of three towns around Irbid City in north Jordan and its correlation with age, gender, and level of education. Labov’s approach is adopted to examine the linguistic variation among 98 speakers of the Irbidite dialect. Around 100 words were collected and put in the form of a questionnaire to elicit the opinion of speakers from different age groups, genders, and levels of education towards the frequency of their use of these words. The study used the method of direct interview to elicit the feelings of the participants about the dialect they use. The results show that old speakers and less educated ones tend to preserve their native lexical items more than others. They indicated that they use the original lexical items because they are proud of their dialect which reflects their identity. The groups which tend more to neglect some lexical items are educated young and middle-aged female subjects. They indicated that they do so for prestige and imitation of peers in the Irbidite society.
Highlights
Language, as a system by which humans communicate and interact with each other, has been studied in its social and geographical contexts (Hall, 1968; Labov, 1972; Huddson, 1996)) because it cannot be separated from the people who speak it and the place where it is used
Since the present study aims at investigating lexical variation in the rural dialect which is used in three towns around Irbid City in north Jordan, it is worth shedding some light on sociolinguistics, lexical variation and some terms used in this field
They show that the most effective social variable that affects lexical variation is gender, followed by age and level of education, respectively. These variables are analyzed in relation to the use of the list of the lexical items shown below.Table 3 shows the mean of the use of each item among the whole sample regardless of gender, age and level of education
Summary
As a system by which humans communicate and interact with each other, has been studied in its social and geographical contexts (Hall, 1968; Labov, 1972; Huddson, 1996)) because it cannot be separated from the people who speak it and the place where it is used. Language may vary from one person to another in the same place. Labov (1972) focused on the relationship between social and linguistic factors; since that time the door was opened to study various forms of language variation. 261) states, “Every linguist recognizes that language is a social fact, but not everyone puts an equal emphasis on that fact”. Labov’s study on sociolinguistic variation in New York City made many scholars interested in language variation. Labov’s study on sociolinguistic variation in New York City made many scholars interested in language variation. Hudson (1996, p. 3) maintains, “to study www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/sll
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