Abstract
This paper reevaluates the ground on which the division into urban and rural gələt dialects, as spoken in Iraq and Khuzestan (south-western Iran), is built on. Its primary aim is to describe which features found in this dialect group can be described as rural and which features tend to be modified or to emerge in urban contexts, and which tend to be retained. The author uses various methodical approaches to describe these phenomena: (i) a comparative analysis of potentially rural features; (ii) a case study of Ahvazi Arabic, a gələt dialect in an emerging urban space; and (iii) a small-scale sociolinguistic survey on overt rural features in Iraqi Arabic as perceived by native speakers themselves. In addition, previously used descriptions of urban gələt features as described for Muslim Baghdad Arabic are reevaluated and a new approach and an alternative analysis based on comparison with new data from other gәlәt dialects are proposed. The comparative analysis yields an overview of what has been previously defined as rural features and additionally discusses further features and their association with rural dialects. This contributes to our general understanding of the linguistic profile of the rural dialects in this geographic context.
Highlights
This study aims at a critical reevaluation of the urban–rural division in the g@ l@ t dialects and the description of linguistic dynamics correlating with urbanization tendencies
Approaching the question of the urban–rural split among the g@ l@ t dialects, it appears highly necessary to ask what is subjectively perceived as rural or urban speech by native speakers, rather than imposing what we think to be rural or urban based on the few dialectal descriptions we have from over a hundred years ago
The author by no means wants to lower the value of these seminal contributions made by Arabic dialectologists, but merely proposes a new way of approaching the classification of the g@ l@ t dialects
Summary
This study aims at a critical reevaluation of the urban–rural division in the g@ l@ t dialects and the description of linguistic dynamics correlating with urbanization tendencies. The urban–rural dichotomy is used in the descriptions of Arabic dialects from different regions (cf., for example, Abd-el-Jawad 1986; Abu-Haidar 1988; Ech-charfi 2020; Holes 1995; Ingham 1973; Miller 2007; Sharkawi 2014). This study aims at a critical reevaluation of the urban–rural division in the g@ l@ t dialects and the description of linguistic dynamics correlating with urbanization tendencies.. The urban–rural dichotomy is used in the descriptions of Arabic dialects from different regions (cf., for example, Abd-el-Jawad 1986; Abu-Haidar 1988; Ech-charfi 2020; Holes 1995; Ingham 1973; Miller 2007; Sharkawi 2014). Until today there is only a small amount of evidence for common linguistic tendencies found among Arabic dialects in urban contexts This study tries to sum up what we do and what we do not know about the division of the g@ l@ t dialects into rural and urban ones. By including an areal perspective and new data from the g@ l@ t dialects of Khuzestan, we hope to arrive at a more detailed description of the characterizing factors of rural dialects in general and the linguistic consequences of urbanization for dialects of the g@ l@ t group
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