Dialectal Variation Research Articles

Public opinion mining in social media about Ethiopian broadcasts using deep learning.

Now adays people express and share their opinions on various events on the internet thanks to social media. Opinion mining is the process of interpreting user-generated opinion data on social media. Aside from its lack of resources in opinion-mining tasks, Amharic presents numerous difficulties because of its complex structure and variety of dialects. Analyzing every comment written in Amharic is a challenging task. Significant advancements in opinion mining have been achieved using deep learning. An opinion-mining model was used in this study to classify user comments written in Amharic as positive or negative. The domains that we focus on in this study are YouTube and Facebook. From the Ethiopian broadcasts YouTube and Facebook official pages, we gathered 11,872 unstructured data for this study using www.exportcomment.com , and Facebook page tools. Text preprocessing and feature extraction techniques were used, in addition to manual annotation by linguistic specialists. The dataset was prepared for the experiment after annotation, preprocessing, and representation. LSTM, GRU, BiGRU, BiLSTM, and a hybrid of CNN with BiLSTM classifiers from the TensorFlow Keras deep learning library were used to train the model using the dataset, which was split using the 80/20 train-test method, which proved effective for classification problems. Finally, we achieved of 94.27%, 95.20%, 95.49%, 95.62%, and 96.08% using GRU, BiGRU, LSTM, BiLSTM, and CNN with BiLSTM, respectively, in word2vec embedding model.

Proficiency of Turing test on Nigerian Major Languages; Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa Using Google Translate

Google Translate performance evaluation in translating between English and three Nigerian languages: Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa, highlighting its strengths and limitations using the Turing Test. The study assessed whether participants could distinguish Artificial Intelligence (AI) - generated translations from human translations which reveals that Google Translate handles basic communication in these languages but struggles with more complex linguistic features. The tool adequately translates straightforward sentences in Yoruba language, but falters with idiomatic expressions, proverbs, and tonal nuances, the same problem refects in Igbo language facing challenges with more complex sentences and dialectal variations, resulting in culturally irrelevant outputs. Hausa performed better due to the availability of a larger training dataset, delivering more accurate translations for common phrases, but still struggled with cultural and contextual nuances.The findings suggest that Google Translate's limitations prevent it from passing a Turing Test with native speakers of Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa. While understandable translations are produced for basic sentences, native speakers can easily detect inconsistencies, awkward phrasing, and a lack of cultural nuance. These issues underscore the significant gap between AI translation and human-like proficiency for African languages. Keyword: Turing test, Nigerian Major Languages; Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa Using Google Translate Abiola, O.A., Adebisi R.O. & Akinola, S.O. (2024): Proficiency of Turing test on Nigerian Major Languages; Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa Using Google Translate. Journal of Advances in Mathematical & Computational Science. Vol. 12, No. 3. Pp 1-12 Available online at www.isteams.net/mathematics-computationaljournal. dx.doi.org/10.22624/AIMS/MATHS/V12N4P1

Animals of the Mustelid Family in the Linguistic Picture of the World of the Altaians

Purpose. The article describes zoonyms of the Altai language and folklore denoting mustelids, representatives of the fauna of the Altai Mountains. This lexical-semantic group of lexemes in the Altai linguistic culture has not been thoroughly studied yet. The identification of the lexical potential of zoonyms denoting mammals of the mustelid family provide information about the etymology, dialect variants, donative and connotative features that express ideas about those animals in the language and folklore of the Altaians, and their mythological context of use.Results. Lexical meanings of zoonyms have been identified and established: agas /aas ‘ermine’, kish ‘sable’, borsuk ‘badger’, jeeken ‘wolverine’, saras ‘kolinsky’, ‘weasel’, kushkuly/kalazak ‘weasel’, suzar ‘marten’, ‘mink’, toktonok ‘weasel’. Of these, the general Turkic layer of vocabulary includes: agas ‘ermine’, suzar ‘marten’, kish ‘sable’, borsuk ‘badger’, küzen/joonmoiyn ‘ferret’, jeeken ‘wolverine’. Denotative and connotative features that characterize animals are presented in various folklore and literary texts that provide information about their color, body structure, habitat, and their habits.Conclusion. In the religious and mythological picture of the world of the Altaians, such animals as kish/albaa ‘sable’, agas ‘ermine’ were revered totem animals. In relation to these animals, there were certain rules of behavior during the hunt. These factors influenced the development of a system of euphemisms in the language of hunters, formed with the help of such linguistic means of objectifying concepts as metaphor and metonymy.

LANGUAGE OF TOTALITARIANISM: NATIONAL LINGUISTIC POLICY IN FASCIST ITALY AND MILITARIST JAPAN

When it comes to creating a notorious ideology, in the hands of those in power, language becomes a tool for consolidating a nation. Fascist Italy and militarist Japan are prime examples of the use of language as a means of uniting people in the name of proclaimed “new” values and ideals. In the present article the authors provide a detailed analysis of language policy in both countries: from the initial desire to unite the inhabitants of the country with the proclaimed order under the aegis of a single nation by means of language, to open hostility to any manifestations of heterogeneity, in particular to regional dialects or dialectal variants of the literary national language, to an open struggle against loan words, even those that had already been firmly established or consolidated in the domestic language. The study attempts to trace what changes happened to Italian and Japanese languages when intransigent parties had come to power with their ideologies; to analyze to what extent the language policies of Italy and Japan in the 1st half of the 20th century are similar and to what extent they differ; and we also summarise the results of such restrictive language policies after the World War II resulted in the said politicians’ defeat.

A Study of Russian-Belarusian Border Dialects: The Use of the Genitive Case Ending -u in the Khislavichi Dialect

Summary This article explores the features of noun declension in the Khislavichi dialect, focusing on the use of the genitive case ending -u. The study is based on data from the Khislavichi Corpus, which consists of texts recorded from native speakers in the western part of the Khislavichi district of the Smolensk Region during field trips in 2018–2019. The linguistic situation in this area is characterized by the Russification of genetically Belarusian dialects. The analysis examines the preservation of dialect features, the historical and contemporary usage of the genitive case in Russian and Belarusian, and the specificities of the genitive ending -u in the Khislavichi dialect. The findings indicate that the Khislavichi dialect employs the -u ending in the genitive case for a larger number of lexemes compared to standard Russian. This raises the question of whether these "extra" -u forms can be linked to the previous Belarusian system. The study explores the variability found in the usage of both the -u and -a endings, suggesting that their selection may be contingent upon the intended meaning and the age of the speaker. Additionally, the article contributes to the development of a broader theoretical problem: the transition from one idiom to another, and ultimately the theory of language change. This research adds to our understanding of dialectal variation and the mechanisms of language change, particularly in regions experiencing language contact and assimilation processes.

VARIABILITY OF SPELLING SYSTEMS IN ROMANI DICTIONARIES PUBLISHED IN HUNGARY BETWEEN 1797 AND 1935

The study argues that based on the analysis of 48 Hungarian Romani dictionaries, the works can be chronologically dated, and the first phase (1797–1935) is also important from an orthographic point of view since in this period we find spontaneous writing systems that were no longer used for scientific or educational purposes. The analysis has revealed that the choice of letters was not only motivated by individual intuition and mutual copying but also by an intended adaptation to Hungarian orthography and the written representation of special sounds in the Romani language. This resulted in a high degree of variability. In addition, sounds were marked inconsistently, with special regard to vowel length, aspirated sounds, and the velar fricative. This general inconsistency means that the sources do not come from a single informant even if the author said so and that a thorough examination of the dictionaries requires knowledge based on fieldwork so that a distinction can be made between error and dialectal variation.

The impact of language variation on educational outcomes in African rural settings

The present research discusses how language variation may influence educational outcomes within African rural settings concerning indigenous languages, colonial languages, and dialectal diversity. From the critical literature review, it has been determined that mother-tongue education advances academic performance as well as social cohesion and engagement since students find learning more accessible and relevant to their culture. Conversely, the range of dialects, along with other issues such as a lack of resources and proper teacher training, complicates the implementation of mother-tongue education. On the other hand, the use as medium of instruction of a few colonial languages causes inequalities to worsen, alienating rural learners and causing underachievement. This study has strengthened calls for more flexible and localized language policies, with further research on the longer-term impacts of indigenous language education in rural classrooms and the role of dialects. The resolution of at least these linguistic problems would allow the countries of Africa to come closer to equitable and more inclusive education systems. Keywords: Language Variation, Educational Outcomes, Rural Africa, Indigenous Languages, Colonial Languages, Dialectal Diversity.

Children’s Multilectal Repertoires: Diglossic Style-Shifting by Palestinian Children and Adolescents in Syria

Arabic diglossia, whereby Standard Arabic (SA) exists alongside numerous vernaculars, often leads to diglossic style-shifting based on context or topic changes and is marked in the vernacular by shifting to standard linguistic features. While this phenomenon has been widely studied in the speech of educated adults, research on diglossic style-shifting by children and adolescents has been rather limited. This paper investigates how it operates amongst 3–17-year-olds from a Bedouin speech community of Palestinian refugees in Syria. It examines context effects on realizations of the variables (θ) and (ð), which overlap with local realizations and (q), which has a standard realization ([q]) that is independent of dialectal variation in the community. Participants were recorded during sociolinguistic interviews and a picture-naming task, the latter being expected to evoke a school setting and prompt the use of more standard realizations, signaling diglossic style-shifting in their speech. Style-shifting was influenced by age, context, and the linguistic variables under examination. While picture-naming prompted greater use of standard realizations of all variables, shifting to [q] also appeared during the interview in lexical borrowings from SA, revealing topic effects on diglossic style-shifting. Children aged 6–14 exhibited more style-shifting in picture-naming, likely reflecting the central role of school in their lives, while the speech of 15–17-year-olds contained more lexical borrowing with [q]. This likely reflects their larger linguistic repertoires and longer exposure to SA than their younger peers. These findings indicate that SA plays a key role in participants’ linguistic practices and reflect their awareness of how to employ it appropriately in their speech.

Explaining the Dynamics and Stability of Dialects: A Representational Approach

Abstract In this article, the focus is on the pivotal role of speakers in shaping language dynamics and dialectal stability, particularly within the context of dialectal variation. It is evident that language is intricately tied to human experience, serving as a tool for navigation, problem-solving, and social interaction. This article posits that understanding the interplay between language dynamics and stability of dialects requires a nuanced consideration of speakers and their practical relationships with the world as well as their linguistic mental representations. People are not passive recipients of language; rather, they actively engage with it in various contexts, adapting to new situations and influencing linguistic change. Through empirical examples from German dialectology, the article illustrates how speakers’ interactions with their environment shape language evolution. Overall, the article aims to provide insight into the role of speakers in driving linguistic change and maintaining linguistic conventions within dialectal contexts. By examining the practical relationships between speakers and their environment, it contributes to the development of a comprehensive framework for understanding the complexities of language variation and evolution considering linguistic representations.

Advancements in Natural Language Understanding- Driven Machine Translation: Focus on English and the Low Resource Dialectal Lusoga

This review explores recent advancements in Natural Language Understanding-driven Machine Translation (NLU-MT) with a focus on English and the low-resource dialectal Lusoga. A Low-resource language, such as Lusoga, faces significant challenges in Machine Translation (MT) due to the scarcity of high-quality parallel corpora, the complex morphology inherent in Bantu languages, and the dialectal variations within Lusoga itself, particularly between Lutenga and Lupakoyo. This paper examines the role of NLU-based MT systems in overcoming these challenges by shifting from word-for-word mapping to meaning-based translations, enabling better handling of these dialectal differences. We highlight the success of leveraging linguistic similarities between Lusoga and related languages, such as Luganda, to improve translation performance through multilingual transfer learning techniques. Key advancements include the use of transformer-based architectures such as Multilingual Bidirectional and Auto-Regressive Transformer (mBART) and Multilingual Text-To-Text Transfer Transformer (mT5), specifically selected for their effectiveness in NLU-driven contexts, which have shown promise in enhancing translation accuracy for African low-resource languages. However, the review also identifies ongoing obstacles, including historical low demand and the lack of well-developed corpora, which hinder scalability. The paper concludes by emphasizing the potential of hybrid approaches that combine community-driven corpus-building initiatives with improved model architectures to drive further progress in low-resource MT. Ultimately, NLU-MT is positioned as a crucial tool not only for bridging communication gaps but also for preserving linguistic diversity and cultural heritage.

Self-Repair in Tigrinya: Trouble Sources, Mechanisms and Solutions

This paper analyzes conversational self-repair, which refers to reconstructing problematic portions of a prior oral discourse by oneself, in Tigrinya. Tigrinya is a Northern Ethio-Eritrean-Semitic language spoken by the inhabitants of the Tigray regional state of Ethiopia and Eritrea. This article relies on recorded oral data from speakers of the Rayya Tigrinya variety, particularly inhabitants of Neksege located to the West of Maichew. A conversational analysis (CA) approach is used to analyze the trouble sources, mechanisms (initiators), and results of self-repair. The article shows that pronunciation problems emanating from dialectal variation or tongue slip, wrong word order including focus misplacement, missing constituents, perceived misunderstandings, and using (totally) wrong constituents are some of the trouble sources that push speakers to repair portions of a prior oral utterance. On top of that, cut-offs, particles, and lexemes (one verbal noun and some predicates) are identified as self-repair initiators. Though cut-offs do not indicate a self-repair, particles and predicates may sometimes indicate a self-repair. Finally, the article posits that expanding, replacing, re-ordering, aborting and restarting, and inserting are some of the solutions set for the repairable segments in the repaired portions of the oral discourse. The author recommends for further investigation repair in the process of language acquisition and learning, and the relationship between self-repair and the demographic features of participants.

The Challenges in Learning ICAO Radiotelephony: Students' Perspective

This study investigates challenges faced by Batch 13 Air Traffic Control (ATC) students at Politeknik Penerbangan Surabaya in mastering standardized ICAO Radiotelephony skills. Through qualitative methods like interviews, observations, and document analysis, the research uncovers various hurdles, from linguistic complexities to practical issues. Students struggle with English proficiency, accent variations, and applying phraseologies in real-world scenarios. The study highlights the importance of continuous practice and peer collaboration in overcoming these obstacles, emphasizing interactive pedagogy's role in fostering professional skills. By building on existing research, the thesis offers insights for aviation education enhancement, advocating tailored approaches to accommodate diverse learning needs. It calls for an inclusive learning environment to facilitate effective mastery of ICAO Radiotelephony skills.

Digital Evolution: Exploring the Impact of Social Media on Local Dialects and Lexicon; An Examination of Central Kurdish Language

This study suggests a digital linguistic approach to multi-mediated communication (MMC), drawing on a case study of language variation on social media. In the early 21st century, social media (SM) has significantly impacted various aspects of human life, including language, as articulated within the theoretical framework of digital linguistics and language variation. This study explores the influence of SM on Kurdish local dialects in Iraqi Kurdistan, with a focus on vocabulary evolution and the ongoing challenge of dialect standardization. Given the high unemployment rates in Iraq, which have led to increased SM engagement, this research examines how these platforms affect dialect usage across diverse demographic groups. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the study integrates qualitative content analysis and quantitative surveys to assess SM's role in shaping linguistic practices. Findings reveal thatolder generations are more likely to maintain traditional dialects, while younger users increasingly adopt standardized Kurdish forms. The study highlights SM's dual impact: promoting linguistic convergence while posing risks to dialectal diversity. It emphasizes the need for a balanced approach that supports regional dialects alongside the benefits of standardization, advocating for strategic initiatives to preserve linguistic heritage while adapting to digital influences.

Advancing AI-Driven Linguistic Analysis: Developing and Annotating Comprehensive Arabic Dialect Corpora for Gulf Countries and Saudi Arabia

This study harnesses the linguistic diversity of Arabic dialects to create two expansive corpora from X (formerly Twitter). The Gulf Arabic Corpus (GAC-6) includes around 1.7 million tweets from six Gulf countries—Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, and Bahrain—capturing a wide range of linguistic variations. The Saudi Dialect Corpus (SDC-5) comprises 790,000 tweets, offering in-depth insights into five major regional dialects of Saudi Arabia: Hijazi, Najdi, Southern, Northern, and Eastern, reflecting the complex linguistic landscape of the region. Both corpora are thoroughly annotated with dialect-specific seed words and geolocation data, achieving high levels of accuracy, as indicated by Cohen’s Kappa scores of 0.78 for GAC-6 and 0.90 for SDC-5. The annotation process leverages AI-driven techniques, including machine learning algorithms for automated dialect recognition and feature extraction, to enhance the granularity and precision of the data. These resources significantly contribute to the field of Arabic dialectology and facilitate the development of AI algorithms for linguistic data analysis, enhancing AI system design and efficiency. The data provided by this research are crucial for advancing AI methodologies, supporting diverse applications in the realm of next-generation AI technologies.

Tracce d’uso del pronome dimostrativo espletivo nelle varietà d’italiano vernacolare fiorentino e pistoiese

This research into the expletive demonstrative pronouns consists of a comparison between the varieties of Italian language in Florence and Pistoia and the dialect of Salerno. The linguistic analysis points out the use of this pronouns like extra-phrasal elements with explicative semantic function. They are used only during the conversations, but not in the monologues. unlike the expletive pronouns in the non-pro-drop languages like English, French and Northern Italian dialects, in which these pronouns are expressed in both situations. The form quello, I have observed in the varieties of Italian Language of Florence and Pistoia, as well as chello/chillo I have observed in the dialectal variety of Salerno, correspond to the expressions il fatto è che.../sta di fatto che… In italian language spoken in Florence and Pistoia the expletive demonstrative pronoun quello is exclusively used in the initial position of the main clauses, otherwise in the dialect of Salerno it can occur also in the causal, temporal and completive clauses, in which the expletive demonstrative pronouns occupy the subject (or topic) position between the complementizer and the verb and they are used with explicative semantic function and their use is optional and limited to the conversation.

Dynamic acoustic vowel distances within and across dialects.

Vowels vary in their acoustic similarity across regional dialects of American English, such that some vowels are more similar to one another in some dialects than others. Acoustic vowel distance measures typically evaluate vowel similarity at a discrete time point, resulting in distance estimates that may not fully capture vowel similarity in formant trajectory dynamics. In the current study, language and accent distance measures, which evaluate acoustic distances between talkers over time, were applied to the evaluation of vowel category similarity within talkers. These vowel category distances were then compared across dialects, and their utility in capturing predicted patterns of regional dialect variation in American English was examined. Dynamic time warping of mel-frequency cepstral coefficients was used to assess acoustic distance across the frequency spectrum and captured predicted Southern American English vowel similarity. Root-mean-square distance and generalized additive mixed models were used to assess acoustic distance for selected formant trajectories and captured predicted Southern, New England, and Northern American English vowel similarity. Generalized additive mixed models captured the most predicted variation, but, unlike the other measures, do not return a single acoustic distance value. All three measures are potentially useful for understanding variation in vowel category similarity across dialects.

The effect of board chairs’ hometown identity on labor cost stickiness

In this study, we examine the impact of board chairs' hometown identity on labor cost stickiness in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Using data from China, our findings demonstrate that local board chairs can effectively mitigate labor cost stickiness by leveraging their communication advantages. Mechanism analyses reveal that local board chairs primarily achieve this through salary reductions rather than layoffs. We validate two plausible channels, cultural alignment and social trust, through a series of heterogeneity tests. Our results indicate that the influence of board chairs' hometown identity is more pronounced in SOEs located in provinces with smaller dialect diversity, less population mobility, and lower social trust levels, as well as those led by board chairs without overseas experience, serving longer terms, and far from retirement. Overall, this study contributes to existing literature by providing empirical evidence on how board chairs’ hometown identity facilitates the alleviation of labor cost stickiness in SOEs.

Study of Differences in Arabic Lahjah: Dialectal Variations in Various Arab Countries

<p>Arab countries have a wide varity of dialects, which are varieties of Arabic that arise from the different ways of speaking of Arab Communities in Different regions that have different places of residence and socio-cultural needs. Arabic dialects have unique characteristics in each country, affecting daily communication and the culture of the local community. This research aims to identify Arabic dialect variations (<em>Lahjah Arabiyah</em>) descriptively. This research is ad descriptive qualitative based on literature study. Researchers collected data related to the variety of Arabic dialects through documentation, namely by reviewing texts from various printed books and scientific journal articles.</p>

How Balanced Is Multilingualism in Scholarly Journals? A Global Analysis Using the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) Database

The concept of balanced multilingualism aims to establish “instruments for documenting and measuring the use of language for all the different purposes in research, thereby providing the basis for the monitoring of further globalization of research in a more responsible direction” (Sivertsen, 2018, p. 2). However, an analysis of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the largest database of fully open access journals produced in 130 countries, does not show balanced multilingualism in the global landscape. The DOAJ promotes linguistic diversity by indexing journals in 80 languages, including dialectal variations, indigenous languages, and languages spoken by less than 50,000 speakers (eg, Aragonese). In this article, we present the main trends related to the languages in which journals publish their full-text contributions to respond to this unbalanced landscape. We conducted a descriptive analysis of the 17,564 journals listed in the DOAJ (July 2023). Our findings show that 65% (11,331) of the journals listed publish only in one language, and 35% (6,234) publish in two, three, and up to 16 languages. Our research also shows that 50% of the multilingual journals are based in Asia, Southern and Eastern Europe, and Latin America.

Discourse markers of rejection in three varieties of Spanish

In the study of discourse markers in Spanish, a field with great vitality in the last few decades, it is common to overlook the expressions used to accept or reject a proposal, suggestion or petition, often included within the broader functions of agreement and disagreement. These answers, used in an informal oral interactive context, exhibit a rich dialectal variety. Due to the fleeting nature of their contexts of use, they are difficult to formally register for further study, especially when looking at them from a panhispanic perspective. For this reason, an anonymous survey was designed in order to ask native speakers about their familiarity with a series of discourse markers used to answer “no” to a proposal. The questionnaire was disseminated in the countries of Spain, Mexico and Colombia, specifically around the capital areas. Participants (N=223) evaluated from 1 (I do not know this expression) to 5 (I use this expression frequently) a series of possible responses, and they were offered the option to provide some other answers not included in the original list. Results show that, while some discourse markers are used to a certain degree in the three varieties, others are prototypical from one of these dialects. The opportunity to offer new expressions was very productive, especially in the case of participants from Colombia and Mexico. While this study focuses on three particular regions, it opens the door to a comparative analysis of discourse markers of negation throughout the Spanish speaking world.