Modernity, Migration and Minorities: Three Case Studies of Arabic in Contact

变异和变化之间的密切关系是拉波夫社会语言学定量方法的“创始”思想之一，它继续为该领域的许多研究提供信息。目前的项目延续了这一传统，研究了三种情况，它们不仅具有内在的社会语言学价值，而且在迅速变化的现代世界中具有特殊地位。大规模的移民使人们越来越多地接触到新的社会语言环境，其语言影响是显而易见的，但往往不被重视和低估。在阿拉伯语的总体统一性，三个详细的案例研究将使用经典的比较社会语言学方法的基础上大规模的口语语料库进行检查。其中两个个案研究涉及离开家园进入新的语言环境的人口。2015年至2018年期间，大量叙利亚和伊拉克难民移居德国，2011年开始的博科圣地叛乱之后，同样大量的尼日利亚农村阿拉伯人被迫离开家园，进入难民营，阿利亚是在尼日利亚东北部的迈杜古里。第三个例子是Siwan Berbers，自1980年以来，埃及外来者大规模移民到Siwa绿洲，这创造了新的社会语言现实。而在老年人中，第二语言阿拉伯语的模式是一种接近东利比亚阿拉伯语的Shahibat贝都因方言，而对于年轻人来说，埃及语（Cairene）正在成为主导模式。使用经典的“明显的时间”结构，以确定在一个语音社区的变化程度，从每个品种的人口分层语料库将被记录，转录，并进行标准的定量社会语言学分析。就尼日利亚和锡瓦而言，将研究一个方言/族裔群体，而就德国而言，伊拉克和叙利亚阿拉伯人最初将至少作为单独的人口群体对待。虽然每个社会语言学背景是不同的，语言接触通常与方言/语言维护/转变或koineization，这些结构通知当前的项目。据推测，koineization将是尼日利亚和德国的情况下，与年轻的扬声器领导适应当地的现实所定义的新规范的结果。另一方面，在锡瓦绿洲的阿拉伯语L2 Siwan柏柏尔人跨代比较预计将记录从贝都因人到埃及（开罗式）L2阿拉伯语的转变。利益的另一个层面是所有三个群体都是少数群体，这可能会影响一个特定群体的发展。这种严格控制，精心构思的研究有望扩大我们对当代世界阿拉伯语口语动态的许多因素的理解，并将其嵌入更大的移民，接触和语言变化领域。

The intimate relation between variation and change was one of the "founding" ideas of Labov’s quantitative approach to sociolinguistics, and it continues to inform much research in the field. The current project continues this tradition examining three situations which, are exemplary not only for their intrinsic sociolinguistic value, but also for their special status within a rapidly changing modern world. Large scale migration increasingly brings populations into contact with new sociolinguistic environments whose linguistic effects are palpable, but often unappreciated and underdescribed. Within the overarching unity of Arabic, three detailed case studies will be examined using classic comparative sociolinguistic methodology based on large-scale oral corpora. Two of the case studies deal with populations which have been displaced from their homelands and into new linguistic environments. Large numbers of Syrian and Iraqi refugees moved to Germany between 2015-18, and similarly large numbers of rural Nigerian Arabs in the wake of the Bokko Haram insurgency beginning in 2011 were forced out of their home areas and into refugee camps, inter alia in Maiduguri in NE Nigeria. In the third case of Siwan Berbers it is large-scale immigration of Egyptian outsiders into the Siwa Oasis since 1980 which has created new sociolinguistic realities. Whereas among older speakers the model of L2 Arabic was a Shahibat Bedouin dialect close to Eastern Libyan Arabic, for younger ones Egyptian (Cairene) is becoming the dominant model. Using the classic "apparent time" construct to ascertain degree of change within a speech community, demographically stratified corpora from each variety will be recorded, transcribed, and subjected to standard quantitative sociolinguistic analysis. In the case of Nigeria and Siwa one dialectal/ethnic group will be studied whereas for Germany, Iraqi and Syrian Arabs will be treated initially at least as separate populations. While each sociolinguistic context is different, language contact is typically associated either with dialect/language maintenance/shift or koineization, and these constructs inform the current project. It is hypothesized that koineization will be the outcome of the Nigerian and German situations, with younger speakers leading the adaptation to new norms defined by local realities. On the other hand, in the Siwa Oasis for Arabic L2 Siwan Berbers cross-generational comparison is expected to document a shift from a Bedouin to Egyptian (Cairene-like) L2 Arabic. An added dimension of interest is the status of all three groups as minority ones, which might, for instance, influence how a koineized variety develops. This tightly controlled, empirically-conceived study promises to expand our understanding of the many factors impinging on the dynamics of spoken Arabic in the contemporary world, and to embed it within the larger domain of migration, contact and language change.