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

变异与变化之间的密切关系是Labov社会语言学定量方法的“创始”思想之一，并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，不仅因为它们内在的社会语言学价值，而且因为它们在快速变化的现代世界中的特殊地位。大规模移民日益使人口接触到新的社会语言学环境，这些环境的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一，三个详细的案例研究将使用基于大规模口语语料库的经典比较社会语言学方法进行检查。其中两个案例研究涉及从其家园流离失所并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年博科圣地（boko Haram）叛乱开始后，大量尼日利亚农村阿拉伯人被迫离开家乡，进入难民营，尤其是尼日利亚东北部的迈杜古里。在锡瓦柏柏尔人的第三个例子中，自1980年以来，大批埃及外来者移民到锡瓦绿洲，创造了新的社会语言学现实。然而，在老年人中，第二语言阿拉伯语的模式是一种接近利比亚东部阿拉伯语的沙希巴特贝都因方言，而对年轻人来说，埃及语（开罗语）正成为主导模式。使用经典的“表观时间”结构来确定语言社区内的变化程度，从人口统计学上对每种语料库进行记录、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，而对于德国、伊拉克和叙利亚阿拉伯人，最初将至少作为单独的人口来对待。虽然每个社会语言学背景都是不同的，但语言接触通常与方言/语言维护/转移或共同化有关，这些结构为当前的项目提供了信息。据推测，尼日利亚和德国的情况将导致koineization，年轻的发言者领导适应当地现实所定义的新规范。另一方面，在锡瓦绿洲的阿拉伯语第二语言中，锡万柏柏尔人的跨代比较有望记录从贝都因人到埃及（开罗式）第二语言阿拉伯语的转变。另一个有趣的方面是这三个群体作为少数群体的地位，例如，这可能会影响一个koineized品种的发展。这项严格控制的、基于经验的研究有望扩大我们对影响当代世界阿拉伯语口语动态的诸多因素的理解，并将其纳入更大的移民、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.