Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-tnzcf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-14T20:07:54.115Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Patterns of communal language variation in Bahrain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Clive D. Holes
Clive D. Holes
Affiliation:
University of Salford, England
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Arabic-speaking speech communities of the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain are undergoing a special kind of sociolinguistic change which requires the recognition of both dialectal and supradialectal prestige systems. Variation can be accounted for in terms of the articulation/conflict of these two systems. Although it appears at first sight that all of the observed variation could be explained at the phonological level, a closer analysis of the data suggests that, psycholinguistically and sociolinguistically, a lexical explanation fits part of it better. (Variation studies, standard and nonstandard languages)

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , December 1983, pp. 433 - 457
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Blanc, H. (1964). Communal dialects in Baghdad. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Middle Eastern Monographs X.Google Scholar
De Camp, D. (1973). What do implicational scales imply? In Bailey, C.-J. & Shuy, R. W. (eds.), New ways of analyzing variation in English. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 141–48.Google Scholar
Hakken, B. D. (1933). Sunni—Shi'a discord in Eastern Arabia. Moslem World XXIII: 302–05.Google Scholar
Hansen, H. H. (1967). Investigations in a Shi'a village in Bahrain. Copenhagen: Publications of the National Museum, Ethnographical Series Vol. XII.Google Scholar
Holes, C. D. (1980). Phonological variation in Bahraini Arabic: The [j] and [y] allophones of /j/. Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik No. 4:72–89.Google Scholar
Holes, C. D. (1981). A sociolinguistic study of the Arabic-speaking speech community of Bahrain: Language variation in relation to sect membership, region and literacy. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Cambridge, England.Google Scholar
Johnstone, T. M. (1963). The affrication of kāf and gāf in the Arabic dialects of the Arabian peninsula. Journal of Semitic Studies VII(2):210–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnstone, T. M. (1965). The sound change j > y in the Arabic dialects of peninsular Arabia. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies XXVIII(2):233–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnstone, T. M. (1967). Eastern Arabian dialect studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1966). The social stratfication of English in New York City. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Nakhleh, E. A. (1976). Bahrain: Political development in a modernizing society. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Qubain, F. I. (1955). Social classes and tensions in Bahrain. Middle East Journal 9(3):269–89.Google Scholar
Rumaihi, M. G. (1976). Bahrain: Social and political change since the First World War. London and New York: Bowker.Google Scholar
Serjeant, R. B. (1968). Fisher-folk and fish-traps in al-Bahrain. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies XXXI(3):486–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
State of Bahran (1972). Ministry of Finance and Economy statistical abstract.Google Scholar