Social Variables and Dialectal Shifts: A Study of Linguistic Changes in Karbala and Baghdad
Mustafa Talib Mutashar Jabri
1
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Bahram Hadian
2
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Raad Shakir AbdulHasan AlNawas
3
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Atefeh Sadat Mirsaeedi
4
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Keywords: Social variables, dialectal shifts, Karbala dialect, Baghdad dialect, phonological, syntactic, and semantic features,
Abstract :
This study investigates the impact of education, age, and gender on linguistic changes within the dialects of Karbala and Baghdad, Iraq. Utilizing a sociolinguistic approach, the research analyzes how these social variables influence phonological, syntactic, and semantic features. A mixed-methods design was employed, gathering data from 192 participants in both cities, encompassing urban and rural environments. The findings highlight education and age as critical factors driving dialectal variations, with urban populations showing a stronger tendency to adopt standardized linguistic forms. Younger generations, particularly in urban settings, lead the shift toward prestigious urban language norms. Gender also plays a significant role, with female speakers more likely to adopt prestigious language forms. These results contribute to the understanding of dialectal evolution in Iraq and align with broader trends in Arabic sociolinguistics, highlighting the interplay between social factors and language change.
Linguistic change is an inevitable consequence of the dynamic interaction between language and society. In many communities, language evolves in response to various social forces, such as education, age, gender, and geographic location. In the case of Iraq, the cities of Karbala and Baghdad offer an ideal context to study how these social variables influence dialectal features. Baghdad, as the capital and a cosmopolitan center, represents urban linguistic prestige and is a hub of linguistic innovation. Karbala, with its more traditional and religious atmosphere, exhibits a different set of linguistic characteristics, especially in its rural regions.
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