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Somali Dialects in the United States: How Intelligible Is Af-Maay to Speakers of Af-Maxaa? Deqa Hassan Minnesota State University - Mankato

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Somali Dialects in the United States: How Intelligible Is Af-Maay to Speakers of Af-Maxaa? Deqa Hassan Minnesota State University - Mankato Minnesota State University, Mankato Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects 2011 Somali Dialects in the United States: How Intelligible is Af-Maay to Speakers of Af-Maxaa? Deqa Hassan Minnesota State University - Mankato Follow this and additional works at: http://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds Part of the Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons Recommended Citation Hassan, Deqa, "Somali Dialects in the United States: How Intelligible is Af-Maay to Speakers of Af-Maxaa?" (2011). Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects. Paper 276. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects by an authorized administrator of Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. Somali Dialects in the United States: How Intelligible is Af-Maay to Speakers of Af- Maxaa? By Deqa M. Hassan A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts In English: Teaching English as a Second Language Minnesota State University, Mankato Mankato, Minnesota July 2011 ii Somali Dialects in the United States: How Intelligible is Af-Maay to Speakers of Af- Maxaa? Deqa M. Hassan This thesis has been examined and approved by the following members of the thesis committee. Dr. Karen Lybeck, Advisor Dr. Harry Solo iii ABSTRACT Somali Dialects in the United States: How Intelligible is Af-Maay to Speakers of Af-Maxaa? By Deqa M. Hassan M.A. English: TESL Minnesota State University, Mankato Mankato, Minnesota The objective of this study was to determine the degree of intelligibility of Af- Maay to Somali university student speakers (n=21) of Af-Maxaa in the United States by implementing a perceived intelligibility test. The investigator aimed to test whether time spent in the United States, language contact with Af-Maay speakers, native Somali dialect, or the region of origin in Somalia affected the intelligibility of Af-Maay. The one-sample t-test showed that Af-Maay is partially intelligible to speakers of Af-Maxaa; t(21)=4.623, p=.000. This appears to agree with Crystal‟s (1987) Type 5 language- dialect relationship category, where there is a partial intelligibility due to the overlapping history between Af-Maay and Af-Maxaa speakers. The results of the Pearson‟s correlation coefficient revealed statistically significant associations between the participants‟ level of understanding of Af-Maay and Standard Somali, their association with Af-Maay speakers, and their time spent in the United States. These results imply that there is a combination of linguistic and non-linguistic factors influencing the intelligibility of Af-Maay. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank everyone who helped me with this thesis. I am grateful to my committee members for taking time out of their hectic schedules to provide helpful feedback, especially Dr. Karen Lybeck, who helped me tremendously with her continuous support and guidance throughout the entire process. I would also like to thank my family and friends for always encouraging me, and lastly all the participants in the study as their inputs were invaluable to this thesis. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................................9 Classifying language varieties based on linguistic factors ..............................................9 Structural Differences ..................................................................................................9 Phonology ..............................................................................................................10 Vowels. ..............................................................................................................11 Grammar. ...............................................................................................................12 Morphology........................................................................................................13 Syntax ................................................................................................................15 Classifying language varieties based on non-linguistic factors .....................................15 Ethnicity and geography. ...........................................................................................16 Politics........................................................................................................................18 Non-linguistic criteria to differentiate language varieties. ........................................18 Vitality ...................................................................................................................19 Historicity. .............................................................................................................20 Standardization. .....................................................................................................21 vi Autonomy. .............................................................................................................25 Reduction. ..............................................................................................................26 Mixture. ..................................................................................................................26 De facto linguistic norms .......................................................................................26 Mutual intelligibility tests ..............................................................................................27 Functional mutual intelligibility testing. ....................................................................28 Opinion/Perceived mutual intelligibility testing ........................................................29 Summary ........................................................................................................................30 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .....................................................................................33 Participants .....................................................................................................................33 Data Collection: Online Survey .....................................................................................35 Data Analysis .................................................................................................................37 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS ...................................................................................................40 Data assumption results .................................................................................................41 The effects of mutual intelligibility in Standard Somali ................................................47 The effects of region in Somali and years spent in the United States ............................47 The effects of spoken dialect and language contact with Af-Maay speakers ................48 Summary ........................................................................................................................48 DISCUSSION ....................................................................................................................49 vii How intelligible is Af-Maay to Somali university student speakers of Af-Maxaa living in the United States? ......................................................................................................50 What type of language-dialect relationship does Af-Maay have with Af-Maxaa? .......51 Is the degree of intelligibility of Af-Maay to speakers of Af-Maxaa due solely to linguistic factors, non-linguistic factors, or a combination of both? .............................52 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................54 Limitations of the study and implications for future research .......................................55 Implications....................................................................................................................57 APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................58 Appendix A: Online Consent Form ...............................................................................58 Appendix B: Online Survey Questions ..........................................................................59 Appendix C: English Translation/Numerical Points......................................................60 Appendix D: Quantified Demographic Answers ...........................................................61 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................62 viii LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1.1 Language-dialect Relationships ...........................................................................4 Table 2.1 Phonological Differences between
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