Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research University of Oran-2 Es-Sénia Faculty of Letters, Languages and Arts Department of English The Dialect(s) of Sidi Bel-Abbes : Variation, Accommodation and Change Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTORAT ès-Sciences in SOCIOLINGUISTICS Defended by Nadjouia RAOUD Under the supervision of Pr Mohamed MILIANI Co-director Pr Catherine MILLER Board of examiners Chair: Pr Lotfi BENHATTAB University of ORAN Supervisor: Pr Mohamed MILIANI University of ORAN Co-director: Pr Catherine MILLER AMU/IREMAM (Aix, France) Examiner: Pr Bakhta ABDELHAY Univ. of MOSTAGANEM Examiner: Pr Zoubir DENDANE University of TLEMCEN - October 2016 - i Declaration Declaration for Doctorat ès sciences I undersign that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part by any other person. I also certify that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of any author has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: RAOUD Nadjouia October 2016 ii The Dialect(s) of Sidi Bel-Abbes: Variation, Accommodation and Change Abstract The present research deals with contact-induced dialectal variation and change among Belabbesi speakers of rural origin and, to a lesser extent, among those of Tlemceni origin, thus raising issues relating to the formation of new dialects, the question of prestige dialects and the direction of change in the new urban vernacular of Sidi Bel-Abbes. In addition to the phonological level -interdentals/dentals, namely- on which several contemporary studies have previously focused, this work attempts an analysis of other linguistic level features: morpho-syntactic and semantic features. The data collected during over 7 years are based on analyses of interviews and life accounts by more than 300 speakers, of which the speech of 125 consultants is further scrutinized. To investigate dialectal change, two approaches are adopted: real-time and apparent-time observations. The corpuses collected on the field are constituted of notes and diaries based mainly on participant observation, recorded face-to-face and telephone conversations with speakers by means of indirect, semi-directive and directive interviews as well as large-scale and small-scale surveys. Investigations on the field reveal that the question of the development of the dialect of Sidi Bel-Abbes is not a straightforward one: on the one hand, the inhabitants use a relatively “uniform” dialect, with its regional features; on the other, they display speech characteristic of urban places. Because of the complex situation of Arab (and Arabic-speaking) countries, studies on dialectal contact in these situations have suggested various scenarios as to the direction of the change. In this study, variation and change were first handled within a variationist framework, which proved insufficient in explaining variation and change. A three-generational model of migration time was then tested, and there again, both inter-personal and intra-personal discrepancies sprang out, as other factors were responsible for variation and change in Sidi Bel-Abbes. These factors pertain to social networks and communities of practice, in addition to context of situation, attitudes, and representations, whereby speakers -irrespective of their communal origin- are seen to take different trajectories, evidence of the need for a more complex, anthropological/ethnographic analysis. In this thesis, the findings -based on analyses of 13 linguistic features- unveil that a new urban dialect is emerging in Sidi Bel-Abbes, with the 20-29 year-old educated speakers in the lead, though neither education nor young age per se promotes dialectal change. Rather, it is a combination of factors that come into play to enhance or inhibit dialectal change in Sidi Bel-Abbes. iii Acknowledgements I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, Professor Mohamed Miliani, without whose academic spirit and support this work would not have been possible. My sincere thanks go to Professor Catherine Miller for having kindly accepted to co-direct this thesis, and for her guidance and insightful comments. Many scholars at the IREMAM (Institut de Recherches et Études sur le Monde Arabe et Musulman) were particularly inspiring through their seminars and conferences: Ghislaine Alleaume, IREMAM's former director, for her high-quality seminars (and invaluable help in the Excel analyses); Belguidoum for granting me his precious time with discussions on the sociology of the region of Oran; Salem Chaker for the Berber linguistics seminars; Pierre Larcher and Frédéric Imbert for the Arabic linguistics seminars. Other scholars were extremely encouraging right at the beginning of (and for some of them all throughout) this project; among these are Professor Martin Atkinson, my Master's degree supervisor, Féthi Hassaine, Philippe Blanchet, Louis-Jean Calvet, Dominique Caubet, Enam Al-Wer, Zoubir Dendane, Sidi Mohamed Lakhdar-Barka, David Britain, Atiqa Hachimi, Bakhta Abdelhay, Niloofar Haeri, Dalila Morsly and Cherif Sini. I also wish to present my deepest thanks to Ms Annie Rinaudo for having facilitated my settling in Aix-en-Provence; Mohamed for being there during the holidays when I needed to use the IREMAM doctorants office; and Céline and Christelle for their countless “invitations”. I would like to thank the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research for their financial support during my 11-month study stay in Aix-en-Provence. I thank my family and friends for their unconditional love and support. It would be impossible to name everyone who supported this project, but I would like to express my deepest gratefulness to my consultants from Sidi Bel-Abbes and Tlemcen, namely, for their hospitality and generosity all throughout these long years of research. All the people who, directly or indirectly, contributed to the fulfilment of this work, will find the expression of my entire gratefulness. iv CONTENTS Declaration …………………………………………………………………………….………ii Abstract...................………………………………………………………………………..….iii Acknowlegements......................................................................................................................iv Table of contents …………………………………………………………………………........v List of tables........................................................................................................................... xiii List of figures……………………………………………………………………….....……..xiv Key to abbreviations and acronyms..........................................................................................xv Phonetic symbols...…………………………………………………………………………..xvi General Introduction ………………………………………………………………………...1 1. Arabic dialectology and sociolinguistics …………………………………………..11 1.1 Introduction ……...………………………………………………………………12 1.2 Dialect genesis ……………………………………………………...……………13 1.2.1 Koineisation ………………………………………………..………….…13 1.2.2 The language drift hypothesis ……………………………………………14 1.2.3 The pidginization hypothesis……………………………………………..15 1.2.4 The Maghribi language: Elimam ……………………………………...…15 1.3 Early studies in Arabic variation …………………………………………………15 1.4 The beginnings of Arabic dialectology …………………………………………..16 1.4.1 Bedouin/sedentary and rural/urban dialects …………………………...…17 1.4.2 The early pioneers in Arabic dialectology …………………………….…18 1.4.3 Diglossia ………………………………………………………………….19 1.4.3.1 William Marçais …………………………….………………………..19 1.4.3.2 Ferguson ………………………………………………..…………….20 1.4.4 The stratified model ……………………………………………………...20 1.4.5 The codeswiching/continuum model …………………………………….21 1.5 Recent developments in Arabic sociolinguistics ………………………………...22 1.5.1 Variationist studies in the Middle-East …………………………………..22 v 1.5.2 Dialectology/Sociolinguistics and urban studies in the MENA region…..24 1.6 Dialects in contact and new urban vernaculars…………………………………...25 1.6.1 Accommodation and koineisation in Arab countries …………………….26 1.6.2 Accommodation between speakers of different Arabic countries ……….28 1.6.3 Arabic in cities : resistance, history, and identity ………………………..29 1.6.4 Religious and communal dialects ………………………………………..29 1.6.5 Social networks, social mixing, and flexibility of variables..…………….31 1.6.6 Education and communal dialects: interdentals and the q variable..……..31 1.6.6.1 Interdentals …………………………………………………….……..31 1.6.6.2 The q variable ……………………………………………………….. 32 1.6.7 Men, women, and dialectal change ………………………………………34 1.7 Some “scenarios” for the development of Arabic urban vernaculars ……………35 1.8 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………….36 2. Setting the stage ……………………………………………………………………. 37 2.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………….….38 2.2 The linguistic situation in Algeria ………………………………………….…..38 2.2.1 Languages in Algeria ………………………………………...…………..38 2.2.1.1 Ethnologue‘s list ……………………………………………………..39 2.2.1.2 Arabic ……………………………………………………..………….41 2.2.1.3 Berber / Tamazight …………………………………………………...43 2.2.1.4 French ……………………………………………………………...…44 2.2.1.5 The legal status of languages in Algeria ……………………………..44 2.2.2 Linguistic Diversity in Algeria …………………………………………..45 2.2.3 Language change in Algeria ……………………………………………...47 2.3 The city of Sidi Bel-Abbes ……………………………………………………….48 2.3.1 Geography ………………………………………………………………..48 vi 2.3.2 History ……………………………………………………………………51 2.3.2.1 The Berbers ………………………………………………………..…51 2.3.2.2 The Romans…………………………………………………………..51 2.3.2.3 The