Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research Ahmed Draia University-Adrar Faculty of Arts and Languages Department of English Language and Literature Sociolinguistic Investigation of Dialect Contact and Accommodation in Adrar City Research Paper Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for a Master’s Degree in Linguistics and Didactics | Presented by: | Supervised by: Kaci Mahammed Lynda Pr. Bachir Bouhania Board of Examiners Prof./ Mahieddine Rachid Chairman Prof./ Bouhania Bachir Supervisor and Rapporteur Mr./ Boukli-Hacene Reda Examiner ⌠Academic Year: 2019 – 2020⌡ Dedication This dissertation is dedicated To the memory of the precious people that I lost this year My grandmother Lamara Mohamed Ouardia and my father’s uncle Kaci Mahammed Amar. To All my beloved family, my parents and my little brother Mohamed. To my beloved friends Asma, Imane, Wissem, Ahlam, Dihia and Manal. Thank you all for your support and encouragement. II ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Firstly, I cannot express my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to my teacher and supervisor, Pr. Bachir Bouhania for his continued patience, care, support, motivation, and immense knowledge. The compilation of this work would not have been possible without his guidance. Secondly, I would like convey my sincere gratitude to Dr. Boukhechba Hicham for his help to me throughout all the stages of research, and to my colleagues Asma Benrezkallah, Manal Bouchikhi, and Dribat Abdurahmane, as well for their patience, tender and support to me. Sincere thanks goes to all the families that welcomed me and were so helpful and generous during this research though it was risky because of the corona virus pandemic. I am sure that without their precious opportunity and support it would not be possible to conduct this research. Last but not least, I would like to thank also all my teachers at the English Department especially Pr. Borsali, Mr, Kaddouci, Mr, Boukli, Mr, Boubekeur and my classmates for their help in my whole five years journey. III Abstract The current research aims to investigate contact and long-term accommodation between dialects. In this regard, this paper takes a narrow perspective to investigate the situation by cranking the microscope into how long marriage affects language use of exogamic couples in Adrar, focusing on lexical convergence and divergence. This research uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate and observe language use of nine couples and two widows using three data collection techniques: interviews, focus group interview and phone call observation in order to elicit lexis used by the couple and for comprehending social and socio- psychological reasons behind shifting from one dialect to another. The results show that not all wives adopt more expressions from their husbands’ speech style. Next, when wives talk to one of their hometown members, they shift back to their mother dialect with a difference in some terms that they adopted from the entourage of the husband. Moreover, wives from regions that are located away from Adrar adopt less lexis than wives from close regions to Adrar do. Finally, it shows that power, prestige, identity and attitude are the major factors of lexical convergence and divergence between the couples. This research will show variation in Algerian dialects, in addition to the outcomes of dialect contact and accommodation in Adrar in the case of exogamic couples. Keywords: Dialect contact, long-term accommodation, lexical convergence and divergence, adaptation and adoption, exogamy. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION……………...………………………………………………...…………...….II ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……….………………..…………………………...……............III ABSTRACT…………….…………..………………………………...……………….....…..IV TABLE OF CONTENTS…………….……...……..……………………………………...….V LIST OF TABLES…………….………………..……………………...……...………..….VIII LIST OF FIGURES, MAPS, PICTURES, GRAPHS……….……………….……....…….X PHONETIC SYMBOLS…………….………………..……………….……………..….….XII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS…………….………………..……………...….……….…..XIV GENERAL INTRODUCTION…………….………………..……………………..…...…….1 CHAPTER I - AN INTRODUCTORY OVERVIEW 1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 3 1.2. Fundamental Concepts in the Study of Linguistic Variation ......................................... 3 1.3 Traditional dialectology ...................................................................................................... 4 1.4. Sociolinguistics/Modern Dialectology ............................................................................... 7 1.4.1 Variationist theory ........................................................................................................ 8 1.4.2 Social variables. ............................................................................................................. 9 1.4.3 Situational variables. .................................................................................................. 11 1.5. Macro Sociolinguistics ...................................................................................................... 13 1.5.1 Language contact ........................................................................................................ 14 1.5.2 Dialect contact ............................................................................................................. 16 1.5.2.1 Socio-psychological overlap ................................................................................. 17 1.6. Micro sociolinguistics ....................................................................................................... 18 1.6.1 Social psychological variables .................................................................................... 18 1.6.2 Accommodation Theory ............................................................................................. 19 1.6.3 Accommodation between dialects .............................................................................. 21 1.7 Conclusion………………………………………….…………………………………….22 V CHAPTER II - REGIONAL VARIATION IN ALGERIA 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 25 2.2 Regional Variation ............................................................................................................. 26 2.3 Lexical Variation ............................................................................................................... 26 2.4. Algerian Geography ......................................................................................................... 27 2.5 Algerian Arabic ................................................................................................................. 27 2.6 Varieties in the Algerian Darija ....................................................................................... 26 2.6.1 Arabic ........................................................................................................................... 26 2.6.2 Spanish and Turkish ................................................................................................... 30 2.6.3 French .......................................................................................................................... 31 2.7 Dialects in Algeria .............................................................................................................. 32 2.7.1 Adrar City Spoken Dialect ......................................................................................... 33 2.7.2 Bechar Dialect ............................................................................................................. 35 2.7.3 The Western Varieties ................................................................................................ 36 2.7.4 Northern Algerian Region (center) ........................................................................... 38 2.7.5 Northern Algerian regions (east) ............................................................................... 39 2.8 Lexical variation in Dareja ............................................................................................... 41 2.9 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 48 CHAPTER III - CASE STUDY 3.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 51 3.2. Approaches ........................................................................................................................ 51 3.3. Data collection tools .......................................................................................................... 52 3.3.1 Interview ...................................................................................................................... 52 3.3.2 Phone call ..................................................................................................................... 54 3.3.3 Focus group interview ................................................................................................ 54 3.4 Sampling techniques .......................................................................................................... 54 3.5 The sample ......................................................................................................................... 55 3.6 Ethical considerations ......................................................................................................