‘Ibrī is located half-way in between Mascat and Dubai, and is very close to the Emirates border. This proximity facilitates young male citizens that look for job opportunities in the rich Emirates. Effectively, it is easy to find an occupation beyond the border: in Dubai, for the business sector; in Buraymi or Al-‘Ain for administration or health sector related professions (health sector for female nurses too); in various locations across the Emirates if serving as military or police staff (airport and border police includes female staff too). ‘Ibrī speakers, the majority of whom come back home after work, have daily contacts with their Gulf neighbours. This style of life makes the speech of ‘Ibrī inhabitants critical for developing two levels of analysis: 1-features of the ‘Ibrī Spoken Arabic, in the general frame of Omani Arabic; 2-tracks of contamination among Gulf variants, due to both recent and historically motivated ‘contacts and changes.’ Several pairs of variables must be taken into account: social, referring to badawiyy or ḥaḍariyy; geographical, referring to the inner part of the country, or to west/east and north/south sides. In principle, the area of ‘Ibri should be “ḥaḍariyy of the north”. Nevertheless, we find elements that go beyond this classification. Phonology, for example, shows a series of combinatorial possibilities that hardly fit a schematic and annotated classification; then, we may also find the gahwah syndrome in occasional ‘Ibri speeches. According to what emerged from my collection of data in the city, I offer here a general morpho-phonological description of the local register. I also provide unpublished Omani texts, composed by teachers of “dialect”, with examples of syntax and lexicon. I intend to demonstrate how strong is the mismatching between political and linguistic borders in the Gulf area.

The spoken Omani Arabic of ‘Ibrī : A “Crossing Point” in Gulf dialects / Lombezzi, Letizia. - ELETTRONICO. - (2019), pp. 516-525. (Intervento presentato al convegno The 12th International Conference of AIDA tenutosi a Marseille nel 2017, 30/05-02/06).

The spoken Omani Arabic of ‘Ibrī : A “Crossing Point” in Gulf dialects

Letizia Lombezzi
2019

Abstract

‘Ibrī is located half-way in between Mascat and Dubai, and is very close to the Emirates border. This proximity facilitates young male citizens that look for job opportunities in the rich Emirates. Effectively, it is easy to find an occupation beyond the border: in Dubai, for the business sector; in Buraymi or Al-‘Ain for administration or health sector related professions (health sector for female nurses too); in various locations across the Emirates if serving as military or police staff (airport and border police includes female staff too). ‘Ibrī speakers, the majority of whom come back home after work, have daily contacts with their Gulf neighbours. This style of life makes the speech of ‘Ibrī inhabitants critical for developing two levels of analysis: 1-features of the ‘Ibrī Spoken Arabic, in the general frame of Omani Arabic; 2-tracks of contamination among Gulf variants, due to both recent and historically motivated ‘contacts and changes.’ Several pairs of variables must be taken into account: social, referring to badawiyy or ḥaḍariyy; geographical, referring to the inner part of the country, or to west/east and north/south sides. In principle, the area of ‘Ibri should be “ḥaḍariyy of the north”. Nevertheless, we find elements that go beyond this classification. Phonology, for example, shows a series of combinatorial possibilities that hardly fit a schematic and annotated classification; then, we may also find the gahwah syndrome in occasional ‘Ibri speeches. According to what emerged from my collection of data in the city, I offer here a general morpho-phonological description of the local register. I also provide unpublished Omani texts, composed by teachers of “dialect”, with examples of syntax and lexicon. I intend to demonstrate how strong is the mismatching between political and linguistic borders in the Gulf area.
2019
The 12th International Conference of AIDA
Oman; Gulf Arabic; transitional dialect; ḥaḍariyy; badawiyy
04 Pubblicazione in atti di convegno::04b Atto di convegno in volume
The spoken Omani Arabic of ‘Ibrī : A “Crossing Point” in Gulf dialects / Lombezzi, Letizia. - ELETTRONICO. - (2019), pp. 516-525. (Intervento presentato al convegno The 12th International Conference of AIDA tenutosi a Marseille nel 2017, 30/05-02/06).
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1219237
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