An Initial Sociolinguistic Analysis of Aljouf Dialect

Abstract

This paper presents an initial sociolinguistic analysis of the varieties of Saudi Arabic spoken in the Aljouf region. The main objective of the paper is to uncover some of the sociolinguistic aspects characterizing the Jouf dialect as distinct from other Arabic variants in Saudi Arabic. Word lists and interviews were used for collecting data in Aljouf and four other areas, namely Ha’il, Alhijaz, Jazan, and Alkhubar. Four other dialects were included to provide a comparative dimension for the analysis, which was expected to consolidate the findings. Students enrolled in the sociolinguistics course at Jouf University participated actively in the process of data collection. The main criteria for selecting students were an affiliation with Aljouf and the named comparable regions. Results suggest that there are clear dialectal differences between the Aljouf dialect and the four other dialects. Variations in lexical choice were found to be relatively large between regions. Specifically, the differences between the Aljouf dialect and the Jazan dialect are greater than those between the Aljouf dialect and the Ha’il dialect. Age and gender differences were found to be significant among speakers of the Aljouf dialect. The speech of men and women proved to be slightly different with regard to certain lexical choices. Men and women used certain words that were exclusive to each sex. Speech variants between young men and women were reported by a considerable number of subjects. Slang and swearing, on the other hand, were identified as characterizing the speech of young males, who tended to use these words less as they approached adulthood.