Sociolinguistic Variation and Attitudes Towards Language Behaviour in an Algerian Context: The Case of The Mascarian Speech Community

Abstract

The main purpose in the present work is to consider, in the light of recent studies in sociolinguistics, the complexities of sociolinguistic variation and attitudes towards language behaviour in the speech community of Mascara. The spoken Arabic of Mascara is regarded as a Bedouin dialect. The initial objectives in this work are to observe, analyse and discuss aspects of language variation in this area. The work describes salient features typical to this vernacular such as the use of the pragmatic particle /ma/. It also points out to some crucial sociolinguistic variations found in the speech community of Mascara. It suggests a number of instances that are considered typical to this region. In fact, based on personal observation, we noticed that the use of the particle /ma/ in the speech of Mascarians is a widespread phenomenon. We chose to categorize this particle as a negative particle. In Arabic grammar books, the interrogative pronoun /ma/ has many functions. It can be used as a relative pronoun, a preposition, or a negative particle. We are more concerned with /ma/ as a negative particle. It is also called /ma/ ‘higaziyya’ that works as /laysa/ ‘to be not’. We also suggest and sustain our suggestions with proper examples that the negative particle /ma/ that occurs in the speech of Mascarians has the function of a tag question. A number of hypotheses are exposed in this study. It seems that the use of the negative particle /ma/ in the speech of Mascarians is highly related to men, and people of higher educational level seem to avoid its use since it is highly stigmatized. Furthermore, women seem to avoid this particle /ma/, and also people with a high level of education do not use it outside their community. Our results reveal a positive insight into our hypothesis. We also found out that the degree of speech accommodation from the part of native Mascarian women and people of higher educational level is more important than that of men and people of low level of education.