Language, migration, and urbanization: the case of Bethlehem
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Muhammad Amara
Abstract
The town of Bethlehem provides a unique case for testing the relations between language, migration, and urbanization. This article explores one aspect of the complex Bethlehemite case. We intend to reveal how urbanization and migration are reflected in the sociolinguistic changes of the Arabic spoken in the town. Whereas most residents formerly used a variety of Arabic similar to that spoken in Palestinian villages, emerging social identity issues seem to have produced new distinctions. Younger women and some Christian men are tending to adopt an urban pronunciation like that of nearby East Jerusalem, at the same time as the speech of younger educated Muslims is showing the growing influence of the standard variety of Arabic. By relating the use of linguistic variants to changes in identity, this study shows that Bethlehem is a town in transition, being transformed from its previous status as a Christian Arab town into an important Palestinian and dominantly Muslim city.
Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Introduction
- Language, migration, and urbanization: the case of Bethlehem
- Between accomodation and resistance: Upper Egyptian migrants in Cairo
- Hierarchicalized matrices: codeswitching among urban Nigerian Arabs
- Innovation diffusion: ‘‘Estuary English’’ and local dialect differentiation: the survival of Fenland Englishes
- New towns and koineization: linguistic and social correlates
- Town and country: when dialect meets standard in urban environments: the case of Finland Swedish
- Publications received
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Introduction
- Language, migration, and urbanization: the case of Bethlehem
- Between accomodation and resistance: Upper Egyptian migrants in Cairo
- Hierarchicalized matrices: codeswitching among urban Nigerian Arabs
- Innovation diffusion: ‘‘Estuary English’’ and local dialect differentiation: the survival of Fenland Englishes
- New towns and koineization: linguistic and social correlates
- Town and country: when dialect meets standard in urban environments: the case of Finland Swedish
- Publications received
