Language Attitudes, Accentedness and Comprehensibility: A Sociolinguistic Study of Arabic and Arabic-Accented English
This thesis examines Jordanian attitudes toward different varieties of Arabic within the broader context of Arabic diglossia, where Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), and vernacular dialects coexist. It comprises two studies: Study 1 uses questionnaires to explore direct attitudes toward Jordanian and other Arabic dialects, finding that Jordanians generally value their own dialects especially the Urban one but still associate MSA with prestige, power, and clarity. However, younger participants rated MSA lower in prestige than older ones, and Moroccan Arabic consistently received low ratings. Study 2 uses listening experiments with Arabic and Arabic-accented English speech to investigate perceptions of status, solidarity, comprehensibility, and accentedness. Results show that listeners identify dialects more accurately in Arabic than in English, especially in spontaneous speech. Attitude patterns mirrored Study 1, and identification accuracy influenced evaluations. Listeners rated speakers more favorably when they correctly identified their dialect. Overall, the thesis highlights the intertwined roles of dialect identification, attitudes, and perception in understanding sociolinguistic variation in Arabic.