A Variationist Analysis of Progressive Aspect Alternatives in Jordanian Arabic

This study investigates alternative variants of progressive aspect in Jordanian Arabic (JA). The study explores to what extent the progressive aspect variants: [qaʕid] ‘to sit’, [3’am], ‘to do’, and [3mmal] ‘to be’, are constrained by the social factors of gender, age, region, and education. Drawing on Labov’s (1972) variationist sociolinguistics paradigm, a quantitative analysis of the said variants in the speech of 48 native speakers of JA was undertaken. To this effect, audio-recorded interviews of 30 hours of speech samples were analyzed by using GoldVarb X. Data analysis worked along three dimensions: the overall distribution of identified, targeted variants is presented, cross-tabulation of social factors is used to quantitatively analyze the relationship between multiple variables, and multivariate analysis is conducted to find correlations between several variables simultaneously. The study revealed that region, age, and education level significantly restrict the selection of [qaʕid] variant, while gender does not. The findings also suggest that some speakers view this variant as a marker of their identity. Moreover, the study revealed a kind of prestige associated with urban dialects, with [3’am] and [3mmal] variants being mainly used by urban speakers rather than rural ones. Finally, the findings highlight the significant impact of regional factors on language variation, with urban-rural differences obviously shaping linguistic patterns.