On the grammaticalization of raːħ

Abstract This research aims to examine the grammaticalization process of the lexical verb raːħ ‘went’ in the Urban Jordanian dialect, and explore semantic differences and sociolinguistic factors (gender and age) that influence the use of raːħ variants. We used a forced-choice task to identify the dominant variants across demographics and then examined their semantic association with certainty and possibility. An acceptability judgment task was also employed, focusing on the influence of markers of certainty and probability on Urban Jordanians’ choices. It is shown that ħ - (the shortest variant of ra:ħ ) is dominant in certainty contexts, whereas raħ (the second shortest variant) is prevalent in probability contexts. Additionally, men and older speakers tend to favor the less reduced forms, particularly raːħ and raħ , while raːjiħ appears relatively more often among younger speakers. In contrast, women and younger speakers show a stronger preference for ħ- , the most grammaticalized variant, suggesting that women and younger speakers may be leading the ongoing language change. Overall, the variation is systematic, reflecting both semantic differentiation and socially conditioned change.