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Title: The Variability in the Realization of qāf in Present-day Palestinian Arabic
Subtitle: A Statistical Analysis of Data Gathered with the Help of Social Media
Author(s): DRIESSEN, Paul
Journal: Bibliotheca Orientalis
Volume: 71    Issue: 1-2   Date: 2014   
Pages: 41-53
DOI: 10.2143/BIOR.71.1.3034654

Abstract :
Palestinian Arabic is the language spoken by Palestinians and is classified as a dialect subgroup of Levantine Arabic. It does however vary in several aspects, one of these is the realization of qāf which is realized as a voiceless uvular plosive /q/ in Modern Standard Arabic. Qāf is realized in several ways in present-day Palestinian Arabic. This leads to the question, ‘What explains this variability in the realization of qāf in present-day Palestinian Arabic?’ This paper will try to formulate an answer to this question. First, I use existing literature to determine which realizations of qāf are being used by Palestinians and which variables might possibly influence the realization. In the next part I try to determine what the effect is that every one of these variables has on the realization of qāf. This is done through the analysis of quantitative data which have been gathered with help of social media. The statistical analysis program SPSS and Google Earth are used for this analysis.

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