Females' and males' identity as revealed in phonology and grammar : a case study of Mostaganem spoken Arabic

Tradtec

5

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2006 19

Females' and

Males' Identity

as revealed

in phonologr and Grammar:

a case

study

of

Mostaganem

Spoken

Arabic

Balchta ABDELHAY, Mostaganem

Introduction:

The criterion _upon

which

language is to

be

categoized as male or female proper has been controversial

for maly

yea{s. So far, the,,

. ,

^.

role

of

socio-cultural factors that deterrnine the nature of this

criterion

^''

has been thq concern

for

a great number

of

sociolinguists.

seminal taxonomic _studies and many other

sociolinguists reveated,thal male/.".f-eaqlçdiçlinctiqn in,langtrage

is,multi folded..rhey

shed the

light

on phonological, phonetic _and grammatical differencei.'

The conclusion

reached

so far is that

males

and

females _do

gender related

language,

which set them as two

disparate communities

I

Gender Related Phonolopiea!

patterns:

Trudgill (1972) confirms that

females use

fewer

stigmatised speech

forms, give

greater importance

to

prestige

patterns, and

are more sensitive

to

correct language. He attempted

to

draw a correlation between sex and

context

as social phenomena and

the realization of

some phonetic and phonological variables

in

the urban dialect

of

the

city

of

Norwich.

Among the

variables studied

by Trudgill is the

pronunciation

of

the suffrx

(ing) in

words

like walking, laughing, going

_{and so}

forth. It

is

to

be remembered that

this

variable has

two different

pronunciations.

The first

one

is tr4/. rt is formal

and occurs

in

accents described as prestigious, i.e. RP.

In this case, \rye have lw:ki[ . lAfiry - gôui4l. The

second pronunciation

(ing)

is

lôn:nl This pronunciation is neither forrnal nor

prestigious. This

variable

has been

testeii'iii ifour"côùiexnidl _styles: *orà list

^.slyle,

Reading Passage style, Formal _speech antl

casual

Speech. The results obtained

in this

survey show

very

clearly that the variables

[dn-n]

^is

typical to working

class males.

working

class females howeve"r, more

frequently use /rr1l a pattern

assigned

more prestige. This

fact,

Trudgill

speculates,

is

related

to women's

awareness

of

social status and therefore they are more attentive

to

the value and significance

of

language variations and language use. Given their relegation to use

a speech

i

'l'r'adtec

5

12006 20

rnl'crior social ranking and their

evaluation according

to how

they nl)l)câr,

female

speakers

are more anxious, less

secure

about their

sot:inl position. They, therefore,

find it

necessary

"to

signal their social strrlrrs

linguistically" (Ibid.p,l82). Men's

value,

on the

other hand is rrssociatcd

with how much

successful

they

are.

In

other

words,

men rrrtr valued according

to

what they achieve

in

terms

of

their profession :rntl

lhcir

power. This is the reason

why

they p(tributç _less importancq,:

Io

thcir

linguistic behaviôur and

allow

ihemselvês

tô

use less standard vnrictics.

l,ikcwise, the western culture sees that Working Class

speech

t:oilnotcs masculino charactoristics as toughness ând

roughness"

supgroscdly, these features are positive _when they are male referential, y('t ncgative when they are female referential.

Altlr,rrgh it would

be premature _and

well

^nigh

wrong to

suggest that

tlrt'rt'

is

t

great amount

of stylistic

differences

in

speech patterns used

lrv

li'rrrnlcs and males

in MSA (Gven that no

such study has been

,l,rrr.

rr1'r

to now),

amateur observation forces

us to noticô

finguistic

| ,ur('lirtos

of

such variations.

In their

every day interactions, females

rrr' lrlronetic variables, which ilo, seémingly, more

refïned,

'r,lrlrnlicated and

female

referential.

Therefore,

while MSA

female .rg,r'rrkt:r's

more frequently realize the phoneme lq I ^{as [q],}

^male

,,pr.irkt:r's generally realize

it

as

[g].

f lrt'.

lirllowing

table encloses some examples about

the

realization

of

,1

|

^,rr

lql

^or

[g]

depending on the sex of the speaker.

ttl-tlç

l:

tr)xamples

of females'/males' realization of the

^phoneme

11

| ^irr

^MSA.

Female

nunciation

Male

pronunciation f,nglish Translation

ûq

/rqa

rrli

1u:1,

nTrd

lrn llll

sbdg

jlanôg lungi mdrga jsdgi lôgazt ,jgatdd

gutra guffa

He

overtook

To take somsone in

one's arms

My

neck

Broth

To put broth

on cooked

food

Tweezers

To seat somebodv

pTq!

sllnq jTnna, Trrnqi rrrt?rq

.lsrrli lrrln:l

.i11nTtr

rlrrl rn

rlulIn

Tradtec

5

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2006 21

l

t-

qsdm qajôs

tbaq wqaf

I

s

I

l

similarly, MSA

fernale speech conta,ins

fewer

diphthongs than

MSA

male speech.

MSA

female speakers,

in

general, tànd to ?uuo, the use

of

long vowels,

unlike

males

who

prefer diphthongs. Thus, gênder

of

the spêakep'determirres the'uçe qf,a loqg.vowelror a.drip-hlhongi r,,:! .,ii, ^,.,

Table 2: Examples of females and males pronunciation of the

same

words

us

either

a long

vowel or

a d

Femalest

pronunciation pronunciation

^Maleso

translation ^English hi:t

xi:t di:f si:f bi:d lmi:da

ôro:z ddo:

halt xalt dalf salf bald lmelda

ôraaz

ôdau

Wall Thread

Guest

Summer

Eggs

Table

Rice

Lisht

- ^That

diphthongs

and the

rearization

of

I

q I ^{as lgl are}

^less

frequent

in females'

speech

is socially very significant

and confirms the

finding of Trudgill

(1972). _Females

do avoid

speech patterns that -open them

to

stigmatisation because according

to

the genèral

belief in MSA

speech community, the use

of

diphthongs _and the use

of [g] ⁱⁿ place of _[q] typify the rural varieties most of-the time lackins refinèment and sophistication that distinguish the urban

varietfesl

Being wlnerable to criticisnq

female speakers make every endeavour

to signal their status. Females, in fact, are careful about their

pronunciation.

Male

speakers, in

MSd

tend

to

sound less refined, less sophisticated

in their

pronunciation.

It

seems

that this is

deliberately done. Because

it is not the criterion

used

for their

evaluation,

MsA male

speakers

do not

care about

their

speech.

In

many

rur"r, MSA

gsdm gôjds

tbag wgâf

drop

Shopping

basket

He divided

He

tried

something on

Bread

basket

I'racltec 5

/2006

22

rrlrt:akcrs

tend to

describe males

whose

speech

is

sophisticated as lrrcking masculinity.

t

The

intersection

of

sex and social

role is

also present

in

the svnlactic components used

by

males and females. $ociologists

who

Iruvc done

work of

comparative character have

found

^.out

that

some p,r:unmatical structures have

a role in rendering social

meaning.

In

tlrirt, they

diwlge

Speakers'

identity in terins of'sr*,

slatus and role.

I'tking

stock

of'the way

grar:rmatical structures are handled,

we

are

likcly to

see that these structures are informative

of,role

assigning and

r'lt: lirlfilling. At

some stage,

it is

necessary

to

examine

thè

relation bctwccn the use

of

these grammaticar structures,

the identity of

the 'rpt:rrkt:r and his role.

'l'he motives behind the choice between

different

grammatical lrr.('('sscs

and participant types are socially oriented and

socially 'rrp,rrrlir:lnt. To _explore this further, we need to

look

at an aspect of the Ir rrnlulu' used by females and males.

l)olite forms and formality

appear

to be more frequent in l''lrif l('s'

_speech

_than in males'

speech

(Lakoff lg73).

The reason is

ll'rl women in general have the real

status

of non-participant in

',('rr()us nratters, and her role

is

stereotypically

to

serve

ai

a deCoration

l,r

lrt:r rnan.

one

who plays such a role is an outsider, and an outsider, rrrrrsl

bc

rnore

polite

than an active participant must and

is

therefore

r'rrl'rtlt:rrr

_about

the

obedience

of the

addressee.

very formal polite l,rrrrs liko "I wonder if you could herp me; would you

mind 'rlrrrttrrrg/.pcning

the door,

please?

May I

^ask

you a

questircn?

,,will

1.rr lrt'lp

'rc ^with

^these groceries, please?" instead

of

^..ôome help me",

rlr. rhr.r''' (to

ask someone

to

close/open

the door

and so

forth

are '

.'rrrr.r

place occurences

in

females' _language,

Lakoff

(1g73). _The rrrrnr. rt'ntcnccs

are formulated differgntly and may be

uttered

with

Ir"r'r

lrr

rrrrrliry and

"less

politeness"

(we do not believe

males

to

be

'rr1,.lrrr'.

^l,.rt

to

get things done; they do

not

need the same

formality

ir',

l,'rrrrl('ii lt

is in fact easier

for

a

nan

^{to get} things done).

Itv

rrrr.logy

to

English female speakers

uSn

fernale speakers, lirrf rrf

lr'rr

.lrst:rvation), _use

polite

forms that are not

or

are

very

rarely rr'rr'rl

lry

rrrrrlt:s,

lôlah ôjxari:k -smahri xuja, - ^nôndzôn niaqsi:rrl

r'r't\ r',rl pr.rcct you,

Excuse

me, I wonder if I could ask you

a

'lrl' "ll"rr

^Mrrlt:s

^would

^{rather use}

^the following polite

forms,

/ôlah

LJ

l

t-

I

s

I

l

I

Tradtec

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jahafdak, dlah erade lli:k ôlwældi:n,- dlah jarham ôl wældi:n/

(May

God protect

you,

may

God

make

your

parents grant blessing

to

you, may God bless you dead parents).

In

many societies,

formality

(Fairclouglr, 1989) is a feature that specifies practices

of

higher social prestige.

It

restricts access and ^set distances

between participants. It is a

^means

by which respect

is generated.

However its

use

by

females,

is, in

many c,as-es,

to

neither iignal, distance ner higher qunkitlg.

In

these

termi,.ibmaie formality ii'"r' ^l'

!n:.fact'a

strong tendency

tqwards

iloliteness. Politeness

in

females) Ènguage

is

correlated

to giving good

impression and

avoiding

social stigmatisation.

In'MS{'a'wôman who'diEplays

a

kind of 'linguistic

'

looseness"

is

described,

as [mætahlômJ] (not decent),

lmætôswæll (valueless

vulgar). A too polite man, who

speaks

with an

extra

structuring of his

speech,

is likely to negatively affect the way

the other members

of

society perceive

him. In

one

word,

over-politeness

might be inimical to his masculinity; he will be rated

as

weak

and

lacking firmness, two

characteristics

that socially impinge

tnales' image.

For the

same reason"

females skink from using swear words ^or

blasphemies.

As

males, females

know

that part

of

language described

as vulgar, coarse and improper. Howevqr, there

seems

to ^be

^a

universaltendencyifnotadeep-rooted..socia1instinct,',(onethathas been acquired at a very early

stage

of socializalion) which drives

^l

females

to

not use curse-words. The sociolinguistic axiom <<don't

say>>

)

means

<<don't

do> is very significant. The reason is that to

^be

forbidden a word

means

to be forbidden an action.

Compared

to

i

females, males are noJ very reluctant as to ^allow

themselves

to

ⁱ

blaspheme

or

use sv/ear

words.

Society exerts less

control

and

meets

'l

with less

severe

judgements such behaviour when man generated.

_{

What a man is allowed is forbidden for a woman. In our culture,

I nothing can affect the masculinity and the value

of

a man unless he

is _I

incapable

of

earning money.'The popular

saying

lôrud

'al laibah fi: d _I

i:bah/

confirms

that

males' value resides

in how

much

they

earn

and

,t

not in how they

speak.

Never

does

the

^sentence

/lmra lalbha fi: d ,l

i:bha/ occur. I

It is

needless

to

recall that

our

culture does

not

grant any

importance il

to a financially

independent

woman. The

sentence

llmra mral (a I

female is a female) is

full

an emblem

of

^females'

triviality.

The use

of

I

I'r'adtec 5

/2006

24

llrc word

lmra/two

times has nothing

to

do

with

synonymy. The

first orc

means the female sex. The second implies

inferiority.

Passive and active forms

would

be sensitive grammatical areas

whcre both disparities and rores differentiating the two

sexes are

lxominently displayed. A deep examination oi ho*

passive/active lirrms _operate

in

males and females language could

ptour

very useful

lirr providing subtle information about the way society hâs

been stl'uctured in the course of

time.

^,

( iranted, females' confinement

to

a passive and subordinate role in the

social network, their use of the

passive

form is

apparent

in

their slrocch. Dekkak'

(lg7g)

_contends

_that

_{these patterns are pervasive}

_in

'l'lcmcen Arabic

/talaqnl-

xtabnr-zw

6d nl/

(he divorced me-he asked rrrtr

lilr

marriage-he married

me)

are female exclusive sentences. As l'lcrrrcen Arabic,

MSA

witnesses the same type of behaviour.

/jaxdôm

llUr- _{xnrdd nr mdn} darl. hardmnr / (Heis

responsible

foi

me, he r'rr:lrrrlod me

from my

house-he repudiated me)

aie

female _exclusive

ilnllcrrrs. These are examples, which bear out passivity

_and

lrlr'rrlination of females

because

active

speakership

involves

an

nr'lrvc social role. Therefore, mentioned

cônnmunication

units

are rrrtcrprcted as socially nonsensical

if

said

by

male speakers. Because

"tttt'rt like to make themselves the active

doirs,-

(Flexner in Henley

&

f

lrr'rrc, 1975, p.53) they use active forms more usually. rtry

rhrrrrinatc

the world and it is up to the

dominant

to initiate

action.

f\4rrlt:s

would

say,

lta,laqtha- xtatbtha- naxddm fli:ha- _{harômtha/ (I} rlrv'rr:cd her-I

asked

her for marriage-I am

responsible

for

her-I

r r.lrutliatod her).

Mon's power and women's triviality is

present

in the

way rrrn|t.s slructure some

oftheir

utterances.

I

lrt'

lirt:t that names

of

some professions have no feminine gender, as

/rl,ht*r/ (doctor)/profesær/

(professor/teacher),

/medse 4ao"to9,

/I"vlrrnr/

(hcadmaster),

is

an emblem

of

sociaf

inequality.

_crantea, tlrr'

pr,hlcnr of

grammatical _gender

is not

eminently

por"à in Arabic

lrrrt rr

lr.lirical

^position marked

by its

newness

in

thé

Àlgerian

society

.'rrrri r.

rx)t have the feminine.

It

is the position

of femJe

Member

of

f

'rrrl,rrrt'ur

whcl according

to the media, is referred to

as

lnæ?rbl

llr'11p11

/rt'?lbn/ _{would not} violate the

rules

that

govern

the

Arabic

Inrrgrrrrllr.

. llrc rr''gc of

females

as immature is well mirrored in

the I*rgr'rr1qr' \vc

rsc. consider if

you prease the

following

examples. The

25

I

Tradtec

5

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2006

first

one is extractcd from

MSA

male ordinary speech dealing

with

the

choice of would be future wife. The

second example

is an

excerpt

from

a discussion between ^a young businesswoman

(Cl)

who wants

to

move

to

^{a neu/}

job

because she was subjected to her boss's hassle, and an employment counsellor (c) (Fairclougtt, 1989, p.226).

1-lnddi:ha Ji:ra sÏi:ra wd nrabi:h alla _iôdi:l

(I \ilill mary

a

young girl

so that

I could

trainltame her

to

do

what I

want).

2-Clz the other

thing that's dfficutt

is

if I dor|t

succe.ed in

getting thiii job I ^think

^the

^real dfficulty will actually

be

at

staying where

I ^am.{

rnean if I ^{don't ,ger ft}

^,,f

^{'m ahnost}

^tçmpted,

^{to resig4,}

bec"ome unemployed.

C:

well

there's e-hove .vou talked ^to

your

husband about this?

Cl: ^{e:m, in}

^passing

^{yes. I've}

threatened

it on more than

one oecasion, we could

affird

it.

C: ^well

trhen, thqt's

your call. It would

be

said

because

it is

much easier to get a

job

(cl:mhm)

fron

^a

^job.

^So,

^if

^you

^{grit your}

^teeth

then that would be very good and have you considered that

by handling the

emotiornl

stress and the

hasskfrom ignoring

and almost being crucirted blt the other people that

you

aètualllt grow and mature as a person.

Both

examples

have a

considerable expressive

value, in that their authenticity

shows

that

females never

grow

mature enough and have

to be supported by ^males. Example I is very striking since it immediately

suggests

that females have to be "domesticated"

by males. Furthermore,

turn 2 in

the second example calls

to mind

that husbands

do control their wives important

actions.

Additionally,

the stereotyped

immaturity of

females is over emphasized

in

turn 4 where

the

counsellor

overtly

says

to

the woman

this

experience

would

help her

"grow

and mature as a

person" (Fairclough,

1989, p.227). Such a staternerit presupposes that harassing

is

legitimate and a sihe qua non condition

for

females' maturation

(Ibid,

p.228).

Hastily,

one can say

that

the use

of a

sex

specific style is

no

more than the manifestation of one's social image. The

motives behind

the

existence

of a

sex

specific style

are

not

arbitrary. Gender specific style

is

dictated

by

social criteria.

It

can be seen as a strategy

that

serves

the interest of the

speaker

and his

objectives.

To

signal

l'rrrtftec 5

/2006

26

llrt:ir

social

identity,

men and woman are

likely to

need specific style lirlrnulae to make their acts explicit.

It is

undeniably

true that females'

speech denotes

inferiority,

lcss confidence _and insecurity.

women

are reluctant

to

the use

of all

rvlrut is not refined be

it in

the verbal

or

non-verbal behaviour. Being rrrorc sensitive

to

prestige, females

are quite "choosy" about

their lnnguage styles.

rhèir

spéech patterns apparently

very

careful,

lucidly

tlcrnonstrate

that they are vulnerable to selere'lsocial

judgement.

llowrJver, the same reluctance

is

noticed

in

males' behaviour towards' nll what is refined and delicate.

I'lris

lcads

to

say

that the

sex

of the

speaker

lirnits his

freedom and

çonlines him/her to use sex-defining style. consequently,

the

porsibility to

choose

a specific style is

progressively restricted

by

^a

rrrrrrrbcr of constraints that exclude certain other possibilities.

CUrcftsion:-

'l'o

_{detain power,}

to

maintain

it

and

to

be submitted

to

power rrrgr'

tlrc

speaker

to

make use

of linguistic

as

well.as

nonJinguistic rlntn

to

irrteract

in

society.

This is

the reason

why, to

state

the

social ilt..illilru1

tlf

utterances, one should look

for

basic parameters

of

speech

[r'rhrt:tion and determine their social correlates, their

social

'rrp,rulit;lrrce and their distinctive function at the level of

r r)11ttilUniCAtiOn.

lllill,lQli

^RAPHY.

llekklk, M. A

Sociolinguistic Aspect of Algerian

Arabic

: Sexlect, Etudes et Recherche _en

Linguistique,CRIDSSE

Université d'Oran.

l''nl'cl'rrgh, N.

Language and power, Longman _Group

uK Limited,

|

',N')

^{( l,orrrlh} impression,

lgg}\.

I nlofT. ll.

l,anguage and Society in Ronald Wardhaugh and lf,*rp.hril

ll.rwn (Eds): A

Survey of Applied Linguistics, The I lrrtr,r,rrrty ttl' Michigan, ₁₉₇₆

I r

rrrlllll. l'.

sex,

covert

prestige and

Linguistic

change in the

I l r I r^ r r | | r r t i sh ^I inglish of Norwich" tn Barrie Thorne and Nancy

f f

''lr'v. ^l'rls,

^{l,'nguage and Sex:} Difference and Dominance. Rowley,

Àl{lr

Nr.rv lrrrry

llouse,

1975.

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