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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 677

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Youth language in the city: Sociolinguistic description and comparison of youth language in Meknes (Morocco) and Tripoli (Libya)

Authors: Ziamari, Karima (1); Pereira, Christophe (2)
Submitted by: Ziamari, karima (University of Meknes, Morocco)

This paper aims to compare two urban sociolinguistic contexts: language practices of young men from Tripoli (Libya) and young people (boys and girls) from Meknes (Morocco). Paralleling our data allows us to compare the speech of young people in two cities of the Maghreb: one to the extreme West (in Morocco), and the other one to the far East (in Libya), in order to examine the convergence in the linguistic processes and observe contrasts between these two fields.

We provide elements of description of these youth linguistic practices by analyzing phonetic, morphologic, syntactic and lexical features, with particular emphasis on grammatical innovations, since youth speech is characterized by linguistic changes and the evolution of grammatical structures (PEREIRA 2009; PEREIRA 2010). We also consider linguistic contacts; indeed, youth linguistic practices are also characterized by borrowing and codeswitching (ZIAMARI 2008), and by innovations based on those borrowings.

Our presentation is based on corpus of spontaneous conversations collected directly from speakers as part of an ethnographic methodology. Because of our total immersion into peer groups, we have obtained a corpus of interactions between young people, giving us access to particular expressions of a sexual, and sometimes vulgar nature. We will show how terms related to sexuality, taboo words referring to private parts and prostitution, are desemantized and grammaticalized (principally in Tripoli), and then used as parts of speech (mostly as interjections, adverbs, and adjectives). This will allow us to raise the issue of young people’s role in the evolution of linguistic practices, especially regarding marginalized language varieties, as well as the relation to the taboo, and to sayable and unsayable.

Finally, we shall examine the relationship between language and the construction of gender, in particular the construction of "masculinity" in Tripoli and Meknes. In this regard, we will see how language practices of young women (particularly in Meknes) transgress the order of established gender (BARONTINI & ZIAMARI 2009).

 

Works cited:

BARONTINI A. & ZIAMARI K. 2009. Comment des (jeunes) femmes marocaines parlent « masculin »: tentative de définition sociolinguistique. In AGUADÉ J., CORRIENTE F., VICENTE Á. & MEOUAK M. (eds.). EDNA Estudios de Dialectología Norteafricana y Andalusí. 13. Zaragoza. Instituto de Estudios Islámicos y del Oriente Próximo. 153-172.

PEREIRA Ch. 2009. Processus de grammaticalisation et innovations dans le parler arabe de Tripoli (Libye). Revue d'Etudes Berbères. Vol 1. Langues & littératures berbères et arabes maghrébines : dynamiques et enjeux actuels. Paris. LACNAD-CRB-INALCO.

www.centrederechercheberbere.fr/processus-de-grammaticalisation-et-innovations dans-le-parler-arabe-de-tripoli-libye.html

PEREIRA Ch. 2010. Les mots de la sexualité dans l’arabe de Tripoli (Libye) : désémantisation, grammaticalisation et innovations linguistiques. In BEAUMONT V., CAUVIN VERNER C. & POUILLON F. (dir.). L’Année du Maghreb. Numéro VI. Dossier: Sexualités au Maghreb : Essais d’ethnographie contemporaines. Paris. CNRS Editions. 117-140.

ZIAMARI K. 2008. Le code-switching au Maroc : l’arabe marocain au contact du français. Paris. L’Harmattan.