Interdialectal communication and code switching in pan-Arab reality television :the case of Arab Idol -

Abstract

This analysis explored interdialectal communication on the program Arab Idol, which created an exemplary opportunity for this field of study by bringing together hosts, judges, contestants, and a viewing audience spanning the entire Arabic-speaking world. In the course of the literature review, two main gaps became apparent. First, few studies have examined spontaneous alterations between Standard Arabic and Dialectal Arabic by individuals who are not trained specifically to use Standard Arabic. Second, there is an urgent need for interdialectal analyses in Arabic linguistics literature. The theoretical framework for this analysis was Giles’ Accommodation Theory, which states that speakers will converge or diverge their speech patterns to narrow or widen the social distance between the interlocutors. Two research questions guided this examination of interdialectal communication: first, what are the normal speech patterns of the judges and the hosts, and second, when do speakers either converge to or diverge from their interlocutors? To answer the former, I randomly selected longer stretches of speech from the portion of the episodes during which the hosts asked the judges questions. For the latter, I transcribed and analyzed the feedback segment for a selected group of finalists from both seasons. The transcribed data consisted of 123 comment sections, amounting to more than 9.5 hours of recordings. This analysis resulted in five main findings: a strong tendency for speakers to maintain their native dialect during interdialectal communication; convergence toward their interlocutors through a variety of methods, including by switching dialects; certain dialects have connotations, such as Egyptian Arabic denoting comedy and Lebanese Arabic expressing pampering; Standard Arabic was not used to increase understanding in interdialectal communication, but instead was a tool for divergence; and Arab Idol celebrated the diversity and multiplicity of the Arabic-speaking world through embracing the various dialect