Language and Gender Differences in Jordanian Spoken Arabic: A Sociolinguistics Perspective

• Published in: Theory and practice in language studies Vol. 4; no. 5; pp. 872 - 882
• Main Author: Al-Harahsheh, Ahmad Mohammad Ahmad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Academy Publication Co., LTD 01.05.2014; Academy Publication Co., Ltd
• Subjects: Analysis; Arabic language; Conversation analysis; Dialects; Females; Femininity; Gender differences; Individualized Instruction; Interpersonal Relationship; Intonation; Language; Language and culture; Linguistics; Males; Men; Phonetics; Phonology; Politeness; Semitic Languages; Sex differences (Psychology); Social aspects; Social Distance; Social Environment; Society; Sociolinguistics; Speech; Studies; Verbs; Vowels; Women; Jordan
• ISSN: 1799-2591; 2053-0692
• DOI: 10.4304/tpls.4.5.872-882

Studying the differences between men and women's language has been the obsession of many sociolinguists recently. This study aims to investigate the gender differences between men's and women's language in Jordanian Spoken Arabic. It studies both genders' conversational styles and phonological variations. Twelve dyadic conversations (mixed and same-sex) were conducted at Yarmouk University (Jordan) each conversation lasted for 30 minutes. The theoretical framework for this study draws on sociolinguistics, Conversation Analysis and politeness theory. The findings of the study indicate that Jordanian women and men have different linguistics styles that distinguish their gender in conversations, and women are more linguistically conservative than men. Index Terms--sociolinguistics, gender, men's and women's language, Jordanian spoken Arabic, politeness and conversation analysis