The Emergence of a Mixed Type Dialect: The Example of the Dialect of the Bani ˁAbbād Tribe (Jordan)

Abstract

The present article aims at questioning the status of the šāwi dialect of the Bani ʕAbbād tribe by providing a new analysis of the main distinctive phonological, morphological, and syntactical traits which may hint at dialect mixing. The data provided by the field research, based on a functional framework that relies on descriptive linguistics and a typological approach, show that this dialect is deeply affected by a koineizing tendency due to increasing contacts with the populations of the neighboring areas (especially ʕAmmān and Salṭ) which, in turn, leads to the gradual loss of its authentic features. Finally, this paper discusses whether the dialect of the Bani ʕAbbād should still be considered as belonging to the yigūl group (recently renamed Central Bedouin ygūlu) of the Syro-Mesopotamian sheep-raising tribes or if a new typology of mixed type dialects should eventually be adopted for the dialects displaying important markers of both Bedouin and sedentary types.