Regional and Social Dialects as Loci of Language InducedChange in Tiaret Speech Community.

Abstract

This study attempted to investigate regional and social dialects as loci of language inducedchange at Ibn Khaldoun University in Tiaret Speech Community. The ultimate objective of this study was to explore the sociolinguistic situation in Tiaret by means of discovering some of the reasons behind the heterogeneity of the linguistic practices and mainly describing and/ or analysing the impact of such variations on the co-participants in all over the Willaya. This study was based on an observation taken from our daily life in which we have remarked the difference amongst the speakers. The questionnaire was used as a research instrument in this study. It was directed to 100 third year students of English language at Ibn Khaldoun University. On the one hand, our findings showed that speakers from the City Centre of Tiaret and from that of its Suburbs used, on the whole, different styles in their conversations in terms of mainly pronunciation and lexical choices. On the other hand, our results also demonstrated that the young were more convergent than their elder counterparts in using language as they tended to avoid the traditional forms and brought into play new forms to make their own speech fits the current age. The exodus of rural to the urban areas as well as the interaction of Tiaret Center speakers with them might cause a language change. Such speech accommodation amongst mainly the youngest generation at the whole city of Tiaret may perhaps lead to the loss of some phonemes because people from rural regions, nowadays, tend to speak the same as the urban regions do i.e., they imitate them for prestigious reasons and mainly to show their social belonging.