Dynamism of language variation and change within the moroccan speech community in Gibraltar across three generations: sociolinguistic and phonetic research

• Autores: Abderrazak Salim
• Directores de la Tesis: Jordi Aguadé (dir. tes.), David Levey (codir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universidad de Cádiz ( España ) en 2024
• Idioma: inglés
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Víctor Pavón Vázquez (presid.), Carmen Fernández Martín (secret.), Jennifer Ballantine Perera (voc.)
• Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Lingüística por la Universidad de Cádiz
• Menciones:
  • Internacional
• Calificación: Sobresaliente Cum Laude
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• Resumen

  • The linguistic or sociolinguistic situation of Moroccan migrants in Gibraltar has so far received little attention from linguists and sociolinguists. This study aims to fill this gap by analysing the complexity of language use and maintenance within the Moroccan Speech Community (MSC) to determine the degree of linguistic variation and change over three generations. Based on a variationist sociolinguistic perspective, two interlinked studies were conducted, namely sociolinguistics and sociophonetics. The first sociolinguistic study focuses on the statistical analysis and results of the fieldwork study. A semi-structured, informal, oral and recorded interview was designed to collect for the first time personal, family and sociolinguistic data from 36 participants from three different generations (9-20 years, 32-55 years and 68-75 years), with men and women equally distributed. The statistical analysis application RStudio Version 1.3.1093 was used to analyse the responses and draw both qualitative and quantitative conclusions using descriptive and inferential analysis techniques. To complement this, the second sociophonetic study takes a quantitative approach, paying particular attention to the following phonetic variables: liquid realisations, /t/ variations, interdental articulations, and qualitative and quantitative vowel pronunciations, which, to the best of our knowledge, can be considered as possible causes of the influence of phonetic L1 ethnomarkers on the respondents' oral production of English. As part of our study, we also conducted an experimental phonetic analysis using Praat software for Windows, which allowed us to accurately measure and visualise various aspects of speech. To determine whether social variables such as age, gender, educational level and social class influence language change and L1 transfer in spoken English, the following software programmes were used for statistical analysis: R v.4.2.2 software, Cohort Homogeneity Analysis, Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Multiple Comparison Analysis. Our analysis of the Moroccan participants' English pronunciation is consistent with the standard and non-standard features of English, which are aligned with current British norms. These results are significant as they demonstrate a constant change of English phonetics within the Moroccan community that has not been previously documented.