Abd El Rahmane Keroumi

Aspects of Sociolinguisitic Variation in the Berber Speech of Igli: the Lexical and the Phonological Levels Abd El Rahmane Keroumi

Since the emergence of sociolinguistics, most of the studies have dealt with the languages spoken in the big cities. But after the appearance of dialectology, works about dialects used in the rural areas started to be involved. Thus, this book provides a detailed sociolinguistic analysis on a variety spoken in an Algerian rural context, namely Igli, a small region in the area of Bechar. This area involves one of the Berber varieties which paly an important role in classifying Algeria among the multilingual speech communities. The Berber variety which is presented in this book is called Tabeldit which owned the highest status and prestige in the past time in Igli. It was the mother tongue of Glaoua; but recently the influence of other languages, mainly Standard Arabic and French, reduces its use. The lack of a written system in Tabedlit is another criterium which may lead to its extinction. Therefore, this book contributes in preserving one language of humanity from total dissolution through presenting its lexical and phonological features.