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The study tested phonological awareness in a cross-sectional sample of 200 Arabic-speaking 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th graders from low and mid-high Socio-Economic Status (SES). Participants were native speakers of a local dialect of Palestinian Arabic spoken in the north of Israel. Twelve phonological awareness tasks were administered: six of them included stimuli that have an identical form in Standard Arabic and in the spoken dialect (hereafter, SpA words; e.g., /sɑʒɑd/ ‘knelt’) and six used StA words with a unique form different from the one used in the dialect (hereafter, StA words; e.g., /ʔɑχɑð/ ‘took’). Three tasks (blending, segmentation, deletion) were developed for each set of words to test syllable awareness and three additional ones to test phoneme awareness. Repeated measure ANOVAs showed a cross-sectional growth in syllable and phoneme awareness across grades, as well as significant differences between children from low versus mid-high SES. The results also showed a consistent effect of phonological distance on phonological awareness across all tasks and in both groups with awareness of SpA words higher than StA words. At the same time, the impact of phonological distance was more prominent in children from low SES as against mid-high SES, in phoneme awareness as against syllable awareness, and in segmentation and deletion tasks as against blending tasks. The results underscore the roles of item-based properties of phonological distance and phonological-unit size, as well as the role of participant-based characteristics of SES in phonological awareness in Arabic diglossia.

This study investigates the acoustic correlates of long and short vowel contrast for two dialects spoken in the northern part of Jordan. More specifically, it describes the vowels uttered in a connected speech by the Urban Speakers (referred to as 'Madani Dialect,' henceforth ‘MD’) and Rural Speakers (referred to as 'Fallaħ Dialect,' henceforth 'FD'). Three males and two females from each region uttered 40 words. The vowel inventory for both dialects consists of three short vowels, /i, a,u/, and five long vowels, /i: a: u: e: o:/. Phonetically speaking, vowels can be best analyzed by measuring their acoustic properties rather than describing their articulatory configurations (Ladefoged, 2003). As such, analyzing formant frequencies is the most common method to examine the characteristics of vowel systems of any language or variety. The F1, F2, and duration are the acoustic parameters that were measured, analyzed, and compared with previous studies when necessary. The results revealed that females have higher formants than males, duration is a cue for vowel identity, and length is phonemic. Also, the vowels of the Madani and Fallaћi dialects were found to have relatively shorter durations than their Arabic counterparts by Egyptian, Palestinian, Saudi, and Sudanese.

While research on bilingual language processing is sensitive to different usage contexts, monolinguals are still often treated as a homogeneous control group, despite frequently using multiple varieties that may require engagement of control mechanisms during lexical access. Adapting a language-switching task for speakers of (Scottish) Standard English and Orcadian Scots, we demonstrate switch cost asymmetries with longer naming latencies when switching back into Orcadian. This pattern, which is reminiscent of unbalanced bilinguals, suggests that Orcadian is the dominant variety of these participants – despite the fact they might be regarded as English monolinguals because of sociolinguistic factors. In conjunction with the observed mixing cost and cognate facilitation effect (indicative of proactive language control and parallel language activation, respectively), these findings show that ‘monolinguals’ need to be scrutinised for routine use of different varieties to gain a better understanding of whether and how mechanisms underlying their lexical access resemble those of bilinguals.

Purpose: As follow-up to a previous study of probes, we evaluated the marking of tense and agreement (T/A) in language samples by children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing controls in African American English (AAE) and Southern White English (SWE) while also examining the clinical utility of different scoring approaches and cut scores across structures. Method: The samples came from 70 AAE- and 36 SWE-speaking kindergartners, evenly divided between the SLI and typically developing groups. The structures were past tense, verbal \"-s,\" auxiliary BE present, and auxiliary BE past. The scoring approaches were unmodified, modified, and strategic; these approaches varied in the scoring of forms classified as nonmainstream and other. The cut scores were dialect-universal and dialect-specific. Results: Although low numbers of some forms limited the analyses, the results generally supported those previously found for the probes. The children produced a large and diverse inventory of mainstream and nonmainstream T/A forms within the samples; strategic scoring led to the greatest differences between the clinical groups while reducing effects of the children's dialects; and dialect-specific cut scores resulted in better clinical classification accuracies, with measures of past tense leading to the highest levels of classification accuracy. Conclusions: For children with SLI, the findings contribute to studies that call for a paradigm shift in how children's T/A deficits are assessed and treated across dialects. A comparison of findings from the samples and probes indicates that probes may be the better task for identifying T/A deficits in children with SLI in AAE and SWE.

This study focused on the phenomenon of technological anxiety in the contemporary art world within the context of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. By analyzing cases of anti-AI movements initiated by artists on platforms such as ArtStation and GitHub, this study identified the key issues that arise in the art world under the influence of technological anxiety. A dialectical analysis of two central issues—intellectual property and occupational substitution—was conducted from four perspectives: technology, legal principles, user perspectives, and historical context. Furthermore, the study discussed core artistic values and compliance anxiety, particularly as they relate to the concerns of art students. Qualitative research methods, including content analysis and case studies, were employed. The study uncovered the underlying reasons for technological anxiety in the art world, critiqued the irrational aspects of the anti-AI movement, and offered solutions to alleviate technological anxiety. Additionally, it provided recommendations for the career development of practitioners. The study also highlighted the importance of core artistic values, the elimination of compliance anxiety, and the improvement of teachers’ proficiency in AI as key areas for enhancing student education.

For translators and conventional machine systems, Arabic dialects pose translation challenges including scarce linguistic resources and the complexity of nonstandard Arabic. However, large language models (LLMs) are able to understand contextual meaning and showcase promising translation capabilities. This study investigates ChatGPT-4’s understanding and translations of five excerpts, including 39 lexical items, from the Emirati dialect into English. The data were analyzed qualitatively for clarity, fluency, and structure. Additionally, four bilingual raters quantitatively evaluated the translated lexical items according to the context. Qualitative analysis revealed that ChatGPT-4 could understand the Emirati dialect’s linguistic, cultural, and semantic intricacies and successfully translate them into English. Quantitative evaluation, based on accuracy of meaning, word choice, naturalness, syntactic harmony, and clarity, demonstrated a high level of agreement among the raters. However, the source of the data, which was an online forum, might have impacted the results, as ChatGPT could have been trained on similar data from such forums, potentially influencing its translation outcomes. This study contributes to the discussion of LLMs’ viability in translation practice, with implications for translators, translation trainers, and tool makers.

This study investigates the distribution of superheavy syllables in Urban Irbid dialect (UID), revealing their occurrence in both non-final and final word positions. We argue that word-final superheavy syllables are characterized by an extrametrical or weightless final consonant. This extrametricality is proposed as a mechanism to satisfy constraints against trimoraic syllables (*3[micro]) and final consonants bearing weight (*FINAL-[micro]-C), albeit at the cost of violating the Weight-to-Stress Principle (WBP). Drawing on Broselow's (1992) analysis, we suggest that the extrametrical final consonant can alternatively satisfy WBP by violating a constraint against non-syllabic segments (NS[micro]). Furthermore, the analysis highlights that the absence of final CVCC syllables in UID stems from a violation of the Sonority Sequencing Principle. Finally, the paper notes the non-occurrence of certain non-final CVCC and CVCCC syllable types within the system, suggesting further constraints on syllable structure beyond those discussed. Index Terms--Urban Irbid dialect, superheavy syllables, extrametricality, Weight-to-Stress Principle

This study is the first to investigate subject-level variability in sociolinguistic evaluative judgements by 30 adult L2 German learners and explore whether the observed variability is characterizable as a function of individual differences in proficiency, exposure, and motivation. Because group-level estimates did not paint an accurate picture of the individual, we propose methods capable of integrating population-level estimates with person- and ensemble-centered approaches so as to reconcile generalizability and individuality. Using random effects from Bayesian mixed-effects models, we found that global subject-level variability in evaluative judgements was not predicted by individual differences. By building homogeneous ensembles (i.e., subgroups of individuals with similar evaluative judgements), however, it was possible to assess whether ensembles were characteristic of certain levels of individual differences. This ensemble-centered approach presents an innovative way to address the group-to-individual generalizability issue in cross-sectional data and transcend individual variability in order to make tentative generalizations of individual cases to wider populations.

Studies investigating the role of dual language use in modulating executive functions have reported mixed results, with some studies reporting benefits in older adults. These studies typically focus on bilingual settings, while the role of dual language use in diglossic settings is rarely investigated. In diglossia, the two language varieties are separated by context, making it an ideal test case for the effects on cognition of Single Language Contexts, as defined by the Adaptive Control Hypothesis (Green & Abutalebi, 2013). We compare the performances of three groups of older adults, Arab diglossics (n = 28), bilinguals (n = 29), and monolinguals (n = 41), on the Flanker and Stroop tasks, measuring inhibition abilities, and the Color-shape task, measuring switching abilities. We report a diglossic benefit in inhibition as measured by the Flanker task only, and no benefits for the bilingual group. These findings are discussed with reference to conversational contexts in dual language use.