Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Arts - Department of English

Lengthening of vowels in an exaggerated manner is a linguistic phenonomenon that has been noticed in the speech of Cairenes from the lower working class (LWC). This research examines this phenonmenon in the realization of the long vowels /aa/, /ee/ and /{u0251}{u0251}/ in colloquial Cairene Arabic by (LWC) and upper middle class (UMC) speakers in Greater Cairo. Mainly the correlation of social class with the short, long and extra-long variants of the long vowels /aa/, /ee/ and /{u0251}{u0251}/ is analyzed. The frequency of realizing the three variants in open-ended interviews with 24 informants from the LWC and 24 informants from the UMC were recorded and analyzed quantitatively by calculating raw frequencies and using statistical tests. The effect of the role played by social class, age and gender are investigated via ANOVA analysis. Occupation and residential area have shown to have a significant influence on the use of the non-standard extra-long variants among LWC speakers. However, the two factors and education showed homogeneity for the UMC speakers. Results of the Z-test have confirmed the correlation between social class and phonological variation. LWC Cairenes lengthened the long vowels significantly more than the UMC counterparts. Both UMC men and women used the standard forms

Issued also as CD