Assessing Al-Koura Rural Dialect Archaic Vocabulary Among the Young Generation

Abstract

The present study deals with the phenomenon of lexical loss in Al-Koura Rural Dialect in Irbid Governorate, in the northern part of Jordan. Some pre-cultural words suffer from loss and disappearance, and hence, become obsolete. The study aims at identifying the pre-cultural words that are undergoing lexical loss. The study also investigates the diffusion of pre-cultural words among the young generation speakers. The study also examines the linguistic and extra linguistic factors such as solidarity marker, level of education on certain pre-cultural words among the young generation. The present study involved two central methods necessary to achieve the purposes of the study. The first method was to make interview recordings with old group members to collect pre-cultural words through addressing general questions. The questions covered a variety of topics such as food, clothes, glasses and weather. The second method was to compile a questionnaire with the pre-cultural words to be distributed among the young speakers. The questionnaire contained 222 pre-cultural words which refer to several spheres and contexts of life in the society at the previous era. The questionnaire was distributed to 400 young participants. The study group included school and college male and female students. The study group also included other employees from different governmental sectors in Al-Koura District. The findings showed that 168 words were not much familiar to the young speakers. The findings also revealed that the pre-cultural words were sort of familiar to the male young speakers rather than the female young speakers. The lower the age, the less familiar s/he with the traditional pre-cultural words. The educated young speakers who have a lower or medium education level obtain little knowledge of pre-cultural words. The solidarity among the young speakers appeared to be higher than that of the old people.