Language Variation in Western Amman

The present study investigates two forms of language variation in Ammani Arabic: Qaf variation and Arabic-English code-switching. After discussing the formation of the dialect of Amman and identifying the input dialects, I address the following questions related to the first form of language variation- Qaf variation: (a) whether a change from the traditional Jordanian [g] to the urban Palestinian [ʔ] is taking place in the city and is on its way to completion in the speech of both genders; (b) what the uses of [q] are and (c) why there is an increase in its use as a variable. As for the second form of language variation- code-switching, I investigate the functions of code-switching in the speech of millennials in Amman and their frequencies based on gender.