Vowel-Rounding in Bahrain: An accommodation study based on perceived interlocutor identity

Abstract

This paper is interested in how Arabic speakers in Bahrain vary their dialect choices and in particular their use of vowel-rounding based on both their own social background and the perceived identities of their interlocutors. It presents results to a Q&A style elicitation task using the verbal response sentences of 30 native speakers in their 20s and 30s residing in Bahrain. The findings indicate that the participants’ dialect choice and their interlocutors’ gender affect use of rounding. More specifically, the degree of rounding, measured as F2, is increased (F2 is lowered) when speaking in the “mainstream Bahraini” dialect, which coincides with the socially dominant ethnic group. F2 is further lowered when speakers interact with male interlocutors. Additionally, rounding is exhibited most frequently in women from the socially dominant group.