Linguistic change in rural child and adolescent Syrian Arabic

features [ ] and [a] in place of the rural features [q] and [e] respectively in the vernacular Arabic of rural, non-migrant children and adolescents in the village of Oyoun Al-Wadi in Syria. The study shows that linguistic change in this village is moving in two opposing directions. Girls continue to use their initially acquired mothers’ urban features in their adolescent years; boys who initially acquired and used their mothers’ urban features start acquiring the village features around the fourth grade and increase their use of these features with age. Thus, the observed variation and changes that result from the different meanings associated with the urban and rural sounds under investigation are not only gender-related but also age-related (Kerswill 1996).