Social Stigmas Attached to Dialectal Differences: Lebanese and Yemeni Dialects in Dearborn City, Michigan

Social Stigmas Attached to Dialectal Differences: Lebanese and Yemeni Dialects in Dearborn City, Michigan

Roba Hrisseh

This research paper discusses social stigmas attached to dialectal differences between two Arab nationalities residing in Dearborn, Michigan: Lebanese Arabic speakers and Yemeni Arabic speakers. This research aims to distinguish which of these dialects is accompanied with the stigmas in the community of Arabic speakers, including those outside of both nationalities. Relevant factors to these existent stigmas are cultural assimilation to the American lifestyle, migration history and reasons, social distinction barriers, and phonetic and phonological dissimilarities between the two dialects of Arabic. Through convenience sampling of Dearborn resident opinions via interviews and electronic surveys, data is collected to support the claim that the Lebanese dialect is associated with a more amiable and prestigious importance in these social groups as opposed to that of the Yemeni dialect. This claim is verified in the findings, and elicits a huge gap between both members of the community based on the dialectal variations of the Arabic language, which thereby signifies national identification division.