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<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">Arabic-L: Fri 19 Sep 2013</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <</span><a href="mailto:dilworth_parkinson@byu.edu" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px" target="_blank">dilworth_parkinson@byu.edu</a><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">></span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">
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<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">1) Subject: </span><font face="arial, sans-serif">Mutual Intelligibilty Research</font><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">
<span style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">2) Subject: </span><font face="arial, sans-serif">Mutual Intelligibilty Research</font><br style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px"><br></span><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">-------------------------</span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">Messages----------------------</span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">-------------</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">1)</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">Date: </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.63636302947998px">19 Sep 2013</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">From: </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">"Slavomír Čéplö" <<a href="mailto:bulbulthegreat@gmail.com" target="_blank">bulbulthegreat@gmail.com</a>></span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">Subject: </span><font face="arial, sans-serif">Mutual Intelligibilty Research</font><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">
<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Dear Rasha,</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">as far as I'm aware, there has so far been no research published which</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">would rigurously test the mutual intelligibility of Arabic dialects.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">There has been plenty of studies testing the mutual intelligibility of</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">related varieties of other languages (Dutch and Frisian, Scandinavian</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Germanic languages, topolects of Chinese) and there is a large-scale</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">project going on which attempts to do the same for closely related</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">languages in Europe (</span><a href="http://www.let.rug.nl/gooskens/project/" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">http://www.let.rug.nl/gooskens/project/</a><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">), but</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">nothing on Arabic.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Which is why I put together a grant proposal for a pilot project to</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">test the mutual intelligibility of three varieties of Arabic using the</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">methodology employed by one of the studies on topolects of Chinese</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">(essentially listening comprehension tests, see</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024384108001678" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024384108001678</a><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">).</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">The three varieties in question are Maltese, Libyan (Benghazi) Arabic</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">and Tunisian Arabic, the primary reasons for the selection being that</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">a) my research focus is currently on Maltese and there the issue of</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">mutual intelligibility is even more tricky, and b) me and my research</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">partners believe the best way to test the methodology would be to</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">focus on one region. I'm happy to report that the grant proposal went</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">through and we are currently in the final stages of preparation with</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">the first part of field tests scheduled for November. The completion</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">is scheduled for March 2014, but until then, I'd be happy to answer</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">any other questions you may have.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Yours sincerely,</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Slavomír</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">
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<span style="font-size:13.333333969116211px">Date: </span><span style="font-size:13.63636302947998px">19 Sep 2013</span><br style="font-size:13.333333969116211px"><span style="font-size:13.333333969116211px">From: </span>Dan Parvaz <<a href="mailto:dparvaz@gmail.com" target="_blank">dparvaz@gmail.com</a>><br style="font-size:13.333333969116211px">
<span style="font-size:13.333333969116211px">Subject: </span><font face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size:small">Mutual Intelligibilty Research</font><br style="font-size:13.333333969116211px"></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">
<font face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size:small"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">It'd be interesting to set up a comprehension test with texts in a number<br>
of broad dialects (Gulf, Iraqi, Yemeni, Maghrebi, Egyptian, Levantine) and<br>tried to correlate them with an information-theoretic measure like Mutual<br>Information.<br><br>The experimental design alone would be fun... so, for example, you'd want<br>
to avoid boundary dialects (e.g., in comparing Egyptian and Levantine, you<br>might want to go with Damascene, rather than Gazan). If the dialect maps<br>are laid out geometrically, you may want to choose a central point like in<br>
a Voronoi tessellation.<br><br>If anyone wants to talk about this, I'd be interested in continuing the<br>conversation.<br><br>Cheers,<br><br>-Dan.<br></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px">
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End of Arabic-L: 19 Sep 2013</div></div></div>