It is received wisdom in variationist sociolinguistics that linguistic and social factors go hand in hand in structuring variability in language and any consequent instances of language change. We address the complexity of such factors by exploring data from several Arabic dialects in the eastern Arab world. We demonstrate that language change does not always follow expected phonological trajectories, even in cases where older changes are reconstructed to have operated along so-called universal patterns. In our explanation of recent changes in these dialects, we emphasise the role of social motivations for language change and the interactions between these social constraints and purely linguistic ones. Our analysis of change is supported by historical accounts of variation and change in Arabic. We illustrate how general principles of sociolinguistic theory apply to the Arabic data and provide additional layers of sociolinguistic information that highlight the importance of diverse data for evaluating cross-linguistic generalisations. (Arabic, language change, historical sociolinguistics)

中文翻译：

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探索阿拉伯白话的语言变化：社会历史视角

在变异主义社会语言学中，语言和社会因素在构建语言变异性和任何随之而来的语言变化实例中齐头并进，这是公认的智慧。我们通过探索阿拉伯东部世界几种阿拉伯语方言的数据来解决这些因素的复杂性。我们证明语言变化并不总是遵循预期的语音轨迹，即使在旧变化被重建为沿着所谓的通用模式运行的情况下也是如此。在解释这些方言最近的变化时，我们强调社会动机对语言变化的作用以及这些社会约束与纯语言约束之间的相互作用。我们对变化的分析得到了阿拉伯语变化和变​​化的历史记录的支持。我们说明了社会语言学理论的一般原则如何应用于阿拉伯语数据，并提供了额外的社会语言学信息层，这些信息强调了不同数据对于评估跨语言概括的重要性。（阿拉伯语、语言变化、历史社会语言学）