From Arabia to Persia and back

Abstract This paper explores the discourse functions of Arabic-Persian code-switching and the phonological/lexical outcomes of language contact among members of the Āl ʿAlī tribe in the United Arab Emirates and Hurmuzgān Province in Iran. The linguistic environment among the Āl ʿAlī is characterized by bilingualism and multidialectalism. In the spoken and written code, they generate a tetra-glossic switching between Modern Standard Arabic, Gulf Colloquial Arabic, Modern Standard Persian, Colloquial Persian and two Persian dialects: Bandarī and Ačumī. The study draws on recorded data with tribal members in the UAE and conversation threads of fellow Iranian tribesmen on social media sites. The main theoretical construct applied for the analysis is the Matrix Language-Frame model ( Myers-Scotton 2002 ). It will be argued that the nature of codeswitching among the Āl ʿAlī is situational and transactional, both inter- and intra-sentential. Language and dialect choice is determined by the topic of the conversation, the interlocutors’ identity and their relationship to each other.