ABSTRACT
Thusfar,ourdescriptionandexplanationofvariationinBA hasfocusedonphonemepairssuchasj/y,k/~,etc.Wenowturn tovariationbetweenalternativemorphophonemicpatternsincertain commoncategoriesoftheverbandnoun.TheliteratureonGulf Arabicandthevernacularsofcontiguousareas(e.g.Johnstone 1967,Ingham1973,1976)describestheco-existence,overawide geographicalarea,ofalternativesyllabicstructuressuchas CvCCv(C)andccvcv(C)inverbalformslike/dirbat/rv/drubat/ andnominalslike/xi~ba/~/xsiba/,tonamebutonetypeof syllabicalternation.Inthetermsofhistoricaldialectology, suchformshaveusuallybeenclassifiedas'sedentary'and'nomadic' andtheparticulararraysofvariantsdisplayedonanumberof variablesinaparticulardialectplaceitonacontinuumbetween anextreme'nomadic'typeandanextreme'sedentary'type(Ingham 1982).Whatisclear,however,isthatsynchronically,likethe phonemepairs,morphonemicalternatesaremulti-valent:while, inhistoricalterms,ashapelikeCCvCv(C)in/~rubat/'shedrank' canbeassociatedwithcommunitieswhichonceledanomadic existence,thepresent-daysociolinguisticstatusofsuchaformhowitisevaluated,whatitsconnotationsare,whatuseofitcan tellusaboutitsuser(s)- allofthisdifferssomewhatfromone Gulfstatetoanotherbecausethedemographichistoryandpoliticosocialstructureofeachisdifferent.InBaQrain,awealthof alternativeformsarefound,butanalysisrevealsaclearpatterning (orrathersomeclearpatternings)intheliabilityofcertain morphophonemicformstovariation.OnceagainthesometimesconflictingandsometimesconspiringinfluencesofMSAandthelocal dialectalprestigesystemseemtobeattherootofvariability.
