Dr Hanadi Ismail

I am working on the AHRC-funded project Arabic and contact-induced language change with Dr Christopher Lucas.

My PhD research was a variationist sociolinguistic study of the dialect of Damascus. I looked at two linguistic variables in the speech of two communities in the city. The study puts to the test Højrup’s (2003) theory of ‘life-mode’ as a novel tool in understanding social stratification and linguistic variation in an urban Arabic setting, having tested the inadequacy of socio-economic measures based on income, education and occupation in Syria.

Upon completing my PhD, I started a research post in Oman where I did extensive fieldwork on oral history and tradition and the Modern South Arabian Languages of Dhofar.

My research interests include: language variation and change, Arabic dialects, language/dialect contact, language maintenance/shift/death, ethnolinguistics and folk narrative.