MA Salah Essa
I obtained my BEd in English Language from the University of Mustansiriyah in Baghdad, Iraq (2008–2012), where I studied English language, linguistics, literature, and TEFL. In 2020–2021, I completed an MA in Linguistics (Sociolinguistics pathway) at Queen Mary University of London, funded by the Chevening Scholarship. My MA research focused on language variation and change in Baghdadi Arabic.
Currently, I am pursuing a PhD in Sociolinguistics at the University of Bern under the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship (ESKAS).
My research examines Christian Arabic of Baghdad (CAB), a dialect within the qeltu group of Iraqi Arabic. CAB is spoken by a significant portion of Baghdad’s Christian community and retains many older linguistic features that are gradually being lost.
I focus on how language contact and social factors influence the ongoing changes in CAB, particularly through interaction with Muslim Arabic of Baghdad (MAB), the majority dialect in the city. This contact has led to dialect levelling, where features of MAB are increasingly adopted by CAB speakers.
Through ethnographic and sociolinguistic methods, my research explores the motivations behind these linguistic shifts and examines whether they are associated with particular speaker groups, settings, or social identities. I am also interested in how CAB speakers use linguistic variation — especially features perceived as more prestigious or closer to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) — to express identity and social alignment within Baghdad’s multilingual landscape.
Ultimately, my work contributes to a deeper understanding of language variation, contact, and change in Arabic-speaking communities, and highlights the complex relationship between language, identity, and social dynamics in contemporary Iraq.
Title
Newer Baghdadi Arabic? Language Variation and Change in the Christian Arabic of Baghdad
