• Languages, Linguistics and Cultures
• Departments
• Linguistics and English Language
• Postgraduate research programmes
• current research students
  • Ebtesam AlOthman
  • Laura Arman
  • Samuel Atintono
  • Mary Begley
  • James Brookes
  • Aurelie Cauchard
  • Coralie Herve
  • Dorothea Hoffmann
  • Ayumi Miura
  • Jonathan Morris
  • James Murphy
  • Farah Nazir
  • Latifa Shamsan
  • Patrycja Strycharczuk
  • Danielle Turton
  • Marije van Hattum

Ebtesam AlOthman

Address: School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures, the University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL
Email: Ebtesam.Alothman@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

PhD Title: An Investigation of Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication among Arab Users of Internet

Najdi Arabic, a variety of Arabic spoken in the Arabian Peninsula, does not have a standard official orthography and it is only used in informal oral communication. This non-standard variety is sometimes used in traditional written genres such as poetry, plays, prose pieces and humorous newspaper columns, but never in everyday written communication or formal writing. With the rapid growth of internet and technology and with the development of Computer-mediated Communication (CMC), Najdi Arabic is nowadays widely used in online text-based communications.

The aim of my PhD is to provide an initial insight into this new area of study by looking at the ways that Najdi Arabic is used in synchronous CMC. More specifically, my thesis aims at identifying the innovative ways employed by Najdi users of internet to represent the orthography of their non-standard dialect in IRC rooms and see how these practices are similar to and different from the ones outlined in earlier works that investigated the online transcription of languages of non-Roman based writing systems. Moreover, the thesis aims to analyze the linguistic features of Najdi Arabic found in synchronous online communication and present a systematic explanation of the way they differ from the features of spoken Najdi Arabic. These aims are in accordance with CMCresearch that collectively has proved that the Internet is changing the way we use language.

Supervisors:  Prof.  Yaron Matras and Dr  Erik Schleef

Main Discipline Areas

• Linguistics

Research Interests

• Linguistic diversity in media discourse
• Computer-mediated communication

Presentations and publications

• Attendance and Paper Presentation at 'Smaller languages, media technologies, and multilingualism' University of Manchester, School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures.27/02/11/2010

Membership of Professional Organizations

• Saudi Association of Languages and Translation

Teaching Areas

• Morphology
• Syntax
• Grammar

Professional biography

• M.A. in Applied Linguistics, University Princess Nora bint AbdulRuhman, Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, 2008.
• First class Degree BA (Hons) in English Language, University Princess Nora bint AbdulRuhman, Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, 2002.