Deconstructing verbal and nonverbal accommodation in Arabic cross-dialectal communication.

This study investigates language accommodation in cross-dialectal Arabic interactions, focusing on how speakers from different Arabic varieties use both verbal and nonverbal strategies to achieve either convergence or divergence in communication. Drawing on qualitative data from natural conversations among Arabic speakers from the Maghreb, Egypt and Sudan, the Levant, and the Gulf, the research applies discourse analysis and communication accommodation theory (CAT) to analyze how accommodation is collaboratively constructed through speech, gestures, and prosody. Findings reveal that successful accommodation involves multimodal efforts that signal shared Arab identity, while divergence—expressed through limited linguistic and embodied cues—functions to mark social group distinctions and respond to negative attitudes toward certain dialects, particularly those of less mediatized varieties like Moroccan Arabic. The study highlights the asymmetrical burden placed on speakers of non-Mashreqi (Eastern) dialects to accommodate and underscores the importance of incorporating embodied actions into sociolinguistic analyses of Arabic cross-dialectal communication.