Phonological Cues to Gender in Arabic Hypocoristics Used by Muslims in Pakistan

Abstract

The current paper on Arabic Hypocoristics and nicknames tends to focus on the phonological choices employed in nicknames used for males and females in a positive sense (i.e. friendliness and endearment) by the users (family and friends). One notion stems out as an argument that names are not supposed to have semantic content and thus are pure referencing expressions in which the link with referent is arbitrary (Saussure, 1916; Hockett, 1977; Coates 2006). Contrary to this, an emerging trend in the literature is in support of some phonological traces, which link sound and meaning known as sound symbolism. Many studies (see Slater & Feinman 1985; Cutler et al., 1994; Crystal, 1995; De Klerk, V., & Bosch, 1996; Cassidy et al. 1999) suggest that the phonological preferences may link to gender-specific given (first) names as well as nicknames and suggest the phenomena of sound-symbolism at work in nicknames (Cutler et al. 1994; De Klerk, V., & Bosch, 1996). The current study analyses the phonological patterns of Arabic HCs reportedly used in intimate social circles in

Pakistan. The phonological features tend to reveal that there are some phoneme preferences and syllable structure and size which echo with the theory of sound symbolism by linking these phonological patterns with the sex-typed gender-specific categories (male and female), as well as some instances, favor the arbitrariness in Arabic HCs. This variation in the data of given and nicknames suggests that instead of sound symbolism or arbitrary relationship between sound and referent in action, there is rather a continuum that shows the degrees of arbitrariness and symbolism in the whole phenomenon of given and nicknames. In addition, the cultural context in which these names (nicknames) are used also plays a role in patterns shown in the data.