Acceso usuarios
Mashael Alrajhi
The study investigates the use of colloquial varieties in Saudi formal Twitter accounts, specifically in relation to its frequency and the public response towards it. It also inspects whether the demographic factors of age, gender, and education have any effect on people’s preference towards using colloquial varieties in formal settings. Over a thousand tweets collected from Saudi governmental and academic accounts were examined to inspect the frequency of the occurrence of tweets written in colloquial varieties in relation to tweets written in Standard Arabic. The results showed that 91.67% of tweets were written in Standard Arabic whereas only 8.33% of tweets were written in colloquial varieties. Moreover, interviews with participants from different demographics were conducted to elicit the public’s opinion on the use of colloquial varieties in formal Twitter accounts. The results revealed that the use of Standard Arabic was favored over the use of colloquial varieties in all settings.
