[01] Bader S. Dweik, Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Middle East University, Amman, Jordan. [02] Tareq J. Al-Refa'i, Department of English, Scientific College of Design, Muscat, Oman.

This study aimed to investigate the sociolinguistic background of the Assyrians of Jordan. It also attempted to explore the domains of use of Syriac and Arabic. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, a purposive sample of 56 respondents, covering different age ranges, genders and educational backgrounds, was chosen to respond to the linguistic questionnaire. The instruments of the study were; an open-ended interviews and a sociolinguistic questionnaire. The overall analysis of the questionnaire and the interviews indicated that the Assyrians of Jordan were witnessing a shift from their ethnic language "Syriac" towards the majority language "Arabic". They consciously placed more importance on Arabic which enabled them to be assimilated in the mainstream society. The assimilation was driven by variety of factors such as seeking security in the society as a result of what they have witnessed in their original regions. Furthermore, the Assyrians of Jordan used Arabic in almost all domains. However results proved that Syriac was still minimally used in certain key domains such as at home with family members and at church. This shift was the result of historical, economic, demographic, linguistic and generational distance.

Language Shift, Assyrians, Jordan, Syriac, Arabic, Sociolinguistics

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