The Sociolinguistic Situation in Saudi Arabia: The “Wight Dialect”

Dialect contact and code switching is one of the most vitally important issues in Arabic sociolinguistics. In modern Saudi Arabia, some extralinguistic factors lead to the formation of the intermediate register of the language/dialect which is shaped by switching several several codes (standard language, dialect/s). Due to the development and availability of social media/networks the speech of the youth is characterized by certain corrections that find their expression in the so-called "white dialects" as well as complex sociolinguistic situation and dialect mosaic. The present paper the linguistic phenomenon referred to as "white dialects" is discussed in the context of sociolinguistic situation.