Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to investigate the prefixes that are used in the urban dialect of Gaza cities and are attached to the imperfect verbs to identify the tense: present simple, present continuous, future and conditional sentences. Another aim is to figure out the varieties of these prefixes that are used in the urban dialect of Gaza cities. Finally, concerning this morphological aspect, to which Arabic dialect group that the urban dialect of Gaza belongs to, is examined as well in this study.
Quantitative research methodology is utilized in this study. The quantitative research data was gathered from Al-Aqsa Radio Station, broadcasted from Gaza Strip. The total hours recorded are 19 hours; the data is collected from programs that depend on audience participation via the telephone, guests in the studio and radio correspondentsâ interviews with people in Gaza.
The results of the analyzed collected data revealed that the prefix /b-/ and its varieties is used by urban Gazan speakers to produce present simple, progressive; furthermore, the prefix /h-/ is also used for future. Moreover, the prefix /b-/ appears in the two parts of the conditional sentence. In addition to that the results revealed that the varieties of the prefix /b-/ are /b-/, /ba-/, /bi-/, and that the three varieties appear in the urban dialect of Gaza. The results indicated that the urban dialect of Gaza belongs- concerning the using the prefix /b-/ without the vowel (i)- to the dialects of Levantine countries, while the urban dialect of Gaza belongs to the Egyptian dialect in the aspect that it does not change the prefix /b-/ into /m-/ with the first pronoun plural as the dialects of Levantine countries do. Moreover, the using of both prefixes /b-/ and /h-/ for future indicated that the urban dialect of Gaza belongs to both dialect group Levantine and Egyptian.
