Gender Differences in the Gaza City Dialect of Non-refugee Citizens

In this study, I provide a linguistic description of the gender differences in the dialect of the non-refugee citizens of Gaza City. I tease out the gender-based differences in the Gaza City citizens’ dialect at the phonological, lexical, morphological and discourse levels to explore its linguistic structure. The Palestinian Arabic variety is the regional dialect of the Arabic language spoken by Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Arabs of Israel and those in diaspora - Palestinians abroad in Lebanon, Jordan and other countries. There are many sub-dialects of the Palestinian Arabic variety; almost every city, town and village has its own sub-dialect. The Gaza City citizens’ dialect refers to the speech of the non-refugee citizens settled in Gaza City, who are not refugees from other parts of Palestine. In addition, there is a Hebron sub-dialect and a Ramallah sub-dialect. All sub-dialects are mutually intelligible, however, these sub-dialects exhibit a number of linguistic differences at all levels of the grammar.