The Saudi 'White Dialect' Across Regions and Generations: Perception, Prestige, and National Identity

Abstract

Arabic dialects in Saudi Arabia are among the most enduring markers of cultural identity, yet rapid urbanization, inter-regional migration, educational expansion, and digital communication have contributed to the emergence of a supraregional variety that speakers themselves call the "White Dialect" (al-lahjah al-bayḍāʾ). Production studies document its deployment in inter-regional contexts, and perceptual dialectology research indicates broad recognition of a Riyadh-centered national koiné, but no experimental perception study has tested whether listeners assign uniform prestige to the White Dialect across Saudi regions and generations. This study addresses that gap through a multi-regional, age-stratified perception experiment involving 508 Saudi listeners drawn from four dialect regions (Najd, Hijaz, South, Eastern) and three age groups (18–30, 31–55, 56+). Participants rated two 27-second audio clips of authentic White Dialect speech on dimensions of professional competence, modernity, institutional appropriateness, and prosodic neutrality. ANOVAs tested for regional and age effects; chi-square tests examined patterns of metalinguistic awareness. Results showed no significant regional or age differences in prestige ratings, including the absence of predicted Hijazi resistance, suggesting that positive evaluations extend across the major dialect regions and generational groups sampled. Metalinguistic awareness, by contrast, was significantly stratified by generation: younger speakers showed considerably higher conceptual awareness and terminological familiarity with the White Dialect than older speakers did. These findings provide evidence that broadly similar prestige evaluations can coexist with uneven metalinguistic awareness across generations.