Linguistic Innovations in the Speech of Contemporary Omani Youth

This study highlights commonly used linguistic innovations in the daily discourse of contemporary Omani youth, explains their source, analyzes their linguistic features and explorestheir sociocultural functions. In this study, 140 linguistic innovations were collected, transcribed and analyzed linguistically. It is observed that innovations exhibit sound substitution,
shift in meaning, ellipsis and other morpho-phonological alternations. Ten focus groups were
also formed to identify and discuss the sociocultural aspects of innovations. The study identifies three prominent sociocultural functions for innovations: solidarity, power and reminiscence of old Omani dialect. Linguistic innovations, once attributed to economy of effort, is
observed to form a community of practice in Oman, characterized by creativity and humor.