Lexical Borrowings in Immigrant Speech:
A Sociolinguistic Study of Ḥassāniyya Arabic Speakers in Medina (Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

This study investigates lexical borrowings and the phonological processes associated with them as an outcome of the dialect contact situation in Medina (Saudi Arabia) between the Shanāqiṭa immigrant community, who immigrated to this holy city from Mauritania and who speak Ḥassāniyya Arabic, and the urban Hijazi community, who speak urban Hijazi Arabic. The study introduces to the reader the main phonological and morphological features of these two Arabic dialects and presents traditional and modern approaches towards lexical borrowings in Arabic. The present study adopts the quantitative sociolinguistic method which is widely used in sociolinguistic studies in order to analyse the speech of this immigrant community (focusing on borrowings from urban Hijazi Arabic), and correlates it with the social variables of age, educational attainment, ethnicity and gender.
The study focuses on six phonological variables which are correlated with the social variables; these variables represent common phonological features which contrast both dialects. These phonological variables are divided into two groups: consonantal and vocalic variables. For the consonantal variables, the present study investigates the variation of three variables: de-affrication ([dʒ] → [ʒ]), lenition ([f] → [v]), and initial hamza dropping ([ʔ] → [Ø]). As for the vocalic variables, the research examines three variables: re-syllabification, consisting of initial [CV] and sequenced [CV.CV] → syncope, epenthesis and metathesis; diphthongisation: monophthongs → diphthongs; and vowel centralisation: (i), (u) → [ə].
The statistical data analysis reveals that age (generation) plays a central role in the phonological variation between the study participants when they borrow linguistic elements from urban Hijazi Arabic; ethnicity is the second most important factor. The analysis also shows that socio-cultural and socio-psychological factors facilitate the strong linguistic preservation of Ḥassāniyya Arabic by this immigrant community in Medina.