On Grammatical Borrowing: The Case of Arabic Plurals in the Urdu Language

The Urdu language, which represents a large-scale borrowing situation, has not only borrowed thousands of Arabic lexical items but also some grammatical aspects of Arabic. This paper deals more specifically with Arabic plurals in Urdu in terms of grammatical borrowing that is mediated by lexical borrowing. The paper supports the view that, though scarce, grammatical borrowing does nevertheless occur. The evidence is drawn from Urdu where some significant Arabic structures are adopted. The case of Arabic plurals has been taken as an example. The incorporation of Arabic plurals into Urdu plays an important role in plural formation in the language, particularly the use of Arabic broken plural (BP) patterns. BPs represent almost 86% of the collected data (150 items out of 175). However, it is worth mentioning that plural inflection is only restricted to those noun stems which have been already borrowed from Arabic. It is, then, a clear indication that Urdu has benefited from the richness of Arabic not only in the domain of beliefs and philosophy but also in the structure of Arabic grammar

A comparative lexical analysis of vehicle spare parts terms in Arabic

Purpose – Investigating technical terms of vehicle spare parts used in the mechanics' jargon in Saudi Arabic (SA) and Yemeni Arabic (YA) has received scant attention. The current study, therefore, is an attempt to shed some light on the topic. The aim is to identify the strategies used for creating equivalents in vehicle spare parts vocabulary and to pinpoint the most salient variations between the two dialects in this jargon. Design/methodology/approach – More than 250 terms of vehicle spare parts were collected and analyzed qualitatively. Each list contains nearly 125 items. They were gathered from two main resources: semi-structured interviews with vehicle mechanics, and written lists from spare parts dealers in both countries. Findings – Three main strategies are found at work: lexical borrowing (from English and French), metaphor and loan translation. Direct borrowing is the most influential strategy where loanwords represent nearly one-third of the data, the majority of which is from English. Metaphorical extensions and literal translations also have an important role to play in the process of spare part naming. While the two dialects share common practices in terms of literal translation, they are characterized by many differences with regard to lexical borrowing and metaphors. Originality/value – The study approaches an under-researched topic that is related to the mechanic's jargon in Arabic and leaves the door open for further research. The findings of this study may be used as guidelines for Arabic academies and those who are concerned with translating and studying technical terms in the field of mechanical engineering

English and Arabic Inscriptions in the Linguistic Landscape of Yemen: A Multilingual Writing Approach

The present paper investigates the multilingual written texts of the signboards in the public space of Yemen. It attempts to apply Reh's (2004) typology of multilingual writing. Reh introduces four strategies of multilingualism: duplicating, fragmentary, overlapping, and complementary. They refer to the arrangement of information in the inscriptions of multilingual signs in a given linguistic landscape (LL). To achieve this purpose, a data corpus of 755 multilingual signs in the LL of Yemen has been used, the majority of which are bilingual in Arabic and English. The analysis showed that all four strategies of duplicating, fragmentary, overlapping, and complementary multilingual writings were generally employed in Sana'a's LL. While overlapping and complementary multilingualism were totally absent in the top-down signs, duplicating and fragmentary multilingualism had much higher frequency over overlapping and complementary ones in bottom-up signs. Keeping in mind that speech community in Yemen is monolingual in Arabic, the absence or low frequency of overlapping, and complementary signs in both top-down and bottom-up levels can be explained by the fact that these two types of texts presuppose multilingual readers since knowledge of all the languages involved is necessary to understand the whole message. The model of writing mimicry system proposed by Sutherland (2015) is also examined. Writing mimicry system was found to be a salient feature of the public space of Yemen performing some specific functions; it is only used for advertising and promotional purposes rather than expressing the identity of ethnolinguistic minorities. The study also revealed that Sana'a multilingual LL is characterized by the use of Arabicised English, glocalisation and multifunctional signs, all of which are employed to serve a general purpose of promoting, and advertising commodities and showing modernity and success. Standard Arabic appears on almost all of both top-down and bottom-up signs. The scarce use of Yemeni Arabic is indicative of the notion of Arab nationalism. Linguistic nationalism refers to the communicative and symbolic functions of Standard Arabic in articulating national identity in the LL of Yemen.

The semantics of English Borrowings in Arabic Media Language: The case of Arab Gulf States Newspapers

The present paper investigates the semantics of English loanwords in Arabic media language (AML). The loanword data are collected from a number of Arab Gulf states newspapers (AGSNs). They  are analyzed semantically from the points of view of semantic change, semantic domains, and the phenomenon of synonymy resulting from lexical borrowing. The semantic analysis has revealed that AML borrowings from English occur in fifteen distinctive semantic domains. Domains that are related to terms of technical and scientific nature are found ranking much higher (9% - 18%) than those domains containing nontechnical elements (1% - 8%) with the computer and technology category (18%) is the most dominant domain. Almost all common mechanisms of semantic change (extension, restriction, amelioration, pejoration, and metaphorical extension) are found at work in the context of AML borrowings. The tendency of semantic change in the overwhelming majority of AML borrowings is towards restriction.  Factors like need, semantic similarity, and factors of social and psychological considerations (e.g. prestige, taboo) seem to be the potent factors at interplay in semantic change. The first two, i.e. need and semantic similarity, are the most common reasons in most types of semantic change. The problem of synonymy lies in those loanwords that have “Arabic equivalents” in the language. The study claims that this phenomenon could be attributed to the two simultaneous processes of lexical borrowing and?ištiqa:q (the modern efforts of deriving equivalent neologisms).

Exploring the Structure and Functions of Sana’a’s Linguistic Landscape

Abstract:This paper investigates the monolingual and multilingual signs in the linguistic landscape of Sana’a. Linguistic landscape (LL) is a recent linguistic field of research which refers to “the visibility of languages on public and commercial signs in a given territory”. Following a LL approach, the capital city of Sana’a is taken as a representative case study. More than 1500 signs recorded via a digital camera are analyzed to explore the LL in Yemen, a country which is still classified as a relatively more conservative community with regard to the process of modernization and globalization. The main findings of this research show that Arabic is the predominant language (either with or without English) in more than 97% of the LL items studied within four main streets and localities in the capital city of Sana’a. English ranks in the second position with nearly 53% of all items, and no considerable space for any other foreign languages in the LL of Sana’a. The presence of English on 53% of the signs is competing and may be equivalent or exceeding that of Arabic in the near future due to the increasing tendency amongst the present generation in using and learning English. This phenomenon is really stimulating, especially when we realize that the shop owners and private institution runners are usually free in their choice of the languages displayed on their shop signs. At the same time, language planners, on the part of local authorities, can hardly interfere due to the absence of the official regulations in this regard. The cultural and folkloric function of LL is another salient finding of the study. About 76 signs (5%) of the corpus contain names and expressions working as mnemonic devices that hark back to the earlier Arabic and Islamic heritage and culture

Translating Shop Signs into English in Sana'a's Streets: A Linguistic Analysis

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