Abstract

Immigration to the United States from different Arab countries have been occurring for the past couple of centuries. Arabs from many countries are still migrating to different States in America. Getting adapted to a whole new place, new culture, and especially a new language could be difficult. Cultural and language contact in some cases causes what is called “language borrowing”. This study identified and examined different words that Syrian Arabic speakers in the United States of America borrow from the English language and arabize them. This study investigated the different approaches that native Arabic speakers follow in order to adapt the borrowed words into their spoken Arabic. An ethnographic qualitative descriptive method was used in this study using face-to-face interviews. 30 total participants have participated in this study and were split into two different groups. The findings of this study indicate that native Arabic speakers in the United States borrow words from the English language, and adapt them into the Arabic language by putting them under several phonological and morphological changes. The findings of this study also showed that many heritage speakers are unaware of the borrowed words, although they presumed that all the words they use while speaking Arabic are of Arabic origin.

School

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department

Applied Linguistics Department

Degree Name

MA in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language

Graduation Date

Summer 6-15-2023

Submission Date

5-18-2023

First Advisor

Dr. Dalal Abo ElSeoud

Committee Member 1

Dalal Abo ElSeoud

Committee Member 2

Zeinab Taha

Committee Member 3

Shahira Yacout

Extent

67 p.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval

Approval has been obtained for this item

Download

Share

COinS