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"Nhopiw" and contact linguistics: A thread
In Algerian Arabic, French verbs are borrowed all the time, almost always by putting -a/i at the end, like Arabic weak verbs:
"pray!" ṣəlli!
"freeze!" kõžli!
"I prayed" ṣəllit
"I froze" kõžlit
"he prayed" ṣəlla
"he froze" kõžla...
In Algerian Arabic, French verbs are borrowed all the time, almost always by putting -a/i at the end, like Arabic weak verbs:
"pray!" ṣəlli!
"freeze!" kõžli!
"I prayed" ṣəllit
"I froze" kõžlit
"he prayed" ṣəlla
"he froze" kõžla...
This strategy probably emerged partly because many forms of French verbs, including most infinitives, end in -e:
"to freeze" congeler /kõžle/
"(y'all) freeze!" congelez /kõžle/
"he was freezing" il congelait /il kõžle/
So you might not expect this to happen with other languages
"to freeze" congeler /kõžle/
"(y'all) freeze!" congelez /kõžle/
"he was freezing" il congelait /il kõžle/
So you might not expect this to happen with other languages
In fact, it doesn't with Dutch: Dutch Moroccan Arabic speakers prefer "do" + infinitive, eg ydirhom controleren
https://www.academia.edu/24548283/Moroccan_Arabic_and_Dutch_Languages_of_Moroccan_youth_in_the_Netherlands
Nor with Berber, whose verbs just get adapted to normal Arabic patterns, e.g. from Kabyle rku:
"it went bad" rka
"it will go bad" yərka
https://www.academia.edu/24548283/Moroccan_Arabic_and_Dutch_Languages_of_Moroccan_youth_in_the_Netherlands
Nor with Berber, whose verbs just get adapted to normal Arabic patterns, e.g. from Kabyle rku:
"it went bad" rka
"it will go bad" yərka
But, even though most English verbs never end in /i/ or /e/, Anglophone Algerians consistently do this with them too:
"hope!" hopi
"I hoped" hopit
"he hoped" hopa
"we hope" nhopiw
etc. https://twitter.com/sighlinda/status/1291784634389409792
"hope!" hopi
"I hoped" hopit
"he hoped" hopa
"we hope" nhopiw
etc. https://twitter.com/sighlinda/status/1291784634389409792
That tells us that, in modern Algerian Arabic, "add -i/-a" has become a general strategy for nativising borrowed verbs that don't fit existing templates, rather than a French-specific one.
That happens elsewhere too, e.g. Romani -is- < Greek aorist: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01395319/document
That happens elsewhere too, e.g. Romani -is- < Greek aorist: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01395319/document
It also happens in Northern Songhay, which borrows triliteral verbs from Berber by adding a meaningless i-/yə- based on the Berber 3m. sg. marker:
https://www.cairn.info/revue-etudes-et-documents-berberes-2019-1-page-129.htm
https://journals.linguisticsociety.org/elanguage/sal/article/view/1410.html
So "nhopiw" proves that the evolution of Algerian Arabic has entered a new stage :)
https://www.cairn.info/revue-etudes-et-documents-berberes-2019-1-page-129.htm
https://journals.linguisticsociety.org/elanguage/sal/article/view/1410.html
So "nhopiw" proves that the evolution of Algerian Arabic has entered a new stage :)
