The cognate borrowings included lexical items that originated from the same root but encompassed linguistic differences ranging from one phoneme to complex cognates with multiple morpho-phonological differences. The analysis showed that 24 (45%) out of the 53 instances of borrowings were categorised as cognates borrowed from MSA. All the cognates are presented in table 4.2 showing which participants made them, their dialectal equivalents, their meanings in English and the topics of the conversations in which they occurred.
Table 4.2: The borrowed MSA cognates, their dialectal equivalents and the topics in which they occurred
The participant Their MSA borrowing The dialectal equivalent Meaning in English The topic
1 SdiN1 ṭarīqat ṭarīgat way/method Dialectal differences
2 nuṭq nuṭg pronunciation
3 ʕāʔila ʕāyla family
4 dāʔiman dāyman always local dishes
5 mustaqbalan fi-l-
mustagbal
in the future women driving in Saudi
6 Jrd1 dāʔira dāyra/
duwwēra
circle recipe
7 Egy1 ʔasnān sinān teeth topic of study
8 Lib1 lā yamnaʕ ma-yimnaʕ-š does not prohibit
difference in social classes
9 Egy2 mutaʕallima mitʕallima educated change in the education system
The participant Their MSA borrowing The dialectal equivalent Meaning in English The topic
10 Lib2 ḏālika hadāka that
(demonstrative)
change in social classes
11 lā tasmaḥ ma-tismaḥ-š does not allow life expenses in London
12 fī-ššitāʔ fī-ššita in winter last holiday
13 Alg1 ism-i wsimni my name introduction
14 al-ʔaḥad lḥad Sunday A friend’s work life
15 al-iṯnayn ittinēn Monday
16 Alg2 ka-marʔa ka-mara as a woman raising Muslim children
17 Lib4 al-ʕāʔila al-ʕāyla the family a popular Libyan dish
18 tubāʕ tinbāʕ to be sold
19 waqqafat waggafat stopped holiday problem
20 Tns1 ʔaʕjabat-ak ʕijbit-ik impressed you (you liked it)
life in Leeds
21 aṯ-ṯulaṯāʔ iṯlāṯa Tuesday breaking the fasting
in the mosque
22 Omn1 miʔa miyya hundred differences in faith
and beliefs
23 Syr1 qarāba ʔarābe closeness dialectal similarities
24 Irq1 salaṭa zalaṭa salad recipes
The analysis of these cognates showed that 9 of them included the use of the hamza sound which made 17% of all the borrowings and 38% of the total of the
cognate borrowings15. Example (1) below was from the conversation between Jrd1, SdiH1 and SdiN1 when Jrd1 was describing a recipe and replaced the dialectal word dāyra/duwwēra “circle” with its MSA cognate dāʔira using the hamza sound instead of the dialectal glide y.
(1) Jrd1: btiṭlaʕ dāʔira kbīre b-ṣīniyye (it)comes out circle big in-tray ‘It comes out as a big circle in a tray’
Another noted feature in the borrowed cognates was the use of the MSA q sound instead of the g, k or the glottal stop which are used in some dialects and which were also mentioned in Blanc’s (1960) study. These were 5 (9%) instances of the total of the borrowings and made 21% of the cognates. Example (2) shows a cognate borrowing in the same conversation with Jrd1 and SdiH1 about the topic of language differences when SdiN1 replaced the dialectal g sound with the q sound in MSA in the two words in her Najdi dialect ṭarīgat “way” and nuṭg “pronouncing”.
(2) SdiN1: bass ṭarīqat nuṭq-aha tṣīr meḳtelfa But way pronouncing-it become different ‘But the way it is pronounced becomes different’
These two sounds – the hamza and the q – were the most noticeable phonological features in the borrowed cognates and together they make 14 (58%) instances out of the 24 cognate borrowings. Other cognates included words with variable
phonological differences such as the deletion or the insertion of a vowel, the use of different short vowels and the deletion or insertion of consonants. Example (3) has a cognate borrowing from the conversation between Egy1 and Jrd2, when Egy1 was talking about her research in dentistry and she replaced the Egyptian word
15 The deletion of the middle and final glottal stop in MSA words or replacing it with vowels is a common feature in most urban Arabic dialects (Versteegh, 1997).
sinān “teeth” with the MSA equivalent ʔasnān. In this example the cognates have two phonological differences; the initial hamza in the MSA word and the insertion of a short vowel after the first consonant in the dialectal word.
(3) Egy1: bastaḳdim ḥagāt fi-l-ʔasnān wi baṭallaʕ minn-aha ḳalāya (I)use things in-the-teeth and (I)get out from-it cells ‘I use things (parts) in the teeth and I bring out cells from them’
Another example of a cognate borrowing with multiple phonological differences is in example (4) in which Lib2 in his conversation with Egy2 about the change in social classes in Egypt; he used the MSA demonstrative ḏālika “that” instead of the Libyan equivalent hadāka which are likely to be etymologically related but they have multiple phonological differences.
(4) Lib2: eṭ-ṭabaqa-l-ġaniyya fī maṣr fī ḏālika-l-waqt… The-class -the-rich in Egypt in that-the-time… ‘The rich (social) class in Egypt at that time…’
Out of the 24 cognate borrowings, there were 5 instances of complex cognates that incorporate multiple morpho-phonological differences. Example (5) from the conversation between Lib2 and Egy2 shows how Lib2 used the MSA negated verbal phrase lā tasmaḥ “does not allow” instead of the equivalent Libyan multi-
morphemic word ma-tismaḥ-š with the negation prefix ma and the suffix š.
(5) Lib2: minḥit-na lā tasmaḥ bi-l-maʕīša f-landan Bursary-our not allow for/by-the-living in-London ‘Our bursary does not allow for the living in London’