The morphological integration of loanwords into Modern Standard Arabic

Sammanfattning: This thesis explores the morphological integration of Standard Average European (SAE) words into Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). The topic constitutes a challenge insofar as SAE and MSA are typologically very different, and integration of words from SAE into MSA should therefore be generally difficult. Loanwords were selected from a collection of contemporary short stories and filtered through a Modern Standard Arabic dictionary of words with non-Semitic origin. This was followed by a morphological analysis and categorization of the loanwords. The loanwords can be divided into two groups. Words in the first group do not fit into the so called root and pattern system of MSA, i.e. the configuration where a verbal root serves as the basis for derivations and inflections produced via internal vowel or consonant alternations. However, words in this group can take Arabic suffixes. The latter group can be subdivided into (i) loanwords which can be linked to formal roots as evident from their broken (= root internal) plural pattern, (ii) proper verbal roots or (iii) a combination of these. This classification enables us to create a scale of morphological integration. It is shown that suffixing (as in group 1) is not a viable strategy for integrating loanwords into a language exhibiting the root and pattern-system, such as MSA. Of special interest is the border between loanwords consisting of unintegrated solid stem words on one side, and on the other, loanwords that can be linked to a root.