Some Preliminary Observations on Processes of semantic borrowing in the Kabyle and Mzabi minorities of Oran

Abstract

It is inevitable to do without borrowing in bilingual contexts. This phenomenon is more accentuated in contexts where there are bilingual situations involving minority languages. Algeria in general and Oran in particular are interesting sociolinguistic contexts to study the phenomenon of borrowing within minority groups. The present paper makes some preliminary observations on borrowing as it is displayed by members of the Kabyle and Mzabi minorities of Oran. We will be concentrating on the processes of semantic borrowing in the speech of these speakers. This type of borrowing is characteristic of contact situations and particularly those involving minority groups whose language or language varieties are influenced by the language or languages of the majority speakers in one way or another. We will tackle different types of semantic borrowing such as cultural borrowing, calques, and neologisms. The semantic borrowings that are the most recurrent in the data are the ones involving cultural borrowings and calques. Many semantic borrowings are in fact idiomatic expressions that are used by the Algerian Arabic majority speakers of Oran. The Berber minority groups seem to display a process of semantic alteration and extension. Some semantic extensions have in fact integrated new meanings that are not present in the guest language.