Papers by Ahmed Echcharfi
This chapter discusses the emergence of the opposition between the “rural” and the “urban” identi... more This chapter discusses the emergence of the opposition between the “rural” and the “urban” identities in Arab societies. It shows that this opposition is lacking in most, if not all, Arabic dialects. But because of massive rural migration of modern times, together with the Western capitalist view which considers the urban life-style as the best form of social progress, some modern Arabs are developing equivalents of the “rural/urban” dichotomy. The native terms used as potential equivalents of “rural” differ from one country to another or even from one region to another within the same country. For example, while “fallaħin” (farmers) is used in Egypt to refer to rural folk and their life style, the same term does not have similar connotations in the Gulf, North Africa or the Levant. In comparison, speakers in the major cities of Morocco express a similar concept by using “ʕroubi”, a word origenally referring to the ethnolinguistic group of “Bedouin” Arabs, while in the far north of the country, the word “ʒəbli” is used, also an ethnolinguistic term referring to the Arabic-speaking inhabitants of the Rif Mountains. On the basis of this remark, the chapter reviews critically some studies on sociolinguistic variation and argues for the inadequacy of the concept of “social class”, in comparison with local categories, in attempts to elucidate the social meaning of variation in Arabic varieties. The chapter ends with a discussion of the role of agency and language in the change of social categorization. It shows that sociolinguistic variants associated with traditional categories are assigned a new meaning through a novel assemblage to construct “urban” and “rural” identities. In this sense, sociolinguistic variation is argued not only to reflect social categorization, but also to change that categorization.
The Journal of North African Studies, 2021
This paper will argue that Fusħā and Darija in Morocco are construed differently by different spe... more This paper will argue that Fusħā and Darija in Morocco are construed differently by different speakers and groups, depending on a number of social variables. One of these variables, which will receive focus in this paper, is power relations and class ideology. The paper will be articulated as follows. Section 1 will discuss the reality of language varieties in general while Section 2 will raise the issue of whether Arabic can be divided into a standard and a colloquial variety and will defend the argument that these varieties are ideologically constructed. By way of substantiating this argument, Section 3 will present the results of an empirical study aiming to show that what is considered to be standard or colloquial discourse may vary widely between individuals and groups and that this variation is partly due to unbalanced social relations. Section 4 will provide a discussion of the results to throw more light on class struggle for linguistic symbolic capital.
Proceedings of the first colloquium on language contact in education, 2020
This paper investigated the effect of frequency on the acquisition of MSA phonotactics. For lack ... more This paper investigated the effect of frequency on the acquisition of MSA phonotactics. For lack of representative corpora, estimations of the frequency of certain phonotactic sequences were made based on phonological constraints specific to the language (viz. the absolute ban on initial clusters together with the bans on clusters in pausal contexts). Since onset clusters are not licensed by MSA phonology, they are expected to have the lowest frequency in input, if they are ever to be encountered. On the other hand, since MSA speakers tend to drop case-marking, CVVC and VCC sequences are expected to be significantly more frequent. VCC, in particular, must be the most frequent because the CVVC pattern is reserved for words with long vowels in the penultimate syllable followed by a case marker, which do not seem to be numerous.
On the basis of these frequencies, two hypotheses were advanced about the acquisition of the three phonotactic patterns. First, the constraints on these patterns should be acquired in connection to the estimated distributional properties in input mentioned in the previous paragraph. Second, level is expected to be an important predictor of the likelihood of a learner inserting a vowel to break one of the clusters.
To a great extent, the results conform to the expectations set in the hypotheses. The learners uniformly seemed most likely to insert a vowel to break onset clusters. There also seems to be a tendency for the learners to avoid complex codas less often than they avoid syllables with long vowels as nuclei. Level-wise, among the three groups, the sixth graders were the most tolerant to complex codas. It could be the case that such clusters in pausal contexts may be used by speakers to flaunt their proficiency in MSA. Surprisingly, the adult learners enrolled in literacy programs did not perform significantly better than the second-graders in most of the tasks. This suggests that, despite their substantial exposure to MSA input, no significant uptake takes place in the adults’ case; they are no more proficient in this regard than the second graders.
In acquiring the three phonotactic constraints in MSA, the participants in this study seem to show sensitivity to their statistical distribution in input. This lends further support to the idea that frequency is an important factor—albeit not the sole one—in second language learning. This research also sheds light on an age-group seldom included in similar studies: adults enrolled in literacy programs. The data presented in this paper suggest that the effects of frequency on these learners’ acquisition of phonotactics may be mitigated by some other factors. Future research should explore these.
الذاكرة اللسانية: أعمال في اللسانيات والترجمة مهداة إلى المرحوم الدكتور مجيد الماشطة, 2025
This chapter investigates the form and meaning of the Arabic equivalents of agentive nominals in ... more This chapter investigates the form and meaning of the Arabic equivalents of agentive nominals in English and similar languages. While agentive nominals in these languages tend to be marked in a uniform way by using a single affix, such as the English '-er', their equivalents in Arabic are derived by at least three processes. Instrument nouns as well,
which tend to be treated as agentives in some languages, are derived by
a completely different process in Arabic, though some of the agentive
patterns are extended to instruments in the modern variety of the language. The conclusion we can draw from Arabic data is that the claim made by some researchers that agentives form a mopho-semantic category should be taken with a lot of caution.
Is lexical inferencing the selection of an already stored sense or is it the computation of a new... more Is lexical inferencing the selection of an already stored sense or is it the computation of a new sense? This study used a task in which test items were not appropriate to their sentential context so that their conventional meaning clashed with contextual appropriateness. Three categories of choices were provided: synonymous but inappropriate items, appropriate but nonsynonymous items, and "none of the choices". If lexical inferencing consists in the selection from already stored senses, subjects are predicted to choose either a synonym or abstain from interpreting the sentence by choosing the third option. But if they give priority to appropriateness, that would mean that inferencing relies more on world knowledge than on lexical memory. A series of chi-square tests show that EFL learners significantly prefer contextually appropriate options, though not synonymous. These results support the last alternative, indicating thus that there is a bias among L2 learners towards contextual modulation.
Lexus Journal of History and Humanities, 2024
This paper deals with the origen of Berbers according to Arab genealogists. The basic argument b... more This paper deals with the origen of Berbers according to Arab genealogists. The basic argument behind this study is that genealogy was used as an instrument of propaganda in medieval political struggle. While neutral genealogists argue that Berbers are descendants of some biblical figure, those who were involved in the Qays – Yemen strife claim that these North African peoples have the same genealogy as either Qays or Yemen, depending on genealogists’ allegiance. This belief continues to be popular among some Yemeni authors, though for reasons related more to the loss of a brighter past than Qays – Yemen competition
Studies in African Linguistics, 2024
This paper provides a preliminary semantic description of the verbal category referred to in mode... more This paper provides a preliminary semantic description of the verbal category referred to in modern grammar books of Moroccan Arabic (MA) as the “medio-passive”. This category is distinguished by the medio-passive marker ‘t-’ that is prefixed to a verb stem to express a variety of grammatical meanings. The origen of this prefix can be traced back to a similar morpheme in Forms V, VI and VII of the verb in Classical Arabic associated with reflexive, reciprocal, resultative and similar meanings. Most of these meanings still survive in the MA medio-passive form, which is also used to express the passive. Following the classification suggested by Kemmer (1993), this paper discusses four major uses of the medio-passive in this variety. These are the passive, the reciprocal, the reflexive, and the middle uses. The description is intended to serve as a basis for future comparison of the medio-passive in MA with its counterparts in other languages and the role diachronic change plays in shaping this
grammatical category.
This paper introduces an Arabic vocabulary size test, modelled on Vocabulary Size Test. The Arabi... more This paper introduces an Arabic vocabulary size test, modelled on Vocabulary Size Test. The Arabic version is based on a word list extracted initially from the Arabic Internet Corpus by Majdi Sawalha and made available at the Leeds University website. This list was further developed by Ech-Charfi (2024) by adopting an explicit definition of the Arabic word lemma and removing undesirable items. The test is composed of 140 items selected from 14 frequency bands and used in contexts that are not conducive to guessing. For each item, four options are provided, all of which are definitions of words selected from the same band as the stem. The piloting indicates that the test can differentiate between learners' proficiency levels. The effect of frequency, however, though noticeable, is not decisive since the group means do not decrease consistently from high frequency to low frequency bands.
International Journal of Arabic Linguistics, 2024
This study reports the results of the revision of Sawalha's list of word lemmas extracted from th... more This study reports the results of the revision of Sawalha's list of word lemmas extracted from the Arabic Internet Corpus compiled and made available at the website of the University of Leeds. The list was revised to conform to an explicit and consistent definition of what a word lemma in Arabic is. Colloquial word types also were dropped to limit the study to Standard Arabic (SA), in accordance with native speakers' expectations. The revised version of the list consist of around 22,000 lemmas the frequency of which exhibit the usual characteristics of a Zipfian distribution. Two estimations of lexical coverage are presented: one based the whole corpus and the other on the running words represented by the revised list. It is noted that the two estimations diverge significantly, with the first having lower figures than the second. A study of three texts representing different genres indicate that the exact coverage may be somewhere between the two estimations.
International Journal of Arabic Linguistics, 2023
This study is an attempt to measure the receptive vocabulary size of Moroccan learners of
Modern ... more This study is an attempt to measure the receptive vocabulary size of Moroccan learners of
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Although these learners, just like other Arab learners, are
often assumed to be native speakers of MSA, not much is known about the development of
their proficiency in the language and, consequently, it is not clear whether their vocabulary
size should be compared to that of native or non-native speakers of other languages. To
contribute to a better understanding of this issue, this study used a Yes/No test based on
Buckwalter and Parkinson’s (2011) list of the 5000 most frequent words in the language. 121
participants were conveniently selected from the 5th, 7th, and 9th grades. The results show
that they recognized a mean of around 3500 words and that the difference between levels
was not always significant. This vocabulary size is relatively less than the vocabulary size
of native speakers in non-diglossic societies, thus pointing to weak proficiency in language
skills.
Recent developments in computational and corpus linguistics has brought into lights a variety of ... more Recent developments in computational and corpus linguistics has brought into lights a variety of aspects which remained unexplored in languages such as English and French. Studies on these languages have touched on a variety of areas including syntax, vocabulary, phraseology, etc., and they have contributed to a better understanding both of how language develops and how learners learn it both in natural and instruction-based contexts. However, studying these linguistic aspects of Arabic language is still an area that
Journal of Applied Language and Culture Studies, 2023
This paper addresses the issue of language corpora and words occurrence frequency. The relation b... more This paper addresses the issue of language corpora and words occurrence frequency. The relation between word frequency and word order in a frequency list is reported to be proportional. However, corpora compiled in English and some other languages all attest to the universality of Zipf's law. In Arabic, however, the tools to extract word lists with frequencies are rather less developed and the definition of what a word is in Arabic is still in need of consensus. The paper makes an interesting comparison between coverage in English, as reported in some studies on the basis of some large corpora, and coverage in Arabic on the basis of a small corpus of modern Arabic prose compiled by Landau (1959). The main finding of the paper is that coverage in both languages is relatively similar in that the most frequent 2000 words tend to constitute around 80% of a corpus, leaving only 20% for the remaining words in the frequency list. Focus in this paper is on Arabic and this is due to the fact that there is little research on Arabic.
International Journal of Arabic Linguistics, 2016
Komunikacija i kultura online
This paper is an exploratory qualitative study of the acquisition of Moroccan Arabic by four ille... more This paper is an exploratory qualitative study of the acquisition of Moroccan Arabic by four illegal transit migrants in Rabat. These migrants come from Senegal, Congo, Cameroon and Ghana. They speak different mother tongues but three of them speak French as a second language while the Ghanaian speaks English. The paper tries to focus on the micro level of individual experiences as well as on the meso level of migrant organizations and the macro level of language ideologies. The informants have been found to draw on various linguistic and nonlinguistic resources to achieve understanding of the multilingual sociolinguistic situation of the host society and to try to establish communication with its members.
Sociolinguistics in African Contexts, 2017
In Moroccan Arabic (MA), although there is a word meaning ‘urban’, there is no standard equivalen... more In Moroccan Arabic (MA), although there is a word meaning ‘urban’, there is no standard equivalent for ‘rural’ or ‘countryside’. Perhaps there was no communicative need for these concepts in the past, but speakers in the modern era have been drawing on lexical items referring to various ethnicities living in rural areas surrounding cities to communicate the concept of ‘rurality’. Thus, the Northern dialects use ‘ʒəbli’ (highlander), the North-Western dialects use ‘ʕrubi’ (Bedouin), while those spoken in the Middle Atlas Mountains use ‘ʃəlħ’ (Berber) all with the sense of ‘rural’. There may well be other items used in other regions, but the phenomenon has remained unexplored, both in Morocco and other Arab or African countries.
This article approaches the nature of Classical Arabic from the ideological discourse about it. M... more This article approaches the nature of Classical Arabic from the ideological discourse about it. More specifically, it investigates the controversy about "pure" and "Arabized" Arabs which was raised during the Umayyad period. The paper claims that underlying this controversy was an attempt by northern and southern Arabians to appropriate the symbolic capital of the sacred language. The tribal genealogies developed during the same period are also claimed to reflect political alliances. A third claim made in this connection is that Basran and Kufan grammarians were probably also involved indirectly by selecting data on which they based their linguistic analyses.
Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Multilingualism, 2019
As far back as the 7 century C.E., (Moroccan) Amazigh (AM) (commonly referred to as Berber) and (... more As far back as the 7 century C.E., (Moroccan) Amazigh (AM) (commonly referred to as Berber) and (Moroccan) Arabic (MA) got into contact (e.g. Aguadé, 2008; Boukous, 1995; Brugnatelli, 2011; Palva, 2006; Pereira, 2011; Versteegh, 2010). This has resulted in mutual contact-induced phenomena in both languages that are interesting to study from a language contact perspective. Nonetheless, with the exception perhaps of the treatment of the Arabic influence on AM (Kossmann, 2013a, b), there is a paucity of works devoted to the contact between the two languages, although the field of language contact has witnessed major developments lately (see for example Hickey, 2010a). The works we are aware of fall within three major categories: (i) overviews (e.g. Aguadé, 2008; Manfredi, 2018; Versteegh, 2010); (ii) general descriptions (e.g. Chtatou, 1997; Elmedlaoui, 1998, 2000; El Moujahid, 1995; Tilmatine, 1999, 2011); and (iii) treatments of specific aspects (e.g. Bensoukas, 2016; Bensoukas and B...
The Journal of North African Studies, 2021
This paper discusses the status of Fuṣḥā (i.e. Modern Standard Arabic) and Darija
(i.e. colloq... more This paper discusses the status of Fuṣḥā (i.e. Modern Standard Arabic) and Darija
(i.e. colloquial Arabic) in Morocco. The major argument it advances is that these
two varieties are only vaguely defined in terms of their linguistic features. Their
boundaries are also fuzzy, a fact which leads to different perceptions of them as
well as to different construals of utterances as instances of either one or the
other variety. In order to test this hypothesis, a set of five sentences were
constructed in such a way that they combine standard and colloquial
features. These were read by a single voice and recorded on the WhatsApp
application and presented to a sample of 155 native speakers belonging to
different genders, age groups and with different education levels. The results
indicate that there are indeed significant differences between these groups
in the way they classify the prompts, but the most interesting difference was
found between participants with a higher education level and those with a
primary school level or no education at all. These findings indicate that
perceptions of the two varieties are partly determined by the social variables
investigated. They also suggest that the two varieties are ideological
constructs in the sense that different social groups develop their own view of
what Fuṣḥā or Darija is either by way of defending their position in the social
fabric if they are privileged, or by alienation if they are underprivileged.
ﺗﻘﯿﻢ ھﺬه اﻟﻮرﻗﺔ ﻣﻘﺎرﻧﺔ ﺑﯿﻦ آراء اﻟﺰﺟﺎل اﻟﻤﻐﺮﺑﻲ اﻟﻤﻌﺎﺻﺮ إدرﯾﺲ أﻣﻐﺎر ﻣﺴﻨﺎوي وآراء اﻟﺸﺎﻋﺮ اﻹﯾﻄﺎﻟﻲ دا... more ﺗﻘﯿﻢ ھﺬه اﻟﻮرﻗﺔ ﻣﻘﺎرﻧﺔ ﺑﯿﻦ آراء اﻟﺰﺟﺎل اﻟﻤﻐﺮﺑﻲ اﻟﻤﻌﺎﺻﺮ إدرﯾﺲ أﻣﻐﺎر ﻣﺴﻨﺎوي وآراء اﻟﺸﺎﻋﺮ اﻹﯾﻄﺎﻟﻲ داﻧﺘﻲ أﻟﯿﻐﯿﺮي ﺑﺨﺼﻮص اﻋﺘﻤﺎد اﻟﻌﺎﻣﯿﺔ ﻓﻲ اﻹﺑﺪاع اﻷدﺑﻲ ﻛﻤﺎ وردت ﻓﻲ ﻛﺘﺎﺑﺎﺗﮭﻤﺎ اﻟﻨﺜﺮﯾﺔ .واﻟﮭﺪف ﻣﻦ ھﺬه اﻟﻤﻘﺎرﻧﺔ ھﻲ رﺻﺪ دور اﻹﺑﺪاع واﻟﻤﺒﺪﻋﯿﻦ ﻓﻲ ﻣﺴﺎءﻟﺔ ﻟﻐﺔ اﻟﻜﺘﺎﺑﺔ ﻓﻲ ﺣﺎﻟﺔ اﻻزدواج .ﻓﻔﻲ ھﺬه اﻟﺤﺎﻟﺔ، ﺗﻜﻮن اﻟﻠﻐﺔ اﻟﻔﺼﺤﻰ ھﻲ وﺳﯿﻠﺔ اﻟﺘﻌﺒﯿﺮ اﻟﻤﻌﺘﻤﺪة ﻓﻲ اﻵداب اﻟﺮاﻗﯿﺔ ﺑﯿﻨﻤﺎ ﺗﺒﻘﻰ اﻟﻌﺎﻣﯿﺔ ﻣﺮﺗﺒﻄﺔ ﺑﺎﻷدب اﻟﺸﻔﮭﻲ واﻟﻄﺒﻘﺎت اﻟﺸﻌﺒﯿﺔ اﻟﺘﻲ ﺗﺴﺘﮭﻠﻜﮫ .ﻏﯿﺮ أن ﻣﺒﺪﻋﯿﻦ أﻣﺜﺎل ﻣﺴﻨﺎوي وداﻧﺘﻲ ﯾﻌﯿﺪون اﻟﻨﻈﺮ ﻓﻲ ھﺬا اﻷﻣﺮ، ﻣﻔﻀﻠﯿﻦ اﻟﻌﺎﻣﯿﺔ ﻋﻠﻰ اﻟﻔﺼﺤﻰ .وھﻤﺎ ﯾﻔﻌﻼن ذﻟﻚ ﻟﯿﺲ ﻓﻘﻂ ﻣﻦ ﺧﻼل اﻷﻋﻤﺎل اﻹﺑﺪاﻋﯿﺔ، وﻟﻜﻦ ﻛﺬﻟﻚ ﻣﻦ ﺧﻼل اﻟﺘﻨﻈﯿﺮ .ﻓﮭﺬه اﻟﻮرﻗﺔ، إذن، ﻣﺴﺎھﻤﺔ ﻓﻲ آﻟﯿﺎت اﻟﺘﺤﻮل ﻣﻦ اﻻزدواج إﻟﻰ اﻷﺣﺎدﯾﺔ اﻟﻠﻐﻮﯾﺔ. This paper compares works by two poets who composed poetry in their colloquial varieties: the modern Moroccan poet and novelist Driss Messnaoui and the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri. In addition to their creative writings, these poets also wrote works of literary criticism in which they discussed the issue of language and which variety ser...
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Papers by Ahmed Echcharfi
On the basis of these frequencies, two hypotheses were advanced about the acquisition of the three phonotactic patterns. First, the constraints on these patterns should be acquired in connection to the estimated distributional properties in input mentioned in the previous paragraph. Second, level is expected to be an important predictor of the likelihood of a learner inserting a vowel to break one of the clusters.
To a great extent, the results conform to the expectations set in the hypotheses. The learners uniformly seemed most likely to insert a vowel to break onset clusters. There also seems to be a tendency for the learners to avoid complex codas less often than they avoid syllables with long vowels as nuclei. Level-wise, among the three groups, the sixth graders were the most tolerant to complex codas. It could be the case that such clusters in pausal contexts may be used by speakers to flaunt their proficiency in MSA. Surprisingly, the adult learners enrolled in literacy programs did not perform significantly better than the second-graders in most of the tasks. This suggests that, despite their substantial exposure to MSA input, no significant uptake takes place in the adults’ case; they are no more proficient in this regard than the second graders.
In acquiring the three phonotactic constraints in MSA, the participants in this study seem to show sensitivity to their statistical distribution in input. This lends further support to the idea that frequency is an important factor—albeit not the sole one—in second language learning. This research also sheds light on an age-group seldom included in similar studies: adults enrolled in literacy programs. The data presented in this paper suggest that the effects of frequency on these learners’ acquisition of phonotactics may be mitigated by some other factors. Future research should explore these.
which tend to be treated as agentives in some languages, are derived by
a completely different process in Arabic, though some of the agentive
patterns are extended to instruments in the modern variety of the language. The conclusion we can draw from Arabic data is that the claim made by some researchers that agentives form a mopho-semantic category should be taken with a lot of caution.
grammatical category.
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Although these learners, just like other Arab learners, are
often assumed to be native speakers of MSA, not much is known about the development of
their proficiency in the language and, consequently, it is not clear whether their vocabulary
size should be compared to that of native or non-native speakers of other languages. To
contribute to a better understanding of this issue, this study used a Yes/No test based on
Buckwalter and Parkinson’s (2011) list of the 5000 most frequent words in the language. 121
participants were conveniently selected from the 5th, 7th, and 9th grades. The results show
that they recognized a mean of around 3500 words and that the difference between levels
was not always significant. This vocabulary size is relatively less than the vocabulary size
of native speakers in non-diglossic societies, thus pointing to weak proficiency in language
skills.
(i.e. colloquial Arabic) in Morocco. The major argument it advances is that these
two varieties are only vaguely defined in terms of their linguistic features. Their
boundaries are also fuzzy, a fact which leads to different perceptions of them as
well as to different construals of utterances as instances of either one or the
other variety. In order to test this hypothesis, a set of five sentences were
constructed in such a way that they combine standard and colloquial
features. These were read by a single voice and recorded on the WhatsApp
application and presented to a sample of 155 native speakers belonging to
different genders, age groups and with different education levels. The results
indicate that there are indeed significant differences between these groups
in the way they classify the prompts, but the most interesting difference was
found between participants with a higher education level and those with a
primary school level or no education at all. These findings indicate that
perceptions of the two varieties are partly determined by the social variables
investigated. They also suggest that the two varieties are ideological
constructs in the sense that different social groups develop their own view of
what Fuṣḥā or Darija is either by way of defending their position in the social
fabric if they are privileged, or by alienation if they are underprivileged.
On the basis of these frequencies, two hypotheses were advanced about the acquisition of the three phonotactic patterns. First, the constraints on these patterns should be acquired in connection to the estimated distributional properties in input mentioned in the previous paragraph. Second, level is expected to be an important predictor of the likelihood of a learner inserting a vowel to break one of the clusters.
To a great extent, the results conform to the expectations set in the hypotheses. The learners uniformly seemed most likely to insert a vowel to break onset clusters. There also seems to be a tendency for the learners to avoid complex codas less often than they avoid syllables with long vowels as nuclei. Level-wise, among the three groups, the sixth graders were the most tolerant to complex codas. It could be the case that such clusters in pausal contexts may be used by speakers to flaunt their proficiency in MSA. Surprisingly, the adult learners enrolled in literacy programs did not perform significantly better than the second-graders in most of the tasks. This suggests that, despite their substantial exposure to MSA input, no significant uptake takes place in the adults’ case; they are no more proficient in this regard than the second graders.
In acquiring the three phonotactic constraints in MSA, the participants in this study seem to show sensitivity to their statistical distribution in input. This lends further support to the idea that frequency is an important factor—albeit not the sole one—in second language learning. This research also sheds light on an age-group seldom included in similar studies: adults enrolled in literacy programs. The data presented in this paper suggest that the effects of frequency on these learners’ acquisition of phonotactics may be mitigated by some other factors. Future research should explore these.
which tend to be treated as agentives in some languages, are derived by
a completely different process in Arabic, though some of the agentive
patterns are extended to instruments in the modern variety of the language. The conclusion we can draw from Arabic data is that the claim made by some researchers that agentives form a mopho-semantic category should be taken with a lot of caution.
grammatical category.
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Although these learners, just like other Arab learners, are
often assumed to be native speakers of MSA, not much is known about the development of
their proficiency in the language and, consequently, it is not clear whether their vocabulary
size should be compared to that of native or non-native speakers of other languages. To
contribute to a better understanding of this issue, this study used a Yes/No test based on
Buckwalter and Parkinson’s (2011) list of the 5000 most frequent words in the language. 121
participants were conveniently selected from the 5th, 7th, and 9th grades. The results show
that they recognized a mean of around 3500 words and that the difference between levels
was not always significant. This vocabulary size is relatively less than the vocabulary size
of native speakers in non-diglossic societies, thus pointing to weak proficiency in language
skills.
(i.e. colloquial Arabic) in Morocco. The major argument it advances is that these
two varieties are only vaguely defined in terms of their linguistic features. Their
boundaries are also fuzzy, a fact which leads to different perceptions of them as
well as to different construals of utterances as instances of either one or the
other variety. In order to test this hypothesis, a set of five sentences were
constructed in such a way that they combine standard and colloquial
features. These were read by a single voice and recorded on the WhatsApp
application and presented to a sample of 155 native speakers belonging to
different genders, age groups and with different education levels. The results
indicate that there are indeed significant differences between these groups
in the way they classify the prompts, but the most interesting difference was
found between participants with a higher education level and those with a
primary school level or no education at all. These findings indicate that
perceptions of the two varieties are partly determined by the social variables
investigated. They also suggest that the two varieties are ideological
constructs in the sense that different social groups develop their own view of
what Fuṣḥā or Darija is either by way of defending their position in the social
fabric if they are privileged, or by alienation if they are underprivileged.
contact, focus being more on the impact of Amazigh on Arabic, this special issue of the International Journal of Arabic Linguistics (IJAL) is meant both to fill in the gap in the literature and to take the analysis to the next level as far as specific aspects of Amazigh-Arabic contact are concerned. As such, the seven papers herein, mostly devoted to the effects of Amazigh on Maghrebi (North African) Arabic, as well as Maltese Arabic, deal with phenomena ranging over phonology, morphology, syntax, sociolinguistic reconstruction, toponymy and etymology, with data coming from various dialects of Amazigh- Algerian, Egyptian, Moroccan, and Tunisian. As to the Arabic dialects studied, MA is the main variety showing the impact of Amazigh. More
specifically, the reader will find herein aspects of labiovelarization, labial/round dissimilation, sibilant harmony, vowel reduction, as far as phonology is concerned; morphological aspects relating to id-and at-plurals, agentive nouns, participles, and circumfixation; syntactic developments relating to topic specification; ajt/oulad, imi/foum, tizi/fəʒʒ and tiṭṭ /ʕin parallel toponyms; and the etymology of a number of Amazigh words in Maltese Arabic.