The Use of the Verbal Forms (Fa'ala) and (Fa'alla) in Linguistic Borrowing and Generation from the English Language into Contemporary Arabic Dialects

Abstract

Objectives: This research aims to study the phenomenon of English loanwords in contemporary Arabic dialects at the morphological and derivational level. It attempts to uncover the reason behind the use of the active verbs "fa'ala" and "fa'alla" to adopt many borrowed words, especially in the field of modern technology. The research also aims to demonstrate the potential of these two active verbs in adopting loanwords and generating new ones. Additionally, it seeks to determine whether this borrowing is conscious and conforms to the rules of standard Arabic when dealing with foreign loanwords, or if it is an unconscious and spontaneous borrowing.

Method: The descriptive-inductive-analytical approach was adopted. The foreign loanwords that came in the two aforementioned verb forms were collected from recent studies on Arabic loanwords and from the users of these loanwords. They were analyzed and discussed.

Results: The users of the linguistic borrowings have employed the two verbal forms (fa'ala) and (fa'laala) as flexible and standardized quadri-syllabic forms to accommodate foreign borrowings and make them Arabic in pronunciation and use. This is achieved by stripping them of their common meanings of exaggeration, repetition, and negation, and taking advantage of the flexibility and adaptability of these two forms in assimilating foreign borrowings and deriving new words from them. The research also showed that contemporary Arabic dialects lack sufficient linguistic rules and standards to deal with loanwords from English, as is the case in Modern Standard Arabic.

Conclusions: The research concluded that linguistic borrowing in contemporary Arabic dialects is characterized by spontaneity, randomness, and improvisation imposed by the need of linguistic borrowing users to fill in the gaps in their daily language usage. They rely on their auditory memory of the language and the system of measurement and derivation.