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ERIC Number: ED633842
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-2708-0099
EISSN: EISSN-2617-0299
Clipping of Borrowings in Spoken Arabic
Al-Jarf, Reima
Online Submission, International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation v6 n11 p68-76 2023
Clipping is a word formation process in which a word is reduced/shortened to one of its parts as in exam, math, grad, lab, Sue while still retaining the same meaning and same part of speech. Clipping is classified into: (i) Initial clipping: phone (telephone), net (Internet); (ii) Medial clipping: fancy (fantasy), ma'am (madam); (iii) back clipping: exam, fax, doc, gym; (iv) Complex clipping: chem bot (chemistry-botany), ed psych (educational psychology). In Arabic, single word clipping of native words is limited ([Arabic symbols omitted]), whereas compound word clipping is more common in names of people, countries, cities, airlines, universities, courses, rivers, airlines, hospitals, and others. This study explores clipped borrowings (loan words) used in Spoken Arabic with no clipped, reduced, or shortened forms in English or French. It also aims to classify clipped borrowings, identify the most common type, and explains why Arabic speakers clip borrowings. Results revealed 5 types of borrowings: (1) back clipping of single words and compound (70%) as in aluminum > [Arabic symbols omitted], Chevrolet [Arabic symbols omitted], centimeter [Arabic symbols omitted], hypermarket [Arabic symbols omitted], Intercontinental [Arabic symbols omitted]?, Facebook [Arabic symbols omitted], WhatsApp [Arabic symbols omitted], Casablanca [Arabic symbols omitted]; (2) fore clipping (10%) as in album [Arabic symbols omitted]; (3) medial clipping (11%) as in Alzheimer [Arabic symbols omitted], cinema [Arabic symbols omitted], radio [Arabic symbols omitted]; (4) complex clipping with phonological changes (9%) as in rickshaw >ricksha, Hollywood >hilyood; and (v) crasis as in workshop [Arabic symbols omitted], screwdriver [Arabic symbols omitted]). Such clippings are spontaneously created and used by educated and uneducated Arabs and those who do not know English. Students majoring in English, medicine, and pharmacy at King Saud University create their own clippings: Style (Stylistics); Semantic (Semantics); Contrastive (Contrastive Analysis); mid (midterm), cause (because), lap (laptop), pharma (pharmacy), ophtha (ophthalmology), pedia (pediatrics) which they sometimes use in their writing assignments. The students asserted that clipped forms are "cute, easy, and everybody is doing it". They use them with other students in the same major. Instructors should draw students' attention to student-created clippings that are ungrammatical, and to Arabic clipped borrowings that can only be used in spoken Arabic but not in English formal writing. Socio- and psycholinguistic reasons for clipped borrowings are given.
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Saudi Arabia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A