Grammatical Contact in the Sahara: Arabic, Berber, and Songhay in Tabelbala and Siwa

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Main author: Souag, Lameen
Format: Theses           
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id eprints-13430
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
topic P Philology. Linguistics
PJ Semitic
PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania
description This thesis examines the effects of contact on the grammars of the languages of two Saharan oases, Siwa and Tabelbala. These share similar linguistic ecologies in many respects, and can be regarded as among the most extreme representatives of a language contact situation ongoing for centuries across the oases of the northern Sahara. This work identifies and argues for contact effects across a wide range of core morphology and syntax, using these both to shed new light on regional history and to test claims about the limits on, and expected outcomes of, contact. While reaffirming the ubiquity of pattern copying, the results encourage an expanded understanding of the role of material borrowing in grammatical contact, showing that the borrowing of functional morphemes and of paradigmatic sets of words or phrases containing them can lead to grammatical change. More generally, it confirms the uniformitarian principle that diachronic change arises through the long-term application of processes observable in synchronic language contact situations. The similarity of the sociolinguistic situations provides a close approximation to a natural controlled experiment, allowing us to pinpoint cases where differences in the original structure of the recipient language appear to have influenced its receptivity to external influence in those aspects of structure.
format Theses
author Souag, Lameen
author_facet Souag, Lameen
authorStr Souag, Lameen
author_letter Souag, Lameen
title Grammatical Contact in the Sahara: Arabic, Berber, and Songhay in Tabelbala and Siwa
publishDate 2010
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/13430/

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