THE INFLUENCE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ON THE ALGERIAN DIALECT OF THE ARABIC LANGUAGE

Abstract

Arabic as one of the most important languages of civilization had its expansion after the emergence of Islam when it spread from its homeland, the Arabian Peninsula to the vast territory of the Levant, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Sudan and the Maghreb. At the same time, the classical Arabic language (al-luġa al-ʾarabiyya al- fuṣḥa) became the language of literature, science and culture, and the language of the Qur'an in the entire area from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic ocean. However, along with classical Arabic, various local dialects (al-luġa al-ʾāmmiyya) appeared and were used in everyday speech. With the conquest of new territories and the spread of the Arabic language, a new deal emerged due tolt of the mutual influence and interaction of Arabic and local languages. On the territory of Algeria inhabited mainly by Berber

tribes (Al-Amāzīġ), like in other Maghreb countries, the Arabic language spread, which was initially mostly spoken in cities, but gradually reached rural and mountainous areas where various Berber dialects were mostly used. In this way, the Algerian dialect of the Arabic language was formed, to gradually receive great influence from the Ottoman Turkish, Spanish and French languages. Nowadays diversity between dialects, especial in some areas is a consequence of its impact. Therefore Standard Algerian dialect which, for various historical reasons, will come into intensive contact with the Ottoman Turkish, Spanish and French languages, which will be analyzed from the perspective of the adopted lexicon in the paper. The aim of this work is to gain an insight into the development of the lexicon of the Algerian dialect over time, as well as the influence of foreign languages on its formation, especially in terms of loanwords that entered it, with reference to the historical context.