Exploring Gender usage and Adaptations of English loanwords in Saudi Colloquial Arabic

Abstract

This article is concerned with investigating the ways English loanwords are used in Saudi Colloquial Arabic (SCA) and the relationship between the use of English loanwords and gender, as an important sociolinguistic variable due to the strict sex segregation policies adopted by the Saudi authorities. The study is based on a corpus of English loanwords in SCA with the purpose of investigating the frequency of English loanwords in the speeches of male and female speakers and describing the linguistic adaptations used by male and female speakers. Results indicate that there are significant differences between Saudi male and female speakers in the use of English loanwords in terms of frequency, topics, and linguistic adaptations. These can be summarized as follows. First, females use English loanwords more frequently than males do. Second, some English loanwords are exclusively used by females. Third, females are more willing to violate the linguistic (phonological, morphological and grammatical) rules of Arabic in the process of using the English loanwords in SCA. The implications of this study hint at the changes within the Arabic language that have shaken the Saudi society vehemently. One of the implications also suggests gender as a social variable of this linguistic diversity