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Arabic in Contact
Edited by Stefano Manfredi and Mauro Tosco
[Studies in Arabic Linguistics 6] 2018
► pp. 111–134

Arabic on the Dahlak islands (Eritrea)

| CNRS, LLACAN-INALCO, Université Sorbonne Paris-Cité

This paper is devoted to the Arabic dialect spoken on the Dahlak archipelago of Eritrea, a variety of Arabic poorly documented so far. There are few studies on the Arabic varieties spoken on the African coast of the Red sea (Simeone-Senelle 2000b, 2002, 2005a–b, 2009; Kassim Mohamed 2012) but none of them has been dedicated particularly to Arabic as spoken on the islands. By revising previously published data about the Arabic variety spoken by islanders, I will attempt to assess the specific features of Dahlaki Arabic. After an overview of the archipelago and its sociolinguistic situation on the three inhabited islands, the main features of Arabic spoken on the islands will be compared with Arabic spoken as lingua franca (ALF) on the African coast of the Red Sea. The issue is to determine to what extend a distinction can be drawn between both Arabic varieties: Dahlaki Arabic and ALF of the coast.

Keywords: multilingualism, language contact, lingua franca , ‘Afar, Southern Semitic, Dahalik, Tigre, borrowing, codeswitching
Article outline
  • 0.Introduction
  • 1.General overview of the archipelago
    • 1.1Sociolinguistic situation
    • 1.2A brief overview of Arabic presence on the Archipelago
    • 1.3Status of Arabic
    • 1.4Arabic varieties on the islands
      • 1.4.1Modern Standard Arabic
      • 1.4.2 Arabic dialects
  • 2.Characteristics of Dahlaki Arabic
    • 2.1Phonology and phonetics
      • 2.1.1Consonants
        • 2.1.1.1The emphatics
        • 2.1.1.2Interdentals
        • 2.1.1.3Palato-alveolars
        • 2.1.1.4Velars and uvulars
      • 2.1.2 Vowels
    • 2.2Morphosyntax
      • 2.2.1Verb
        • 2.2.1.1The IPFV conjugation
        • 2.2.1.2The PFV conjugation
        • 2.2.1.3The system of TAM auxiliaries
        • 2.2.1.4TAM values
      • 2.2.2Noun
    • 2.3Syntax
      • 2.3.1The noun phrase
        • 2.3.1.1The genitive construction
      • 2.3.2Nominal clause
        • 2.3.2.1Copula of pronominal origin
        • 2.3.2.2Prepositions used as copula
        • 2.3.2.3Copula of verbal origin
      • 2.3.3Agreement
      • 2.3.4Sentence
  • 3. Vocabulary and borrowings
    • 3.1Vocabulary
      • 3.1.1Ideophones
      • 3.1.2Interferences with Arabic dialects of the area
    • 3.2Lexical borrowings
  • 4.Codeswitching
    • 4.1Towards Dahālik
      • 4.1.1Intra-sentential CSW
      • 4.1.2Inter-clausal CSW
    • 4.2CSW towards ‘Afar
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgment
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 10 July 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sal.6.06sim
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