Aspects of language change in ghazaouet spoken Arabic

Abstract EN

The present paper is not meant to be an exhaustive study on language dynamics in Algeria.

It is rather an overview on some aspects of language change.

This preliminary survey is based on observations made in the speech community of Ghazaouet vis à vis the deep social upheaval this community has witnessed and other phenomena tightly related to the Algerian society.

In the current study, we shall deal with causes of language change in Ghazaouet Spoken Arabic.

We will focus on the impact of the socioeconomic evolution on language use and let the implementation of standard forms in GSA as well as its contribution in the rise of “Middle Arabic” in Algeria for a second paper.

We are thus to examine first and foremost the following questions: 1.

How does the socioeconomic evolution contribute in the process of language change in G.S.A? 2.

What aspects of G.S.A are subject to variation? Language change in G.S.A is described as the actual loss of “Villageois” peculiarities and the infiltration of new linguistic forms mainly classical, urban and rural.

We are to consider here the introduction of new dialectal forms (both urban and rural) at the expense of Berber features in this spoken dialect.