A Study of Loanwords and Code Switching in Spoken and Online Written Arabic by Palestinian Israelis

Abstract

This dissertation comprises three studies on borrowing and code switching (CS) used by Palestinian Israelis in two different modalities of communication: face-to-face and textual computer-mediated communication (CMC). The first study is a questionnaire that explores Palestinian Israelis’ attitudes regarding CS, as well as their language choices with different types of interlocutors. The second study investigates borrowing and code switching in the online written corpus, and the third study focuses on borrowing and code switching in the spoken corpus. A goal of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the language contact situation of Palestinian Israelis (PIs). The current study specifically examines borrowing and code switching in combination within the popular modality of online writing. The research questions addressed in this dissertation include: How frequently does loanwords and CS occur in the CMC and spoken corpus? What effects, if any, does CMC have on borrowing? Which is more frequent, code switching or borrowing, and which modality favors each phenomenon? What are the topics that are affected the most by Hebrew loanwords and CS?The findings show that PIs have negative attitudes regarding CS; however, they are aware of the importance of Hebrew in their everyday lives. CS is frequently used with friends and acquaintances and less common with strangers. The frequency for borrowing in general and in this research in particular is lower than CS. Generally, borrowing and CS are found more in the spoken corpus than in the CMC corpus. There are more CS and borrowings in synchronous communication compared to asynchronous. The findings also show that topics like education, employment, and technology had the most extensive loanwords and CS. Concerning CS, the most frequently used type of switch in both corpora is intrasentential; this type of switching requires a high proficiency in both languages. Moreover, in the case of PIs, a word can be considered a loanword regardless of its phonology. Moreover, code switches can still be code switches even if they have been adapted to Arabic phonology.