Borrowed words in Qatari Arabic: A case study of knowledge of meaning and knowledge of origin by Qataris

Abstract

Linguistic borrowing is a common, universal and intensively studied phenomenon. It is of interest to investigate this practice and its patterns in Qatari Arabic and to know to what extent the Qataris know the meaning and the origin of some borrowed words in Qatari Arabic. Thus, the researcher collected one hundred loanwords which are used in Qatari dialect and asked Qataris to identify the meaning and the origin of those words. The research sample comprised 240 Qataris equally divided according to gender. Then were separated into four age groups of females and four of males. The focus of this study is on the ability of the Qataris to identify the meaning and the origin of the borrowed words in question. In addition, the present paper investigates if there is any correlation between the dependent variables (gender, age and work/job) and knowledge of meaning and knowledge of origin.