Adapting French Loan Words into Tamazight:  Case Study of Berberophones in the National School of Engineers, Tlemcen

Adder, Fatima Zohra; Bagui, Hayat

Timsal n Tamazight
Volume 12, Numéro 1, Pages 191-206
2020-12-22

Adapting French Loan Words Into Tamazight: Case Study Of Berberophones In The National School Of Engineers, Tlemcen

Authors : Adder Fatima Zohra . Bagui Hayat .

Abstract

Abstract The present study aims essentially at exploring the use of French loan words that are adapted into Tamazight in Algeria. It seeks to investigate the main factors that lead speakers to import words and items from French; showing how these are linguistically adapted into their native dialects. This exploration deals with a sample composed of all Berberophone pupils in the National School of Engineers in Tlemcen as a case study. It attempts, then, to check whether those pupils are aware of the etymological origin of these borrowed words in their Tamazight dialects or not. In order to find answers to the raised research questions, a mixed-methodology approach, based on both quantitative and qualitative methods, has been selected and; thus, two research instruments were mainly opted for: a questionnaire and a word list. The questionnaire was conducted to check pupils’ attitudes towards French and is hopefully administered to unveil their personal motivating reasons to borrow French loanwords in daily life discourse at one hand. The word list, on the other hand, aims fundamentally at collecting a set of French lexical items that are part and parcel of Berberophones’ day-to-day idiolects. It also attempts to show their nature and specify their contexts of use. A descriptive and statistical analysis was used to report the gathered data. The findings showed that French loanwords enjoy a considerable position in pupils’ linguistic system. They are linguistically adapted into their native tongues due to some historical and socio-cultural reasons. Yet, these pupils are not conscious of the origin of the French borrowed vocabulary in their Tamazight varieties.