Hebrew Loanwords in Written Palestinian Arabic

Abstract

Hebrew loanwords have penetrated not only spoken Palestinian Arabic (PA) but also written PA. Using original corpora, this dissertation examines the semantic categories, relative distribution, and linguistic adaptation, of Hebrew loanwords (HLs) written in Arabic script on digital platforms. Borrowing Hebrew words and writing them in Arabic script in digital texts is a new phenomenon. HLs were collected from websites in Arabic published in Israel, identified as the Israeli corpus, and in the West Bank and Gaza (WG), the WG corpus, and are representative of written PA. The study aims to better understand how contact between PA and Modern Hebrew within and outside the borders of Israel affects the use of HLs in digital texts in Arabic. HLs in PA are distributed across a range of semantic categories, particularly the category of food and that of education and institutions. The majority of HLs are nouns; and the most frequently used words appear in both corpora. Most HLs have Arabic equivalents; the study identifies two possible reasons for the use of HLs over Arabic equivalents: cultural precision and formality avoidance. Many HLs are adapted to the phonological and/or morphological system of PA, but some preserve Hebrew syllable structure or Hebrew number and gender markers. An interesting discovery is the formation of new words in PA through the process of root extraction. The vast majority of HLs preserve the Hebrew meaning, while a few select only one of the possible meanings available in Hebrew. A comparison of HLs between the corpora reveals that degree of contact affects the use of HLs in terms of relative distribution and frequency, but not in terms of linguistic adaptation. This is the first study to analyze HLs in formal digital texts in Arabic and to compare the use of HLs on websites originating from different regions of contact, Israel and the WG.