Entry of arabic lexical units into the french language

DOI 10.51955/2312-1327_2023_2_135

Tamara V. Slastnikova

Abstract. The aim of the present article is to study the stages of occurrence of arabisms in the French language in order to identify the movement of the French vocabulary`s layer of Arabic origin. In this article the definition of a borrowing is given, taking into consideration the fact that in linguistic literature the question on what a loan word is is still debatable. In the article significant phases in the history of arabisms in the French language are given, the actual problem of adaptation of Arabic vocabulary in the French language environment is addressed. For the first time the vocabulary of Arabic origin in the French language is considered and analysed in the comparative study of dictionaries of the three centuries, namely: M. Devic, “Dictionnaire étymologique des mots d’origine orientale” (XIX), A. Dauzat, “Nouveau dictionnaire étymologique et historique” (XX) and Dictionnaire Larousse français monolingue et bilingues en ligne (XXI). It allows to designate the period most accurately in the history of the French language when Arabic lexical units were borrowed most intensively.

Keywords: borrowing, Arabic lexical units, diachrony, vocabulary of the French language, intermediary language, historicism.

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