Topics in the grammar of Zahrani spoken Arabic

Saudi dialects such as Hijazi Arabic (henceforth HA) and Najdi Arabic (henceforth NA) have been studied for centuries. However, other lesser-known Saudi dialects have not been studied yet. Zahrani Spoken Arabic (henceforth ZSA) is a dialect from the southern region of Saudi Arabia, with around 35,000 speakers, which has not been described or analyzed. Due to migration and the loss of speakers across generations, it is now an endangered language. This thesis presents an analysis of the ZSA dialect, including a brief description of its history, speakers, and location. It is organized into eight chapters focusing on three main areas: phonology, morphology, and syntax. The phonological description provides information on consonants and vowels, syllable structure, word stress, and the main phonological processes in ZSA. As discussed in Chapter Three, verbs in ZSA are formed from two main types of root—triliteral and quadriliteral. Within these groups, there are six different classes of triliteral root: sound roots, double roots, hamzated (glottalized) roots, assimilated roots, hollow roots, and defective roots; and another three distinct classes are formed from the quadriliteral roots: sound roots, weak roots, and reduplicated roots. These different classes can be seen to form up to ten derivational forms. This chapter also deals with the inflectional forms of verbs, including subject-verb agreement, tense, aspect, mood, and voice. The discussion of nominal morphology covers both derivational and inflectional processes. It shows that ZSA has two main types of noun: these are derived nouns, which include verbal nouns and verbal derivatives, and non-derived nouns, which include proper nouns and borrowed nouns. Additionally, there are certain types of derived nouns that are named according to their meanings after the derivational processes have taken place. These are: unit nouns, instant nouns, nouns of place, occupational nouns, instrumental nouns, diminutive nouns, and common nouns. Adjectives in ZSA vary according to the derivational processes involved. They are derived from lexical roots or other parts of speech such as verbs. Some adjectives are derived from nouns by attaching nisbah suffixes. This thesis also provides a basic description of phrase structure in ZSA, including noun phrases, adjective phrases, prepositional phrases, and verb phrases. Following on from this discussion, other related issues such as word order and agreement are dealt with. Lastly, it provides a basic description of verbal and equational clauses in ZSA, including word order and agreement. A brief description of negation in both verbal and equational clauses is given, and the structure of interrogatives is also discussed.