Abstract

    The second article by Zohreh Shooshtari and Shahid Chamran presents an analysis of the acquisition of simple questions by Arabic and Persian bilingual learners of English. The results of the investigation showed no significant difference between the performance of monolinguals and bilinguals at each level of proficiency. Nonetheless, significant differences were found across the levels of proficiency.

    Alaa Al-Mohammadi and Sabah MZ Al-Safi’s article is a sociolinguistic and pedagogical study of code mixing among Arabic-English bilingual children in Saudi Arabia. The article analyses the data in light of Myer-Scotton’s (1993b [1997], 2002) model of code-switching and Grosjean’s (1999) model of language mode. The results indicate that the children were sensitive to the input mode created by the interlocutor. The children’s amount of code-switching matched the amount of code-switching in the input they received.

Abstract

     The next article by Fatma Zohra Mebtouche Nedjai focuses on Algerian women’s attitudes toward taboo words in Algerian Arabic, Kabyle, and French. Female informants have constructed social identities towards taboo words depending on the mother tongue or French acquisition, on the one hand, and on the parameters of the ritual of interaction in relation to age and respect of the interlocutor, on the other hand. This article shows that speakers can display a variety of identities depending on language, addressee, and topic.

    The article by Khadija Sekkal is a sociolinguistic and gender analysis of fortune telling in the Sous region of Morocco. The findings reveal that people hold positive attitudes towards male fortune-tellers because the latter always refer to God, Islam and religious matters. Female fortune-tellers are, by contrast, negatively viewed because they are thought to lack a deep knowledge of religion and to use charlatanism.

    In his article, Said Gafaiti studies the strong influence of Amazigh language on the Hagadah novel in Hebrew. The study shows that the influence of Amazigh on the Hebrew language used in this kind of popular novel is of paramount importance, especially at the lexical level. There is also the frequency of interferences at the phonetic, morphological, syntactic and semantic levels. The author recommends the profound study of this legacy of Moroccan popular culture and literature, which includes the interchange between Amazigh, Arabic, and Hebrew, which are used by different ethnic groups in Morocco.