The Arabic Language

wāhed 
binti 
kabīr 
sawwi 
arus 
walad 
 
one 
daughter old 
make marriage son
 
māl 
ana
 
POSS 1s
‘The older daughter married my son’ (Naess 2008: 55)
In the verbal system, just as in the example quoted above from al-Bakrī, there is 
only one form which functions for all tenses and persons; person is indicated with 
an independent pronoun and tense is indicated either by context or by temporal 
adjuncts, as in (2):
(2) 
ana 
fī 
lēl 
gūm 
yabi 
rūh 
yišrab
 
1s 
in 
night get.up want go 
drink 
māy
water
‘At night, I got up to go and drink some water’ (Bakir 2010: 208)
As can be seen in these examples, most verbal forms (
sawwi
, 
gūl, gūm
) derive from 
Arabic imperatives, although there is much variation (
yabi
, 
yišrab
both derive 
from Arabic imperfects), both interpersonal and intrapersonal. The prevalence 

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303
of verbal forms based on Arabic imperatives in these pidgins is hardly surprising, 
because the imperative is probably the form most often heard by the foreign 
workers. One particularly interesting trait is the use of the existential 
fī 
‘there is’ 
as a verbal predicate marker, which seems to be particularly popular as a marker 
of habitual or continuous action (Avram 2012), as in (3):
(3) 
nafar 
ziyāda 
fī 
irūh 
madrasa
 
person much EXIST go school
‘Many people go to school’ (Al-Moaily 2008: 81)
The migration of domestic help from South and South-east Asia to Saudi Arabia and 
Lebanon has led to the emergence of yet another work-related language variety. 
In Lebanon, the medium of communication used between Srilankan housemaids 
and Lebanese housewives is called by Bizri (2010) Pidgin Madame. Bizri not only 
documented the speech of the domestics, but also the speech directed at them by 
their ‘Madams’, so that it is possible to trace the process of linguistic negotiation 
in which Pidgin Madame arose and the contribution by each participant. When 
the domestics come to Lebanon, they learn Arabic almost exclusively from their 
employers. These teach them just enough Arabic to make themselves understood 
and have no interest in helping them to upgrade their language level. 
One of the most striking characteristics of this pidgin is the form of the verb. 
When they refer to themselves and to others, the female domestics use forms that 
derive etymologically from Arabic feminine imperatives, as in (4):
(4) 
ana 
rūyi 
nēmi
 
1s go sleep
‘I am going to sleep’ (Bizri 2009: 5)
Here, both the main verb and the subordinated verb are etymologically second-
person feminine imperatives (
rūḥī
, 
nāmī
). This makes sense because it is doubtless 
the most frequent form they hear in any interaction
Such forms are even used for verbs that do not commonly occur in ordering 
someone, as in (5), where the verb ‘to die’ is derived from a feminine imperative 
(
mūtī 
‘die!’):
(5) 
bāba 
bil 
bēt 
mūti
 
daddy in 
house die
‘My dad died at home’ (Bizri 2010: 215)
As the preceding example shows, these forms serve not only to refer to present or 
future events but also to the past. In general, just like other pidgins, Pidgin Madame 
has no formal marking of tense: the tense of the verb has to be inferred from the 
context, or from temporal adjuncts like 
awwal 
‘before’, 
bādēṃ
‘afterwards’, which 

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The Arabic Language
structure the narration. Sometimes the verb is combined with the existential 
pi 
(Arabic 
fī
), as in (6):
(6) 
ana 
pi 
rūhi 
kuwēt
 
1s 
EXIST go 
Kuwait
‘I have been to Kuwait’ (Bizri 2010: 7)
Presumably, in this example, too, the marker indicates a state (‘I am in the situa
-
tion of someone who has been to Kuwait’).
In Pidgin Madame there is some interference from the mother tongue of the 
women, Sinhalese, an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the majority of Srilankans. 
Phonological interference may be seen, for instance, in the pronunciation of 
Arabic 
f
as [pf] (represented here with 
þ
), the pronunciation of word-final 
-n 
or 
-m 
as a velar nasal [ŋ] (represented here with 
ṃ
),
 
and the realisation of emphatic 
ṭ 
as a retroflex consonant, [ʈ].
Syntactic interference is perhaps responsible for a special intonation pattern 
in Pidgin Madame (Bizri 2010: 134–8). It consists in a rising tone, followed by a 
pause and a falling tone (indicated here with the sign >) and serves to indicate a 
topic/comment relationship, as in (7):
(7) 
bas 
ana 
rūhi 
> 
sīde
but 
1s 
go 
PRED 
new
‘But (when) I go (back to Sri Lanka): (we shall go to the)
new (house)’ (Bizri 2010: 135)
There is a high degree of variation in Pidgin Madame. Some women stay for 
years, but they live an isolated life, having few opportunities to speak with fellow 
Srilankans or speakers of Arabic other than the members of the household. There 
is no community of speakers who may use the pidgin as a common means of 
communication. Consequently, there is no development: the speakers stay at the 
low level of proficiency permitted by their employers and seldom get the chance 
to improve their language skills. The few girls who obtain work in a different 
environment on a more open contract learn to speak in a more advanced way, 
for instance, by introducing verbal forms that do not derive from an imperative.
Text 1 Pidgin Madame (after Bizri 2010: 175–6)
1.
 ana kel yom þäyye soboh bakkir rūh 
þäyyik
1. Every day, I get up in the morning, I 
get up early.
2.
 sway, esit matbah sūþi þi säle > gasle sale 
kalas
2. Later I go to the kitchen, I look, if 
there are dishes: I finish washing the 
dishes.

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Arabic Pidgins and Creoles 
305
3.
 badēṃ ana srabi neskaþe hēke, sāy u 
neskaþe
3. Then I drink a Nescafe so, tea or 
Nescafe.
4.
 badēṃ iso misʈer, rāha istogol hēke
4. Then, Mister comes, he goes to work 
so.
5.
 säwi ahwe, yane hēk, badēṃ atik ahwe, 
badēṃ huwe rāha
5. I make coffee, like so, then I give the 
coffee, then he goes.