The de-indigenisation of the English Language: On linguistic idiosyncrasy

Bensalah, Fayssal 2023. The de-indigenisation of the English Language: On linguistic idiosyncrasy. Journal of Creative Writing Studies 8 (1) , 2.

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Abstract

This paper introduces and explains a fresh adaptation of linguistic hybridity. This creative strategy is common among postcolonial, transnational and transcultural writers, who would import linguistic features from their first languages to hybridise their prose and paint it with a distinctive identity. I aim, however, to demonstrate that my English text can be hybridised without looking outside the English language, but rather by looking within it. The English language, as I argue, is already a hybrid language, populated by thousands of words borrowed from various languages, including Arabic. The words of this latter, if used intelligently and selectively in my prose, should provide the desired effect of linguistic hybridity. I term this process the de-indigenisation of English, a meta-hybridisation process. Four linguistic strategies represent it and are elucidated and exemplified in this study. The result is an idiosyncratic English that only exists on my page and bears my personal thumbprint.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Publisher:	Rochester Institute of Technology (New York)
ISSN:	2474-2937
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	12 February 2024
Date of Acceptance:	3 March 2023
Last Modified:	20 Feb 2024 09:49
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/166248

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