SHIFTING TO ARABIC?

RECENT LINGUISTIC CHANGE AMONG SIWI-ARABIC BILINGUALS (EGYPT)

Abstract

Siwi is a Berber language spoken in Siwa, Egypt. Its speakers are mostly bilingual: contact between Arabic and Siwi is visible at all levels of grammar (Souag, 2009; 2013), but the endangerment of the language can be mainly attributed to recent factors. Analysing data collected in the field, the paper aims to show that this rapid endangerment is reflected among some speakers by the use of code-switching and the on-going loss of some Berber features.