The peculiarities of the Chadian Khalil Alio University of N‟Djaména,

Abstract: was introduced in Chad towards the end of the 14th century. It was brought by wandering Arabs and the Islamic religion, rather than by intellectuals, even though at the courts of the three Chadian kingdoms; namely, -Bornu Empire, the Wadday Kingdom and the Baguirmi Kingdom, were sitting some intellectuals whose duty was to write letters to the Arab sovereigns. Chadian Arabic has developed into a dialect with its proper linguistic system due to the influence of autochthonous languages with which it has mingled for centuries, in such a way that it ended up creating variants spread all over the Republic of Chad. Chadian Arabic has been adopted and adapted to the linguistic system of each region of Chad so that one is tempted to say that there are as many variants of the Chadian Arabic as there are regions. The aim of the present paper is to analyze the linguistic peculiarities of the dialectal Chadian Arabic in its phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic components and some sociolinguistic features such as code switching and code mixing as well.

Key words: Chadian Arabic, peculiarities, varieties, characteristics linguistic components, code-switching, code-mixing.

I - Sociolinguistic setting well organized infrastructures 1.1 - The standard Arabic and well trained cadres, i.e., The Arabic language was people who could master the introduced in Chad since the 14th language both on the linguistic as century (Zeltner 1976). It had been well as the pedagogical levels. first used by the kingdoms of Moreover, the objective of the Baguirmi, Kanem-Bornu and sovereigns was not to create an Ouaddaï for internal and external administration intended to govern diplomatic relations between the country in order to develop it. these kingdoms and the Arab Their objective was rather to world. It is a well-known fact conquer more space, more spoils, that the Arabic language plays an and more slaves. What they important role in Chad, because needed were therefore warriors of the geographic contiguity of but not brains. The idea of Chad with Arab countries and the imposing the Arabic language arrival of populations of Arabic was not part of their origin in the course of the history preoccupation. of Chad. Prior to the French Having reappeared with force at colonial rule, the Arabic language the dawn of the independence, was known for its golden age and the Arabic language is today de had imposed its supremacy on facto present but at the same time the region. However, it should be significantly absent. This is due emphasized that, objectively the to the combination of many Arabic language could not be factors; among these are the lack imposed and consequently could of encouragement of the teaching not expand because it would need of Arabic, the negligent of the teachers of Arabic themselves Even though the Arabic language and the lack of a coherent was declared official since 1978 language policy on the part of the and afterwards by subsequent government. provisional fundamental laws, it From the colonial period to the is only in 1996 that the Arabic independence of Chad, the language has been finally Arabic language was taught in adopted as an official language, the schools as an optional subject through a constitutional and in its Qur‟anic form. The referendum. It should be main objective of the mentioned that the Arabic administration was to attract or language question generated interest children of Islamic heated and stormy debates during communities reluctant to attend the National Sovereign the French school. But this Conference (CNS), which took resulted rather in the total place from January to April 1993 isolation of the Arabic language. and whose objective was to lay For instance, the first Arabic down the foundation of teachers were recruited among Democracy in Chad. the „Marabous‟, i.e. Qur‟anic 1.2 - Chadian Arabic teachers who had no adequate Chadian Arabic has been training. They could only give a nurtured mainly by the seasonal religious teaching, because they workers who go from Chad to the hardly conceived that the Arabic Republic. The Sudan was language could be useful to any the first country of emigration of other thing than the Islamic many Chadians. Therefore, there religion. It is actually this was pre- and postcolonial restrictive view of the use of the migration towards the Sudan. As Arabic language that has not a matter of fact, due to the allowed it to progress. To do inflexibility of the French justice to the Arabic language it colonial administration, people has to be desacralized if it is to were tired of the multiple play its role as an instrument of a conscriptions and taxes and secular government. thought it was better to go to The process of integration of the places other than French, less Arabic language in the Chadian compelling than those under administrative and educational which they were living. They system has been very long and chose to go to the Sudan which is difficult. When Chad attained neighboring Chad and which has independence, Arabic was a different system of introduced in the school system colonization. In the Sudan, the through the constitution of 1962. English have initiated However, it was only optional. construction works, such as 2

railway construction, sugar cane objects as fabrics, jewelry, plantation, cotton, sesame, etc. clothes „laffaaya‟(a long sheet of These jobs were highly paid and cloth for women, toob), swords, required plenty of workers. This turbans, „djellabiya’(gown for attracted many Chadians and has (Sudanese) men), which give contributed to the development of them prestige and became the the Chadian Arabic main reason for emigrating and The Chadians used to go there which attracted them and during the dry season after constituted the important source having harvested their crops and of emigration. return home when the rainy Chadian Arabic was first season approaches so that they propagated in the rest of the could resume with their farm zone, where native Arabs works. If at the beginning the also settled and mingle with the reasons for emigration were local population. Later it politically motivated, for instance disseminated also in the south of protests against the abuses of the Chad due to the mobility of civil colonial administration, servants and traders. Due to its economic motives were later neighborhood with the added to the political. When the autochthonous languages for seasonal workers return they centuries, the Arabic language bring along not only new objects developed in Chad to the extent but also the Arabic language and that it created a dialectal form concepts designating these which in turn further diversified. objects not existing locally. The linguistic diversity in Chad These workers come principally has so to say transposed to the from the Chad Sahel zone and Arabic language, hence the used to travel in big numbers. It multitude of its varieties. This should be mentioned that the transfer is brought about through youth of the villages were the phenomenon of interference particularly fascinated by the which manifests itself by the utterance “aaye”, the Sudanese tendency of the speaker or the response for “yes”, which they learner to realize in the second usually hear from the new language, the features, the comers, i.e. those returning from grammatical categories, the rules, the Sudan. Beside the etc. in the same manner as in his opportunities they find in the or her mother tongue or first plantations, going to the Sudan language. Finally, one can was for the young Chadian a definitely say that every region of « virile initiative » as mentioned Chad has its variety of Chadian earlier because it allowed them to Arabic. Let‟s take the example of bring to their families such the verbal phrase “I want” which 3

is said in the east of Chad ana behaves linguistically speaking daayir ; in the center it is said as a black African language. As ana nidoor and in the south it is such it is considered on the rendered by ana duuru. The only official level as a national identifiable elements of this verb language. It has gained the status is the root or the reflex *dr which of a national language, i.e. an actually is in standard Arabic *rd autochthonous language. Its for it comes from the verb raada vocabulary contains elements of meaning to like, wish or want. It the autochthonous languages. should be mentioned that there The initial Arabic language that exists interintelligibility between was brought to Chad has been these variant forms adopted and adapted to the Chadian Arabic in its various linguistic system of each region forms has been described by of Chad so that one is tempted to many authors, namely Carbou say that there are as many (1913), Hagège (1972), Roth Laly variants of the Chadian Arabic as (1976), Kaye (1977), Decobert there are regions. For example in (1985) Poummerol (1997, 1999a, the east of Chad people speak a 1999b). One could talk of mutual type of Chadian Arabic closer to influence, in that the Arabic the Sudanese or sometimes has adapted itself to the western . autochthonous languages that Chadians living in the far north borrowed words from it, speak a type similar to the Libyan phonologically and one. But the “standard Chadian grammatically. Chadian Arabic is Arabic“ is that spoken in the called in Chad, in French “l‟arabe capital N‟Djamena and in the dialectal tchadien” and in Arabic whole of the Sahel zone of Chad “kalam arab ad-daariji or al- which goes from the mahalli”. The Arabic language region in the west to the Wadday spoken in northern in the east. This zone and northern is called encompasses at least 10 regions. l‟arabe choa and Shuwa Arabic The south-west and the south respectively. It sounds like proper have also developed their Chadian Arabic but with a local variants which are heavily flavor. influenced by the local languages. 2.2-The varieties of the 2- The linguistic characteristics Chadian Arabic of the Chadian Arabic Within the varieties of the The Chadian Arabic dialect was Chadian Arabic one can shaped out of its mingling with distinguish between the Arabic the autochthonous languages. It dialects of native Arabs, nomadic 4

or sedentary and the Arabic autochthonous of each region and dialects of non Arabs, which finally the Arabic dialect spoken developed as a language of by the Iyal-Nas that could be interethnic communication. It is roughly translated as in fact the whose “Everybody‟s children”. These spectrum ranges from dialects are groups of inhabitants closer to those of the native descending from freed slaves but Arabs to different forms of who are now fully integrated in Arabic resembling . But the region of Guéra and . each region has its specificity. There is, of course, intelligibility Usually the Chadian Arabic has between these three forms of three forms; namely, the Arabic dialectal Arabic. The linguistic dialect spoken by the native characteristics of the Chadian Arabs as mentioned above, the Arabic are the following: Arabic dialect spoken by the

2.3 - The phonological 2.3.1 – The vowels

i/ii u/uu e/ee o/oo a/aa

The vowel system of Chadian These characteristics are similar Arabic is triangular with five to that of many Chadian units with an opposition of languages, even though some quantity. There are five short Chadian languages possess more vowels and five long vowels than five vowels. 2.3.2 – The consonants dental alveolar palatal Velar glottal Bilabial Plosives p t k ¯ voiceless Plosives b d g - voiced Affricates c - h voiceless affricates j voiced Fricatives f s x voiceless Fricatives z voiced

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Nasals m n Ü Ý Continues w y sonorant r

Out of the 29 consonants of the consonantal system to that of the standard Arabic, it remains only other Chadian languages 22 consonants which now generally speaking, since the 22 characterize the consonantal consonants represent the system of the Chadian Arabic. consonantal system of most of The 7 emphatic consonants are the Chadian languages with few reduced to 2 or 3. Chadian exceptions. Arabic has adapted its

The consonants of the Chadian respectively. However, it should Arabic which don‟t exist in some be emphasized that some native Chadian languages are S, f and x. Arab dialects have preserved They are replaced by s, p and k some of the emphatic consonants.

Examples: x ----> k, g xanamay kanamay, ganamay “sheep” xala kala, gala « millet » xamis kamis « thursday » xaali kaali « expensive » xaatum kaatum « ring »

S ----> s Sarmut sarmuut “dried meat” Suwal suwal “sack, bag” Sen sen “bad,ugly” Soxol sokol “thing, something” Setan setan “satan”

f ----> p alfaki alpaki “coranic teacher” fate pate “marriage” fil pil “elephant” fatis patis “corpse” fok pok “high, above”

2.4 – The gender aspect miniature, since out of the 4 Linguistically speaking Chad African language families three could be described as Africa in are spoken in Chad. And among

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these three, only one family has a of non gender languages tend to gender system: it is the Afro- mix the genders. For example, Asiatic family. Of course instead of saying mara di “this speakers of this family have no woman” they say mara da, to problem in adapting to the gender mean “this woman”. Of course, system of the Chadian Arabic. people understand them because Others have real difficulties in they know what they want to say. respecting the gender unless they But the particle da tends to have learnt Chadian Arabic replace even the feminine di so language very well. The speakers that one can hardly hear di either.

2.5 - The morphological system The structure of the words is not standard Arabic are maintained affected as such compared to the as shown in the following phonological system. Words keep examples. Of course, in some at least their radical. As far as the instances there are even some plural formation is concerned innovations most of the types that exist in the toor tiiraan “ox” xazoal xuzlaan “gazelle naadum naas “human being” beet buyuut “house” humaar hamiir “donkey” kalib kulaab “dog” bagaraaye bagar “cow” xanamaaye xanam “sheep” hooS hiSaan “compound” juwad jawawiid, xeel “horse” Saari Sawaari “road”

2.6 - The syntactic aspect differences in the use of the The syntactic aspect, as already syntax. The tendency that has said, is similar to that of Chadian been observed is that people languages since Chadian Arabic translate Chadian Arabic into itself is adapted to their linguistic their own languages rather than systems. As far as the word order speaking it. They use Arabic is concerned, there are different words and apply the syntax of occurrences compared to their own language to build standard Chadian Arabic. Even sentences. within Chad also one can sense

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The best illustration of this is a native Arab, each of them presented at the national radio by speaking with a different variety a comedian group composed of of Chadian Arabic people from the centre, north and

Standard Chadian Arabic Other varieties of Chadian Arabic kin maa ti door da amchi intukum duuru mafi da machi “If you don‟t like you go” Ana nikalim leya lakin hu maa yasma ana gait kalim leu hu basma mafi “I am talking to him but doesn‟t listen” Iyaalat tarado le buubu, wo b buubu jara Iya da gait turda buubu, buubu da jara “The children chased the monkey who fled away” mara machat ti shiil almi lakin ligiyat le bir yabis mara machi fatuchu alme, ligiya bir da yabis “The woman went to fetch water but she found the well dry” alrarajil macha fiu zere wo bigi mardan rajil machi bukan zere mardan karaba “The man went to the field and became sick” Hu raasa gawi Hu basma adan mafi “He is stubborn”

2.7 - The semantic aspect Chadian Arabic has been Words have the tendency to changed compared to their initial expand their meaning even meaning within a single language. In a 3 – Sociolinguistic processes multilingual environment where Three aspects are being here many languages are in contact, treated; namely, Code switching the likelihood of words changing and code mixing which imply meaning is greater. The linguistic bilingual speakers and configuration is a bit particular in borrowing. Only bilingual that apart from the national speakers are concerned with the languages or mother tongues, first two sociolinguistic there are two official languages, phenomena. The two codes are French and Arabic which noticed to occur in any two influence the local languages. languages in Chad, Arabic and Added to borrowing, change of French or Arabic and mother meaning is a phenomenon that tongues. From historical and has been observed to occur in the social factors will result linguistic history of languages. The factors. And as it has been meaning of some words in mentioned above, the linguistic 8

situation of Chad is a complex language started by words taken one. This linguistic complexity from another language at his/her gave rise to numerous language disposal. In this regard, it can be contacts phenomena. The a mother tongue and one of the speakers of these languages meet, two lingua francas, Arabic or mingle, communicate and French. We talk of code exchange objects. When switching, when during the languages come into contact, discourse someone suddenly particularly in a multilingual shifts from the language he/she context, as is the case in Chad, started with to another language. languages influence each other. Code mixing and code switching This reciprocal influence has constitute other forms of been called by Haugen (1972) as bilingualism, for only bilinguals an interlinguistic contagion could perform this exercise. which manifests itself by the These phenomena are used to following linguistic processes show acquaintance or kinship, a such as borrowing, interferences; status or a position or to convey a code mixing, code switching, message you don‟t want others to language change, pigdinisation know. They are also used to fill and diglossia illustrated in Chad in memory lapses. by the cohabitation of both the 3.1 - Code mixing standard and the dialectal Arabic In Sara (Nilo- Saharan language) As noted above, in a multilingual nai kade saria bas environment where languages are “It remains only to go to court » permanently in contact, it is to be 3.2 – Borrowing expected that exchanges take Linguistic borrowing is the first place. These exchanges are of consequence of language different types: code mixing and contacts. Languages borrow code switching. Code mixing words that don‟t exist in their occurs when words or parts of own culture in order to fill gaps. sentences are taken from another Here again it is a question of a language and used in order to battle of economic, political or replace words in the mother cultural wills. Languages resort tongue or vice-versa. For to borrowing because of the example, when one speaks, urgent needs to communicate and he/she replaces words in the the necessity to live together.

Chadian Arabic contains many Sudan or as a result of borrowed words due to the colonization. So, these words contacts with neighboring come from different origins: countries like Nigeria and the 9

Borrowed words of French origin watir “voiture” „car‟ biskilet « bicyclette „bicycle‟ » lekkol « école » „school „ labtan « hôpital » „hospital‟ lompo « impôts » „taxes‟

Borrowed words of Hausa origin kosei “beans cake” waaka “insult term” (… your mother) sanda “straight” talani “ ambulant seller” dan waake “cake” kirkir “turbulent” rikiji “dishonest”

Borrowed words of Kanuri origin Lingi “friendship link” lungu “corner” kelesku « young girl » moskoro « first day cooking of a newly married girl »

Borrowed words of English origin yarda “yard for measuring clothes” koota “quarter of a meter of a cloth” taSa “car station”

Conclusion Chadian Arabic can be called as Arabic in an African milieu, here in a Chadian milieu. It grew out of its cohabitation with Chadian languages. Usually it is the dominant language that influences others. But it may happen that the dominant language be also influenced by other languages because of the linguistic dynamics. That is how the dialectal Chadian Arabic came into being. It has the characteristics of an African language, both in phonology, lexicon and grammar. Bibliographical references Alio, K. 1988a. « Emprunt et intégration en bidiya » ORSTOM, Paris. - 1988b. « La conjugaison du bidiya (langue tchadique du Guéra, Tchad) et l‟intégration des emprunts verbaux au français et à l‟arabe. Carbou, H. 1913. Méthode pratique pour l’étude de l’arabe parlé au Ouadday et à l’est du Tchad, Librairie Orientaliste Geuthner. Paris. Nouveau tirage 1954, 251p. Decobert, C. 1985. Les phonologies arabes du Tchad. SELAF, Paris Hagège, C. 1972. Profil d’un parler arabe du Tchad. Paul Geuthner, Paris. Kaye, A. S. 1976. Chadian and Sudanese Arabic in the Light of Comparative Arabic Dialectology. Mouton. Owens, J. 1994. Arabs and Arabic in the Lake Chad Region. Rüdiger Köppe Verlag Series : SUGIA (Sprache und Geschichte in Africa), 14. Patrice, J.-P. (de) 1997. L’arabe tchadien. Emergence d’une langue véhiculaire. Editions Karthala 176 p. - 1999. Grammaire de l’arabe tchadien. Editions Karthala. - 1999. J’apprends l’arabe. Editions Karthala. Roth Laly, A. 1976. Grammaire du parler arabe du Ouaddaï. Paul Geuthner, Paris. Zeltner, J.-C., 1976. Les Arabes sur les rives du Lac Tchad. CCL. Sarh.

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