CONLANG Digest - 7 Sep 2005 to 8 Sep 2005 (#2005-252)

Original Message
> Date:    Thu, 8 Sep 2005 01:35:10 -0400
> From:    Ingmar Roerdinkholder
> Subject: Re: New here
>
> Ahlan wa sahlan, Yahya!
>
> Sorry, I don't know if you know Arabic of course, I'm only guessing
> because of your name.
> In case you do, you may be interested in an Arabic based conlang of mine,
> called Alborgian. It is a far Western Maghribi dialect which developped
> independently from (Moroccan) Arabic and had a lot of Romance influence
> (Portuguese), a bit like Maltese but still quite different...
Hi Ingmar!
I know so little _spoken_ Arabic that I'm even unsure how
best to return your greeting ...!  :-(  So I've just settled on
Hi!  for now.

But I am interested in understanding how Alborgian may have
been sufficiently isolated to develop, as you say, independently.
My first thought was that Arabic only arrived in the Maghrib
along with Muslim culture, and would have attained preeminence
among any group only if the cultural links were strong enough,
which presupposes a period of at least a couple of decades of
close contact.  Another possibility is that it arrived as a court
language, and then gradually spread downwards through society;
that would allow many idioms and constructive principles from
the prior popular language to remain active, possibly even
eventually overwhelming those of the imported tongue.  It might
therefore lead to a range of dialects from courtly to gutter ...

Regards,
Yahya


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