“Allah expressions” as a manifestation of common cultural area in West Africa
“Allah expressions” as a manifestation of common cultural area in West Africa

Author(s): Nina Pawlak
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: religious phrases; secularization of language; Hausa
Summary/Abstract: Many languages of West Africa have adopted religious phrases from Arabic. They are used either in the form of direct borrowings (assalamu alaikum) or as their translated versions. The paper investigates the scale of penetrating the lexicon of some main West African languages by adopting religious phrases of Arabic origin and presents a more detailed analysis of their function in the Hausa language. The examples of the so-called Allah expressions contribute to the idea of common culture-linguistic area in West Africa. The available data from Hausa are to demonstrate the process of passing the sacred vocabulary and phraseology of Arabic origin on to the colloquial language and written literature.

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