Algerianization of French Nouns:The Use of Algerian Arabic Determiners, Demonstratives, and Possessives with French Nouns: A Descriptive Morphological Account

When France entered Algeria, the aim of its colonization was not only political or economic, but lied in imposing its culture and transforming the Algerian identity to a French one; language was a mirror of this acculturation. What is surprising is that this influence is still witnessed in nowadays’ Algerian Arabic speech where both linguistic codes coexist and are by no means independent of each other. This linguistic phenomenon is revealed in aspects of switching to and borrowing from French to dialectal Algerian Arabic and vice versa. This paper aims at describing and explaining the application of Algerian Arabic determiners, demonstratives, and possessives on French nouns. By providing some examples, the researcher tries to find some morphosyntactic as well as morphophonological explanations and interpretations to this morphological phenomenon. The present article ends with finding certain generalizations that borrowing French nouns to Algerian Arabic linguistic context is governed by syntactic, phonological as well as morphological constraints.