ABSTRACT
Arabic-based pidgins are languages resulting from the contact between members of the Arabic speech community and a group of non-native speakers who have to learn Arabic for urgent communicative needs in a context of asymmetrical power dynamics. The chapter describes the sociological as well as the linguistic background in which Asian Migrant Arabic Pidgins (AMAP) varieties have developed. It presents specific critical issues related to the study of these varieties through the analysis of two samples: an interaction in Pidgin Madam, representative of the confined live-in housemaid pidgin with a feminine gender bias, studied from a sociolinguistic perspective; and a sample of online written texts in Gulf Pidgin Arabic studied with a focus on writing and trends in orthography. AMAP varieties emerged within the context of 'circular' foreign labor migration to the Middle East in the post-1973 oil boom. The contemporary AMAP varieties present common traits as well as distinctive ones, and this on both sociological and linguistic grounds.
