ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the more obvious changes in vocabulary of modern written Arabic (MWA) from the morphological and semantic perspective. The general phonological/orthographical principles are set out in two categories deserve notice: those which accommodate to Arabic patterns and may become productive, and those which retain their original morphology, without having any corresponding pattern in Arabic. Many can be regarded (for the time being) as mere transliterations with no implications for their subsequent linguistic evolution. Even though they have been adapted to the phonological and orthographical conventions, it is impossible to say whether they will become productive as new roots: There are often regional variations of a historical or geographical origin which can only be briefly noted here: the survival or eventual dominance of individual words is a political and cultural issue common to all languages in contact. Variations in vocalization are frequent and may represent either dialect influence or natural sound changes.
