Le pidgin madam, un nouveau pidgin arabe

Abstract

This paper presents a new language born in Arabic-speaking countries, out of the contact between Arabic middle-class families and female maids from Sri Lanka, Our study has been conducted in Lebanon. Thus, the two languages in contact here are Lebanese Arabic (lexifier), and Colloquial Sinhala (substratum). This language is a clear evidence for the possible formation of a pidgin in a context where only one substratum is involved, as well as for the structural influence of the social configuration of the contact. We are calling it Pidgin Madam because the main actors/creators of the language are the Lebanese Madam and the Sri Lankan maid. Structurally, many of the linguistic forms are derived from this feminine master-servant relationship, and the substratal influence, predominant in traditionally studied pidgins, is replaced here by a complex sociolinguistic bricolage based on highfy singular forms of mimetic acquisition of the master's speech. This unstudied form of mimetic bricolage illustrates a new concept of language formation, which we might call the «grammar of servitude».