Arabic on the Dahlak Islands (Erittrea)

Colloque (ARCO 2014) : "Arabic in Contact. Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Perpectives" Exemplier distribué lors de ma communication, session "Arabic Based Contact Varieties in Sub-Saharan Africa"La publication de Proceedings est prévue International audience This communication is devoted exclusively to Arabic spoken on the Dahlak archipelago, in Eritrea. It is a variety of Arabic quite poorly documented so far. There are a few studies on the Arabic varieties spoken on the African coast of the Red sea but none of them has been dedicated particularly to Arabic spoken on the islands. By revising data published previously (Simeone-Senelle 2000, 2005a & 2005b) and by updating them with the new ones collected since, this talk attempts mainly to assess the specific features of Dahalik Arabic. It aims is to enlarge the knowledge of this variety and of the limit between vernacular and vehicular Arabic of the Horn of Africa, while contributing to a better knowledge of Dahalik, Afro/Ethio-semitic language (listed in 1997), mother tongue of the majority of the islanders, very marked by Arabic influence.