The Linguistic Features of Acronyms in Arabic

What is it about?

Acronyms in Arabic have appeared quite recently as a result of globalisation and exposure to or contact with, mainly, English via radio stations and TV channels, which are broadcasting in English and in some countries, e.g. Morocco in both English and French. Acronyms in Arabic are subject to different restrictions: (1) the phonological combinations are formed on the basis of Arabic templates; hence, should be compatible with Arabic phonotactics, e.g. consonant clusters should be broken up by vowels; (2) the connotation of the acronyms should not be negative; and (3) in conformity with Relevance Theory, when the acronyms are homophonous to existing words, the former maximise contextual effects with minimum processing effort.

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