Acceptance of Neologisms in the Omani Society

Abstract

Neologisms have recently become part of everyday speech. The rapid progress in internet-based communication and changes in society, particularly in culture and technology, appear to have influenced its acceptance. Therefore, this study examines some English words that have been integrated into the Omani colloquial Arabic and are considered neologisms. This study seeks to gain insight into the perspectives of the Omani society on the use of neologisms. In addition, it analyzes the morphophonemic and semantic changes that occurred after the neologisms were integrated into the Arabic lexicon. Two phases are involved in this study. The theoretical phase deals with defining neologisms and their emergence within Omani society. The interactive phase is where data from the questionnaire and interview responses are discussed. One of the most significant outcomes of this study is that neologisms can generally be considered a positive addition to the participants’ everyday speech. Furthermore, this study reveals that social media is the most common context in which neologisms are used in the Omani context. Among the other outcomes is the observation of changes in neologisms to adapt them to the reception language and the new context.