Saudi English: A Descriptive Analysis of English Language Variations in Saudi Arabia

The paper describes Saudi English morphosyntactic and lexical features that are widely practiced among educated Saudis, who completed at least nine years of English language study. The occurrence of the morphosyntactic features is argued to be affected by the speakers’ contact to the native English. Those who are in direct contact with Standard English (Std Eng) have 15 morphosyntactic features unlike those who have no direct contact to Std Eng (or EFL speakers) and who produce 15 more traits. Accordingly, the paper distinguishes between stable traits used by all the speakers and the ones that are used by EFL speakers only. The abundant features of Saudi English are further analyzed in comparison to those of other World Englishes varieties as well as in comparison to the Arabic structures. As for the lexical level, local lexemes are described. They are grouped into words that are borrowed from Arabic and words that are translated from Arabic. Overall, this study contributes to the exploration of the Expanding Circle variety of Saudi English and to the effect of language contact on language variations.