The Pragmatic Functions of Allah-Centred Expressions in Jordanian Spoken Arabic

Authors

  • Abdallah Abu Qub’a

    English Language Department, College of Arts, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia

  • Omar Abdullah Al-HajEid

    Faculty of Educational Sciences, UNRWA University, Amman 11118, Jordan

  • Mohammed Nour Abu-Guba

    Language Institute, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates

  • Abdel Rahman Altakhaineh

    School of Foreign Languages, University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i4.8812
Received: 20 February 2025 | Revised: 11 April 2025 | Accepted: 13 April 2025 | Published Online: 15 April 2025

Abstract

This study aims to identify the use of the word Allah ‘God’in Jordanian spoken Arabic and its pragmatic functions. The ethnography of communication method, as proposed by Gumperz and Hymes, alongside Speech Act Theory and Politeness Theory were adopted to collect the data for this study. The data, gathered with the help of six native-speaking assistants and identifies (123) Allah-based phrases and compiled them into a list of (37) pragmatic functions used in Jordanian spoken Arabic. The researchers recorded real-life conversations across various social settings such as homes, universities, coffee shops, and workplaces. The findings reveal that Allah-based phrases serve a wide range of communicative purposes in Jordanian Arabic, including expressing admiration, praise, surprise, politeness, and emotional support. These expressions are idiomatic and culture-bound, functioning as speech acts and forming a specialized register deeply embedded in Jordanian society. The study underscores the religious and sociolinguistic significance of these phrases, highlighting their role in maintaining social harmony and expressing shared cultural values. This research contributes to the understanding of how faith-related language operates pragmatically in Arabic discourse and suggests avenues for further investigation in other Arabic dialects and cross-cultural contexts to broaden insights into religious expressions in communication.

Keywords:

Allah-Centered Expressions; Jordanian Spoken Arabic; Pragmatics; Intercultural Communication; Idiomatic Language

References

[1] Masliyah, S., 1999. A cross-cultural misunderstanding. Dialog on Language Instruction. 13(1–2), 97–116.

[2] Rababah, M., Rababah, L., Abumelhim, M., et al., 2023. Interdisciplinary investigation of naming practices of cafe signages in Jordan. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies. 23(4), 1–14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2023-2304-01

[3] Al-Khawaldeh, A., 2018. Uses of the discourse marker wallahi in Jordanian spoken Arabic: A pragma-discourse perspective. International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. 8(6), 114–123. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30845/ijhss.v8n6p1

[4] Ferguson, C., 1983. God-wishes in Syrian Arabic. Mediterranean Language Review. 1, 65–83.

[5] Abboud, P., 1988. Speech and religious affiliation in Egypt. In: Jazayery, M.A., Winter, W. (eds.). Languages and cultures: Studies in honor of Edgar C. Polomé. Mouton de Gruyter: Berlin, Germany. pp. 21–27.

[6] Al-Rojaie, Y., 2021. The pragmatic functions of religious expressions in Najdi Arabic. Saudi Journal of Language Studies. 1, 3–25.

[7] Clift, R., Helani, F., 2010. Inshallah: Religious invocations in Arabic topic transition. Language in Society. 39, 357–382. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404510000199

[8] Castleton, B., 2006. Frequency and function of religiously based expressions. In: Morrow, J.A. (ed.). Arabic, Islam, and the Allah lexicon: How language shapes our conception of God. Edwin Mellen Press: Lewiston, NY, USA. pp. 71–115.

[9] Farghal, M., 1995. The pragmatics of Insallah in Jordanian Arabic. Multilingua Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication. 14(3), 253–270. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/mult.1995.14.3.253

[10] Migdadi, F., Badarneh, M., Momani, K., 2010. Divine Will and its Extensions: Communicative Functions of maašaallah in Colloquial Jordanian Arabic. Communication Monographs. 77(4), 480–499. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2010.502539

[11] Al-Ghoweri, H., 2016. The pragmatic functions of aʤalakom: (May God elevate you) in Jordanian Spoken Arabic. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research. 2(6), 271–274.

[12] Jaradat, A., 2014. The linguistic variants of Allah expressions in Jordanian Arabic. Cross-Cultural Communication. 10(1), 61–70.

[13] Umar, M., 2019. Amina (English version). Africa World Press: Trenton, NJ, USA.

[14] Yule, G., 2000. Pragmatics. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.

[15] Grundy, P., 2000. Doing pragmatics. Arnold: London, UK.

[16] Austin, J., 1962. How to do things with words. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.

[17] Searle, J., 1975. Speech acts. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.

[18] Brown, P., Levinson, S., 1987. Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.

[19] Mehawesh, M., Jaradat, A., 2015. Inshallah: Extensive flouting of Grice's maxim of quality. Asian Social Science. 11, 319–327.

[20] Al-Ghazali, T., 2020. The functions of Inshallah (God willing) in Iraqi dialect. International Journal of Mechanical and Production Engineering Research and Development. 10(3), 10569–10574.

[21] Nazzal, A., 2005. The pragmatic functions of the recitation of Qur'anic verses by Muslims in their oral genre: The case of Inshallah, God's willing. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA). 15(2–3), 251–273.

[22] Pishghadam, R., Kermanshahi, N., 2012. Insha'Allah (God's willing) and its functions in Persian. Studies in Literature and Language. 4(1), 1–6.

[23] Al-Rawafi, A.A.A., Gunawan, W., 2018. The Illocutionary Speech Acts of Insha'Allah: Pragmatic analysis of teachers talks in daily school activities. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research. 253, 522–527.

[24] Palacio, M., Gustilo, L., 2016. A pragmatic analysis of discourse particles in Filipino computer-mediated communication. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies. 16, 1–19.

[25] Gumperz, J., Hymes, D. (eds.), 1972. Directions in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication. Holt, Rinehart and Winston: New York, NY, USA.

[26] Abu-Rabia, A., 2005. The evil eye and cultural beliefs among the Bedouin tribes of the Negev, Middle East. Folklore. 116(3), 241–254.

[27] Mughazy, M., 2000. Pragmatics of the evil eye in Egyptian Arabic. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences. 30(2), 147–157.

[28] Abu Guba, M.N., Abu Qub'a, A., 2020. Perceptions of clichés by Arab English bilinguals: Implications to academic writing. Linguistics Journal. 14(2), 134.

[29] Hamdan, J., Abu Rumman, R., 2020. The pragmatic functions of Yahummalali in Jordanian spoken Arabic. Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literature. 12(3), 327–345.

[30] Al-Hawi, A., 2018. The pragmatic functions of the expression 'Insha'a Allah' in the speech acts of non-native, non-Muslim Arabic speakers. Journal of Second Language Teaching and Research. 6(2), 27–54.

Downloads

How to Cite

Abu Qub’a, A., Al-HajEid, O. A., Abu-Guba, M. N., & Altakhaineh, A. R. (2025). The Pragmatic Functions of Allah-Centred Expressions in Jordanian Spoken Arabic. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(4), 832–850. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i4.8812