University of Bucharest

However, such an analysis runs into conceptual and empirical problems
since there is no independent evidence for a zero-complementizer. I therefore
conclude that Romanian Pidgin Arabic has no complementizers (overt or zero).
5. The lexicon
The size of the core vocabulary of Romanian Pidgin Arabic amounts to
approximately 150 words. This accords well with the figures reported for some
pidgins: 50-100 for New Hebrides Jargon English (Mühlhäusler 1997); 150-200
for Russenorsk (Romaine 1988); 300 for Samoan Plantation Pidgin English
(Mühlhäusler 1997).
As for the origin of the vocabulary, Egyptian and Iraqi Arabic account for
some 75% of the lexical items, and Romanian and English for the remaining 25%.
The vocabulary includes a number of lexical hybrids 16 :
(44) a. giv / gib ‗to give; to bring‘, cf. E. give and Eg. Ar. gib ‗bring!‘
b. la ‗PREP‘, cf. Rom. la ‗at, to, in‘ and Ar. li ‗for‘
c. no ‗NEG‘, cf. E. no and Rom. nu
d. problem [pro’blem] ‗problem‘, cf. E. problem and Rom. problemă
[pro’blemə]
The forms in (45a) are a consequence of the replacement of /v/ by /b/,
mentioned in section 2. The form in (45d) ends in [m], as in English, but has the
stress pattern of its Romanian counterpart. Lexical hybrids are found in other
pidgins, e.g. Russenorsk (Broch and Jahr 1981):
(45) po ‗on‘, cf. Rus. po, Norw. på
In spite of the extremely small size of the vocabulary, lexical doublets and
even synonymic series do occur. Their existence is due to their different
etymology:
(46) a. mašina < Rom. maşină and sayara < Ar. sayyāra ‗car‘
b. zen < Ir. Ar. zēn, kuwais < Eg. Ar. kuwayyis and gud < E. good
16
Lexical items identified across languages (Mühlhäusler 1997).
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