Najdlish

Najdlish is a term used in some sociolinguistic discussions to describe a hypothesized contact variety that may emerge from bilingual speech in the Najd region of central Saudi Arabia. It is not an official language and there is no standardized form, but it is described as a hybrid influenced by Najdi Arabic and English through schooling, media exposure, and everyday communication.

Geographically, the concept is most often linked to urban centers in Najd, including Riyadh and nearby towns, where younger, bilingual speakers may borrow vocabulary and expressions from English while retaining core Najdi phonology and morphology. Proponents describe Najdlish as a variable system rather than a fixed language, with features that can differ by speaker, social context, and level of English exposure.

Linguistic features commonly attributed to Najdlish include code-switching between Najdi Arabic and English, incorporation of English loanwords and calques, and the borrowing of certain syntactic or discourse-pragmatic patterns from English. Some descriptions note partial alignment with English word order in mixed utterances and a tendency toward simplification of some verbal morphology, though these patterns are described as tendencies rather than rules. Phonological influence might involve English-style loanword adaptation and selective pronunciation shifts within Najdi phonology.

Najdlish is typically discussed as a social and linguistic phenomenon in online and media discourse, rather than a formalized language. Research is limited, and evidence often comes from interviews, social media, and informal speech samples. Related concepts include code-switching, Arabic-English bilingualism, and regional dialect contact phenomena.