Linguistic Echoes of War: Neologisms in Palestinian Arabic amid the 2023 Gaza War

Volume 10, Issue 6, December 2025     |     PP. 270-298      |     PDF (411 K)    |     Pub. Date: November 14, 2025
DOI: 10.54647/education880629    11 Downloads     157 Views  

Author(s)

Jaber Abu Shawish, Al Quds Open, University khanyounis Branch

Abstract
Language by its nature is dynamic. It keeps evolving in order to adapt to the changing needs and experiences of its speakers. Language often evolves rapidly in response to crises, conflicts and up-to-date events. It is highly influenced by the surrounding happenings since it is assumed to be lively and dynamic. New words are created and some existing ones gain new meaning. This sociolinguistic research sought to identify the most common neologisms in Palestinian Arabic which were coined as a response to the 2023 Gaza war. A long list of war neologisms (warologisms) was compiled through a survey distributed to university students during the summer term of the academic year 2024-2025. In addition, the researcher referred to social media and news reports to add to the list. A group of 108 neologisms was purposively selected, thematically categorized and then analyzed to meet the purpose of the current study. Frequencies, percentages and ranks were used to treat the collected data. Findings reveal that compounding, phraseological units, borrowing, and derivation are the most frequent processes in forming neologisms, while blending and reduplication are rare. In addition, these warologisms reflect social, emotional and cultural response to the current war. The study terminated with recommendations to enrich the area of research in sociolinguistics.

Keywords
neologisms, warologisms, language dynamism

Cite this paper
Jaber Abu Shawish, Linguistic Echoes of War: Neologisms in Palestinian Arabic amid the 2023 Gaza War , SCIREA Journal of Education. Volume 10, Issue 6, December 2025 | PP. 270-298. 10.54647/education880629

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