Linguistic diversity in the artistic work of Djamel Allam

Djamel Allam's work is distinguished both by its modern music and by the linguistic diversity of its lyrics. His lyrics combine Kabyle, Algerian Arabic, and French, enabling his repertoire to transcend linguistic barriers and give his work a universal character. The present paper sheds light on the linguistic diversity of Djamel Allam's work. Our study is guided by the following research questions: What are the manifestations of code-switching in the lyrics of Djamel Allam songs? What forms of code-switching dominate in the selected song lyrics? This descriptive qualitative study investigates the types of codic alternation between Kabyle, Arabic and French in the artistic work of Djamel Allam. Our corpus comprises four song lyrics drawn from the artist’s repertoire, which were analyzed to identify phenomena such as borrowing and code-switching. To conduct the present research, we have relied on Poplack’s classification of codic alternation. The results indicate that the linguistic background of the artist as well as the universal character of his artistic work influenced his linguistic choices. Therefore, the corpus analysis revealed code-switching with inter-sentential and intra-sentential CS as the most dominant types. AgzulAmahil n Ǧamal Ɛellam yufrar-d s uẓawan atrar akked tanḍa n tsekkiwin n tẓuri yellan deg yiḍrisen-ines. Ineggura-agi sdukkulen gar: taqbaylit, tafransist, taɛrabt i ttmeslayen deg Lzzayer, d timeslayin-agi i iɛawnen umuɣ n tezlatin-is iwakken ad kksent tilisa tutlayanin akken diɣ ad fkent udem agreɣlan i leqdic-is. Amagrad-agi yekkat ad d-yesken tanḍa tutlayant deg umahil n Ǧamal Ɛellam. Tazrawt-nneɣ tbedd ɣef usteqsi-ya agejdan: Amek i ttwasqedcent tutlayin n taɛrabt akked tefransist deg tuɣac n Ǧamal Ɛellam ? Ammud-nneɣ yuddes ɣef ukkuẓ n tezlatin i d-nekkes seg wumuɣ n unaẓur Ǧamal Ɛellam, d tid iwumi nga tasleḍt iwakken ad nesnekwu ddeqs n tumanin am: Awal areṭṭal, code-switching.