Islamic Arabic Phrases in Indian Cinema: A Linguistic Borrowing and Cultural Integration Perspective from Muslim Discourse
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58352/tis.v50i2.978Keywords:
Arabic expressions, sociolinguistics, Hindi cinema, language borrowing, pragmatics, discourseAbstract
This study examines mainstream Bollywood cinema as a multilingual environment in which languages and cultures interact through everyday dialogue. Among the linguistic influences visible on screen are Arabic-origin expressions such as salaam, inshallah, and mashallah, which appear in Hindi and Hindi-English cinematic speech. Although there is growing literature on the representation of Muslims in Indian media, there remains a limited linguistic examination of how such expressions function as borrowed forms in film discourse. This study analyses the use of Arabic-origin everyday expressions in selected Indian films and one online series, applying Language Borrowing Theory as the main analytical framework. A qualitative textual method was used, focusing on purposively selected scenes from My Name is Khan (2010), Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), Raazi (2018), and The Family Man (2019–2023) in which greetings, emotional support, politeness and identity-indexed dialogue were present. The findings suggest that Arabic-origin expressions are used primarily as pragmatic tools of respect, warmth, reassurance, and emphasis rather than solely as religious markers. Pronunciation is especially often local, being a reflection of natural adaptation during borrowing. The study draws attention to cinema as a public site of language contact as expressions that are commonly used in everyday life travel across cultures to acquire new communicative meanings.
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