Foreignization and the Influence of English Lexical Borrowing in Shaping the Arabic Language in Social Media

The rapid rise of social media platforms has reshaped communication patterns across the globe, and the Arabic-speaking world is no exception. This paper explores the phenomenon of foreignization through the increasing integration of English lexical borrowings in Arabic social media discourse. Additionally, the paper, which follows a quantitative approach, examines the sociocultural and linguistic implications of using these loanwords, especially in the context of code-switching and the adaptation of foreign terms into the Arabic lexicon. Through this exploration, the research seeks to understand the broader impact of English borrowings on Arabic language evolution in digital spaces and the potential long-term consequences for cultural and linguistic identity. It is hoped that this paper will be followed by a more elaborate study on borrowing from English and other languages in conversational Arabic in the Arabian Peninsula to be carried out from a Cognitive Linguistic perspective.