This study deals with the morphological structure of one of Libyan Arabic varieties called al-Jabal Dialect of Libyan Arabic (JDLA). The main concern of this study is the morphological component of JDLA though a general overview of the phonological system along with major phonological processes have been presented and accounted for. Such a presentation of the phonological processes is justified by the fact that phonology and morphology do interplay greatly in many points in the grammar. This dissertation is the first study of JDLA. The presentation of this dissertation is conducted in the following way. Chapter I is an introduction. Chapter II deals in brief with the phonological system of the dialect. This includes the consonants and vowels, syllable structure, stress rules and the major phonological processes of JDLA. Phonological processes include syncope, epenthesis, assimilation, metathesis, vowel length, vowel harmony, etc. Chapter III introduces the morphology of verbs where the derivation and inflection of triliteral and quadriliteral verbs are presented in detail. This includes the derivational and inflectional processes of sound, doubled, hollow and defective verbs ... etc. JDLA morphology is a root-based morphology where different morphological categories are produced through the interdigitation of roots and vowels which might be accompanied by affixes. Such a process is a very productive method in word creation as has been pointed out in the main body of this work. Chapter IV is devoted to the morphology of nouns. The derivation and inflection of verbal nouns, instance nouns, unit nouns, feminine nouns, instrumental nouns, locative nouns, etc. are elaborated upon. Chapter V concerns with the morphology of adjectives. The derivational and inflectional processes of verbal adjectives, positive adjectives, elative adjectives and adjectives of color and defect are introduced and accounted for. Chapter VI deals with pronouns where independent and suffixed personal pronouns along with other pronouns have been dealt with. Chapter VII concludes the study by presenting the salient features of JDLA as well as recommendations for future research.

Italian loadwords in Libyan Arabic have not received the attention and concern they deserve despite their number, high frequency, and wide use by all Libyans at all levels for more than one and a half centuries. This study attempts to record as many Italian loanwords in Libyan Arabic as possible as reported by the Libyan students and their spouses in the United States, to establish a linguistic criterion for the identification of these loanwords in Libyan Arabic, to determine the semantic adaptations they have undergone, and to verify their recognition and use by the students and their spouses. A list of 1000 words suspected to be Italian loanwords were collected through direct observation of Libyan speech, including my own as a native speaker of the dialect, by use of informants and intensive reading. The words were then checked against their possible native models in Italian through the use of Italian dictionaries and consultation with native Italian speakers, most of whom are linguists or language teachers. The list was reduced to 682 words, which were used in the questionnaire sent to 290 Libyan students and their spouses in the United States. From the 148 replies to the questionnaire, it is found that on the average 75% of the respondents know all the 684 words and 58% of them use them. About 82% of the loanwords have literary or colloquial Arabic equivalents. About 55% had presumably entered Libyan Arabic or Libyan Arabic speakers were exposed to them during the 1911-1970 period, which marks the Italian occupation of Libya, 5% between 1832-1910, and 5% between 1970-1985. About 93% of the Italian loanwords are nouns, 7% adjectives, 1% verbs, 0.8% adverbs, and 0.5% interjections. Meanings of most of the loanwords are more pervasive in Italian than in Libyan Arabic. It was also found that most of the loanwords had adopted Arabic grammatical rules for tense formation and inflection for number or gender.