On the morphological structure of Kuwaiti surnames

Abstract This study offers a synchronic analysis of Kuwaiti surnames and shows that their morphology and their phonology abide by the grammar of Kuwaiti Arabic. Surnames can be deconstructed into prefixes, suffixes, and stems combining consonantal roots and syllabic patterns. The two most prominent prefixes are definite l - and derivational m -. Definite l - presents three set of allomorphs and connotes social prestige. Derivational m - forms active/passive participles and nouns of instrument/place. Surnames also include consonantal roots, sometimes shared by a derivational family of surnames. The diminutive pattern (such as calb ‘dog’ > cleeb ‘puppy’) and hypocoristic pattern (such as female given name xadiij-a > xadduuj(-a)) are the most frequent ones in surnames. Some facts suggest that word-to-word formation is at work in the diminutive of both surnames and words. The two most frequent suffixal strings, - a and - aan , can be traced back to several Kuwaiti and/or Modern Standard Arabic homophonous suffixes.