Thanking in Algerian Arabic

Abstract

Thanking/Expressing gratitude is an important custom that we do over and over in our everyday life. All around the world, people perform this speech act in countless ways, linguistic and non-linguistic employing various kinds of expressions, phrases and gestures. These thanking formulas are human universals, present in all human societies but expressed differently as far as the culture is concerned. This study deals with such speech act of ‘thanking' in Algerian Arabic since it is very important in establishing interpersonal relationships and represents a key factor in keeping up conversations among the members of the speech community under investigation.