Three topics in Arabic phonology

The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics, 2018

In this chapter, a general description and discussion of the phonology of Arabic is presented. First, the sound system of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is briefly discussed and compared to the sound system of Classical Arabic (CA) as described by Classical Arabic grammarians. Differences, or possible differences, between the two are highlighted. The phonemic inventory of MSA is then compared to those of the other Arabic spoken varieties, conventionally classified into six main dialect groups from East to West: Gulf Arabic (GA), Iraqi Arabic (IA), Levantine Arabic (LA), Yemeni Arabic (YA), Egyptian Arabic (EA), and Maghrebi Arabic (MA). Comparisons among these varieties are drawn in terms of sound system, syllable structure, and stress patterns. Some sound alternations in different dialects are analyzed within an OCP driven framework. Additionally, processes such as assimilation, affrication, lenition, and pharyngealization are discussed. Occasionally, reference is made to specific dialects within the six major groups, and new data are presented from less studied dialects.

Linguistics and Literature Studies

The present study deals with "A brief description of consonants in Modern Standard Arabic". This study tries to give some information about the production of Arabic sounds, the classification and description of consonants in Standard Arabic, then the definition of the word consonant. In the present study we also investigate the place of articulation in Arabic consonants we describe sounds according to: bilabial, labio-dental, alveolar, palatal, velar, uvular, and glottal. Then the manner of articulation, the characteristics such as phonation, nasal, curved, and trill. The aim of this study is to investigate consonant in MSA taking into consideration that all 28 consonants of Arabic alphabets. As a language Arabic is one of the most important languages in the world, because it is the language of Quran. Each language has its own phonetic system; furthermore to the enlightenment of MSA sound system; giving a comparison between Arabic and English sound considered as similarities and differences between the two systems such as

Accounting for the phonology of Ma‘ani Arabic, an untouched Jordanian Arabic dialect, and supporting the superiority of Stratal Optimality Theory over other parallel Optimality Theory models, i.e. classic, Sympathy and Correspondence, are the main purposes of this dissertation. Authentic examples from Ma‘ani Arabic and other Arabic dialects show that the interaction of phonology and morphology is inevitable when considering the interaction of different phonological phenomena. One of the novel findings of this study is the fact that the hidden motive for lexical epenthesis in medial four consonant clusters is morphology rather than phonology. Closed syllable shortening, on the other hand, stems from phonology-morphology interactions. In addition, this dissertation denies the existence of true tautosyllabic geminates in Arabic. The data shows that the so called geminates are sequences of identical consonants resulted mainly from the ban on high short vowels between two identical consonants. Finally, Ma‘ani Arabic is compared to other Jordanian dialects and to other neighbouring dialects through out this dissertation. When certain phonological phenomena are active in Ma‘ani and other Arabic dialect, this dissertation tries to uncover the underlying reasons especially when these phenomena behave differently in one of the dialects. If, on the other hand, a phonological process is active in other Arabic dialects but not in Ma‘ani Arabic, this study highlights that phenomenon and shows the similarities and differences between them.

This paper is an attempt to investigate the actual pronunciation of the consonants of Arabic and English with the help of phonetic and phonological tools like manner of the articulation, point of articulation, and their distribution at different positions in Arabic and English words. A phonetic and phonological analysis of the consonants of Arabic and English can be useful in overcoming the hindrances that confront the Arab EFL learners. The larger aim is to bring about pedagogical changes that can go a long way in improving pronunciation and ensuring the occurrence of desirable learning outcomes.

2017

VOWELS AND CLASSIFICATION CRITERIA IN MODERN STANDARD ARABIC, 2023

Phonemes in a language are divided into two basic groups as segmental and suprasegmental. Among them, suprasegmental phonemes are not dependent on a single sound, on the contrary they contain more than one sound piece. Segmental phonemes are special sound units that are linked to a single sound. Vowels, consonants and semi-vowels are called segmental phonemes. Many vocal organs are involved in the formation of vowels. Among those, the tongue, lips and chin have a more important place in the forming the vowels. For this reason the vowels are divided into various groups as front, back, closed, open etc. according to the condition of the tongue, lips and chin in articulation. In addition to that vowels are examined as short and long in terms of the duration of their pronunciation. The aim of this study, which was prepared using the literature review method is to analyzed the vowels of Modern Standard Arabic in line with the views of the 20th and 21th century Arab phoneticians with the differences of opinion between them. In addition to that it is aimed to classify these vowels according to the criteria of the IPA with the views of the modern Arabic phoneticians.

2008

In Moroccan Arabic it is widely accepted that short vowels are mostly elided, resulting in consonant clusters and consonant geminates. In this paper we present evidence from our exploratory timing study that challenges this widely accepted principle. We work with minimal pairs of singleton consonants vs. geminates (e.g. /bka/ vs. /bəkka/) that reveals a presence of a vowel insertion between the clusters in word initial position in singleton cases. The length of the vowel insertion (epenthetic vowel) and silent pause of the stop consonant is greater than of a noise material. The epenthetic vowel is present in isolated words and in sentence context too. In this paper we also provide phonetic correlates in the minimal pairs -between epenthetic vowel and lexical vowel, between singleton and geminate consonants, and contrast these with other Arabic dialect phonetic timing studies.

2004

REVIEWS 865 the expense of the field as a whole. Many, however, are exemplary in offering clear, comprehensive treatments of their topics. It is likewise inevitable that readers will find many areas of discourse-analytic inquiry underrepresented or absent in the volume and others overrepresented (in part this may be because roughly a quarter of the chapters are authored by faculty and graduates of Georgetown, the home university of all three editors).

Theory and Practice in Language Studies

This study examines the major phonological features of Jordanian Druze Arabic (JD). Druze are a minority group in the east part of Jordan. Their dialect has not been investigated before. First, we give a brief history of the socio-cultural background of the Druze. Then we investigate selected melodic and prosodic processes to be reported for this dialect: including syllable structure, assimilation (definite article assimilation, sonorant assimilation, non-coronal assimilation), emphasis spread, syncope, resolution, umlaut, and raising. Druze use these features most frequently. However, the raising process is the most dominant feature among them.

There are salient features that distinguish Jizani Arabic such as the deletion and neutralization of particular sounds. Some sounds are specified with others occurring as parts of affixes. The processes of deletion and neutralization of sounds can be explained from morphological and morphosyntactic perspectives whose influence rearranges the pronunciation and effects phonological aspects. We studied Jizani Arabic and identified the most important phonological processes in terms of glottal stop deletion, /m/ neutralization in suffix final position, and /m/ insertion in the definite article. These processes are predictable and are thought to be motivated by frequency of usage among speakers.