The Phonetic Realization of Obstruent Clusters in Najdi Arabic: An Exploratory Study (original) (raw)
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Studies in Literature and Language, 2013
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Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, 2006
This study reports patterns of phonological assimilation in consonant clusters in Urban Jordanian Arabic (UJA). We examine all possible C 1 C 2 combinations across a word boundary as well as the concatenations of consonant-final prefixes //in/ and //il/ and consonant-initial stems. The data show that place assimilation in UJA is regressive, and it can occur both across major articulators and within the same articulator (for coronals). UJA also exhibits voicing assimilation and emphasis assimilation. The main theoretical interest of the work lies in the observation that phonological assimilation in UJA is sometimes conditioned by the similarity between the two adjacent consonants. This is reflected in three patterns of assimilation. First, coronal consonants with a minor place difference (e.g., alveolar vs. palatoalveolar) may assimilate to each other only if the sonorancy of the consonants already matches. Second, coronal obstruents may undergo place assimilation when followed by a coronal obstruent, but not a velar obstruent. Third, voicing and emphasis assimilations occur only if the places of the adjacent consonants are identical underlyingly or as a result of place assimilation. These results are discussed briefly in the light of recent works by MacEachern (1999), Hansson (2001), Zuraw (2002), Rose and Walker (2004), and Steriade (to appear). The UJA place assimilation patterns are also compared to the implicational hierarchies established by Mohanan (1993)'s and Jun (1995)'s crosslinguistic typologies. Phonological Assimilation in Urban Jordanian Arabic 35 Jun accounts for these implicational observations by incorporating constraints with perceptual bases in the grammar. The core of the theory is the Production Hypothesis, as stated in (6). (6) Production Hypothesis: Speakers make more effort to preserve the articulation of speech sounds with relatively more powerful acoustic cues. (Jun 2005: 73) The Production Hypothesis informs the faithfulness constraints of their rankings based on the perceptual cues of the features that the faithfulness constraints aim to protect-the stronger the cues, the higher ranked the faithfulness constraints. This is formalized by Jun as in (7). (7) PRES(X(Y)): Preserve perceptual cues for X (place or manner of articulation) of Y (a segmental class). Universal ranking: PRES(M(N)) » PRES(M(R)), where N's perceptual cues for M are stronger than R's cues for M. (Jun 2005: 73) For instance, this general schema accounts for the implicational observations in (2) because of the universal ranking PRES(pl(dor})) » PRES(pl(lab})) » PRES(pl(cor})) projected from the phonetics of dorsal, labial, and coronal sounds-dorsal sounds involve the slowest articulatory gestures, which provide the strongest transitional cues for their with a minor place difference (e.g., alveolar vs. palatoalveolar) may assimilate to each other only if the sonorancy of the consonants already matches; (b) coronal stops may undergo place assimilation when followed by a coronal obstruent, but not a velar obstruent; and (c) voicing and emphasis assimilations occur only if the places of the adjacent consonants are identical underlyingly or as a result of place assimilation. These results are discussed briefly in the light of recent works by MacEachern (1999), Hansson (2001), Zuraw (2002), Rose and Walker (2004), and Steriade (to appear). This complements Mohanan's and Jun's results in providing a comprehensive picture of consonant assimilation. Phonological Assimilation in Urban Jordanian Arabic 37 1.2. The Arabic language and the Urban Jordanian dialect Arabic is a Semitic language with various dialects spoken in Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which descends from the language of ancient poetry, literature, and the Quran, is considered the official language in these countries. Accordingly, most Arabic speakers employ at least two diverse linguistic forms: the regional dialect, which is naturally acquired as a first language, and MSA, which is learned during the course of education in a classroom setting. In other words, Arabic communities are diglossic. MSA is used in formal situations, such as public speeches, news announcements, and religious services, while the regional dialects are spoken locally in day-today communications. Major Arabic dialects are Iraqi, Egyptian, Levantine, Gulf, Northwest African, and Yemeni. Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, and Jordanians speak the Levantine dialect with some phonological and lexical differences. Jordanian Arabic consists of four subdialects: Urban, Rural, Bedouin, and Ghorani. 1 One phonetic feature common to all Arabic dialects is the presence of the so-called emphatic consonants, written here as [C ÷ ]. These consonants are produced with a secondary constriction in the posterior vocal tract (Lehn 1963, Al-Ani 1970, Card 1983, Davis 1995, Zawaydeh 1999, among others). The consonantal inventory of Urban Jordanian Arabic (UJA) is similar to that of MSA, with the following two differences. First, the uvular plosive /q/ in MSA equates the Jordanian 1 The Ghorani sub-dialect, in particular, is spoken by black Jordanian farmers living across the Jordan Valley.
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.
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