The Directionality of Emphasis Spread in Arabic (original) (raw)

Remarks and Replies The Directionality of Emphasis Spread in Arabic

2004

Many modern Arabic dialects exhibit asymmetries in the direction of emphasis (for most dialects, pharyngealization) spread. In a dialect of Yemeni Arabic, emphasis has two articulatory correlates, pharyngealization and labialization: within the phonological word, pharyngealization spreads predominantly leftward, and labialization spreads rightward, targetingshort high vowels. Since asymmetries in the directionality of spread of a secondary feature are phonetically motivated and depend on whether the feature is anchored to the onset or the release phase of the primary articulation,it is argued that the unmarked directionality of spread should be encoded in the phonology as a markedness statement on that feature.

The domain of emphasis spread in Arabic: Evidence from Urban Jordanian Arabic

Lingua, 2019

This paper investigated the domain of emphasis spreading in Urban Jordanian Arabic. Emphasis spreading was examined in two types of words: polysyllabic monomorphemic and polymorphemic. F1 raising, F2 lowering, and F3 raising in the vowels preceding and following the emphatic sound were used as the acoustic correlates of emphasis spreading in the participants' speech who were ten native speakers of Urban Jordanian Arabic. The findings showed that emphasis is a morphophonemic process in that the domain of emphasis spread in Urban Jordanian Arabic is the morpheme rather than the syllable or the word. Second, the study showed that emphasis spreading applies leftward and rightward in all environments but with some significant differences. Morpheme boundaries were found opaque to emphasis spreading.

Emphasis Spread and Depharyngealization in Lebanese Arabic

This paper explores the phenomenon of emphasis spread in Lebanese Arabic and its counteract, depharyngealization. While emphasis can spread leftward and rightward, this research details the exact rules that govern the mechanisms by which this process operates in Lebanese Arabic. Experiments were run with native Lebanese Arabic speakers to determine whether vowel properties, rather than the pharyngeal features of the consonant, are crucial in retaining emphasis. Emphasis retention and spread is strongly promoted and sustained in the vicinity of back vowels, while front vowels tend to block emphasis. Depharyngealization occurs when the emphatic consonants sit in an environment of vowels that are incompatible with the pharynx for secondary articulation, or if tautosyllabic with a guttural consonant. An important consequence for emphasis spread is the fact that it is mirrored in English by those who speak Lebanese Arabic as a native language. Native speakers of Lebanese Arabic were asked to pronounce English words with various vowels in different positions to test whether or not the speakers will pharyngealize the surrounding consonants by rule transfer. The results were consistent with what was found in Lebanese Arabic. When an English consonant precedes a vowel with similar characteristics to those that trigger emphasis in Lebanese Arabic, the speakers would pharyngealize the English consonant as well.

Prosodic words are the domain of emphasis spread: evidence from Northern Rural Jordanian Arabic

Linguistics

This article, which reports on an experimental study based on data obtained from 86 native speakers of Northern Rural Jordanian Arabic (NRJA), offers empirical evidence that emphasis spread can apply bidirectionally across word edges when they are prosodically word internal. In other words, emphasis can spread from one word to a neighboring (plain) word when the two words form one prosodic word (ω). In order to support this hypothesis, we examine simple construct-state nominals (i.e., nominals consisting of two members), which are widely assumed to behave prosodically as one word in Arabic grammar (see, e.g., Borer, Hagit. 1999. Deconstructing the construct. In Kyle Johnson & Ian Roberts (eds.), Beyond principles and parameters, 3–89. Dordrecht: Kluwer). A simple construct state nominal is mapped onto one ω, as proposed in the current article. Additionally, this article examines instances of construct state nominals in which two words could be members of a ω by cliticization. In thi...

Emphasis Spread in Qassimi Arabic Within the Underspecification Theory

World Journal of English Language, 2022

In Qassimi Arabic, the emphatic segments /tˤ, sˤ, ðˤ, rˤ/ spread their emphasis feature to the neighboring vowels turning the front feature of the vowels /ɪ,æ,æː/ into back. However, the front vowels /iː,eː/ are not affected by this process and consequently maintain their front feature in the adjacency of the emphatic segments. In this work, we provide a theoretical analysis of Emphasis Spread in the dialect of Qassimi Arabic within the underspecification theory. It has been concluded that the vowels /ɪ,æ,æː/ are underlying underspecified for the back feature, whereas the vowels /iː,eː/ are underlyingly specified for the back feature. The emphatic segments spread their secondary feature [Dorso-Pharyngeal] to the adjacent underspecified vowels and thus make them back. However, they fail to spread their secondary feature to the vowels /iː,eː/ because they have an underlying back feature. Therefore, unlike many other phonological theories, the underspecification theory can provide a mo...

Towards a Comparative Typology of Emphatics: Across Semitic and into Arabic Dialect Phonology

Unpublished PhD dissertation, SOAS, University of …, 2008

This thesis investigates the role of emphatics within the Semitic sound system as the basis for a typology of Semitic emphatics. In seeking to define the term ‘emphatic’, since emphatics are realised in some Semitic languages as ejectives, and in others as ‘pharyngealised’, or ‘backed’, the phonetic aspects of both are investigated. I present acoustic analyses of Tigrinya and Arabic (Peninsula Arabian and Iraqi) emphatics, paying particular attention to perceptual salience. Firstly, the notions of ‘noise-lag’ and ‘stop-lag’ are discussed and exemplified in relation to ejectives; secondly, I present and evaluate analyses of VOT in Arabic, showing that there is dialectal variation in the voicing series (i.e. two-way vs three-way). Further to this, I discuss the phonological composition of the various emphatics and gutturals, proposing structural representations broadly within an element-theoretic framework. I then take a diachronic angle, looking at Proto-Semitic and the development of the sound systems of the Semitic languages, in particular the Semitic triads, and the development of ‘backed’ emphatics as a product of changing sound systems. I argue that Proto-Semitic laterals were not part of the ‘triad’ system and that the voiced lateral fricative was ‘backed’. The emphatic trajectory hypothesis is evaluated and theoretically contextualised, and I show that dialectal variation in the voicing series of Arabic is relevant to the variant phonological systems of the dialect types discussed. A preliminary comparative investigation into Arabic dialect sound systems is then presented. I discuss dialect classification and detail a set of key variables for each dialect group. The thesis then discusses the issue of ‘emphasis spread’, analysing data from four different dialect types. The data is discussed in terms of sound systems, and the traditional analysis of ‘emphasis spread’ is disputed. I show how the various sound systems of Arabic are characterised by resonance patterns, which are a crucial part of what is normally taken to be ‘emphasis spread’, and that there is an active process of ‘fronting’ (im¢ala) which is crucial to an analysis of ‘emphasis’ (tafx³m). The thesis concludes with an evaluation of the research, stressing the need for systematic and consistent cross-dialectal analyses of both the phonetics and the phonology of Semitic emphatics. I outline how this can be used in future work to develop a comprehensive comparative typology, towards which this thesis is a preliminary contribution.

Acoustic Correlates of Rhotic Emphasis in Fessi Spoken Arabic

Studies on Arabic Dialectology and Sociolinguistics, 2019

This volume contains over fifty articles related to various fields of modern Arabic dialectology. All the articles are revised and enhanced versions of papers read on the 12 th Conference of the Association Internationale de Dialectologie Arabe (AIDA) held in Marseille in June 2017. Since its first conference in Paris in 1993, AIDA members gather every two years in different country. The collection of the AIDA proceedings offer an updated insight of the development of the field. During the past few decadesthe the study of Arabic dialects has become an important branch of research covering a wide range of subjects from phonological analyses, morphosyntax, semantics to pragmatics, sociolinguistics, folk linguistics, studies on literacy and writings, cultural and artistic practices, etc. As many articles of this volume illustrate, the study of Arabic dialects explores different aspects of the languages and cultures of the contemporary Arab world. A remarkable feature is the growing and constant participation of young scholars from all around the globe.

TRIADS, EMPHATICS AND INTERDENTALS IN ARABIC SOUND SYSTEM TYPOLOGY

Journal of Semitic Studies, supplement no.34, 2014

NB PLEASE CONTACT AUTHOR FOR A COPY OF THE FINAL, PUBLISHED VERSION A triadic system of (obstruent) contrasts is a well-known feature of the prototypical Semitic sound system and involves an opposition of voiced-voiceless-emphatic. The 'emphatic' member of this triad varies across Semitic languages between ejective, pharyngealized / uvularized, and some combination of both. Emphatics in the Ethio-Semitic languages are ejective, while in Arabic they are pharygealized / uvularized. There has been much debate in the literature of the exact nature and behaviour of the emphatics in Arabic, and it is clear that there is considerable dialectal variation in both phonetic realization and phonological behaviour. Further, there is also variation in the exact emphatics that each dialect has, and very often debate over identifying which phones of a given dialect are emphatic ('primary', i.e. lexical, or 'secondary', i.e. phonetically or phonologically conditioned). This paper focuses on a little-investigated aspect of Arabic emphatics, which is that of laryngeal categories. Data is presented to show that Arabic dialects may be classified as either triadic, with a three-way laryngeal contrast, or what I term dyadic, with a two-way laryngeal contrast. The triadic dialects have a voiced-voiceless (emphatic)-voiceless aspirated opposition in the obstruent system, which is akin to the prototypical Semitic triadic system; the dyadic dialects have only a voiced-voiceless obstruent opposition. The paper shows how these categories are measured, exemplifying with a number of triadic and dyadic dialects. These data additionally show that triadic or dyadic systems do not emerge in an entirely arbitrary fashion: there appears to be a strong correlation between the type of laryngeal contrast system and the dialect type according to other classification criteria (e.g. socioeconomic or 'ecological' along a Bedouinite-ruralite-urbanite continuum). The triadic / dyadic laryngeal contrast systems of Arabic provide further evidence for a trajectory of emphatic development from ejective (a purely laryngeal contrast) to pharyngealized / uvularized (a resonance contrast). The paper presents and exemplifies a model of this trajectory and discusses the changing role of 'emphatic' within Semitic. Having shown how laryngeal contrasts in Arabic are an important part of the typology of emphatics, the paper then discusses how other, related features of the sound system are also relevant. The final part of the paper therefore outlines how the retention or loss of (historical) interdentals may be incorporated into such a typology. The hypothesis is that this variant, too, will show a strong correlation with triadic / dyadic laryngeal contrast systems; while exceptions are predicted to be found, representing 'mixed' dialect types, preliminary observations indicate that there may indeed be a good correlation. 0 Introduction There is much discussion in the literature of the Arabic emphatics, with a wide range of studies focusing on the phonetic correlates (both articulatory and acoustic) of 'emphatic' and a wide range of studies focusing on the phonological representation and behaviour of 'emphasis'. This paper shows how Arabic emphatics are an important part of a historical rearrangement within Arabic dialect sound systems that is ongoing. To this end, the paper focuses on a little-discussed aspect of emphatics, that of laryngeal categories.