Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T16:51:10.375Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Syllabification patterns in Arabic dialects: long segments and mora sharing*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2007

Janet C. E. Watson
Janet C. E. Watson
Affiliation:
University of Salford
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In Classical Arabic and many modern Arabic dialects, syllables ending in VVC or in the left leg of a geminate have a special status. An examination of Kiparsky's (2003) semisyllable account of syllabification types and related phenomena in Arabic against a wider set of data shows that while this account explains much syllable-related variation, certain phenomena cannot be captured, and several dialects appear to exhibit conflicting syllable-related phenomena. Phenomena not readily covered by the semisyllable account commonly involve long segments – long vowels or geminate consonants. In this paper, I propose for relevant dialects a mora-sharing solution that recognises the special status of syllables incorporating long segments. Such a mora-sharing solution is not new, but has been proposed for the analysis of syllables containing long segments in a number of languages, including Arabic (Broselow 1992, Broselow et al.1995), Malayalam, Hindi (Broselow et al.1997) and Bantu languages (Maddieson 1993, Hubbard 1995).

Type
Research Article
Information
Phonology , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , August 2007 , pp. 335 - 356
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aoun, Yosef (1979). Is the syllable or the supersyllable a constituent? MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 1. 140–148.Google Scholar
Arnold, Werner (1998). Die arabischen Dialekte Antiochiens. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Behnstedt, Peter (1979). Die nordmittelägyptische bukaṫa-Dialekte. Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik 3. 62–95.Google Scholar
Behnstedt, Peter (1985). Die nordjemenitischen Dialekte. Vol. 1: Atlas. Wiesbaden: Reichert.Google Scholar
Behnstedt, Peter (1987). Die Dialekte der Gegend von Ṣa‘dah (Nord-Jemen). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Behnstedt, Peter & Manfred, Woidich (1985). Die ägyptisch-aradischen Dialekte. 2 vols. Wiesbaden: Reichert.Google Scholar
Behnstedt, Peter & Manfred, Woidich (2005). Aradische Dialektgeographie: eine Einführung. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bohas, Georges (1975). Métrique Arabe classique et moderne. Thèse de 3ème cycle, Paris VIII.Google Scholar
Broselow, Ellen (1992). Parametric variation in Arabic dialect phonology. In Broselow, Ellen, Eid, Mushira & McCarthy, John (eds.) Perspectives on Arabic linguistics IV. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. 7–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broselow, Ellen, Huffman, Marie, Chen, Su-I & Hsieh, Ruohmei (1995). The timing structure of CVVC syllables. In Eid, Mushira (ed.) Perspectives on Arabic linguistics VII. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. 119–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broselow, Ellen, Chen, Su-I & Huffman, Marie (1997). Syllable weight: convergence of phonology and phonetics. Phonology 14. 47–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickins, James (in preparation). A reference grammar of Sudanese Arabic. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Diem, Werner (1973). Skizzen jemenitischer Dialekte. Beirut: Steiner.Google Scholar
Farwaneh, Samira (1995). Directionality effects in Arabic dialect syllable structure. PhD dissertation, University of Utah.Google Scholar
Fischer, Wolfdietrich & Jastrow, Otto (eds.) (1980). Handbuch der arabischen Dialekte. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Frazier, Melissa (2005). Output–output faithfulness to moraic structure: new evidence from an American English phenomenon. Paper presented at the 36th Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar
Goitein, S. D. (1960). The language of al-gades: the main characteristics of an Arabic dialect spoken in Lower Yemen. Le Muséon 73. 351–394.Google Scholar
Greenman, Joseph (1979). A sketch of the Arabic dialect of the Central Yamani Tihāmah. Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik 3. 47–61.Google Scholar
Hubbard, Kathleen (1995). ‘Prenasalised consonants’ and syllable timing: evidence from Runyambo and Luganda. Phonology 12. 235–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ingham, Bruce (1971). Some characteristics of Meccan speech. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 34. 273–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Itô, Junko (1986). Syllable theory in prosodic phonology. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar
Itô, Junko (1989). A prosodic theory of epenthesis. NLLT 7. 217–259.Google Scholar
Itô, Junko & Armin Mester, (1992). Weak layering and word binarity. Report LRC-92-09, Linguistic Research Center, University of California, Santa Cruz.Google Scholar
Jastrow, Otto (1980). Das mesopotamische Arabisch. In , Fischer & , Jastrow (1980). 140–173.Google Scholar
Jastrow, Otto (2003). Arabische Texte aus Kinderib. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Kiparsky, Paul (2003). Syllables and moras in Arabic. In Féry, Caroline & van de Vijver, Ruben (eds.) The syllable in Optimality Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 147–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maddieson, Ian (1993). Splitting the mora. UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 83. 9–18.Google Scholar
Maddieson, Ian & Ladefoged, Peter (1993). Phonetics of partially nasal consonants. In Huffman, Marie & Krakow, Rena (eds.) Nasals, nasalization, and the velum. San Diego: Academic Press. 251–301.Google Scholar
Mester, Armin & Padgett, Jaye (1994). Directional syllabification in Generalized Alignment. In Merchant, Jason, Padgett, Jaye & Walker, Rachel (eds.) Phonology at Santa Cruz 3. Santa Cruz: Linguistics Research Center. 79–85.Google Scholar
Munhall, Kevin, Fowler, Carol, Hawkins, Sarah & Saltzman, Elliot (1992). ‘Compensatory shortening’ in monosyllables of spoken English. JPh 20. 225–239.Google Scholar
Mustapha, Abdel Rahman (1982). Phonologie de l'Arabe Soudanais. PhD dissertation, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle.Google Scholar
Naïm-Sanbar, Samia (1994). Contribution à l’étude de l'accent yéménite: le parler des femmes de l'ancienne génération. Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik 27. 67–89.Google Scholar
Nespor, Marina & Irene, Vogel (1986). Prosodic phonology. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Nishio, Tetsuo (1994). The Arabic dialect of Qifṭ (Upper Egypt): grammar and classified vocabulary. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa.Google Scholar
Port, Robert F., Dalby, Jonathan & O'Dell, Michael (1987). Evidence for mora timing in Japanese. JASA 81. 1574–1585.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Procházka, Stephan (2002). Die arabischen Dialekte der Çukurova (Südtürkei). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Reichmuth, Stefan (1983). Der arabische Dialekt der Šukriyya im Ostsudan. Hildesheim: Olms.Google Scholar
Rossi, Ettori (1938). Nuove osservazioni sui dialetti del Yemen. Rivista degli Studi Orientali 17. 460–472.Google Scholar
Selkirk, Elisabeth (1981). Epenthesis and degenerate syllables in Cairene Arabic. In Borer, Hagit & Aoun, Yosef (eds.) Theoretical issues in the grammar of Semitic languages. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT. 111–140.Google Scholar
Vanhove, Martine (2004). Deixis et focalisation: la particule ta en arabe de Yafi‘ (Yémen). In Haak, Martine, de Jong, Rudolf & Versteegh, Kees (eds.) Approaches to Arabic dialects: a collection of articles presented to Manfred Woidich on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. Leiden: Brill. 329–342.Google Scholar
Vogel, Irene (1999). Subminimal constituents in prosodic phonology. In Hannahs, S. J. & Davenport, Mike (eds.) Issues in phonological structure. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. 249–267.Google Scholar
Watson, Janet C. E. (1999). The syllable and syllabification in Modern Spoken Arabic (Ṣan‘ani and Cairene). In van der Hulst, Harry & Ritter, Nancy (eds.) The syllable: views and facts. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 501–525.Google Scholar
Watson, Janet C. E. (2002). The phonology and morphology of Arabic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, Janet C. E. (2004). To what extent does the language of Yemeni radio plays reflect language levelling in the community? Paper delivered at The evolution of Arabic urban vernaculars: the effects of migration and social changes, Aix-en-Provence.Google Scholar
Watson, Janet C. E. (in press). Ein Märchen im arabischen Dialekt von Ibb. Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik.Google Scholar
Watson, Janet C. E., Glover Stalls, Bonnie, al-Razihi, Khalid & Weir, Shelagh (2006). The language of Jabal Rāziḥ: Arabic or something else? Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 36. 35–41.Google Scholar
Werbeck, Wolfgang (2001). Laut- und Formenlehre des nordjemenitisch-arabischen Dialekts von Manāḫa. Münster: Rhema.Google Scholar
Woidich, Manfred (1979). Zum Dialekt von il-‘Awāmṛa in der östlichen Šarqiyya (Ägypten). Part 1: Einleitung, grammatische Skizze und Volkskundliches. Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik 2. 76–99.Google Scholar
Woidich, Manfred (1980). Das Ägyptisch-Arabische. In , Fischer & , Jastrow (1980). 207–242.Google Scholar
Woidich, Manfred (2006). Das Kairenisch-Arabische: eine Grammatik. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Wright, W. (1975). A grammar of the Arabic language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Yoda, Sumikazu (2005). The Arabic dialect of the Jews of Tripoli (Libya). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar