| ROA: | 1227 |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Phonology of Maani Arabic Stratal or Parallel OT |
| Authors: | Belal A. Rakhieh |
| Comment: | |
| Length: | 304 |
| Abstract: | Accounting for the phonology of Ma?ani Arabic, a JA dialect that has never previously been studied, 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. This dissertation is dedicated to the investigation of the phonology of Ma?ani Arabic. Special attention is given on stress assignment, vowel epenthesis, syncope, geminates and the interaction of these processes. Authentic examples from Ma?ani Arabic and other Arabic dialects show that the interaction of phonology and morphology is inevitable. In chapter three, the transparent stress assignment rules is comprehensively investigated and accounted for. Segment epenthesis is investigated in chapter four, where two types are identified, i.e. lexical and postlexical. Prosthetic /i/, which is inserted before the imperative form, and the epenthetic vowel /i/, which breaks sequences of four medial consonant clusters, are lexical. The epenthetic /i/, which breaks medial three consonant clusters and final antisonority clusters, is postlexical. The dissertation addresses syncope and vowel shortening in chapter five. It is argued that the high short vowel deletion is a lexical process that takes place at both the stem and word levels. Vowel shortening in open and closed syllables takes place at the stem level only. An account is developed in chapter six to explain the nature of geminates in Ma?ani Arabic. It is argued that there are two types of geminates in Arabic, i.e. true and fake geminates. True geminates are underlyingly moraic, while fake geminates are sequences of identical consonants which result form a constraint that prohibits high short vowels between identical consonants. 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 dialects, this dissertation tries to uncover the underlying reasons especially when these phenomena behave differently in one of the dialects. Finally, chapter seven summarises the main outcomes of the current dissertation and gives some recommendations for future research. |
| Type: | Dissertation |
| Area/Keywords: | phonology, arabic, ma'ani, morphology |
| Article: | Version 1 |