Arabic-L:LING:Vowels responses

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Wed 29 Nov 2000
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject: Vowels response
2) Subject: Vowels response

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1)
Date: 29 Nov 2000
From: alhawar at american.edu
Subject: Vowels response


Classical Arabic is usually referred to as having a "symmetrical" or
 "triangular" vowel system as below:


                       Front                 Central              back
high                 i/ ii                                              u/ uu
low                                            a/ aa

However, these vowels are subject to predictable vowel allophany rules
triggered by preceding (neigbouring) consonants. The process involving the
consonants (S, D, T, Z, q, kh, gh, and r is  referred to I think as
pharyngealization which is blocked with the last three (kh, gh, and r) in
the environment of [i]. Here is a list if minimal pairs that I hope will be
useful to you:

taab "repented"            +long, +front, +low
Taab "became good"  +long, +back, +low, etc.

tuubaa "repent/dual"
Tuubaa "beatitude"

tiin "figs"
Tiin "mud"

da9 "leave"             +short, +front, +low
Da9 "put"                +short, +back, +low, etc.

Sum "observe the fast"
summ "poison"

Dif "add"
dif? "warmth"


One may add ?imalaa "inclination" discussed by Siibaawayhi in great details
(where the the tongue is inclined from a low to a mid position) although
?imaala too is rule-goverend--with the exception of a subset of words which
Siibaawayhi explains as having a high frequency of occurrence in speech.

An example of a rule-governed ?imaala:
9aalim "scholar" --> 9eelim (triggered by presence of [i])

An example of a high frequency word:
naas "people" --> nees

If you need further directions, email me off the list.

best,
Mohammad T. Alhawary

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2)
Date: 29 Nov 2000
From: Alex Bellem <ab89 at soas.ac.uk>
Subject: Vowels response

Well it all depends on which dialect(s) you're looking at, for a start.
But basically, for many you can add to the basic [ae], [i], [u]  the
'emphatic' (pharyngealised or uvularised, depending on your point of
view) versions of the same, and then you also have to take into account
the difference in 'a' in the environment of a 'guttural' (different from
the 'emphatic' environment). Also, of course, there is 'imala', which
causes the fronting of the 'a' to [ae] or [e]. It has been argued that
there are 3 basic vowels which change in the course of the derivation,
according to the environment, but I don't suppose that is the answer
you're looking for. Arabic is not uniform across the dialects, for a
start. Actually, it has also been argued that Arabic displays a
tense-lax distinction - see Kimary Shahin in Perspectives on Arabic
Linguistics (I think the 1996 one - eds. Mushira Eid et al.). I would
recommend finding these (the Perspectives series) in the library and
skimming through - there are some very interesting articles.There are
hundreds of references you could use, ranging from descriptive grammars
of various dialects (such as Van Ess/Cowell, etc) to works such as those
by Charles Ferguson, Haim Blanc. But if you're interested in current
phonological models, then go through Perspectives (there are about 13 of
them) to find some v. interesting articles and look at their references
if you're interested.
HTH,
Alex Bellem.

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End of Arabic-L: 29 Nov 2000