Arabic-L:LING:Vowel Shortening in Palestinian Arabic response

[Dilworth Parkinson]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arabic-L: Fri 29 Feb 2008
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
[To post messages to the list, send them to arabic-l at byu.edu]
[To unsubscribe, send message from same address you subscribed from to
listserv at byu.edu with first line reading:
            unsubscribe arabic-l                                      ]

-------------------------Directory------------------------------------

1) Subject:Vowel Shortening in Palestinian Arabic response

-------------------------Messages-----------------------------------
1)
Date: 29 Feb 2008
From:Munther Younes <may2 at cornell.edu>
Subject:Vowel Shortening in Palestinian Arabic response

Vowel shortening in open syllables seems to be triggered in (my  
dialect of) rural Palestinian Arabic by an immediately following long  
vowel. A following stressed short vowel or a long vowel separated by  
another syllable doesn't trigger it.

shaafu "they saw" but shafuu (/shaafuu(h)/) "they saw him"

Compare with:
ma-shaafatuush "she didn't see him" (no shortening, not adjacent)
shaafathum "she saw them" (no shortening, not followed by a long  
vowel, in spite the following stressed vowel)

Examples of shortening inside a stem:

/jaamuus/--[jamuus] "water buffalo"
/miizaan/ -- [mizaan] "scale, balance"
/jiiraan/--jiraan "neighbors"
/shuumaan/ -- [shumaan] "proper name"
/duulaab/ -- [dulaab] "tire"

Short vowels syncopate in this position:
/HiSaan/--[HSaan] "horse"
/bilaad/--[blaad] "countries"
/buyuut/--[byuut] "houses"

The only exception seems to be the long vowel of the active  
participle. A good example of this is the very popular phrase:

Haamiiha Haramiiha (its thieves are protecting it, a comment about  
political corruption) from /Haamiiha Haraamiiha/). Haamii, where the  
first vowel doesn't shorten is an active participle, while Haraamii,  
where it does, is not.)

Munther Younes
Cornell University

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
End of Arabic-L:  29 Feb 2008
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/arabic-l/attachments/20080229/5156bd23/attachment.htm>