Omaha and Ponca to Arabic: You're not so unique after all!

[Bryan James Gordon]

Kees Versteegh, writing on /ḍ/ in the Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and
Linguistics:

Sībawayhi (Kitāb II, 405.8-9) describes [ḍād]'s place of articulation as
being "between the first part of the side of the tongue and the adjacent
molars" (*min bayna ˀawwal ḥāfat al-lisān wa-mā yalīhi min al-ˀaḍrās*). The
exact interpretation of this passage remains controversial. ... Cantineau
(1960:55) is probably right in interpreting it as a lateral or lateralized
velarized voiced interdental fricative ... IPA [ðˡ] .... This would make it,
indeed, a unique sound among the world's languages (cf. Ladefoged and
Maddieson 1966:154-56).


Ha!

Of course I use [ðˡ] or [ɫð] all the time when I use IPA to represent Omaha
and Ponca words. Unique indeed. If the CSG has a phonology section, this
should definitely be in it.

Sībawayh's description is over 1200 years old, of course, so it is not true
of most forms of Arabic today, although many Arabic loanwords in other
languages have laterals where ḍād should be.

-- 
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Bryan James Gordon, MA
Joint PhD Program in Linguistics and Anthropology
University of Arizona
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