Chapter published in:
Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXXIII: Papers selected from the Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics, Toronto, Canada, 2019
Edited by Abdel-Khalig Ali and Atiqa Hachimi
[Studies in Arabic Linguistics 11] 2022
► pp. 77–98

Plain-emphatic R phonemes in Arabic

More evidence for phonetics-phonology mismatches

| University of South-Eastern Norway

Rhotics exhibit considerable variability across Arabic dialects, pertaining mainly to the notorious emphatic-plain distinction. This chapter aims to establish the underlying R phonemes (and their contextually conditioned allophones) in three different varieties of spoken Arabic, evidence of which is sought in phonological distribution and processes that target or are triggered by R. Examination of such evidence reveals three patternings of R phonemes: split-R, emphatic-R, and plain-R. The analysis, which employs a minimalist model of feature geometry, shows that different phonological representations can be ascertained through the patterning of the R phoneme(s) in the particular variety. It also confirms that phonetic criteria are not sufficient to determine the representation of a sound, and in so doing provides evidence for phonetics-phonology mismatches.

Keywords: rhotics, Arabic dialects, emphatic R, feature geometry, phonology
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Representational model
    • 2.2An overview of Arabic R
  • 3.Moroccan Arabic: A split-R dialect
    • 3.1Distributional patterns
    • 3.2Phonological processes
  • 4.Rural Palestinian Arabic: An emphatic-R dialect
    • 4.1Distributional patterns
    • 4.2Phonological processes
  • 5.Muslim Baghdadi Arabic: A plain-R dialect
    • 5.1Distributional patterns
    • 5.2Phonological processes
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 06 December 2022
https://doi.org/10.1075/sal.11.04you
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