Cover not available
Part of
Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXXV: Papers from the Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics, Washington, D.C., 2022
Edited by Ahmad Alqassas
[Studies in Arabic Linguistics 14] 2025
► pp. 29–54

Chapter 2
Two cases of dissimilation in Palestinian Arabic and their theoretical implications

| Indiana University
| Indiana University
In-depth analyses of specific cases of consonantal dissimilation are rare in the literature on Arabic phonology. This chapter examines two instances of consonantal dissimilation that occur in two different Palestinian varieties: the depharyngealization of emphatic fricatives when occurring before back velars in a rural variety and the dissimilation of a prefixal glottal stop to [h] when it precedes a root glottal stop in an urban variety. Our examination focuses on the detailed descriptive patterns and offers an analysis referencing feature geometry and rule ordering. Theoretical implications concern the general nature of dissimilation (Bennett 2013; Payne 2017) and the role of abstract features in Arabic dialectal phonology especially regarding the historic uvular *q that can merge with [k] in rural Palestinian and with [ʔ] in urban Palestinian Arabic while still having a phonology that is distinct from the sounds with which they merge.
Keywords: Arabic of the Triangle Area, depharyngealization, dissimilation, feature geometry, glottal stop, urban Palestinian Arabic, uvular
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The depharyngealization of emphatic fricatives in PA-TA
    • The context of depharyngealization: Data and feature representation
    • Analysis of depharyngealization
    • Various issues and implications
  • 3.Glottal stop dissimilation in Northern Urban Palestinian Arabic (NUPA)
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
References (35)
References
Abo Mokh, N. & Davis, S. (2020). What triggers 'imāla: Focus on a Palestinian variety with phonological analysis. In E. van Gelderen (Ed.), Perspectives on Arabic linguistics XXXII (pp. 35–53). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Altairi, H, Brown, J., Watson, C. & Gick, B. (2017). Tongue retraction in Arabic: An ultrasound Study. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting on Phonology, 4, 1–12. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Badawi, E. & Hinds, M. (1986). A dictionary of Egyptian Arabic. Beirut: Libraire du Liban.Google Scholar
Behnstedt, P. & Geva-Kleinberger, A. (2019). Atlas of the Arabic dialects of Galilee (Israel) with some data from adjacent areas. Leiden: BrillGoogle Scholar
Bennett, W. (2013). The phonology of consonants: Harmony, dissimilation, and correspondence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Boudlal, A. (2018). Labial dissimilation as an Amazigh substratum in Moroccan Arabic. The International Journal of Arabic Linguistics, 4(1), 10–38.Google Scholar
Clements, G. N. & Hume, E. (1995). The internal organization of speech sounds. In J. Goldsmith (Ed.), The handbook of phonological theory, 1st edition, (pp. 245–306). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Davis, S. (1995). Emphasis spread and grounded phonology. Linguistic Inquiry 26(3)3, 465–498.Google Scholar
(2008). Velarization. In K. Versteegh (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics, v. 4, (pp. 636–638). Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Faiq, A. M. & Burhanuddin, I. (2016). The process of dissimilation in English and Arabic: A comparative study. International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature 4(6), 1–11.Google Scholar
Frisch, S., Pierrehumbert, J. & Broe, M. (2004). Similarity avoidance and the OCP. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 22(2), 179–228. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Geers, F. (1945). The treatment of emphatics in Akkadian. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 4(2), 65–67. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Geva-Kleinberger, A. (2004). Die Arabischen stadtdialekte von Haifa in der ersten hälfte des 20 jahrhunderts. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. (1950). The patterning of root morphemes in Semitic. Word, 6(2), 162–181. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Herzallah, R. (1990). Aspects of Palestinian Arabic Phonology: A Non-linear Approach (Ph.D. dissertation). Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
Idrissi, A., Nahia, N., Al-Taraireh, M., Shalabi, S. & Marzouki, Y. (2023). Psychophysical Evidence for abstract phonological representations: The case of OCP place in Arabic. Paper presented at the Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics 36. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, March 24–26.Google Scholar
Ito, J. & Mester, A. (1999). The phonological lexicon. In. N. Tsujimura (Ed.), The handbook of Japanese linguistics (pp. 62–100). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Jastrow, O. (2004). The Arabic dialects of the Muthallath (Central Israel). Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 29, 166–175.Google Scholar
Knudsen. E. E. (1961). Cases of free variants in the Akkadian q phoneme. Journal of Cuneiform Studies, 15(3), 84–90. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lipiński, E. (1997). Semitic languages: Outline of a comparative grammar. Leuven: Peeters.Google Scholar
McCarthy, J. (1986). OCP effects: Gemination and antigemination. Linguistic Inquiry, 17(2) 207–263.Google Scholar
(1994). The phonetics and phonology of Semitic pharyngeal. In P. Keating (Ed.), Phonological structure and Phonetic form: Papers in Laboratory Phonology III (pp. 191–233). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Payne, A. (2017). All dissimilation is computationally subsequential. Language, 93(4), e353–e371. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rice, K. (2011). Consonantal place of articulation. In M. van Oostendorp, C. Ewen, E. Hume, & K. Rice. (Eds.), The Blackwell companion to phonology (pp. 519–549). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rose, S. (1996). Variable laryngeals and vowel lowering. Phonology 13(1), 73–117. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2000). Rethinking geminates: Long-distance geminates and the OCP. Linguistic Inquiry, 31(1), 85–122. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Walter, M. A. (2006). Pharyngealization effects in Maltese Arabic. In S. Boudelaa (Ed.), Perspectives on Arabic linguistics XVI (pp. 161–178). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Watson, J. (1999). The directionality of emphasis spread in Arabic. Linguistic Inquiry, 30(2), 289–300. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Younes, M. (1994). On emphasis and /r/ in Arabic. In M. Eid, V. Cantarino, & K. Walters (Eds.), Perspectives on Arabic linguistics VI (pp. 215–235). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Youssef, I. (2019). The phonology and micro-typology of Arabic R. Glossa, 4(1): 131 1–36.Google Scholar
(2023). Patterns and representation in Arabic place assimilation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zawaydeh, B. A. (1998). Gradient uvularization spread in Ammani- Jordanian Arabic. In E. Benmamoun, M. Eid, & N. Haeri, (Eds.), Perspectives on Arabic linguistics XI (pp. 117–141). Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1999). The Phonetics and Phonology of Gutturals in Arabic (Ph.D. dissertation). Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
Zawaydeh, B. A. & de Jong, K. (2011). The phonetics of localising uvularisation in Ammani-Jordanian Arabic. In Z. M. Hassan, & B. Hesselwood, (Eds.), Instrumental studies in Arabic phonetics (pp. 257–276). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zemánek, P. (2006). Dissimilation. In K. Versteegh (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics, v. 1, (pp. 653–654). Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar