Chapter published in:
Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXXI: Papers from the annual symposium on Arabic Linguistics, Norman, Oklahoma, 2017
Edited by Amel Khalfaoui and Youssef A. Haddad
[Studies in Arabic Linguistics 8] 2019
► pp. 75–102

Post-lexical strata

Evidence from phrasal phonology in Sudanese Arabic

Building on Ali (2014, 2017), this paper proposes a Stratal OT account of the interaction between phrasal syncope and resyllabification in two dialects of Sudanese Arabic. The account expresses the connection between the two phenomena in terms of the interaction between the syncope constraint and the constraint requiring faithful mapping of input syllables. The patterns of syncope attested in the dialects indicate that these constraints have different rankings at the prosodic levels of word, φ-Phrase, ι-Phrase, and Utterance. This is evidence that the organization of post-lexical phonology is similar to that of lexical phonology; the former also consists of distinct, serially related constraint systems. The paper provides further evidence for the post-lexical stratification based on the patterns of realization of word-final clusters.
Keywords: syncope, syllabification, stratal OT, Sudanese Arabic
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
  • 3.The interaction between syncope and resyllabification
    • Overview
    • Ali’s (2014) account of phrasal syncope in UCSA and Shukriiya
    • Abu-Mansour’s (2011) account of phrasal syncope in Makkan
  • 4.A Stratal-OT account of the interaction between syncope and resyllabification
    • Lexical syncope
    • Post-lexical syncope
    • Summary
  • 5.Further evidence for post-lexical stratification
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 08 July 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/sal.8.04ali
References
Abu-Abbas, K. H.
(2003) Topics in the phonology of Jordanian Arabic: An Optimality Theory perspective (Ph.D. dissertation). University of Kansas, Lawrence.
Abu-Mansour, M.
(1987) A nonlinear analysis of Arabic syllabic phonology with special reference to Makkan (Ph.D. dissertation). University of Florida, Gainesville.
(2011) The phonology-syntax interface: Phrasal syncope in Makkan Arabic. In E. Broselow, & H. Ouali (Eds.), Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXII–XXIII (pp. 35–56). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Adra, M. A.
(1999) Identity effects and opacity in Syrian Arabic: An Optimality Theory analysis (Ph.D. dissertation). University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Al-Ageli, H. M.
(1995) Syllabic and metrical structure in Tripolitanian Arabic: A comparative study in Standard and Optimality Theory (Ph.D. dissertation). University of Essex, Colchester.
Alderete, J. D.
(1999) Morphologically governed accent in Optimality Theory (Ph.D. Dissertation). University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Ali, A.-K.
(2014) Syllabification and phrasing in three dialects of Sudanese Arabic (Ph.D. Dissertation). University of Toronto.
(2017) Prosodic domains of syllabification in Sudanese Arabic. In Hamid Ouali (Ed.), Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXIX (pp. 33–54). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bakalla, M. H.
(1979) The morphological and phonological components of the Arabic verb (Meccan Arabic). London: Longman.Google Scholar
Bamakhrmah, M. A.
(2009) Syllable structure in Arabic varieties with a focus on superheavy syllables (Ph.D. Dissertation). Indiana University.
Broselow, E.
(1976) The phonology of Egyptian Arabic (Ph.D. dissertation). University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
(1992) Parametric variation in Arabic dialect phonology. In E. Broselow, M. Eid, & J. McCarthy (Eds.), Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 85: Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics (pp. 7–45). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cantineau, J.
(1936) Études sur quelqes parlers de nomades arabes d’Orient. Annales de l’Institut d’Études Orientales, Alger, 2, 1–118.Google Scholar
(1939) Remarques sur les parlers de sédentaires syro-libano-palestiniens. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, 40, 80–88.Google Scholar
Clark, M.
(1990) The tonal system of Igbo. Dordrecht: Foris Publications. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cowell, M. W.
(1964) A Reference grammar of Syrian Arabic, based on the dialect of Damascus. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Farwaneh, S.
(2009) Toward a typology of Arabic dialects: The role of final consonantality. Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, 9, 82–109.Google Scholar
Fleisch, H.
(1974) Études d’arabe dialectal. Beirut: Dar el-Mashreq.Google Scholar
Gouskova, M.
(2003) Deriving economy: Syncope in Optimality Theory (Ph.D. Dissertation). University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Haddad G.
(1984) Problems and issues in the phonology of Lebanese Arabic (Ph.D. Dissertation). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Hamid, A. M.
(1984) A descriptive analysis of Sudanese Colloquial Arabic phonology (Ph.D. Dissertation). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Kabrah, R. S.
(2004) Opacity and transparency in the phonology of Makkan Arabic: A Stratal Optimality-Theoretic approach (Ph.D. Dissertation). Boston University, Boston.
(2014) Stress assignment in Makkan Arabic: A stratal-OT analysis. In S. Farwaneh, & H. Ouali (Eds.), Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXIV–XXV (pp. 21–61). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Kaisse, E.
(1985) Connected speech: The interaction of syntax and phonology. Florida: Academic Press.Google Scholar
(1990) Toward a typology of post-lexical rules. In S. Inkelas & D. Zec (eds.), The phonology-syntax connection (pp. 127–143). Stanford: CSLI.Google Scholar
Kenstowicz, M.
(1980) Notes on Cairene Arabic syncope. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences, 10, 39–53.Google Scholar
Kiparsky, P.
(1982) Lexical morphology and phonology. In I.-S. Yang (Ed.), Linguistics in the morning calm (pp. 3–91). Seoul: Hanshin.Google Scholar
(1985) Some consequences of Lexical Phonology. Phonology Yearbook, 2, 82–138. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2003) Syllables and moras in Arabic. In C. Féry, & R. van de Vijver (Eds.), The syllable in Optimality Theory (pp. 147–182). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2015) Stratal OT: A synopsis and FAQs. In Y. E. Hsiao, & L.-H. Wee (Eds.), Capturing phonological shades within and across languages (pp. 2–44). UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
to appear). Paradigm effects and opacity. Stanford, CA: CSLI Press
Koontz-Garboden, A.
(2001) Tiberian Hebrew spirantization and related phenomena in stratal OT. http://​roa​.rutgers​.edu​/files​/607​-0703​/607​-0703​-KOONTZ​-GARBODEN​-0​-3​.PDF
McCarthy, J., & Prince, A.
(1993a) Prosodic morphology I: Constraint interaction and satisfaction. New Brunswik, New Jersey: Technical Report 3, Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science.Google Scholar
(1993b) Generalized alignment. In G. Booij & J. van Marle (Eds.), Yearbook of morphology, (pp. 79–153). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
McCarthy, J., & Prince A.
(1995) Faithfulness and reduplicative identity. In J. Beckman, S. Urbanczyk, & L. Walsh Dickey (Eds.), University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers in Linguistics 18: Papers in Optimality Theory (pp. 249–384). Amherst, Mass.Google Scholar
McHugh, B. D.
(1990) The phrasal cycle in Kivunjo Chaga tonology. In S. Inkelas, & D. Zec (Eds.), The phonology-syntax connection (pp. 217–242). Stanford: CSLI.Google Scholar
Mutaka, N.
(1994) The lexical tonology of Kinande. Munich: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Odden, D.
(1978) Aspects of Iraqi Arabic verbal phonology. Studies in the Linguistic Sciecnces, 8, 137–152.Google Scholar
Pak, M.
(2005) Explaining branchingness effects in phrasal phonology. In J. Alderete, C.-H. Han, & A. Kochetov (Eds.), Proceedings of the 24th West Coast Conference on formal linguistics (pp. 308–316). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Pak, M., & Friesner, M.
(2006) French phrasal phonology in a derivational model of PF. In C. Davis, A. R. Deal, & Y. Zabbal (Eds.), Proceedings of the 36th Meeting of the Northeast Linguistics Society, Volume 2 (pp. 480–491). Amherst, MA: GLSA.Google Scholar
Prince, A., & Smolensky, P.
(1993) Optimality theory: Constraint interaction in generative grammar. ROA-735, Rutgers Optimality Archive. Retrieved from http://​roa​.rutgers​.edu/Google Scholar
Rice, K. D.
(1990) Predicting rule domains in the phrasal phonology. In S. Inkelas, & D. Zec (Eds.), The phonology-syntax connection (pp. 289–312). Stanford: CSLI.Google Scholar
Selkirk, E.
(1986) On derived domains in sentence phonology. Phonology, 3, 371–405. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1996) The prosodic structure of function words. In J. L. Morgan, & K. Demuth (Eds.) Signal to syntax: Bootstrapping from speech to grammar in early acquisition (pp. 187–213). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Watson, J. C. E.
(2002) The phonology and morphology of Arabic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
(2007) Syllabification patterns in Arabic dialects: Long segments and mora sharing. Phonology, 24, 335–356. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2012) [Review of Perspectives on Arabic linguistics: Papers from the annual symposia on Arabic linguistics, Vol. XXII–XXIII, by E. Broselow & H. Ouali (eds.). Amsterdam: John Benjamins]. Language, 88, 896–899.Google Scholar