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Part of
Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXXII: Papers selected from the Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics, Tempe, Arizona, 2018
Edited by Elly van Gelderen
[Studies in Arabic Linguistics 9] 2020
► pp. 11–34

Stress assignment and foot construction in a Southwestern Saudi Arabic dialect

| King Khalid University

This paper presents and analyzes some aspects of the stress system of a Southwestern Saudi Arabic dialect (SSA). In an Optimality-Theoretic framework, the analysis focuses on issues related to how feet are constructed in this dialect as well as how stress is assigned in the language under the effect of geminates and long vowels. In the presented analysis, I argue that the stress pattern of SSA is a moraic trochee binary stress system in which ternary effects arise as a result of Weak Local Parsing that is responsible for the pre-antepenultimate stress in the language (Hayes, 1995). I also argue that the analysis of stress assignment under the effect of geminates and long vowels is prominence-based in such a way that stress is assigned to the heaviest syllable in the word in a scalar quantity-sensitivity stress system that gives priority to syllables that are inherently bimoraic. The analysis seeks a unified account that interacts with other aspects of the phonology in the investigated dialect such as high vowel deletion and the quality of word-final vowels.

Keywords: optimality theory, moraic theory, metrical theory, quantity, prominence
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Stress pattern
    • 2.1Syllable quantity
    • 2.2Stress shift
  • 3.Analysis
    • 3.1Word-final vowels
    • 3.2High vowel syncope
    • 3.3Geminates and long vowels
    • 3.4Summary
  • 4.Optimality-theoretic analysis
    • 4.1Foot construction and stress assignment
    • 4.2High vowel syncope
    • 4.3Geminate and long vowel effects
    • 4.4Summary
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 28 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sal.9.01ala
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