Comparison Study of Short Vowels’ Formant: MSA, Arabic Dialects and Non-native Arabic

The Maghrebi dialects of Arabic

10.1093/oso/9780198701378.003.0002 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jordi Aguadé

Keyword(s):

North Africa ◽

Language Use ◽

Middle Eastern ◽

The Other ◽

First Person ◽

African Language ◽

North African ◽

Short Vowels ◽

Arabic Dialects ◽

Second Wave

This chapter analyses synchronically and diachronically the Maghrebi Arabic dialects spoken in North Africa, whose most outstanding features are the prefix n- for the first person singular of the imperfect and a vowel system characterized by elision of short vowels in open syllable. Maghrebi Arabic shows less variety than do Middle Eastern dialects and has been influenced by only two substrate languages, Berber and Latin (the latter especially in Mediterranean coastal towns). All Maghrebi dialects have far fewer Turkish loanwords than do Middle Eastern dialects. On the other hand, French influence on the vocabularies of Tunisian, Algerian, and Moroccan dialects is strong, and code-switching between Arabic and French common in North African language use (except in Libya and Malta). Diachronically, Maghrebi Arabic dialects are divided into two types—pre-Hilālī and Hilālī— depending on whether they go back to the first or the second wave of the Arabization of North Africa.

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Interesting Pausal Forms in the Speech of Muslims and Christians in Kufᵘr-Kanna

Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies ◽

10.5617/jais.9270 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 ◽

pp. 121-136

Author(s):

Amal Zuʿbi

Keyword(s):

Key Words ◽

Final Position ◽

Vowel Quality ◽

Middle Aged ◽

Short Vowels ◽

Arabic Dialects

The aim of this paper is to describe the system of vocalic variants in pause pertaining to speakers of Arabic in Kufᵘr-Kanna (AKK) and in this regard to determine the features that characterize the AKK. As in Nazareth, the incidence of pauses in AKK varies and depends on the content, the listener and the speaker’s intentions. In AKK I detected pausal forms in the speech of middle-aged and elderly Muslims and elderly Christians. In addition to changes in consonants and vowel quality in their speech, in pausal position final syllables also undergo other modifications as compared to the contextual forms. Unlike in Nazareth, four further types were identified in AKK: (1) lengthening of short vowels in final position: ‑Cv > ‑Cv̄#, -CvC > -Cv̄C#; lengthening of normal and anaptyctic short vowels in final closed syllables: -CvC#; (2) devoicing of voiced consonants in word-final position; (3) glottalization after consonants and vowels in word-final position; and (4) aspiration: addition of (h) in pausal position where the word ends in long vowels. Key words: Arabic dialects – Pausal forms – Syllables – Long vowels – Short vowels – Christians and Muslims.

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Vestiges of tanwīn -un and the case ending -u as attested in Yemenite Judeo-Arabic texts from the seventeenth century

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies ◽

10.1017/s0041977x00043196 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 46 (3) ◽

pp. 529-531

Author(s):

Joshua Blau

Keyword(s):

Seventeenth Century ◽

Short Vowels ◽

Arabic Dialects ◽

Modern Arabic ◽

Classical Arabic

Although in classical Arabic all short vowels, as a rule, are preserved, a is more persistent than i/u: in prose, pausal -in/-un are elided, yet -an shifts to -ā. In many modern Arabic dialects too (dubbed by J. Cantineau diffeérentiel) a tends to be sustained in phonetic environments in which i/u are elided. This is, it seems, the reason that in the Bedouin dialects of northern Arabia and the Syrian-Iraqi desert it is the historical tanwīn -an, rather than -in/-un, that is preserved, especially when preceding an indefinite attribute; even phonetic -in has, it seems, to be derived from original -an. The same applies to medieval Judeo-Arabic 'n (spelt as a separate word) in this position.

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Diversity of Judeo-Arabic Dialects in North Africa: Eqa:l, Wqal, kjal and ʔal Dialects

Journal of Jewish Languages ◽

10.1163/22134638-12340062 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 1-43

Author(s):

Joseph Chetrit

Keyword(s):

North Africa ◽

North African ◽

Short Vowels ◽

Western Morocco ◽

Arabic Dialects ◽

Eastern Algeria

This study presents the diversity of North African Judeo-Arabic dialects documented in an extensive course of fieldwork concerning some one hundred and thirty Moroccan Jewish dialects, both urban and rural. Dozens of additional dialects from Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria complete the global repartitioning of these dialects into four distinct groups:Eqa:l,Wqal,kjal, andʔaldialects. The different dialects in each set share common phonetic, phonological, morphological, and grammatical features. All of them preserve the unvoiced realization of the stop /q/ and articulate it as a uvular [q] (Eqa:landWqal), a palato-velar [kj] (kjal), or a glottal [ʔ] (ʔal).Eqa:ldialects developed in Libya, Tunisia, and Eastern Algeria; they distinguish between long and short vowels.Wqaldialects developed in Western Morocco.Kjaldialects developed in northwestern Algeria and in southeastern Morocco.ʔaldialects developed in Moroccan cities, where Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal settled among native Jews.

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