Doctor of Philosophy Applied Linguistics UNIVERSITY OF
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A CONSTRAINT-BASED ANALYSIS OF SYLLABLE BASED PROCESSES IN MAḤBASHI YEMENI ARABIC Moustafa Ali Al-Hamzi Supervisor Prof. Rubina Rahman (PhD) Co- Supervisor Prof. Miraj ul Islam Zia (PhD) Submitted to the University of Peshawar in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Applied Linguistics DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND APPLIED LINGUISTICS UNIVERSITY OF PESHAWAR © 2019 Moustafa Ali Alhamzi i ii DECLARATION I hereby declare that the work in this dissertation carried out the research work titled “A Constraint-Based Analysis of Syllable Based Processes in Maħbashi Yemeni Arabic” has been carried out by me under the supervision of Dr. Rubina Rahman. I also declare this dissertation has not been submitted for any other degree elsewhere. ____________________________ Moustaf Ali Hassan Hashem Alhamzi iii SUPERVISOR’S CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the dissertation titled “A Constraint-Based Analysis of Syllable Based Processes in Maḥbashi Yemeni Arabic” has been carried out under my supervision by Mr. Moustafa Ali Hassan Hashem Alhamzi for submission in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Linguistics. Dr. Rubina Rahman Supervisor iv Dedication This work is dedicated to the soul of my late father, Ali Hassan AL-Hamzi v Acknowledgments First of all, thanks are due to Allah for giving me an opportunity, health and stamina to carry out this thesis. Successful completion of an academic project like this would not have been realized without the contributions of a number of individuals. I, therefore, would like to acknowledge those whose participation, guidance and encouragement helped to complete this thesis. I wish to thank my supervisor Professor Rubina Rahman for her academic guidance, intellectual support and continued interest in my research work. I have attended three courses with her in Applied Linguistics. She, therefore, is my role model and a source of inspiration. Her great efforts encouraged me in all the time of the research. Throughout my thesis-writing period, her encouragement, advices, and guidance provided a good basis for my thesis. I would also like to express my gratitude and acknowledgement to co-supervisor Professor Miraj ul Islam Zia for his continuous support and assistance. His comments, suggestions, and revisions helped me to refine this study. I must thank Professor Mujib Rahman. He helped me join the Department of English & Applied Linguistics University of Peshawar. I would like to thank Professor. Nasir Jamal Khattak and Dr. Amjad Saleem, for their academic nourishment. I also appreciate the immense help of support staff of the Department, Mr. Amjad Khan and Ms. Shaheen Shahzad vi I am equally grateful to my course mates with whom I have travelled the academic journey. They always encouraged me to soldier on. Special thanks to Sarder Daud, Arshad Zeb, Sadeq Hussain, Safiyah Ihsan, Aqsa Maryam, Sahar Ismail Khan, Yusra Ali, Bibi Ranra , Farah Raof, Uzma Khalil . My heartfelt thanks go to Fatima Khaliq and Mohmmad Zubair for their support and for always being there for me when I needed them. Dr. Mohammed Damom directed me to relevant materials and encouraged me to read widely. I gained immensely from his wealth of experience in Phonology, especially the Optimality Theory. His continuous support had an eminent impact on my study and knowledge of Linguistics. I also extend my gratitude to Dr. Radhwan Al-sharif and Dr. Sameer Samadi, for their proofreading and meticulous comments. I would like to thank all the participants for giving their time and providing the data on which the study was based. Thanks to Adnan Alghaili, Yasser Hebah and Mahfouth Al- Ashwal for their assistance and support in data collection. I would like also to thank my sponsor University of Hajjah, Yemen for granting me the opportunity to pursue my study in Pakistan. Many thanks to all its members and I wish all the best to them. I shall register my special thanks to Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Salehi for his brotherly advice and continuous encouragement. I consider myself very fortunate to have such a wonderful friend. vii I would like to thank everyone who encouraged me during the writing of this thesis. I am also grateful and indebted to all those who have contributed in their various ways, directly and indirectly, Ali Sharafuddin, Sayaf Amer, Shehab Al-Shebh and Zeid Al-Sahwi. Thanks to Mr. Yosef Almaas for his continuous help for all the Yemeni students in Pakistan. Words alone cannot express my indebtedness to him. Last but not least, I also sincerely thank my parents and my family for supporting me in one way or another, and their patience during the completion of this work which distracted me from them. Their prayers and encouragement made me complete this work. viii ABSTRACT This thesis deals with the phonology of Maḥbashi Yemeni Arabic (MYA). It is the first descriptive analysis of the phonology of MYA. It provides a normative analysis data for the syllable based processes of MYA demonstrating that the dialect under investigation have similar but not identical phonological environments of the syllable based processes: syncope, epenthesis and vowel shortening. The analysis is presented in terms of Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky ,1993). As for the methodology and data collection, the researcher made use of data collected from a set of people who are native speakers of Mahbashi Arabic. The researcher recorded their conversations taking place in official, social, cultural, religious and domestic contexts. The recorded data covered different types of words: monosyllabic, disyllabic, tri-syllabic and quadri-syllabic. The findings confirm that MYA shares some the syllable structures with Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and it differs in other syllable structures. By closely examining a wide range of data, the study proved that MYA exhibits ten syllable structures; CV, CVC, CVV, CVVC, CCV, CCVV, CCVCC, CCVC, CVCC and CCVVC. As far as syllable structure of consonant cluster is concerned, the faithfulness constraints MAX-IO>DEP prevails over the markedness constraints *σ[CC, *CC]σ . The syllable related processes: syncope, epenthesis and vowel shortening were examined through the interaction of different constraints. As far syncope is concerned, the study proves that the constraint i,u]σ is active in MYA and is ranked high in the constraint hierarchy. The study accounted for epenthesis and asserted that the constraints * σ [CCC is active in MYA. The study has shown that vowel epenthesis is governed by the relative ranking of the CONTIGUITY family ix constraints; D-CONTIG and J-CONTIG where D-CONTIG dominates J-CONTIG in MYA. With regard to vowel shortening, the study revealed that the constraints *3 μ and MAX- IO (μ) were in conflict. therefore, opacity constraint and lexical phonology and morphology (LPM) were able to account for vowel shortening when the long vowel of the verb is suffixed by either a subject or an object morpheme. This thesis concludes that OT provides the means to effectively account for the syllable structure and its processes in MYA. The study shows that the superiority of OT was evidenced in solving and providing the reasons for the occurrence of these processes rather than merely stating the rules in a rule-based theory fashion. This has been proved and indicated in the universality of the constraints and is reflected in the dialect specific ranking of the constraints. x CONTENTS 1. CHAPTER 1: Introduction and Background 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Background of the Study 2 1.2 An Overview of Arabic Language 3 1.3 Modern Standard Arabic 5 1.4 Yemen: Geographical Setteing 7 1.5 Yemeni Arabic: An Introduction 8 1.6 Al-Maħbashah : An Introduction 11 1.7 Statement of the Problem 12 1.8 Objectives of the Study 13 1.9 Methodology 14 1.10 Data Collection and Analysis 15 1.11 Significance of the Study 15 1.12 Outline of the Research 15 1.13 Conclusion 17 2. CHAPTER 2: Literature Review 2.0 Introduction 18 2.1 Linguistic Research on Yemeni Arabic 18 2.2 A Review of Phonological Studies of Yemeni Arabic 20 2.3 A Review of Syllable Based Processes of Yemeni and other Arabic Varieties 22 2.3.1 Epenthesis 22 2.3.1.1 A Review of Epenthesis in the Dialects of Arabian Peninsula 23 2.3.1.2 A Review of Epenthesis in the Mesopotamian and Egyptian Dialects 33 2.3.1.3 A Review of Epenthesis in the Levantine Dialects 34 2.3.2 Syncope 39 2.3.2.1 A Review of Studies on Syncope in the Mesopotamian and Egyptian Dialects 40 2.3.2.2 A Review of Studies on Syncope in the Levantine Dialects 43 2.3.2.3 A Review of Studies on Syncope in the Dialects of Arabian Peninsula 43 2.3.3 Vowel Shortening /Closed Syllable Shortening 49 2.3.3.1 A Review of Studies on Vowel Shortening in the Levantine Dialects 50 2.3.3.2 A Review of Studies on Vowel Shortening in the Maghreb Dialects 52 2.3.3.3 A Review of Studies on Vowel Shortening in the Dialects of Arabian Peninsula 53 2.3.3.4 A Review of Studies on Vowel Shortening in the Mesopotamian and Egyptian Dialects 55 2.4 Conclusion 56 3. CHAPTER 3: Theoretical Background 3.0 Introduction 58 3.1 The Syllable in Phonological Theory 58 3.1.1 Syllable Weight 62 3.1.2 Moriac Theory 63 xi 3.1.3 Prosodic Theory 65 3.1.4 Extrametricality 67 3.1.5 Syllable in Traditional Arabic Philology 69 3.1.6 Syllable Structures of Modern Standard Arabic 70 3.1.7 Kiparsky's Typology of Arabic Dialects 73 3.1.8 Semisyllables in Arabic 76 3.2 Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP) 80 3.3 Distinctive Feature Theory 84 3.4 Rule Based Theory 86 3.5 Optimality Theory (OT) 87 3.5.1 Syllable in OT 91 3.5.2 Constraints in OT 93 3.5.3 Representational Symbols in OT 95 3.6 Representation of Semisyllables in OT 96 3.7 Theoretical Justifications 100 3.8 Conclusion 101 4.