University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 2003 Contrastive phonological analysis of Arabic and English Khaled Huthaily The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Huthaily, Khaled, "Contrastive phonological analysis of Arabic and English" (2003). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 8110. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/8110 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Maureen and Mike MANSFIELD LIBRARY The University of Montana Permission is granted by the author to reproduce this material in its entirety, provided that this material is used for scholarly purposes and is properly cited in published works and reports. **Please check "Yes” or "No" and provide signature Yes, I grant permission Yes No, I do not grant permission Author's Signature: Date: August 21, 2003 Any copying for commercial purposes or financial gain may be undertaken only with the author's explicit consent. 8/98 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. V Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CONTRASTIVE PHONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF ARABIC A N D ENGLISH by KhaledHUTHAILY B.A. H odddah University (Hodddali, Yemen) 1999 presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts The University of Montana July 2003 son Dean, Graduate School z-z-Q B Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: EP38911 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI Oia»artation Publishing UMI EP38911 Published by ProQuest LLC (2013). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code uest* ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract Khaled Huthaily, M.A., July 2003 Linguistics Contrastive Phonological Analysis of Arabic and English - 128 pages / ' Director: Prof. Anthony Mattina L./^ _________________________________ It is commonly believed that when adults start learning a second language, they are very often guided by their first language, especially at the level of phonology. This is usually referred to as a foreign accent. In the field of linguistics, this is referred to as first language (LI ) transfer. In this paper, I study the phonological difficulties that adult native speakers of American English encounter while learning Modem Standard Arabic as a foreign language. The study focuses on describing the segmental phonemes of both Arabic and English and analyzes the Arabic speech of three American students of Arabic, in an attempt to track LI transfer. The study also investigates the extent to which the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH) can help in predicting the pronunciation errors that American students of Arabic are likely to commit in their production of Arabic speech. Chapter one presents a brief discussion of the Arabic and English languages. In chapter two, I present an outline of the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis, the framework on which the study is based. Chapter three addresses the phonological systems of Arabic and English, with a focus on the former. In chapter four, I use the CAH as a framework to predict the errors that adult English-speaking students of Arabic would make in their Arabic speech. Chapter five discusses the study and its results, and chapter six presents the conclusion. The study concludes that there is evidence that the subjects’ first language has an effect on their production of speech sounds of the second language. However, the study confirms that this effect could not be predicted by simply comparing and contrasting the sounds of the first and second languages. 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Page Abstract ii List of Tables v List of Charts ...................................................................................................................... vi Legend ................................................................................................................................... vii Abbreviations viii Acknowledgments ix 1. Introduction 1 1.1. The Arabic Language 1 1.2. The English Language 5 1.3. The Object of the Study 5 2. The Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis 7 2.1. Language Transfer..........................................................................................9 2.2. Forms of Language Transfer 10 2.3. Another Manifestation of Transfer 11 2.4. The Beginnings of the CAH 12 2.5. Assumptions of the CAH 13 2.6. Traditions of the CAH 14 2.7. The Purpose of CA 14 2.8. Procedures of CA 15 2.9. Positions in the CAH 16 2.10. Decline of the CAH 16 2.11. Reconsidering the CAH 19 2.12. Conclusion 22 3. The Phonology of Arabic and English 24 3.1. Vowels: definition 24 3.1.1. The Vowels of Arabic 28 3.1.2. The Vowels of English 33 3.2. Consonants: definition ................................................................................... 36 3.2.1. The Consonants of Arabic 36 3.2.2. The Consonants of English 60 4. Contrastive Analysis of Arabic and English 67 4.1. Vowel Systems 67 4.2. Consonant Systems .......................................................................................... 71 111 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5. The Study.................................... ................................................................................. 5.1. Subjects 81 5.2. Classroom 82 5.3. Procedure 82 5.4. Results and Discussion 83 6. Conclusion 113 Appendix A: Words 117 Appendix B; Sentences 121 Appendix C; Conversations 124 Bibliography 127 IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. List of Tables Page Table 1: The Vowel Phonemes of Arabic .............................................................. 29 Table 2: The Vowel Phonemes of English 33 Table 3: Detailed Table of the Consonants of Arabic ..........................................37 Table 4: Simplified Table of the Consonants of Arabic 37 Table 5: Detailed Table of the Consonants of English ..........................................60 Table 6: Simplified Table of the Consonants of English 60 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. List of Charts Page Chart 1 : An Acoustic Representation of the American English Vowels as Suggested by Ladefoged and Maddieson 26 Chart 2: The Monophthongs of Arabic 30 Chart 3: The Diphthongs of Arabic 31 Chart 4: The Monophthongs of English ................................................................. 35 Chart 5 : The Diphthongs of English 35 VI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Lesend 1. Standard American English as used in the northwest of the U.S.A. is the dialect of English used in this paper. 2. Modern Standard Arabic as used in the media is the dialect of Arabic used in this paper. 3. Words are transcribed using the American transcription system. 4. Stressed syllables are indicated with a short vertical line (i.e. “ ' ”) above and before them. 5. In polysyllabic words, syllables are separated by a dot (i.e. “ . ”). 6. When consonant phonemes appear in pairs in charts, the one on the top represents a voiceless consonant while the one below represents a voiced consonant. V ll Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abbreviations c Consonant CA Contrastive Analysis CAH Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis IL Interlanguage LI First Language L2 Second Language MSA Modem Standard Arabic NL Native Language SLA Second Language Acquisition TL Target Language UG Universal Grammar V Vowel V lll Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledsments My deep thanks go to the AMIDEAST organization and the Fulbright Program, sponsored by the United States Department of State, without the legal and financial support of whom I would not have afforded getting my M.A. and doing this study. I would also like to thank all the women and men who taught me throughout my academic career. Special thanks go to Professor Anthony Mattina, my academic advisor, for his dedicated guidance and beneficial advice. Dr. Tully Thibeau, who has always been very supportive and very helpful to me throughout the process of doing this study,