Hejazi Arabic phonology
The phonological system of the
Strictly speaking, there are two main groups of dialects spoken in the
- phonemes will be (written inside slashes / /) and allophones (written inside brackets [ ]).
Consonants
Hejazi consonant inventory depends on the speaker. Most speakers use 26 to 28 consonant phonemes in addition to the marginal phoneme /
Labial | Dental | Denti-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | emphatic | ||||||||
Nasal
|
m | n
|
|||||||
Occlusive | voiceless
|
t
|
tˤ | k | ʔ | ||||
voiced
|
b | d
|
dˤ | d͡ʒ | ɡ | ||||
Fricative | voiceless
|
f | θ | s
|
sˤ | ʃ | x | ħ | h |
voiced
|
ð | z
|
ðˤ ⁓ zˤ | ɣ | ʕ | ||||
Trill | r
|
||||||||
Approximant | l
|
( ɫ )
|
j | w |
Phonetic notes:
- the marginal phoneme / it contrasts with /l/ in والله /waɫːa/ ('i swear') vs. ولَّا /walːa/ ('or').
- the phonemes /d͡ʒ/ ⟨] respectively by a number of speakers or in a number of words.
- the phonemes /ɣ/ ⟨غ⟩ and /x/ ⟨خ⟩ can be realised as uvular fricatives [ʁ] and [χ] in few instances.
- the phoneme /θ/ ⟨ث⟩ is used as an alternative phoneme, while most speakers merge it with /t/ or /s/ depending on the word.
- the phoneme /ð/ ⟨ذ⟩ is used as an alternative phoneme, while most speakers merge it with /d/ or /z/ depending on the word.
- /ðˤ/ can be analyzed as an alternative phoneme for ⟨ض⟩ /dˤ/ depending on the word.
- /n/ ⟨ك⟩ /k, ɡ/ as in انكب [aŋkab] ('it spilled') and مِنقَل [mɪŋɡal] ('brazier').
- ش⟩, in تْشَاد /ˈtʃaːd/ ('Chad').
A notable feature of Hejazi is the pronunciation of ⟨
Due to the influence of Modern Standard Arabic, [
Two foreign phonemes /p/ ⟨
Illustrative words
Phoneme | Example | Phoneme | Example | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
/m/ | /mahar/ | مهر | 'Mahr' | /n/ | /nahar/ | نهر | 'river' |
/l/ | /laħma/ | لحمة | 'meat' | /r/ | /raħma/ | رحمة | 'mercy' |
/f/ | /farg/ | فرق | 'difference' | /b/ | /barg/ | برق | 'lightning' |
/ʃ/ | /ʃarː/ | شر | 'evil' | /d͡ʒ/ | /d͡ʒarː/ | جر | 'he pulled' |
/k/ | /kaʃː/ | كش | 'he shrank' | /ɡ/ | /gaʃː/ | قش | 'hay' |
/x/ | /xeːma/ | خيمة | 'tent' | /ɣ/ | /ɣeːma/ | غيمة | 'cloud' |
/ħ/ | /ħama/ | حمى | 'he protected' | /ʕ/ | /ʕama/ | عمى | 'blindness' |
/h/ | /hams/ | همس | 'whisper' | /ʔ/ | /ʔams/ | أمس | 'yesterday' |
/j/ | /jaraga/1 | يرقة | 'caterpillar' | /w/ | /waraga/ | ورقة | 'paper' |
/t/ | /tiːn/ | تين | 'fig' | /d/ | /diːn/ | دين | 'religion' |
/s/ | /sirː/ | سر | 'secret' | /z/ | /zirː/ | زر | 'button' |
/tˤ/ | /tˤaːr/ | طار | 'he flew' | /dˤ/ | /dˤaːr/ | ضار | 'harmful' |
/sˤ/ | /sˤarf/ | صرف | 'expenditure' | /ðˤ ⁓ zˤ/ | /ðˤarf/ or /zˤarf/2 /ðˤifir/ or /dˤifir/ |
ظرف ظفر |
'envelope' 'nail' |
/θ/ | /θarwa/ or /sarwa/ /θoːr/ or /toːr/ |
ثروة ثور |
'wealth' 'bull' |
/ð/ | /ðarwa/ or /zarwa/ /ðeːl/ or /deːl/ |
ذروة ذيل |
'climax' 'tail' |
Marginal Phonemes3 | |||||||
/ɫ/ | /jaɫːa/ | يلا | 'c'mon' | only occurs in words derived from الله /aɫːaːh/ | |||
/p/ | /poːl/ or /boːl/ | پول or بول | 'Paul' | /v/ | /voːlvu/ or /foːlfu/ | ڤولڤو or فولفو | 'Volvo' |
Notes:
- 1 pronounced [jaraga] or [jaraqa] (Allophones).
- 2 /zˤ/ is a distinct phoneme not a merger, while other alternative pronunciations include mergers with other phonemes.
- 3 /p/ and /v/ occur only in loanwords and can be substituted by /b/ and /f/ respectively depending on the speaker.
Glottal Stop
The glottal stop /ʔ/ ⟨
Gemination
Long (
Assimilation
Consonant assimilation is a phonological process which can occur between two consecutive consonants as in /n/ before /b/ as in جَنْب /d͡ʒanb/ 'next to' → [d͡ʒamb] or [ʒamb] , or between dental consonants; /d/ before /t/ as in أخذت /axadt/ 'I took' → [axat], or /t/ before /dˤ/ as in أَتْضَيَّف /atdˤajːaf/ 'serve myself' → [adˤːajːaf], /tˤ/ before /t/ as in أَنْبَسَطْت /anbaˈsatˤt/ 'I enjoyed it' → [ambaˈsatˤ] which is differentiated from أَنْبَسَطْ /anˈbasatˤ/ "he was flattened / he enjoyed" by the stress, in the former the stress falls on the last syllable while on the latter it falls on the first.
Dental Assimilation
Grapheme with Standard Arabic phoneme | ث /θ/ | ذ /ð/ | ض /dˤ/ | ظ /ðˤ/ | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Example | ثلاثة | ثورة | ذيل | ذنب | ضرر | ظل | ظلم |
Common pronunciation in urban Hejazi | ت /t/ | س /s/ | د /d/ | ز /z/ | ض /dˤ/ | /zˤ/ | |
/talaːta/ | /sawra/ | /deːl/ | /zanb/ | /dˤarar/ | /dˤilː/ | /zˤulm/ | |
ض - ظ full merger pronunciation | ث /θ/ | ذ /ð/ | ظ /ðˤ/ | ||||
/θalaːθa/ | /θawra/ | /ðeːl/ | /ðanb/ | /ðˤarar/ | /ðˤilː/ | /ðˤulm/ |
Notes:
- /zˤ/ is a distinct phoneme, not a merger, e.g. ظَنّ /zˤanː/ ('he thought') vs. زَنّ /zanː/ ('he nagged').
- The assimilation can also be reflected in the orthography, so ثلاثة /talaːta/ 'three' becomes تلاتة with a /t/ ⟨ت⟩, but most writers keep the Modern Standard Arabic spelling of the words.
The letter ⟨
Mergers depend on each word, while most words have only one pronunciation, few words have two optional mergers e.g. كذب /kiðib/ might be pronounced as /kidib/ by some speakers or /kizib/ by others. The partial merger between the phonemes has led to some homophones that did not exist in Modern Standard Arabic e.g. تظليل 'dimming' and تضليل 'mislead' both pronounced /tadˤliːl/, while the assimilation of the word ثَانِيَة /θaːnija/ (second; number-two or unit of time) has made a split into two pronunciations (words) /taːnja/ (second; number-two) and /saːnja/ (second; unit of time).
Some speakers pronounce each consonant distinctly as in Standard Arabic while others might refrain from the usage of /s/ as a pronunciation for ⟨
Vowels
Hejazi has eight vowel phonemes:[9][10] three short /a/, /u/, /i/ and five long /aː/, /uː/, /oː/, /iː/ and /eː/, with length as a distinctive feature, and four diphthongs: /aw/, /iw/, /aj/ and /ij/ although they are not considered as separate phonemes. Unlike other Arabic dialects, it did not develop allophones for the vowels /a/ and /aː/ in the vicinity of emphatic consonants, and they are always pronounced as an open front [a] or open central [ä] depending on the speaker. Hejazi also retains most of the long and short vowels of Classical Arabic with no vowel reduction, although in a few words /a/ and /aː/ are pronounced with an open back [ɑ].
The main phonological feature that differentiates urban Hejazi from the neighboring dialects of the
Most inherited words with the diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/ from the
Example (without diacritics) | Meaning | Hejazi Arabic | Modern Standard Arabic |
---|---|---|---|
عيني | ophthalmic | /ʕajni/ (borrowed term) | /ʕajni/ |
my eye | /ʕeːni/ (inherited form) | ||
aid! (command) | /ʕiːni/ | /ʕiːni/ | |
appoint! (command) | /ʕajːini/ | /ʕajːini/ |
The pronunciation of word initial and medial /u/ and /i/ depends on the nature of the surrounding consonants, whether the syllable is stressed or unstressed, the accent of the speaker, and rate of speech. As a general rule, word initial or medial /u/ is pronounced [ʊ], but strictly as [u] at the end of a word or before /w/ (as in هُوَّ [huwːa]). Word initial or medial /i/ is pronounced [ɪ], and strictly as an [i] at the end of the word or before /j/ (as in هِيَّ [hijːa]), though this complementary distribution in allophones is not found among all speakers of Hejazi and some use [u] and [i] in all positions.
Short | Long | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Front | Back | Front | Back | |
Close | i | u | iː | uː |
Mid | eː | oː | ||
Open | a | aː |
Phonetic notes:
- /a/ and /aː/ are pronounced either as an open front vowel [a] or an open central vowel [ä] depending on the speaker, even when adjacent to emphatic consonants.
- [ɑ] is an allophone for /aː/ and /a/ in some words such as ألمانيا [almɑːnja] ('Germany'), يابان [jaːbɑːn] ('Japan'), بابا [bɑːbɑ] ('dad') and Japan'), ماما [mɑːmɑ] ('mom').
- long /oː/ and /eː/ are pronounced as true-mid vowels [o̞ː] and [e̞ː] respectively.
- long /uː/ and /iː/ are pronounced as [uː] and [iː] respectively.
- short /u/ (also analyzed as /ʊ/) has two main pronunciations:
- lax [ʊ] or less likely [o̞] in word initial or medial syllables, e.g. فُك /fukː/ ('unseal!') pronounced [fʊk] and أُخْته /(ʔ)uxtu/ ('his sister') pronounced [ʊxtu] with a lax initial [ʊ] and a tense final [u].
- tense [u] at the end of words or before [w] or when isolate, although short [o̞] can occur at the end of a foreign word but that depends on the speaker's knowledge of the foreign language.
- short /i/ (also analyzed as /ɪ/) has two main pronunciations:
- lax [ɪ] or less likely [e̞] in word initial or medial syllables, e.g. قِرْفَة /girfa/ ('cinnamon') pronounced [gɪrfa] and إنْتِ /(ʔ)inti/ ('you') pronounced [ɪnti] with a lax initial [ɪ] and a tense final [i].
- tense [i] at the end of words or before [j] or when isolate, although short [e̞] can occur at the end of a foreign word but that depends on the speaker's knowledge of the foreign language.
The close vowels can be distinguished by tenseness with long /uː/ and /iː/ being more tense in articulation than their short counterparts [ʊ ~ o̞] and [ɪ ~ e̞] in medial position, except at the end of words where they are all tense, e.g. short في [fi] ('in') and long فيه [fiː] ('in him', 'there is').
Phoneme | Allophones
|
Position in the word | Example | Phonemic | Phonetic | Meaning | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
/a/ | [a] or [ä] | all | فَم | famm | /ˈfamː/ | [ˈfam] or [ˈfäm] | 'mouth' |
/u/ | [u] | final or before [w] or isolate | ربو | rabu | /ˈrabu/ | [ˈrabu] | 'asthma' |
[ʊ] or less likely [o̞] | initial or medial | جُغْمَة | juḡma | /ˈd͡ʒuɣma/ | [ˈd͡ʒʊɣma] or [ˈd͡ʒo̞ɣma] | 'sip' | |
/i/ | [i] | final or before [j] or isolate | لوني | lōni | /ˈloːni/ | [ˈlo̞ːni] | 'my color' |
[ɪ] or less likely [e̞] | initial or medial | طِب | ṭibb | /ˈtˤibː/ | [ˈtˤɪb] or [ˈtˤe̞b] | 'medicine' | |
/aː/ | [aː] or [äː] | all | فاز | fāz | /ˈfaːz/ | [ˈfaːz] or [ˈfäːz] | 'he won' |
/uː/ | [uː] | فوز | fūz | /ˈfuːz/ | [ˈfuːz] | 'win!' (Imperative) | |
/oː/ | [o̞ː] | فوز | fōz | /ˈfoːz/ | [ˈfo̞ːz] | 'victory' | |
/iː/ | [iː] | دين | dīn | /ˈdiːn/ | [ˈd̪iːn] | 'religion' | |
/eː/ | [e̞ː] | دين | dēn | /ˈdeːn/ | [ˈd̪e̞ːn] | 'debt' |
Phonological processes
The linking conjunction و ('and') pronounced [u] is often linked with the consonant (before it) or the vowel (before or after it) or for emphasis only left as-is :-
- ِانا و إنتِ /ana u inti/ ('me and you') is either pronounced as [anaw ɪnti], where [u] is connected to the vowel before it, or pronounced as [ana wɪnti], where [u] is connected to the vowel after it, or left as-is for emphasis [ana u ɪnti].
- واحد و خمسين /waːħid u xamsiːn/ ('fifty one') is either pronounced [waːħɪdu xamsiːn] or for emphasis [waːħɪd u xamsiːn].
- خمسة و سبعين /xamsa u sabʕiːn/ ('seventy five') is either pronounced [xamsaw sabʕiːn] or for emphasis [xamsa u sabʕiːn].
Operation | Original | After operation (phonemic) | Pronunciation (phonetic) |
---|---|---|---|
Vowel shortening (word final) | قول /guːl/ 'tell' + لهم /lahum/ them' | قل لهم /gullahum/ | [ˈgʊlːahʊm] 'tell them' |
Vowel lengthening (word final) | قريوا /girju/ 'they read' + ـها /-ha/ 'it (fem.)' | قِرْيوها /girˈjoːha/ | [ˈgɪrjo̞ːha] 'they read it' |
Vowel deletion ( syncope )
|
لا /laː/ 'don't' + تقول /tiguːl/ 'say' | لا تقول /laː.tiguːl/ | [laː.tguːl] 'don't say' |
Vowel Shortening
Medial vowel shortening occurs before indirect object pronouns (e.g., لي ,له ,لها), where a medial word long vowel (⟨
Vowel shortening also occurs only in few words as in جاي "I'm coming" pronounced /d͡ʒaj/ or /d͡ʒaːj/.
Tense/Mood | Past "went" | Present (Indicative) "write" | Imperative "write!" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Person | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
1st | رحت له ruḥt-allu | رحنا له ruḥnā-lu | أرح له or أروح له ʼaruḥ-lu | نرح له or نروح له niruḥ-lu | |||
2nd | masculine | رحت له ruḥt-allu | رحتوا له ruḥtū-lu | ترح له or تروح له tiruḥ-lu | تروحوا له tirūḥū-lu | رح له or روح له ruḥ-lu | روحوا له rūḥū-lu |
feminine | رحتي له ruḥtī-lu | تروحي له tirūḥī-lu | روحي له rūḥī-lu | ||||
3rd | masculine | راح له raḥ-lu | راحوا له rāḥō-lu | يرح له or يروح له yiruḥ-lu | يروحوا له yirūḥū-lu | ||
feminine | راحت له rāḥat-lu | ترح له or تروح له tiruḥ-lu |
Vowel lengthening
Most word-final long vowels from the Classical period have been shortened in Hejazi but they are lengthened when suffixed, as in يزهموا /jizhamu/ "they call" → يزهموها /jizhamuːha/ "they call her".
References
- ^ Abdoh (2010:84)
- ^ Omar (1975:xv)
- ^ Alzaidi (2014:73) Information Structure and Intonation in Hijazi Arabic.
- ^ Alhazmi, Laila (24 Jun 2019). Perceptions of Hijazi Arabic Dialects: An Attitudinal Approach (PhD). University of Sheffield.
- ^ Omar (1975:xiv)
- ^ Watson (2002:16)
- ^ Heinrichs, Wolfhart. "Ibn Khaldūn as a Historical Linguist with an Excursus on the Question of Ancient gāf". Harvard University.
- ^ Abdoh (2010:83)
- ^ Abdoh (2010:84)
- ^ Omar (1975:xv)
- ^ Al-Mohanna Abaalkhail, Faisal (1998). "Syllabification and metrification in Urban Hijazi Arabic: between rules and constraints" (PDF). Syllabification and Metrification in Urban Hijazi Arabic: Between Rules and Constraints. Chapter 3: 119.
Bibliography
- Abdoh, Eman Mohammed Abdulrahman (May 2010). A Study of the Phonological Structure and Representation of First Words in Arabic (PDF) (PhD dissertation). University of Leicester. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-11-01.
- Alzaidi, Muhammad Swaileh A. (2014). Information Structure and Intonation in Hijazi Arabic (PDF) (PhD dissertation). University of Essex.
- Omar, Margaret K. (1975). Saudi Arabic: Urban Hijazi Dialect (PDF). Basic Course series. Washington, DC: Foreign Service Institute. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-05-23.
- Watson, Janet C. E. (2002). The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-01. Retrieved 2017-03-22.