Word Accent Systems in The Middle East

11.
Word accent systems in the Middle East

Harry van der Hulst and Sam Hellmuth
1. Introduction
1
This chapter deals with accentual systems in the languages spoken in the
Middle East and includes a discussion of a number of isolate ancient lan-
guages and some Afro-Asiatic languages, notably Egyptian and Semitic
languages. The notion Middle East is not well-dened linguistically, and
some languages that could have been included here are dealt with in other
chapters. All Altaic languages, Indo-Iranian languages (such as Kurdish
and Avestan) are discussed in Schiering and van der Hulst (this volume).
All Caucasian languages as well as Indo-European languages such as
Hittite (and related Anatolian languages) and Armenian are treated
in van der Hulst (this volume). Afro-asiatic languages spoken in North
Africa can be found in Downing (this volume). This survey, incomplete
as it is, was included because the relevant area was not included in the
areas covered in the other chapters of this volume.
The organization of each section (or subsection) with accentual data is
as follows:
a. Genetic structure of the (sub)family; these are based on sources such as
Ruhlen (1991), Comrie et al (2003), the Ethnologue (15th edition) and
several others of the many sources that oer classications. We have
tried to strike a compromise in cases of conicting groupings and no
claim is made here that the resulting groupings are superior to those
oered in other sources. In each case (sub)family names are presented
in capitals. We have not included information of the numbers of lan-
guages per (sub)family and in most cases list only a (sometimes rather
arbitrary) subset of the languages in each (sub)family. Languages that
are included in StressTyp (see section 3) are indicated in bold. Lan-
guages that are not in StressTyp about which this chapter provides
information are underlined.
1. We wish to acknowledge the help of various people who gave feedback on
parts of this chapter: Bob Hoberman, Janet Watson and Alan Kaye.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
(V9 27/8/10 15:53) WDG (155mm230mm) TimesNRMT 1201 Goedemans pp. 615646 1201 Goedemans_11_Ch11 (p. 615)
b. Extracts from StressTyp entries (language name followed by StressTyp
Code, and examples). More complete extracts (including references)
are oered in Part II of this volume and, of course, in StressTyp itself.
We included the Stress information unchanged, i.e. as it is in the data-
base and Part II, despite the fact that in some cases this information
has been questioned by specialists. (Future work on StressTyp must, of
course, aim at removing or changing such information.)
c. Additional accent information: This might involve additional informa-
tion on languages already in StressTyp, or information on languages
that are not in StressTyp. (In some larger families that are treated in
one section we have presented the StressTyp extracts and additional
information per subfamily.)
d. Generalizations: We have tried to make general statements about the
accentual patterns in the relevant (sub)family, in some cases accom-
panied by remarks about diachronic developments.
If (b) is absent, (c) will be labeled accent information. Sometimes (c) and
(d) are conated into a single section.
2. A note on the information on which this chapter is based
The rst source for the accentual data presented here is StressTyp (see
chapter 1, 2, 11 and Part II of this book for information on this database).
Secondly, we consulted books that oer surveys of language families or
languages in a specic geographical area. Thirdly, we have consulted
grammars of individual languages and, fourthly, we have sent email queries
to colleagues; where we rely on information that they directly have given
to us (via email or in personal communication) we note this in the text.
In line with previous work on word accentual systems (van der Hulst
1999, 2002, 2005), we use the term word accent where many others
would use the term word stress (as in done in StressTyp). We refer to
chapter 1 of this volume for a justication and clarication of this termi-
nological choice.
3. Isolate ancient languages
There are many now extinct languages from this area. Here we provide
some information about four languages. Others that are not dealt with
include: Median, Ancient Macedonian, Had(r)ani, Minaean, Old Nubian,
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
616 Harry van der Hulst and Sam Hellmuth
Sabaean, many of which are known too fragmentedly to provide researchers
with information on word accent.
USumerian. This language isolate (once suspected to be an articial, secret
language), spoken in Southern Mesopotamia, is known rst from clay
tablets found in Uruk from around 3200 BCE. It was superseded by the
unrelated Semitic language Akkadian (cf. below) in the beginning of the
2nd millenium, but remained in limited use for 3000 years. Michalowski
(2004) dismisses the suggestion that Sumerian, an agglutinative language,
might have been a tonal language which has been suggested because the
language otherwise has an unusually high number of homophones. He does
not provide further information about word prosodic properties. Hayes
(1997: 1013) agrees that very little is known about word accent in Sumerian.
Vowel deletions suggest a strong stress accent: amar-utu-(k) bull of the
Sun > Akkadian: marduk suggests a second syllable accent: amarutuk.
Not enough such examples are known to suggest whether stress was lexi-
cally marked or predictable by rule. A recent grammar is Edzard (2003).
UElamite (also known as Scythian, Median, Susian, Anzanite), the ocial
language of the Persian empire from the 6th to the 4th century BCE. A
genetic link to the Dravidan family has been suggested. Stolper (2004: 73)
thinks that accent could have been non-nal, perhaps initial.
UHurrian and UUrartian (Vannian, Chaldean). These languages are related
to each other, with no known genetic connection to any other language
family, although links to Northeast Caucasian (notably Georgian) have
been proposed. Wilhelm (2004a: 100) says that Hurrian had a penulti-
mate accent on words (including suxed words), but excluding enclitics.
Wilhelm (2004b: 123) suggest the same pattern for Urartian.
4. Afro-Asiatic: Egyptian and Semitic
Genetic information
The Afro-Asiatic family contains:
EGYPTIAN
SEMITIC
BERBER
CHADIC
CUSHITIC
OMOTIC
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Word accent systems in the Middle East 617
Omotic is sometimes regarded as a sister to the rest forming a group, while
Semitic and Berber are usually seen as a subgroup. This family extends
over North Africa, the Middle East and Asia Minor. In this section we
will deal with the Afro-Asiatic languages that are spoken outside Africa,
roughly in the Middle East. This means that we will deal with the Egyp-
tian branch and the Semitic branch (excluding Ethiopian Semitic and
Western Arabic languages). Egyptian, Semitic and Berber do not have
tonal languages, whereas the other three subfamilies do. We refer to Down-
ing (this volume) for some brief remarks about Afro-Asiatic languages
spoken outside Africa and more elaborate discussion of Afro-Asiatic
languages in Africa.
StressTyp contains information about one Cushitic language outside
Africa, Beja (spoken in parts of Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea):
2
Beja; Bedawi; Bischari [A/P]
f
Stress falls on heavy penultimate syllables.
f
If the penult is light, stress falls on the antepenultimate syllable.
f
In bisyllabic words stress is penultimate unless the penult is light and the
nal is not.
ga'na:j gazelle 'enton here
'an/alan I cursed sa'no:ku your brother
We refer to Downing (this volume) for a discussion of this and other
Cushitic languages.
4.1. Egyptian (<Afro-Asiatic)
Genetic information
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN
UAncient Egyptian, UCoptic
There is a written record from around 3200 to 400 BCE. A distinction is
made (with further divisions) between early Egyptian (32001300 BCE)
and late(r) Egyptian (1300 BCE5th century AD), the last phase being
called Demotic Egyptian. Coptic, as known since the 4th century AD, the
latest phase of this language, went extinct in the late 17th. (The language
name Modern Egyptian refers to a form of Arabic; cf. below.). See
Loprieno (1995) for a general overview.
2. This language is sometimes seen as a separate branch of Afro-Asiatic.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Accent information
Loprieno (1997, 2004) provides the following information about earlier
or historical Egyptian. The accent was on the ultimate or penultimate
syllable:
(1) wabaa_ to become white jafdaaw four
saatpaw is chosen saa:tap to choose
CVC and CV syllables occur in all positions in the word, but accented
penultimate vowels in open syllables are always long. Word-nally, an
extra C could be present, thus allowing CVCC. Perhaps there was an
earlier APU accent location which became integrated in the above pattern
by loss of the PU vowel:
(2) _u piraw > _u praw transformation
Indeed, in later periods unaccented vowels would reduce and delete which
leads to complex consonant clusters, as can be noted in Coptic.
4.2. Semitic (<Afro-Asiatic)
Genetic information
SEMITIC
EAST: UAkkadian, UEblaite
WEST: UAmorite, UUgaritic
ARAMAIC:
Western: UNabataean
Western Middle Aramaic languages
Samaritan Aramaic, UJewish Palestian Ar.
Western Neo-Aramaic: Maaloula
Eastern: UBiblical A., Syriac, Turoyo, UMlahso, Mandaic,
Judaeo-Aramaic
CANAANITE: UEdomite, UMoabite, UAmmonite
Hebrew: Biblical (Tiberian) Hebrew, Mod. Hebrew
UPhoenician/Punic
ARABIC: See below
SOUTH
Western
ANCIENT SOUTH ARABIAN: Sabean, Qatabanian,
Hadhramautic, Minean
ETHIOPIAN:
North: UGeez, Tigrinya, Tigre, Dahlik
South: Amharic, Harari, Gurage
Eastern: Mehri, Harsusi, Bathari, Hobyot, Jibbali, Soqotri
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Here Arabic is seen as a separate branch of Central Semitic. Woodard
(2004) has a distinction between Ancient South Arabian and Ancient
North Arabian. However, the latter group concerns older forms of Arabic,
which is here placed in Central Semitic. See also Bergstrasser (1983),
Hetzron (1997) and Faber (1997).
The living languages that are spoken outside Africa are Neo-Aramaic
languages, Hebrew, Eastern South Semitic and varieties of Arabic.
Accent information
East Semitic
UAkkadian (which splits into Babylonian and Assyrian), known from
the later half of the 3rd millennium, replaced Sumerian (see above) in
the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC and was then itself replaced by
Aramaic during the rst half of the rst millennium (although surviving
until 100 AD) (G. Gordon 1997). Buccellati (1997) subscribes to the view
that accent falls on the rightmost long vowel (excluding the nal morphe-
mic vowel). According to an alternative view accent is initial, but it might
be the case that this perhaps obtains in the absence of long vowels. This
would indicate that Akkadian had an unbounded last/rst system. This is
conrmed by Huehnergard and Woods (2004: 234) who say that accent
falls on the ultimate syllable if closed and has a long vowel (superheavy),
or when containing a circumex vowel (a vowel resulting from contrac-
tion, perhaps counting as two syllables). Otherwise the accent falls on the
rightmost nonnal syllable which is either closed or contains a long vowel.
If there are no heavy syllables at all, accent is initial:
(3) idu
#
k s/he killed ibnu they built
iparras s/he will cut ma
#
rum son
nadin is given lu gods
Knudsen (1980) also presents an analysis of Akkadian accent. He notes
that there is no evidence for secondary accents. Primary accent falls on
the nal or penultimate syllable. If the nal syllable was short and the
penultimate had a long vowel, accent was penultimate. A nal closed
syllable with a long vowel would have primary accent. This would also
be the case if the nal syllable contained a circumex vowel. He also notes
that accent would be penultimate if the last two syllables were light, even
if the antepenultmate vowel were long. In case words only have light
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
syllable, he notes, that there is no evidence for accent. These observa-
tions are not incompatible with those made by Huehnergard and Woods
(cf. above), except that their unbounded account would suggest that
in the last mentioned case (heavylightlight) accent would be ante-
penultimate. Knudsens observations suggest a bounded rather than an
unbounded system.
No information on accent could be found for UEblaite and UAmorite
(only known through proper names in Akkadian texts); cf. Gordon
(1997a,b,c).
West Semitic: Central
StressTyp extracts
Aramaic [P]
Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, Aramaic. East Kurdistan, Israel. Palmyra,
Sinai.
f
Stress falls on the penultimate syllable.
f
Epenthetic vowels do not count for stress assignment.
'arba four cay'xa:na teashop da'qiqa ne
We did not nd information on UAmmonite, UUgaritic (Gordon 1997a,b;
Dennis 1997, 2004).
Turning to Aramaic, Creason (2004: 400) says that in Proto-Aramaic a
nal closed syllable was accented, otherwise accent was on the penult
(even if the nal vowel was long). Then nal short vowels would be
deleted, or lengthened. In case of deletion, the penultimate open syllable
now would become a nal closed syllable, with accent. This basic pattern
(nal if closed) remains constant throughout the history of Aramaic, but
in some late Aramaic dialects, nal accent shifted to the penult in some
or all words. In line with this Kaufman (1997: 121) states that Classical
Aramaic is said to have nal accent (where he apparently ignored the
penultimate location when the nal syllable is open), while the modern
languages have penultimate stress.
Western Aramaic:
In his discussion of Neo-Aramaic languages (E.g. Maaloula) Jastrow
(1997: 336) says that in Western Neo-Aramaic word accent is usually on
the penultimate. The last syllable is accented if it has a long vowel or
ends in two or more consonants.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Eastern Aramaic:
Daniels (1997: 137) discussing Syriac accent refers to the view that accent
is penult among the Nestorians, but on nal closed syllables and other-
wise on the penult for Maronites. The latter pattern is the norm today
among Chaldeans (these terms referring to dierent Christian traditions
or groups).
Malone (1997: 156) proposes that accent in Classical Mandaic falls on
the last vowel of the word. In Modern Mandaic, according to Malone
(1997: 149), accent falls on the rightmost, non-nal full vowel. This sug-
gests an unbounded system, but no default clause is mentioned in case no
full vowel is present.
As for the Eastern Neo-Aramaic (ENA) languages Jastrow (1997: 353)
reports that in Mlahso and in the North-Eastern (NENA) languages
nouns are accented on the last syllable, but in the majority of ENA lan-
guages accent has shifted to the penult. Accent moves to the (new) penult
when suxes are added, although in verbal forms accent will stay on the
original penult when further suxes are added. This penult location is, for
example, found in Turoyo:
(4) Turoyo: h ozeno I (m.) see h ozenole I (m.) see him
He also says that perhaps in these varieties accent has become phonemic
in the sense that across verb classes dierent patterns may obtain:
(5) Turoyo: mal m he collects mal m collect!
Whereas Jastrow says that in NENA languages accent is nal in nouns,
Hoberman (1997: 330 .) reports that accent in the NENA dialects spoken
in northwestern Iraq, except in verbs, uniformly falls on the penult. In
verbs, where penult is still the default, accent placement is governed by
the morphology. Consider the following minimal pair (representative of
Modern Aramaic NENA dialects):
(6) ma:lIple teach him (imp. sing.) ma:l ple that he teach him
He adds the following generalizations:
(7) a. In the imperative form accent is initial
b. Accent is APU when a surface penult /i:/ or /u:/ is derived from
an underlying non-syllabic semi-vowel.
c. Certain verbal suxes cannot be accented, such as the past tense
sux /wa:/. When such suxes occur accent occurs earlier in
the word.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Two word combinations in which the second word cliticizes to the rst
show a reduction of the accent on the second word.
Canaanite
StressTyp extracts
Hebrew, Modern [U;P]
Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Canaanite. Israel.
f
Primary stress is mostly nal, but sometimes phonemically on the
penult.
f
Secondary stress on alternate syllables to the left of the main stress.
g a'doI big ta'am tasted
mcvuga'iIm adults 'taam taste
Hebrew, Tiberian (dialect of Hebrew; Ivrit) [U/P]
Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Canaanite. Lake Tiberia (Israel).
f
Main stress is assigned to the nal syllable if it is closed.
f
Otherwise stress is penultimate (but may shift again to the nal syllable).
f
Secondary stress two syllables to the left of the main stress and long
vowels before that.
'qa:mu: arise third.pl. Llab'lcm write scnd pl masc
Additional information
UPunic is a late dialect of UPhoenician through we which we get most
information about earlier phases of Phoenician (Hackett 2004; Segert
1997a,b). This language disappears in the eastern Mediterranean area
during the rst century BCE and in North Africa in the fth century AD.
Segert (1997: 63) suggests that the position of word accent can be deter-
mined on the last syllable in most cases.
We have no information on UMoabite, UEdomite and UAmmonite.
Turning to Hebrew, Steiner (1997: 149) says that in Biblical (Tiberian)
Hebrew primary stress is on the ultimate or penultimate syllable, with
an increased tendency toward the ultimate; see also Khan (1997) and
Rendsburg (1997).
In Modern Hebrew (Bat-El 1993, Bolozky 1997, Berman 1997, Con
and Bolozky 2005) word accent follows the Sephard tradition. It is nal,
with (sometimes systematic) exceptions:
3
3. We thank Shmuel Bolozky for supplying us with additional information.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
(9) a. In general, penultimate accent may result when suxes remain
neutral such that the accent remains on the nal syllable of the
base. This happens in the verbal system where (except in the
present participle) accent lies on the stem-nal vowel:
katavti I wrote dibarta you spoke
nimcenu we were found ip la she dropped (trans.)
b. Also in nouns that are acronyms or frequently used, accent can
be stable under suxation:
mankal general manager mankalim (plural)
rasar rst sergeant major rasarim (plural)
tu t water melon tu tim (plural)
cxo k laughter cxo kim joyous moment
c. Stable accent is also found in names for residents:
telav v Tel Aviv telav vi resident of . . .
xolo n Holon xolo ni resident of . . .
d. Certain derived (segolate) nouns like meser messenger; here,
historically a vowel broke up a nal impermissible cluster.
e. Insertion of /a/ causes penultimate stress in another group of
words:
gavo a tall (m.sg.) poteax open (m.sg.)
f. Penultimate accent occurs in names of childrens games: Sh ra
(name) and klatim (childrens game); compare:
klaf m cards klam gard game
monopo l monopoly mono pol Monopoly (game)
g. Due to the inuence of Yiddish accent, we nd a penultimate
location in colloquial style of proper names:
Yael PYael
xa m life Xaim proper name
In general it would seem that in informal speech, penultimate
accent may take over from the more formal nal accent.
h. In nonverbal forms there are sporadic exceptions to the nal
accent pattern:
lama where (h)ena here
i. Loan words (like akademiya, instalator) can be exceptional,
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
In words that have exceptional accent (when no suxes are involved)
accent appears to be stable under suxation
(10) t ras t ras im corn plural
This especially applies to borrowings which keep their original accent loca-
tion even if non-nal and this position is also maintained under suxation.
Bat-El (1993) analyses the accent system of Modern Hebrew nouns,
which involves lexical marking of stems and suxes. It would seem that
primary accent location follows a LAST/LAST pattern: it falls on the
last lexically accented syllable, or, if no lexical accents are present, on the
last syllable.
Modern Hebrew has regular alternating secondary accents going left-
ward away from the primary accent.
South Semitic:
For the Eastern South Semitic (the modern Subarabic or south Arabian)
languages, Lonnet and Simeone-Senelle (1997: 354) describe the location
of accent as follows: accent falls on the nal CVC(C) or CV: (C) syllable
and if there is no such syllable on the rst CVC syllable. This suggests an
unbounded Last/First pattern, although no mention is made of the loca-
tion in words that also lack CVC; some examples suggest that accent
is initial in that case. Simeone-Senelle (1997: 386) states that in Mehri,
Hobyo#t, Bat h ari and Harsu#si accent is on the last strong syllable, or on
the rst syllable if all vowels are short. This conrms the Last/First pat-
tern, though Janet Watson (p.c.) points out that in at least some dialects
of Mehri the Last/First pattern only holds of stems (not inected words)
and that in any case strings of short syllables are rare and thus initial stress
is itself rare. In contrast, Simeone-Senelle (1997: 386) notes that in Jibba#li
a word can have several accents, whereas in Soqot there is a general trend
to have initial accent.
As for the Old/Ancient South Arabian languages belonging to the
Western South Semitic, Graag (1997) and Nebes and Stein (2004) provide
no information on accent.
4.3. Arabic languages (<Semitic < Afro-Asiatic)
Genetic information
A standardized version of Arabic, the language of the Quran and early
Islamic literature arose in the 8th century. This version came to be known
as Classical Arabic (Fischer 1997; Owens 2006) which develops in the 19th
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
and 20th century into Modern Standard Arabic which is used in most
sectors of public life. Meanwhile, many more conservative Bedouin
(rural) and sedentary (urban) varieties of Arabic develop which are usually
grouped into a Western and the Middle Eastern group. The Western
group (the Maghrebi or North African dialects) covers Libya, Tunisia,
Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, and the outlying Maltese variety (Borg
and Azzopardi-Alexander (1997) (as well as now extinct Andalusian
Arabic and Siculo Arabic). The Middle Eastern group covers the Arabian
Peninsula, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Syria-Lebanon-Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and
areas in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, as well as an outlying variety in
Cyprus (Alexander (1997). Most entries in StressTyp (nearly all of which
are analyzed in Hayes 1995) come from the Middle Eastern group which
can be geographically subdivided into a southern group (Arabian Penin-
sula), a northern group (Levant and Mesopotamia) and a central group
(including Egypt and Sudan).
Linguistic studies on Arabic have a rich tradition (cf. Owens 2006;
Versteegh et al. 2009) and in more recent times the variety of accentual
systems has attracted wide attention (cf. Watson, to appear for an over-
view of dierent approaches and some case studies). Kaye (1997) and
Kaye and Rosenhouse (1997) provide general discussions of the phonology.
Studies of specic accentual systems can be found in Birkeland (1954),
Janssens (1972), Angoujard (1990), Hayes (1995) and Kager (2009).
StressTyp extracts
Arabic, Classical [L/F]
f
Stress the rightmost non-nal syllable that has a long vowel or closing
consonant.
f
If there are no such syllables, stress the rst.
ki'taabun book 'mamlakatun kingdom
'baIahalun date ta'mamtumaa you both completed
Middle East, Southern
Arabic, Bedouin Hijazi (dialect of Arabic) [U-P/A]
f
Superheavy (long vowel coda, or double coda) nal syllables carry
stress.
f
In other cases, stress falls on the penult if it is heavy, otherwise on the
antepenult.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
mak'tu:b written a'iabl I hit
'ma:lana our property mak'tu:fah tied f.s.
ga:'bIIna meet us m.s. 'kitab he wrote
'bgaiah cow 'aza he raided
Arabic, Gulf [U/P]
f
If the vowel of the nal syllable is long, it bears stress.
f
In all other cases stress is on the penult.
ha'jaallIn their life jjuu'!uun they see
'beettum their house mus'laj!a hospital
'qa]bIlj your heart
mIlhaav'jIIn having quarrelled with each other
Middle East, Northern:
Arabic, Beirut/Lebanese (dialect of Arabic, North Levantine) [U-P/A]
4
f
stress.
f
In other cases, stress falls on heavy penults, otherwise on the antepenult.
'daiab hit da'iabna he hit
sa'aialun tree (Classical) 'daiabu they hit
\aI'Iam na we teach '\aIIamu they teach
Arabic, Damascene (dialect of Arabic, North Levantine) [U-P/A]
f
stress.
f
In other cases, stress falls on the penult if it is heavy, otherwise on the
antepenult.
ma'da:ics schools dai'iasl I/you m.s. taught
mut'lahIdc united \aI'Iamna teach pl.
Arabic, South Levantine; Palestinian Arabic [L (CNT)]
f
stress.
4. StressTyp has two dierent entries for Beirut and Lebanese Arabic which we
have here collapsed because they represent the same dialect.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
f
Otherwise, stress penultimate syllables if heavy, and in bisyllabic words.
f
Heavy antepenults followed by two light syllables carry stress.
f
Four syllable (Classical) words with only light syllables have initial
stress.
f
All other words ending in three light syllables have antepenultimate
stress.
da'iasl I studied 'maLlab oce
'Lalab he wrote 'ba:iaLo he blessed him
'sajaratun a tree (Classical) saja'ialuhu his tree (Classical)
Arabic, Negev Bedouin [L (CNT)]
f
Stress the last syllable with a long vowel or vowel cluster (VVC or
VCC).
f
Otherwise stress the second syllable.
f
There is some variation in four syllable words.
ana'ma:l sheep (several) a'nam sheep
!a'iasah his horse an'LIlaIav he was killed
Arabic, Bani Hassan [U-P/A/P]
5
f
Stress a nal superheavy syllable.
f
Stress the penultimate light syllable if not preceded by a heavy syllable.
f
Stress penultimate or antepenultimate heavy.
jI'ba:b youth \aI'Iaml I taught
maL'lablI my library mI'La:lIb oces
'vaIad boy 'smILah a sh
\aIIa'maluh she taught him ba:ia'Laluh she blessed him
5. This system is coded in StressTyp as [L/F] but no examples are given and we
nd the following verbal description:
f
Stress the rightmost syllable with a long vowel or coda, otherwise the rst.
f
Long vowels preceding the main stress have secondary stress.
The generalisation above is based on the data in Irshied & Kenstowicz (1984).
Hayes (1995) sees Bani Hassan Arabic as similar to Palestinian Arabic with
the dierence that in a nal HLL] sequence the accent is on the H rather, as
in Palestinian Arabic, on the penultimate light. He also says that accent is
penultimate in HLLL]. We discuss an analysis below.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Middle East, Central
Arabic, Egyptian Radio (dialect of Arabic, Egyptian Spoken) [L (CNT)]
f
stress.
f
Otherwise, stress penultimate syllables if heavy, and always in bisyllabic
words.
f
Three syllable words with only light syllables have antepenultimate
stress.
f
Four syllable words with only light syllables have antepenultimate or
pre-antepenultimate stress in free variation.
f
If the antepenult is heavy and the penult and nal light, either it or the
penult is stressed.
f
If the pre-antepenult is heavy, stress is always antepenultimate.
f
Rhythm is assigned to non-nal heavy syllables and odd light ones from
left to right.
sa'la:m peace Lala'bahu or 'Lalabahu he wrote it
qad'damna we presented '?abadan never
'maIIL king mux'laII!a dierent
Arabic, Egyptian; Cairene Arabic (classical
6
) [L (CNT)]
f
stress.
f
Otherwise, stress penultimate syllables if heavy.
f
In all other cases, stress the penult or antepenult, whichever is separated
from the last heavy syllable, or the left word edge, by an even number of
syllables (or zero).
'buxaIa misers \a'maIlI you f.s. did
mux'laII!a dierent f.s. mai'laba mattress
saLa'LIIn knives
jajaiala'humaa their (dual) tree nom. (Classical)
Western group (Maghrebi)
Arabic, Libyan; Cyrenaican Bedouin [L (CNT)]
f
Bisyllables of which the rst syllable is open and the vowel is short have
nal stress.
6. Note that this refers to Classical Arabic as pronounced by speakers of Cairene
Arabic; of the examples given only the last word is exclusively Classical.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
f
stress.
f
Otherwise, stress heavy penults or heavy antepenults followed by two
light syllables.
f
Otherwise, stress the penult or the antepenult, whichever is separated
from the closest preceding heavy syllable or the left word edge by an
odd number of syllables.
lI'iu:!Igun they accompanied 'maLlab oce
LI'lab he wrote LI'lablan you wrote
ma\iI'LIlla her quarrel !Ina'I:I cups
Maltese [U/P]
f
Stress falls on the nal syllable if it has a long vowel or is closed by two
consonants.
f
In all other cases stress is penultimate.
bci'qu:q apricot a'zaql I have dug 'lI!Ia girl
Additional information
Middle East, Southern
Sanaani Arabic is spoken in the Old City of the capital city of Yemen
(Watson 2002, to appear), and has a complex stress system, summarized
in the following algorithm from Watson (2002: 82): a) stress the rightmost
non-nal CVV or CVG syllable (['ha:Laaha:] like this, [mIl'axxIia:l]
late f.pl.), otherwise, b) stress a nal CVVC/CVCC syllable ([ba'na:l]
girls), otherwise c) stress the rightmost non-nal CVC syllable up to the
antepenult (['madiasIh] school), otherwise d) stress the leftmost CV sylla-
ble (['iagabalIh] his neck). However, as Watson (2002: 81) points out,
aside from the unusual fact that a CVV/CVG can attract stress away
from a nal superheavy, the Sanaani stress system is in other respects
similar to a Last/First pattern: a) stress a nal superheavy CVCC or
CVVC syllable, otherwise b) stress the rightmost non-nal heavy syllable
(up to the antepenult), otherwise c) stress the leftmost light syllable.
Watson (2002: 98121) analyses the variable behaviour of CVG/CVV vs.
CVC syllables in Sanaani by appeal to a two-layer metrical grid (Hayes
1995). She notes that there is considerable uctuation in stress position in
connected speech, particularly in pre-pausal and post-pausal position, and
that secondary stress is observed in Sanaani in words containing two or
more feet.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
The dialect that McCarthy (1979: 461) refers to as Yemen Plateau
Arabic is a cover term for a grouping of dialects spoken in the high
plateau (Hochebene) regions of northern Yemen, taking in the following
geographical areas of Yemen (Diem 1973: 127): Sanaa and environs, the
plateau areas to the north and south of the capital, the North East and
al-Jawf, and the South East (Al-Bayda and Hari:b). Diem (1973: 11) gives
the following basic algorithm for all Yemeni dialects: a) stress a nal
superheavy CVCC or CVVC syllable, otherwise b) stress the rightmost
non-nal heavy syllable, else c) stress the rst syllable of the word. Diem
(1973: 11) notes particularly that in the high plateau areas (only) stress is
not conned to the last three syllables of the word but can occur further
forward in the word, as in the example ['hamaIalch] she carried it. This
is the evidence which causes McCarthy (1979: 461) to cite Yemen Plateau
Arabic as one of the few contemporary spoken dialects which still show
the Classical Last/First stress assignment pattern (beyond the last three
syllables of the word), but contemporary speakers in fact vary in their
accentuation of words of this type between the initial and penult (Janet
Watson p.c.).
Prochazka (1988) generalizes over all of the dialects of Saudi Arabia
(including North Arabian, Najdi and Hijazi) and claims that all display a
rightmost heavy else antepenult pattern, matching the pattern described
above for Bedouin Hijazi Arabic.
Middle East, Northern
The stress patterns of Baghdadi Arabic are described in general terms
in Erwin (1963: 4042) and can be paraphrased as: a) stress a nal super-
heavy, else b) stress the rightmost heavy syllable, else b) stress the ante-
penult (penult in disyllables). This would place Baghdadi in the U-P/A
category. McCarthy & Raouli (1964: 1011) state that in words contain-
ing only light syllables stress will fall on the initial syllable, but give no ex-
amples of words which are longer than 3 syllables (e.g. they give ['LcIcmc]
word). It is possible that the three syllable window does indeed apply,
but that McCarthy & Raoullis generalisation holds because, as in Pales-
tinian Arabic (Kenstowicz 1983), any 4 syllable word containing only
light syllables will undergo syncope and be reduced to 3 syllables.
De Jongs (2000) survey of North Sinai Bedouin Arabic dialects includes
a number of distinctive stress patterns as potential dialectal markers.
A small number of dialects in the survey are reported to have initial
stress in words containing 4 light syllables (CaCaCaCv, without syncope/
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
resyllabication to e.g. CCvCCv), which suggests that they retain the
Classical Last/First pattern. Picketts (2006) survey of North Arabian
Arabic dialects spoken by present-day nomadic groups in Syria and
Lebanon,
7
are all reported to show the Classical pattern: a) stress a nal
superheavy (CCVVC, CVVC, CVCC) e.g. [ljI'0I:i] many, else b) stress
the rightmost heavy syllable (CCVV, CVC, CVV, CCVC) e.g. ['madiasa]
school, else c) stress the initial syllable e.g. ['vasal] medium (sized).
The Arabic dialect described in the literature as Bani Hassan Arabic is
spoken by a Bedouin-origin community now settled in the north of Jordan
(Kenstowicz 1983, Irshied & Kenstowicz 1984). The dialect displays trisyl-
labic vowel deletion, a common marker of Bedouin-origin varieties (e.g.
/samaL-ah/ a sh is realised as ['smILah], Irshied & Kenstowicz 1984:
137). The accent system no longer retains the Classical pattern however,
since stress is conned to the last three syllables of the word, with a non-
initial accent appearing in words containing 4 syllables: e.g. [\aIIa'maluh]
she taught him. Note that this pattern is not due to the special status of
the 3f.s. sux, as it would be in Egyptian Arabic and Lebanese Arabic in
which the 3f.s. sux always attracts stress, regardless of the syllabic struc-
ture of the word; in BHA the sux does not automatically attract stress:
LA: [ ja:'!Ilu] she saw him/BHA ['ja:!aluh] she saw him (Irshied &
Kenstowicz 1984: 129).
Middle East, Central
Egyptian Saiidi Arabic is spoken along the Nile Valley in Upper Egypt
(south of Cairo as far as Aswan), and McCarthy (1979: 461) mentions it
as a spoken dialect which retains the Classical Last/First stress assignment
pattern. Khalafallah (1969) describes the stress patterns as follows: a) if
there is a long vowel in the word it will bear stress (no words contain
more than one long vowel) e.g. [xaIa'ga:lu] his clothes/[xuz'na:] we
kept it, else b) stress the rightmost closed syllable (non-nal CVC or nal
CVCC) e.g. [\aI'Iaml] I taught, [ma'saLlu] I caught him, else c) stress
the rst syllable ['Lalab] he wrote. Crucially, c) holds in words contain-
ing 4 light syllables such as ['Lalabalu] she wrote it, conrming that this
is in essence a Last/First pattern (though a nal CVV attracts stress).
7. Dialects of the Syro-Mesopotamian, Anazi, and Shammari groups in John-
stones (1967) classication.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Nishio (1994) reports the same Classical style pattern in the dialect spoken
in the Nile Valley village of Qift (near Qena).
Hamid (1984: 37) also describes the stress patterns of Sudanese Arabic
in terms of a Classical style Last/First pattern, which reduces to: a) stress
the rightmost heavy syllable, else b) stress the initial syllable (cf. Kensto-
wicz 1984: 129). However, no sample words are given that contain
more than 3 light syllables, and there are a number of counterexamples
to the initial stress rule, which Hamid explains by appeal to interac-
tion with segmental phenomena, which might be amenable to a L(CNT)
analysis.
Western group (Maghrebi)
Boudlal (2001: 107.) describes the stress patterns of the dialect of Moroccan
Arabic spoken in Casablanca, for words in isolation, as follows: a) stress the
nal syllable if it is heavy e.g. [II'mun] oranges, otherwise, b) stress the
penult (regardless of weight) e.g. ['iomIa] sand. Only CVC syllables con-
taining full vowels are heavy; CoC is treated as light. For isolation forms
then, Moroccan Arabic displays a U/P system similar to that observed
in Maltese; in connected speech Boudlal found stress was invariably word-
nal.
Guella (m.s.) describes the stress patterns of the dialect of Algerian
Arabic spoken near Tlemcen as follows, barring some morphologically con-
strained exceptions: a) stress the leftmost long vowel (e.g. [moj'du:dI:n]
tied up m.pl.), otherwise b) stress the penultimate syllable (e.g. [loq'IcbLum]
she will overturn you pl.).
Talmoudi (1980) describes the stress patterns of the dialect of Tunisian
Arabic spoken in the Old City of Sousa as follows: a) stress the leftmost
syllable containing a long vowel, otherwise b) stress the initial syllable.
Closed syllables, both CVC and CoC, are treated as light. It is not clear
whether the patterns described hold for isolation forms or in connected
speech.
Abumdas (1985) gives an account of the dialects of Libyan Arabic
spoken in Tripoli, Ben Ghazi and Zliten (a Bedouin-origin variety). He
notes that there are stress minimal pairs (as also reported by Mitchell
(1960) for Cyrenaican Bedouin Arabic), e.g. ['xaIaq] creating P[xa'Iaq]
he created, but states that stress is nonetheless predictable in many cases,
giving rules parallel to those put forward for Cyrenaican Bedouin Arabic
(Eastern Libyan Arabic) by Mitchell (1960) and Owens (1984).
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Generalizations
The following table summarizes the accentual types that we have men-
tioned in this chapter:
(11) An overview of accentual types in Arabic
Classical Arabic
[L/F]
Middle Eastern Central Western group
Southern group Northern Group Central Group
Gulf: [U/P] Beirut/Lebanese:
[U-P/A]
Radio Egyptian:
[L(CNT)] P[U-P/A]
Cyrenaican Bedouin
(East. Libyan):
[L(CNT)]
Sanaani:
[L/F] and
[U-P/A]
Damascene:
[U-P/A]
Cairene:
Trochaic [L(CNT)]
Libyan (Tripoli):
[L(CNT)]
Yemen Plateau:
[L/F]
South
Levantine/Palestinian:
Trochaic [L(CNT)] or
[L/F] and [U-P/A]
Egyptian Saiidi:
[L/F]
Moroccan: [U/P]
Bedouin Hijazi:
[U-P/A]
Negev Bedouin:
Iambic [L(CNT)]
Sudanese:
[L/F]
Nigerian: [U-P/A]
Saudi Arabic
dialects: [U-P/A]
Bani Hassan:
[U-P/A/P]
Chadic: [U-P/A]
Urban Hijazi
Arabic: Trochaic
[L(CNT)]
Baghdavi:
[U-P/A]
Tunisian: [F/F]
North Sinai Bedouin:
[L/F]
Algerian [F/P]
North Arabian
dialects: [L/F]
Maltese: [U/P]
Because the Arabic languages show such an interesting variety of accen-
tual systems, their proper analysis has been the subject of both descriptive
and theoretical work. Here, following Hayes (1995), Kager (2009) and
Watson (to appear), who oer detailed analyses, we will briey discuss
the variety of systems and their possible relations, using some ingredients
of the accentual theory proposed in van der Hulst (in prep.).
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
The table in (12) summarizes the various accentual types:
(12) A summary of accentual types in Arabic
[L/F] Classical; Yemen Plateau; North Sinai Bedouin; North Arabian
Dialects; Egyptian Saiidi; Sudanese
[F/F] Tunesian
[F/P] Algerian
[U-P/A] Bedouin Hijazi; Saudi Arabic dialects; Beirut/Lebanese;
Damascene; Baghdavi; Nigerian; Chadic
[U-P/A/P] Bani Hassan
[L/F] and [U-P/A] Sanaani
[U/P] Moroccan; Gulf; Maltese
[L(CNT) tr] EM(syll): Palestinian;
/EM (syll): Radio Egyptian
EM(syll): Cairene (~[U/P])
EM (syll): Urban Hijazi (no post-heavy strong light)
[L(CNT) ia] Negev Bedouin; Cyrenaican Bedouin
Extrametricality
It seems that all Arabic languages treat nal CVXC as heavy and nal
CVC as light. The status of nal CVV, which is rare or absent, is not
clear, but apparently not uniform across the dialects. Final C is always
invisible, but on top of that we need syllable EM. In nal position, if
CVV is either absent, or present and invisible (like CVC and CV), we can
simply say that syllable-EM applies. If nal CVV is stressed, we have
to say that there is (a) nal C-extrasyllabicity (to cover nal CVC) and,
additionally, nal LIGHT syllable EM (to cover nal CV). Final CVC,
then, is (harmlessly) doubly invisible. Extrasyllabicity of C makes it light
and as such extrametrical together with nal CV.
However, Cairene does not have nal syllable EM, while it does ignore
nal C, because nal CVC acts as light. In U/P languages we also do not
have nal syllable EM, but still nal C is invisible, except in Moroccan
where nal CVC is heavy. In this language CoC is light together with
nal CV.
To see a separate role for consonant-EM we can look at bisyllabic
words. In most languages, in bisyllabic words, one would suppose that
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
syllable-EM is suppressed to guarantee word-minimality. Most of these
CVCVC (LH) words have initial accent, suggesting that the nal C does
not contribute to weight, but in Negev Bedouin such words have nal
accent, which suggest that there is no nal C-EM. This may be connected
to the rise of so-called iambic patterns.
Watson discusses the case of Sanaani Arabic in which the rightmost
non-nal CVV or CVG (syllables closed by a geminate consonant) attract
accent away from nal superheavy syllables and CVV syllables (and of
course CVC syllables). This language then treats CVXC and CVV as
monosyllabic and as such they fall under syllable-EM.
Bounded systems
All Arabic languages agree in certain patterns:
(13) a. Accent is U if the U syllable is VXC
b. Accent is P if the P syllable is heavy and the U syllable is light
(A nal CVC counts as light)
Systems start to dier once we look at nal sequences of light syllables.
Here we see a rich variety. The standard Latin like pattern adds the
following third clause to the two clauses in (13)
(14) c. Accent is A if the two nal syllables are light
This creates the [U-A/P] pattern of Damascene Arabic and many other
varieties.
However Cairene Arabic has P accent if a word ends in two light sylla-
bles preceded by a heavy syllable or two (or rather an even number of)
other light syllables (counting from the word beginning or the rightmost
heavy syllable):
(15) HLL ] HLLL ] XLLLL ] (X # or H)
This is a count system. In van der Hulst (in prep.) a count system is
treated as having two bounded accentual domains, one on the left (which
in this case is right-headed if the right hand syllable is heavy, otherwise
left-headed) and one on the right that is not headed:
(16) x >>
(ss)sssss(ss)*s
An alternating trochaic pattern of rhythmic beats echoes rightward, away
from the initial accent (shown in 17 as Perfect Gridding-trochaic (Left to
Right)) and invades the right-hand domain as follows:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
(17) Cairene Arabic
x x x ER(R)
x x x x x x x PG-tr (LR)
(HL)L ] H(LL)L ] XL(LL)L ]
Note that a rhythmic beat is assigned to a post-heavy light syllable (since
rhythm in this language is moraic, as shown in Hayes 1996). In the rst
case the domain has two beats (one by weight and one by rhythm) and
the rightmost wins, which is shown in (17) as End Rule (Right)).
Palestinian Arabic is minimally dierent from Cairene:
(18) Palestinian Arabic
x x x ER(R)
The accent is further to the left, which Hayes (1996) in his metrical
account handles by imposing foot extrametricality). We suggest an alterna-
tive. To account for the HLL] pattern we need to assume that the rhythmic
beat on the penultimate light syllable is deleted; in other words: within the
accentual domain a heavy syllable prevails over a rhythmically strong light
syllable.
8
However, we also need to account for the pre-antepenultimate
pattern in case a word ends in a string of four light syllables which is
claimed to exist because speakers pronounce quadrisyllabic light-syllabled
words with initial accent. To us, this looks like a Classical application of
the Classical Arabic unbounded stress rule (specically its default clause
which applies if all syllables are light). We therefore submit that Palestinian
Arabic embodies a hybrid aspect: in case of a long nal string of light
syllables it applies the unbounded initial default that is characteristic of
Classical Arabic; this is indicated in table 11 by specifying that the system
is both [L/F] and [U-P/A]).
9
Urban Hijazi Arabic is like Palestinian Arabic, although it misses its
hybrid character; it is simply [U-P/A]:
(19) Urban Hijazi
x x x ER(L)
8. We cannot say that the ER is Left, because in case of (HH)L] stress is
penultimate, in all Arabic dialects.
9. Radio Egypt Arabic vacillates between the Cairene and the Palestinian pattern.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
There is further variation among the count systems. Negev Bedouin has
iambic rhythm rather trochaic rhythm:
(20) Negev Bedouin
x x x ER(L)
x x x x x x x PG-ia (LR)
As in Cairene and Palestinian, the location of accent is not constant within
a window that has two light syllables. This means that Negev is also
a count system. However, the rhythmic pattern is iambic rather than
trochaic.
Finally we look at two non-count patterns:
(21) Bani-Hassan
10
x x x ER(R)
x x x x x x Def (R)
This system diers from Damascene Arabic in that a domain with two
light syllables is right headed (indicated by Default (Right)), whereas the
default is Left in Damascene:
(22) Damascene
x x x ER(R)
x x x x x Def (L)
The dierences between these various systems are small, but real, although
the diagnostic sequences may not be so easy to obtain, because of the fact
that (nal) sequences of light syllables are rare. It is interesting to note that
count systems come very close to being weight-sensitive right-edge systems
which we realize when we compare the languages discussed above:
(23) SH ] HL ] HLL ] HLLL ] XLLLL ]
Damascene U P A A A
Bani-Hassan Arabic U P A P P
Negev U P A P A
Cairene Arabic U P P A P
Palestinian Arabic U P A A I / PA
Urban Hijazi U P A A P
10. This pattern possibly also occurs in Riyadh Arabic as analyzed in Halle and
Kenstowicz (1989).
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
As for the rst three sequences, we only see a dierence in the HLL case
which seems to reect a dierence in extrametricality (no in Cairene).
But if we add the fourth sequence (HLLL]), syllable-EM (no) can no
longer be correct for Cairene, and this is where we have to resort to the
count analysis. For Palestinian we do not have to do that yet. We can
treat Bani-Hassan and Negev alike in that both treat a domain with two
light sylables as right-headed, whereas the others have a left-headed
choice. Only by adding the fourth sequence of syllables (four nal light
syllables) can we dierentiate all the systems, fully enforcing a count
analysis of Negev, Urban Hijazi and Palestinian. The point of this
exercise is to demonstrate that the crucial evidence for deciding the precise
nature of the system (especially whether the system is a count system or
not) lies in sequences of light syllables that are not frequent in the data.
Unbounded systems
There is a third type of system that occurs with some frequency in the
Arabic languages and is exemplied by Classical Arabic which has an
unbounded LAST/FIRST system with some form of extrametricality.
In unbounded systems the domain of accent assignment comprises the
whole word. If the word contains heavy syllables, one of these (in
Classical Arabic the rightmost non-nal one) attracts accent; if there is
no (non-nal) heavy syllable in the word, the default option is a light
syllable at one of the edges (in Classical Arabic it is the rst). This
LAST/FIRST pattern is reconstructed for Classical Arabic and as such it
is controversial. An alternative interpretation of the comparative evidence
is that accent never falls further leftward than the antepenultimate syllable
(cf. Angoujard 1990 and Kager 2009 for discussion).
However, as we have seen, Classical Arabic is not unique in having an
unbounded system in the Arabic family. McCarthy (1979: 461) remarks
that the Classical pattern is only preserved in a few modern dialects
(Egyptian Saiidi, Yemen Plateau). Our survey here above suggests that it
is also found in Bedouin-origin North Arabian dialects in Syria, Lebanon
and Sinai, and possibly also in Sudanese Arabic.
Among the unbounded systems we also see cases that dier from
Classical Arabic in the choice of the leftmost heavy syllable to bear accent.
Algerian Arabic has a FIRST/FIRST system (with the default clause as in
Classical Arabic, i.e. rst), while Tunisian Arabic chooses the penultimate
syllable as a default and hence has FIRST/PENULT [F/P]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Historical change
If the unbounded L/F pattern can indeed be attributed to Classical Arabic
(or perhaps proto-Arabic), two kinds of systems have developed from this
unbounded system. We nd count systems in which the primary accent is
on the right side of the word, but computation starting on (i.e. counting
from) the left side, and then we nd right-edge systems of the Latin type
with penultimate or antepenultimate accent.
McCarthy (1979) sees the count system type (of, for example, Cairene
Arabic) as a later development than the Latin type (found in, for example,
Damascene Arabic). In van der Hulst (1997), it has been suggested that
the Cairene (count) system might be a transitional phase, forming the
link between the initial (default) accent of the unbounded Classical Arabic
and the bounded Latin-like accent rule of Damascene Arabic.
Interpreted within the accentual theory in van der Hulst (in prep.), the
transitions that have taken place can be seen as follows:
(24) a. Unbounded domain (s-extrametricality)
[(.............)<s>] L/F: ER(R), Def (L): Classical Arabic
F/F: ER(L), Def (L): Tunesian
F/P: ER(L), Def (R): Algerian
b. Count system (s-extrametricality, except in Cairene which
means that nal C-EM emerges)
[(ss)ssss(ss)*<s>] L(CNT)-trochaic: Cairene, Palestinian
L(CNT)-iambic: Negev Bedouin
c. Right-edge bounded system (s-extrametricality)
[.............(ss)<s>] U-A/P: ER(R), Def(L): Damascene
Place accent on last heavy or rst light
in the rightmost bisyllabic domain
d. Right-edge bounded system (s-extrametricality, but C-EM
except in Moroccan.)
[.............(ss)] U/P: ER(R), Def(L): Gulf
Place accent on last heavy or rst light
in the rightmost bisyllabic domain
Classical Arabic is unbounded. The count systems display a fracturing of
the unbounded domain into two polar bounded domains, with the right-
most domain being the strongest. It would seem that count systems really
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
are intermediate systems in that on the one hand the whole word domain
(at least both edges) is relevant, while, on the other hand, accent is con-
ned to a two-syllable window on the right-edge. This provides for the
re-interpretation in terms of a bounded right-edge system, one variety of
which (namely the one that displays antepenultimate accent) maintains
syllable-extrametricality, while the other does not (Gulf, Moroccan and
Maltese Arabic).
Final accent in [LH] words in, for example, Negev Bedouin Arabic,
points to a loss of consonant extrametricality in specic cases, which may
be connected to the rise of so-called iambic patterns. Throughout, all sys-
tems maintain weight-sensitivity.
4. Conclusions and Generalization
Very little, if anything can be said about the isolate extinct languages
mentioned in section 3. The pattern for Egyptian suggests a weight-
sensitive right-edge system which ts with the general pattern found in
the Semitic languages where accent is either unbounded or conned to
the right edge:
SEMITIC
EAST: Last/First (UAkkadian)
WEST:
CENTRAL:
ARAMAIC: Latin-type
CANAANITE: Final (Hebrew), Latin type (Tiberian Hebrew)
ARABIC: Last/First / L (count) / Latin type
SOUTH
Western (not discussed here)
Eastern: Last/First
Knudsen (1980) in his analysis of Akkadian accent concludes (p. 15):
viewed in a historical perspective, most features in the Akkadian system
of stress as outlined above are common to Akkadian, Hebrew, Aramaic,
and Medieval Arabic. It is tempting to see the Last/First system as
fundamental with, as suggested earlier, count systems and Latin-type
systems having derived from that. The loss of weight-sensitivity and
extrametricality as exemplied by Modern Hebrew seems a nal step in
the direction of xed right-edge accent.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
References
Abumdas, A.H.A.
1985 Libyan Arabic Phonology. University of Michigan.
Abu-Salim, I.M.
1987 Vowel Harmony in Palestinian Arabic: A Metrical Perspective.
Journal of Linguistics, 23, 1: 124.
Angoujard, Jean-Pierre
1990 Metrical structure of Arabic. Dordrecht: Foris.
Bergstraer, G.
1983 Introduction to Semitic Languages. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisen-
brauns. (Translation by P.T. Daniels of the German original,
einfu hrung in die semitischen Sprachen, Munich: Max Hueber,
1928; 2nd. ed. 1963.
Berman, Ruth
1997 Modern Hebrew. In: Robert Hetzron 1997 (ed.), 312333.
Birkeland, Harris
1954 Stress patterns in Arabic. Oslo: Jacob Dybwad.
Bolozky, Shmuel
1997 Isreali Hebrew Phonology. In: Alan S. Kaye 1997 (ed.), 287
312.
Borg, Albert and Marie Azzopardi-Alexander
1997 Maltese. London and New York: Routledge.
Borg, Alexander
1997 Cypriot Arabic Phonology. In: Alan S. Kaye 1997 (ed.), 219
244.
Borg, Alexander
1997 Maltese Phonology. In: Alan S. Kaye 1997 (ed.), 245286.
Boudlal, A.
2001 Constraint interaction in the phonology and morphology of Casa-
blanca Moroccan Arabic. Universite Mohammed V, Rabat,
Morocco.
Buccellati, Giorgio
1997 Akkadian and Amorite Phonology. In Alan S. Kaye 1997 (ed.),
338.
Con, Edna A. & Shmuel Bolozky
2005 A Reference Grammar of Modern Hebrew. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
Comrie, Bernard, Maria Polinsky, and Stephen Matthews
2003 The Atlas of Languages. Second Edition. London: Quarto Pub-
lishing Inc.
Creason, Stuart
2004 Aramaic. In: Roger D. Woodard 2004 (ed.), 391426.
Daniels, Peter T.
1997 Classical Syriac Phonology. In: Alan S. Kaye 1997 (ed.), 127
140.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
de Jong, R.
2000 A Grammar of the Bedouin Dialects of the Northern Sinai
Littoral Bridging the Linguistic Gap between the Eastern and
Western Arab World. Leiden, Brill.
Diem, W.
1973 Skizzen Jemenitischer Dialekte. Wiesbaden, Kommission bei
Franz Steiner Verlag.
Edzgard, Dietz Otto
2003 Sumerian Grammar. Leiden: Brill.
Erwin, W.
1963 A short reference grammar of Iraqi Arabic. Washington, George-
town University Press.
Faber, Alice
1997 Genetic subgrouping of the Semitic languages. In: Robert
Hetzron 1997 (ed.), 315.
Fischer, Wolfdietrich
1997 Classical Arabic. In: Robert Hetzron 1997 (ed.), 187219.
Gordon, Cyrus H.
1997a Ugaritic Phonology. In: Alan S. Kaye 1997 (ed.), 4954.
Gordon, Cyrus H.
1997b Amorite and Eblaite. In: Robert Hetzron 1997 (ed.), 100115.
Gordon, Cyrus H.
1997c Eblaite Phonology. In: Alan S. Kaye 1997 (ed.), 3948.
Gordon, Giorgio
1997 Akkadian. In: Robert Hetzron 1997 (ed.), 6999.
Graag, Gene
1997 Old South Arabian Phonology Phonology. In: Alan S. Kaye
1997 (ed.), 161168.
Guella, N.
ms. On syllabication, stress and intonation in an Urban Arabic dia-
lect. King Saud University, Riyadh.
Hackett, Jo Ann
2004 Phoenician and Punic. In: Roger D. Woodard 2004 (ed.), 365
385.
Halle, M. and M. Kenstowicz
1989 On Cyclic and Non-Cyclic Stress. Ms. Dept. of Linguistics,
M.I.T., Cambridge, MA.
Hamid, A.H.M.
1984 A descriptive analysis of Sudanese colloquial Arabic phonology.
University of Illinois.
Hayes, B.
1995 Metrical stress theory: principles and case studies. Chicago, Uni-
versity of Chicago Press.
Hayes, John
1997 Sumerian phonology. In: Alan S. Kaye 1997 (ed.), 10011020.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Hetzron, Robert (ed.)
1997 The Semitic languages. London: Routledge.
Hoberman, Robert D.
1997 Modern Aramaic phonology. In: Alan S. Kaye 1997 (ed.), 313
336.
Huennergard, John and Christopher Woods
2004 Akkadian and Eblaite. In: Roger D. Woodard 2004 (ed.), 218
287.
Hulst, H.G. van der
1977 Primary accent is non-metrical. Rivista di Linguistica 9/1: 99
127.
Hulst, H.G. van der
2000 Issues in foot typology. In: M. Davenport & S.J. Hannahs
(eds Issues in phonological structure, 95127. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins Publishing Company.
Irshied, O. & M. Kenstowicz
1984 Some phonological rules of Bani-Hassan Arabic: a Bedouin
dialect. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 14: 109148.
Janssens, Gerard
1972 Stress in Arabic and word structure in the modern Arabic dialects.
Leuven: Peeters.
Jastrow, Otto
1997 The Neo-Aramaic languages. In: Robert Hetzron 1997 (ed.),
334377.
Kager, Rene
2009 Stress. In: Kees Versteegh et al (eds.), The Encyclopedia of
Arabic Language and Linguistics, vol. 4, 344353. Leiden: Brill.
Kaufman, Stephen A.
1997 Aramaic. In: Robert Hetzron 1997 (ed.), 114130.
Kaye, Alan S.
1997 Arabic Phonology. In: Alan S. Kaye 1997 (ed.), 187204.
Kaye, Alan S. (ed.)
1997 Phonologies of Asia and Africa. Volume 1 and 2. Winona Lake:
Eisenbrauns.
Kaye, Alan S. and Judith Rosenhouse
1997 Arabic dialects and Maltese. In: Robert Hetzron 1997 (ed.),
263311.
Kenstowicz, Michael
1983 Parametric variation and accent in the Arabic dialects. In
Chukerman, A., M. Marks, & J.F. Richardson (eds.) Papers
from the nineteenth regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistic
Society. CLS 19, 205213. Chicago, Chicago Linguistic Society.
Khalafallah, A.A.
1969 A Descriptive Grammar of Sa9i:di Egyptian Colloquial Arabic.
The Hague, Mouton.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Khan, Georey
1997 Tiberian Hebrew Phonology. In: Alan S. Kaye 1997 (ed.), 85
102.
Knudsen, Ebbe Egede
1980 Stress in Akkadian. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 32/1: 316.
Lonnet, Antoine and Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle
1997 La phonologie des langues subarabiques modernes. In: Alan S.
Kaye 1997 (ed.), 337372.
Loprieno, Antonio
1995 Ancient Egyptian: A linguistic introduction. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
Loprieno, Antonio
1997 Egyptian and Coptic phonology. In: Alan S. Kaye 1997 (ed.),
431460.
Lorpieno, Antonio
2004 Ancient Egyptian and Coptic. In: Roger D. Woodard 2004 (ed.),
160217.
Malone, Joseph L.
1997 Modern and Classical Mandaic Phonology. In: Alan S. Kaye
1997 (ed.), 141160.
McCarthy, John
1979 On stress and syllabication. Linguistic Inquiry 10; 443466.
McCarthy, R.J. & F. Raouli
1964 Spoken Arabic of Baghdad. Beirut, Librarie Orientale.
Michalowski, Piotr
2004 Sumerian. In: Roger D. Woodard 2004 (ed.), 1959.
Mitchell, T.F.
1960 Prominence and syllabication in Arabic. Bulletin of the School
of Oriental and African Studies 23: xxx269.
Nebes, Norbert and Peter Stein
2004 Ancient South Arabian. In: Roger D. Woodard 2004 (ed.), 454
487.
Nishio, T.
1994 The Arabic dialect of Qift (Upper Egypt Tokyo, Institute for
the Study of the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa.
Owens, J.
1984 A short reference grammar of Eastern Libyan Arabic. Wiesbaden,
Harrassowitz.
Owens, Jonathan
2006 A linguistic history of Arabic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pardee, Dennis
1997 Ugaritic. In: Robert Hetzron 1997 (ed.), 131144.
Pardee, Dennis
2004 Ugaritic. In: Roger D. Woodard 2004 (ed.), 288318.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Pickett, I.
2006 Some aspects of dialect variation among nomads in Syria and
Lebanon. SOAS.
Prochazka, T.
1988 Saudi Arabian dialects. London, Keegan Paul International.
Rendsburg, Gary A.
1997 Ancient Hebrew Phonology. In: Alan S. Kaye 1997 (ed.), 6584.
Ruhlen, Merritt
1991 A guide to the worlds languages. Volume 1: Classication. Stan-
ford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Segert, Stanislav
1997 Old Aramaic Phonology. In: Alan S. Kaye 1997 (ed.), 115126.
Segert, Stanislav
1997a Phoenician and Punic Phonology. In: Alan S. Kaye 1997 (ed.),
5564.
Segert, Stanislav
1997b Phoenician and the Eastern Cannanite languages. In: Robert
Hetzron 1997 (ed.), 174186.
Simeone-Senelle, Marie-Claude
1997 The Modern South Arabian languages. In: Robert Hetzron 1997
(ed.), 378423.
Steiner, Richard C.
1997 Ancient Hebrew. In: Robert Hetzron 1997 (ed.), 145173.
Stolper. Matthews W.
2004 Elamite. In: Roger D. Woodard 2004 (ed.), 6094.
Versteegh, Kees et al (eds.)
20069 The Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Leiden:
Brill.
Watson, J.C.E.
2002 The phonology and morphology of Arabic. Oxford, OUP.
Watson
to appear Arabic word stress. In: Colin Ewen, Marc van Oostendorp and
Keren Rice (eds.) Phonological Compendium. Blackwell.
Wilhem, Gernot
2004a Hurrian. Roger D. Woodard 2004 (ed.), 95118.
Wilhem, Gernot
2004a Urartian. Roger D. Woodard 2004 (ed.), 119137.
Woodard, Roger D. (ed.)
2004 The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Worlds Ancient Languages.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40

Word Accent Systems in The Middle East

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Word Accent Systems in The Middle East

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

11.

Word accent systems in the Middle East

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen