THE PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY OF YEMENI TIHAMI DIALECT: AN AUTOSEGMENTAL ACCOUNT
Loading...
Date
2010-07
Authors
AHMED, ABDULGHANI MAHDI
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Little methodological studies are available on Arabic dialectology
particularly on Yemeni Arabic dialects (YADs) (Versteegh, 1997). Linguistic and
grammatical sources in Yemen are insufficient; even those being published are yet
not enough to be taken as valid grammatical and linguistic references (ALHanadwah,
2005). Hence, the current study aims at exploring one of the Arabic
dialects in the Yemeni context namely Yemeni Tihami dialect (YTD). Precisely, the
present study is an attempt to undertake phonological investigation to achieve better
understanding of these objectives: (1) to examine the nature of consonantal and
vowel phonemes in YTD, (2) to investigate the distribution of phonemes in YTD, (3)
to identify and describe the set of possible phonological phenomena in YTD, (4) to
analyse and explain the phonological processes by using Autosegmental Theory and
(5) to identify the morphological items (proclitics, enclitics, roots etc) of YTD. To
accomplish the objectives of the study, the data were analysed and examined within
the framework of the Autosegmental Phonology Theory and the Feature Geometry
Model by Clements (1985). The data of Yemeni Tihami dialect were
methodologically elicited by employing different methods, viz. Swadesh list, the two
tasks of Labovian models - word list reading and passage reading, interviews, oral
phonology questionnaires, recordings and participant observations. As a
consequence, the findings revealed various phonological phenomena e.g., nasal
homorganic assimilation (NHA), deletion, diphthongisation and alternation.
Fieldwork data illustrated that the postulation of Spencer (1996) of compensatory
lengthening is probably applicable to some, but definitely not all, languages/dialects
of the world since it is inapplicable to YTD, and thus is not a universal. Although the
deletion of coda, diphthongisation was illustrated as an independent operative
phonological process rather than occurring accidentally with coda deletion as
claimed by Spencer (1996) in his explanation of syllabification. Besides, the striking
property of YTD phonology is the vowel /u:/ appended commonly to the end of
words. As far as the morphological items are concerned, the findings demonstrated
that the types of YTD clitics are two in number: proclitics and enclitics.
Pedagogically, the findings revealed the linguistic structures of YTD and the
phonological processes and phenomena, which demonstrate and contribute to better
understanding of the phonology of YTD for academicians and those who are
interested in undertaking more extensive studies in this field. Ultimately, the present
study suggested considering its outcome as merely a starting point for YTD to be
investigated thoroughly in further research, and stated the gaps and remaining issues,
and as well as recommended some other branches (e.g., phonetics, semantics and
syntax) and ot~er phonological issues of YTD.
Description
Keywords
PHONOLOGY , MORPHOLOGY