Stress placement; phonemes vs. allophones

ARBC0225/LNGT0225 

Arabic Linguistics 

ةيبرعلا تايناسللا ملع 

Lecture #8 

March 12 th , 2012 

Broad Phonetic Transcription 

[ʔafra:d ʔusrati: kulluhum yaʕi:ʃu:n fi: 

madi:nat ʔalmansˁu:rah fi: misˁr] 

يف ةروصنملا ةنيدم يف نوشيعي مھلك يترسأ دارفأ 

. رصم 

Stress 

• Stress refers to the perceived prominence of a 

particular syllable relative to the syllables 

around it. 

• In essence, stress is the combined effect of 

pitch, loudness, and length. 

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Announcements 

• HW1 was returned to you. Check your mailbox 

if you haven’t already. 

• I will post remaining questions homework 2 by 

tomorrow. It’ll be due next Monday. 

• Given that we’re rather behind in the syllabus, 

the midterm exam will be posted later next 

week, and will be due after the Spring break 

on April 4 th . 

Broad Phonetic Transcription 

. يﱪﻟﺪﻴﻣ ﺔﻌﻣﺎﺟ ﰲ ﺔﻴﺑﺮﻌﻟا ﺔﻐﻠﻟا ﻢﺴﻗ ﰲ بﻼﻃ ﻦﺤﻧ 

[nanu tˁulla:b fi: qism ʔalluɣah 

ʔalʕarabiyyah fi: dʒa:miʕat 

midilbiri:] 

Stress 

• In some languages, stress placement is 

predictable, e.g., in Czech stress almost always 

falls on the first syllable, whereas in Welsh stress 

falls on the penultimate (= next to last) syllable. 

• In other languages, like English and Russian, 

stress is unpredictable and has to be learned for 

every word. In such languages stress placement 

may also create a difference in meaning: 

export could be [»Ekspç®t] or [Eks»pç®t] 

present could be [»p®Ezn1t] or [p®ә»zEnt] 

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Stress in Arabic 

• In Arabic dialects, stress placement is 

predictable (with a few exception words, as 

you should expect), and it does not cause any 

difference in meaning. 

• Stress placement in Arabic dialects is sensitive 

to syllable structure. 

• We focus here on stress placement in Egyptian 

Arabic. 

Applying the algorithm: Step 1 

• (Note: The IPA symbol to mark stress is ˈ.) 

• Stress is on a final superheavy syllable. 

نيملسم [mus.li.ˈmi:n] 

تبتك (‘I wrote’) [ka.ˈtabt] 

تيرفع (‘ghost’) [ʕaf.ˈri:t] 


• Stress is on the penultimate or the antepenultimate, 

whichever is separated by an even number of syllables 

from the closest preceding heavy syllable if there is one 

(case A), or the beginning of the word if there are none 

(case B), where zero separation is counted as even. 

• Penultimate stress: 

ةسِّردُم [mu.dar.ˈri.sah] (case A) 

هُتِبتَك [ka.ta.ˈbi.tuh] (case B) 

• Antepenultimate stress: 

تعطقنا [ʔin.ˈʔa.tˁa.ʕit] (case A) 

ت ِس َرَد [ˈda.ra.sit] (case B) 

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Stress placement algorithm in EA 

• Stress placement algorithm in Egyptian: 

1. Stress a final superheavy syllable, if available. 

2. Otherwise, stress a penultimate heavy syllable, if 

available. 

3. Otherwise, stress is on the penultimate or the 

antepenultimate, whichever is separated by an even 

number of syllables from the closest preceding 

heavy syllable if there is one (case A), or the 

beginning of the word if there are none (case B), 

where zero separation is counted as even. 


• Stress is on a penultimate heavy syllable. 

كتيب [ˈbe:.tak] 

كتنب [ˈbin.tak] 

سِّردم [mu.ˈdar.ris] 

Stress in Classical Arabic 

• See homework assignment. 

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Phonology 

Phonology: Introducing phonemes 

• Let’s look at some examples from English first. 

• Given English [l] and [ɹ] (retroflex ‘r’), can we 

predict which one would occur in the blank slot in 

the following transcription? 

[ait] 

• We really cannot. Either sound would give us a 

possible English word with its own meaning. 

[lait] ‘light’ [ɹait] ‘right’ 

Aspiration in English 

• Now, let’s consider the voiceless stops in English: [p, t, 

k]. 

• When these sounds occur initially, they are typically 

pronounced with an extra puff of air. This property is 

called aspiration. The way we mark aspiration in the 

IPA is by a superscripted ‘ h ’. 

pan [pʰæn] vs. span [spæn] 

team [tʰim] vs. steam [stim] 

cool [kʰul] vs. school [skul] 

• The question now is: Are aspirated and unaspirated 

voiceless stops phonemes of English? 

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Phonology 

• While phonetics studies how speech sounds are 

articulated, what their physical properties are, 

and how they are perceived, phonology studies 

the organization of speech sounds in a particular 

language. 

• Among the questions phonologists discuss are: 

‐ Which sounds are predictable and which ones are 

unpredictable in a particular language? 

‐ What is the phonetic context that allows us to 

predict the occurrence of these sounds? 

Phonology: Introducing phonemes 

• The same thing is true of the vowels [i] and [ɪ] 

here: 

[st] 

• Again, either vowel would give us a possible 

English word with a different meaning: 

[sit] ‘seat’ [sɪt] ‘sit’ 

• Sounds that are unpredictable and lead to 

difference in meaning in a language are called the 

phonemes of this language. Phonemes are 

contrastive in a language. 

Phonology: Introducing allophones 

• In other words, suppose we pronounce tar as *[ta®], 

rather than [t h a®], would we get a difference in 

meaning? 

• Similarly, suppose we pronounce star as *[st h a®] 

rather than [sta®], would we get a difference in 

meaning? 

• The answer is NO. That means that [t h ] and [t] are 

not contrastive in English. We say that [t h ] and [t] are 

two allophones of the same phoneme, which we 

might represent here as /t/. 

(Notice the slash, rather than the square bracket, notation.) 

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Phonemes vs. allophones 

• So, a phoneme is a sound that distinguishes 

meaning in a language, whereas an allophone 

is a phonetic variant of a particular phoneme 

that does not affect meaning. 

So, how do languages differ, then? 

• Now, consider these words from Thai with 

aspirated and non‐aspirated voiceless stops: 

[paa] “forest” [p h aa] “to split” 

[tam] “to pound” [t h am] “to do” 

[kat] “to bite” [k h at] “to interrupt” 

• We know aspiration is allophonic in English, 

but is aspiration phonemic or allophonic in 

Thai? 

The phonemes of Classical Arabic 

ّمد [damm] ‘blood’ ّمض [dˁamm] ‘grouped/added’ 

راج [dʒa:r] ‘neighbor’ راد [da:r] ‘house’ 

رمق [qamar] ‘moon’ رمأ [ʔamara] ‘ordered’ 

بتك [kataba] ‘he wrote’ بتاك [ka:taba] ‘corresponded with’ 

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Minimal pairs 

• Phonemes are contrastive.They create words 

that differ in meaning. Allophones are not 

contrastive; the do not distinguish meaning. 

• But how do we know if two sounds are 

contrastive in a particular language? 

• Answer: Minimal pairs. 

• A minimal pair is two words with different 

meanings that are identical except for one sound 

that occurs in the same place in each word, e.g., 

seed [sid] and seat [sit] 

The phonemes of Classical Arabic 

• Now, consider these data, and draw 

conclusions about the phonemes of Classical 

Arabic. 

راث [θa:r] ‘revolted’ راز [za:r] ‘visited’ 

حنم [manaa] ‘granted’ عنم [manaʕa] ‘prevented’ 

ةحابس [siba:ah] ‘swimming’ ةحايس [sija:ah] ‘tourism’ 

نيت [ti:n] ‘figs’ نيط [tˁi:n] ‘mud’ 

Emphatic vowels: Phonemes or allophones? 

• Let’s for convenience use the symbol [A] and [A:] to 

mark [a] and [a:] when they are pronounced 

emphatically in Arabic. 

رئاط [tˁA:ˁʔir] ‘bird’ 

• Suppose that we pronounced that word as [tˁa:ʔir] 

instead, i.e., without spreading the emphatic feature to 

the vowel. Would that lead to a difference in meaning? 

• Actually, it does not. That means that emphatic vowels 

are not phonemes in Arabic; they are allophones. They 

are non‐contrastive, and we can actually predict where 

the occur in the language. 

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Is there a [p] phoneme in Arabic? 

• Arabic speakers may also pronounce تبتك as 

[katapt]. Does that make [p] a phoneme of 

Arabic? 

[l] vs. […]: Phonemes or allophones? 

• Now, let’s revisit the pronunciation of ﷲ again. 

• After [i:] or [i], the laam is pronounced as [l]. 

After [u:], [u], [a:], or [a], it is velarized […]: 

ﷲ مسب ِ [bismi-l-la:h] 

ﷲ َءاش نإ [ʔin-ʃa:ʔa-…‐…A:h] 

ﷲ ُدمحأ [ʔamadu-…‐…A:h] 

• Do you think [l] and […] are phonemes or 

allophones in Classical Arabic? 

Interdentals 

• Egyptian Arabic and most other sedantary dialects lost the 

interdentals [θ], [D], and [Dˁ]. 

• [θ] has generally merged with [t] in most contexts and 

occasionally with [s] in contexts that have MSA‐flavor to 

them. 

ةثلاث [tala:tah] جلث [talɡ] 

لاثم [masalan] ةيوناث [sanawijjah] 

• [D] has merged with the [z] in Egyptian: 

ركاذ [za:kir] يكذ [zaki:] 

• Words with Classical Arabic [Dˁ] are either pronounced with 

[dˁ] or with a new phoneme [zˁ] 

رھظ [dˁuhr] ملاظ [zˁa:lim] ‘unjust person’ 

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Emphatic [r] 

• When [r] is followed by a low vowel, it’s 

typically pronounced emphatically: 

يأر [rAʔj] *[raʔj] 

عبار [rA:biʕ] *[ra:biʕ] 

ةحار [rA:ah] *[ra:ah] 

Dialectal variation 

• Arabic dialects differ from Classical Arabic and 

from each other in their phonemic inventory. 

• The differences may not be too many, but they 

are salient enough to be able to identify 

speakers of certain dialects. 

• Let’s look at examples. 

The [qa:f] 

• Egyptian retained the [k] but backed the [q] into a 

glottal stop. 

بلق [ʔalb] ‘heart’ ميدق [ʔadi:m] 

• In Southern Egyptian, however, the [q] is pronounced 

as [g], as in the Bedouin dialects cited by Holes: 

بلق [ɡalb] ‘heart’ ميدق [ɡadi:m] 

• The [q] also became [k] in some Arabic dialects, 

particularly in rural areas. 

• In some dialects, the [k] became a voiceless alveo‐ 

palatal affricate [tʃ]: بلك [tʃalb]. 

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The [qa:f] 

• The [q] is still pronounced in Egyptian Arabic and 

other dialects today, mainly in words that have 

some ‘elevated status’ due to being borrowed 

from Fusha. 

– ىقيسوملا – ( resignation) 

ةلاقتسا – نآرقلا – ةفاقث 

( armed forced) 

ةحلسملا تاوقلا 

• Dialects, however, differ as to which words get 

assimilated to the dialectal phonology, and which 

words stay resistant to such an assimilation. 

Marginal ‘phonemes’ in the dialects 

• We already mentioned the [q] in MSA 

borrowings: ةفاقث [saqa:fah] 

• [ʒ] in foreign borrowings: تكاج [ʒa:kit] 

• [v] in foreign borrowings: لايف [villa] 

• [p] in foreign words: سيراب [pari:s] 

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The [dʒi:m] 

• The Classical Arabic [dʒ] phoneme is still retained in 

some Bedouin dialects, but has been lost for the most 

part from sedentary dialects. 

• In Egypt, [dʒ] is replaced by [ɡ]; in the Levant, by [ʒ]: 

ليمج [ɡami:l] in Egypt 

[ʒami:l] in the Levant 

[dʒami:l] in some Bedouin diaelcts 

• In lower Iraq and Gulf the [dʒ] has also been replaced 

by [j]. 

Next class agenda 

• Morphology. Read Holes’ Chapter 3, pp. 99‐ 

116 on verb morphology. 

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Stress placement; phonemes vs. allophones

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