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Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXXI: Papers from the annual symposium on Arabic Linguistics, Norman, Oklahoma, 2017
Edited by Amel Khalfaoui and Youssef A. Haddad
[Studies in Arabic Linguistics 8] 2019
► pp. 75–102

Post-lexical strata

Evidence from phrasal phonology in Sudanese Arabic

Building on Ali (2014, 2017), this paper proposes a Stratal OT account of the interaction between phrasal syncope and resyllabification in two dialects of Sudanese Arabic. The account expresses the connection between the two phenomena in terms of the interaction between the syncope constraint and the constraint requiring faithful mapping of input syllables. The patterns of syncope attested in the dialects indicate that these constraints have different rankings at the prosodic levels of word, φ-Phrase, ι-Phrase, and Utterance. This is evidence that the organization of post-lexical phonology is similar to that of lexical phonology; the former also consists of distinct, serially related constraint systems. The paper provides further evidence for the post-lexical stratification based on the patterns of realization of word-final clusters.

Keywords: syncope, syllabification, stratal OT, Sudanese Arabic
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
  • 3.The interaction between syncope and resyllabification
    • Overview
    • Ali’s (2014) account of phrasal syncope in UCSA and Shukriiya
    • Abu-Mansour’s (2011) account of phrasal syncope in Makkan
  • 4.A Stratal-OT account of the interaction between syncope and resyllabification
    • Lexical syncope
    • Post-lexical syncope
    • Summary
  • 5.Further evidence for post-lexical stratification
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 8 July 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sal.8.04ali
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