Vowel systems of quantity languages compared: Arabic dialects and other languages

Abstract

Arabic is a quantity language: it distinguishes short vs. long phonemes. Little literature exists about CA (Collquial Arabic) dialects & CAI (CA in Israel). Here we discuss F1, F2, and durations of vowels of recorded word lists read within a carrying sentence by 40 adult Muslim speakers of two North (GD) and Center (MD) rural CAI dialects. The findings are compared with other dialects and languages. The CAI findings reveal: 1. Short vowels' vowel spaces are smaller and more concentrated than long vowels' spaces. 2. Long vowels are more stable than short vowels. 3. Significant duration differences exist between short and long vowels (GD & MD). 4. The differences vary by vowels, dialects and genders. Our findings are discussed with relation to data of some other CA dialects (Palestinian, Jordanian, Lebanese, Syrian and Moroccan), quantity (English, French, German, Swedish and Hungarian) and non-quantity (Hebrew, Spanish) languages.