An analysis of phonetic and phonological systems in classical Arabic and English: a contrastive study

Abstract

This study conducts a contrastive analysis of the phonetic and phonological systems of Classical Arabic and English, drawing from empirical speech data of 25 native informants. Through structured recitations, spontaneous speech, and acoustic analysis using Praat software, the research examines vowel duration, consonant timing, and stress assignment patterns. Phonological interpretation is grounded in Moraic Theory, CV Tier Theory, and Optimality Theory. The findings reveal fundamental distinctions: Arabic features pharyngeals, gemination, and weight-driven stress, while English permits complex consonant clusters and stress patterns shaped by lexical and morphological cues. Historical texts, including classical Arabic poetry, contextualize the diachronic stability of Arabic stress and syllable patterns. These insights enrich cross-linguistic phonological theory and have implications for phonology pedagogy and second-language acquisition.