The Influence of Elision on the Original Syllabic Structure in English and Safwani Arabic: A Contextual Analysis

Abstract

Elision, as being a distinguishing mark among phonological processes, plays a vital role in patterning and mapping syllables of the language in a way that it can “distort” particular syllabic forms and templates. It represents deterioration, modification and to some extent radical changes in the syllabic structure of the original words even though it is usually a result of rapid colloquial speech. This study is a phonological work to detect the influence of sound deletion on syllabic templates and patterns of English and Safwani Arabic. It is an attempt to work out an analysis of the possible contexts where individual segments and syllables exhibit deletion. The analysis of all possible contexts where segments and syllables are lost in these varieties is illustrated by detailed tables within the paper. The tables are designed in a way that both original and reduced word or phrase forms are given, the context of sound elision is provided and then both original and resulting syllabic patterns are demonstrated.