Toward a Typology of Arabic Dialects: The Role of Final Consonantality

Abstract

The salient constraint on Arabic stems is final consonantality which stipulates that the right edge of a stem must be marked by a consonant. In this paper, I examine the role of final consonantality as an extended prosodic constraint operating on syllables and moras, functioning as a parameter differentiating the main two dialectal types, onset and coda dialects. The effect of final consonantality is observed not only in specifying the site of epenthesis, but also in determining the distribution of prosodic rules such as gemination, degemination, and syncope as well as predicting the quality of the epenthetic vowel. The hypothesis is that extending final consonantality to the phonological component of the grammar in coda dialects is motivated by the desire to ensure uniformity between edges of prosodic and morphological constituents.