A Comparative Reconstruction of Proto-Purus (Arawakan) Segmental Phonology

The Arabic dialectology literature repeatedly asserts the existence of a macro-level classificatory relationship binding the Arabic speech varieties of the combined Egypto-Sudanic area. This proposal, though oft-encountered, has not previously been formulated in reference to extensive linguistic criteria, but is instead framed primarily on the nonlinguistic premise of historical demographic and genealogical relationships joining the Arabic-speaking communities of the region. The present contribution provides a linguistically based evaluation of this proposed dialectal grouping, to assess whether the postulated dialectal unity is meaningfully borne out by available language data. Isoglosses from the domains of segmental phonology, phonological processes, pronominal morphology, verbal inflection, and syntax are analyzed across six dialects representing Arabic speech in the region. These are shown to offer minimal support for a unified Egypto-Sudanic dialect classification, but instead to indicate a significant north–south differentiation within the sample—a finding further qualified via application of the novel method of Historical Glottometry developed by François and Kalyan. The investigation concludes with reflection on the implications of these results on the understandings of the correspondence between linguistic and human genealogical relationships in the history of Arabic and in dialectological practice more broadly.

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Segmental phonology

A Grammar of Kham ◽

10.1017/cbo9780511486883.003 ◽

2002 ◽

pp. 17-35

Keyword(s):

Segmental Phonology

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The Segmental Phonology of Carhaisien Breton

Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie ◽

10.1515/zcph.1984.40.1.118 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

Author(s):

LENORA A. TIMM

Keyword(s):

Segmental Phonology

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Computationally, tone is different

Phonology ◽

10.1017/s0952675716000129 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 33 (2) ◽

pp. 247-283 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Adam Jardine

Keyword(s):

Optimality Theory ◽

Phonological Processes ◽

Segmental Phonology ◽

Crucial Information ◽

The Asymmetry

This paper establishes that unbounded circumambient processes, phonological processes for which crucial information in the environment may appear unboundedly far away on both sides of a target, are common in tonal phonology, but rare in segmental phonology. It then argues that this typological asymmetry is best characterised by positing that tone is more computationally complex than segmental phonology. The evidence for the asymmetry is based around attestations of unbounded tonal plateauing, but it is also shown how the ‘sour-grapes’ harmony pathology is unbounded circumambient. The paper argues that such processes are not weakly deterministic, which contrasts with previous typological work on segmental phonology. Positing that weak determinism bounds segmental phonology but not tonal phonology thus captures the typological asymmetry. It is also discussed why this explanation is superior to any offered by Optimality Theory.

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