Lingua et Linguistica
Vol. 1.1, 2007
ISBN 978-1-84753-625-9

Moroccan Arabic Syllable Structure

Mohammed Rida Bernouss
Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University, Morocco

Abstract

The present paper addresses the issue of syllable structure in Moroccan Arabic. Specifically, we will attempt to account for the formal difference between CC«-»C and C«-»CC monosyllabic words within Optimality Theory. It will be shown that this difference emerges as a direct result of the role of two active constraints in the language. The first is a sonority condition constraint, which demands from nouns to insert the schwa between the most sonorous consonant or between the last two consonants with the same sonority index. The second is an alignment constraint which fixes the epenthetic site before the last consonant in sound verbs and adjectives. This article also investigates the rationale behind the satisfaction of the sonority condition in nouns, and not verbs. Finally, we will explore a constraint that is rarely mentioned in the literature, namely the Paradigmatic Contrast constraint, which plays an important role in determining the structure of the lexicon.

pp.91-106

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