Consonantal Assimilation in Four Dialects of Jordanian Arabic.docVIP

Consonantal Assimilation in Four Dialects of Jordanian Arabic 　　Abstract 　　The current study investigates assimilation between consonants across word boundaries in four dialects of Jordanian Arabic. Sixteen native speakers of the 4 dialects provided the production part （four from each dialect）. Another 16 trained listeners heard the phrases， and readings were transcribed. The paper reports a number of asymmetries along the dimensions of place， manner， voicing and directionality. These asymmetries are corresponding to earlier typological works in the literature（e.g. Mohanon， 1993； Jun， 1995） and a few which are not. The study presents rich linguistic data， contributing as the basis for a valuable cross-dialectal study of consonant assimilation in JA. Consonant assimilation in the four dialects provides excellent support for the results of some previous studies on assimilation in consonant clusters. 　　Key words： Arabic dialects； Consonant assimilation； Place； Manner； Voicing 　　INTRODUCTION 　　Phonological assimilation （a speech feature resembling another feature in a neighboring segment in less careful speech） has been viewed as a purely linguistic phenomenon （Kohler， 1991 1992； Mohanan， 1993； Hansson， 2001； Rose Walker， 2004， Jun 1995 2005， and many others）. Phonological assimilation occurs either within a word or across words. It may occur between vowels， between consonants， or between vowels and consonants. A wide spectrum of features may be involved in the process such as place， manner， voicing， vowel height， vowel rounding， and nasalization. The phenomenon is found in many languages （English， Arabic， Catalan， Korean， and many other languages）. Assimilation is accounted for by underspecification theory， by feature geometry， and by generative phonology. In OT， it is viewed as the competition between Faithfulness and Markedness constraints for both articulatory and perceptual constraints， see Steriade（1995， 2001）， Myers （1997）， and Boersma （1998）. The purpose