The sounds and pronunciation of Egyptian Arabic
This article is about the phonology of
Egyptian Arabic
, also known as
Cairene
Arabic
or
Masri
.
[1]
It deals with the
phonology
and
phonetics
of Egyptian Arabic as well as the
phonological development
of child native speakers of the dialect. To varying degrees, it affects the
pronunciation
of
Literary Arabic
by native Egyptian Arabic speakers, as is the case for speakers of all other
varieties of Arabic
.
Phonemes
[
edit
]
Consonants
[
edit
]
- ^1
Emphatic
consonants are not commonly pronounced by illiterate speakers, which suggests that they are foreign and borrowed from Literary Arabic.
- ^2
Many Egyptians cannot pronounce
[p,
v,
?]
, which are mostly found in names or loanwords from languages like English, French and Persian, not Literary Arabic.
- [
?
]
, which can come from the deaffrication of foreign
/
d??
/
) in Egyptianized loanwords, tends to merge with
[
?
]
. For example,
????
('garage') is mostly pronounced
[?????ː?]
, even by educated speakers.
[
citation needed
]
- ^3
A few
rural
speakers away from
Cairo
pronounce this
[
?
]
instead of
[
?
]
,
[
citation needed
]
but doing so in native vocabulary is not considered
prestigious
.
- ^4
Watson (2002)
argues that emphatic
/??,
b?,
m?,
l?/
are additional consonants in Egyptian Arabic with marginal status.
- ^5
/z?,
q/
appear in borrowings from Literary Arabic with
/ð?,
q/
. In inherited words, the two phonemes regularly became
/d?,
?/
respectively.
- Non-Egyptianized loanwords with
/
q
/
may either be Egyptianized to
[
?
]
or approximated to
[
k?
]
, with the front vowel
/
æ
/
being backed to
[
?
]
in a word having an open vowel in the latter case.
- /ð?/
in borrowings from Literary Arabic are realized as
/z?/
. A few words with original
/d?/
became with
/z?/
, e.g. from the
triliteral
root ?-?-? as in
????
turned to
????
[?z??ːbet?]
, "police/military officer".
- Non-Egyptianized loanwords having
interdental consonants
(
/
θ
/
,
/
ð
/
) are approximated to the
sibilants
[
s
]
,
[
z
]
.
Traditionally, the
interdental consonants
/θ
ð
ð?/
correspond to the Egyptian Arabic
alveolar consonants
/t
d
d?/
.
[
citation needed
]
This is a feature common to some North African Arabic varieties and is attested in pre-modern, inherited words:
- /θ/
>
/t/
:
/ta?lab/
('fox') from
*/θa?lab/
????
(never *
/sa?lab/
). Likewise:
/tal?/
('ice') from
*/θal?/
???
,
/taman/
('price') from
*/θaman/
???
,
/talaːta/
('three') from
*/θalaːθa/
?????
,
/miħraːt/
('plough') from
*/miħraːθ/
?????
, and
/?atar/
('tripped') from *
/?aθar/
???
.
- /ð/
>
/d/
:
/deːl/
('tail') from
*/ðajl/
???
and never
/zajl/
. Likewise
/dakar/
('male') from
*/ðakar/
???
,
/kidib/
('lied') from
*/kaðib/
???
, and
/diːb/
('wolf') from
*/ði?b/
???
.
- /ð?/
>
/d(?)/
:
/d(?)ufr/
('nail') from
*/ð?ufr/
???
(never *
/z?ufr/
). Likewise
/ð?/
>
/d?/
:
/d?alma/
('darkness'), from
*/ð?ulma/
????
;
/?ad?m/
('bone'), from ???
/?að?m/
.
However, unlike other North African varieties, in Egyptian Arabic, the Literary Arabic interdental consonants
/θ
ð
ð?/
may correspond to
sibilant consonants
/s
z
z?/
, particularly in more recent learned borrowings.
- /θ/
>
/s/
:
/sawra/
('revolution'), from Literary
/θawra/
????
- /ð/
>
/z/
:
/?izaː?a/
('broadcasting'), from Literary
/?iðaː?a/
?????
- /ð?/
>
/z?/
:
/baz?r/
('clitoris'), from Literary
/bað?r/
???
The correspondent phoneme of the Classical Arabic
j
,
?
*/?/
, is realized as a
velar
in the dialect of Cairo, in the same way as it is in some Arabic dialects of southern Yemen.
Thus,
?abal
???
('mountain') is pronounced, even in Literary Arabic, as
[??æbæl]
rather than
/d??abal/
.
The linguist Janet C. E. Watson considers the following to be additional marginal consonants:
- The emphatic rhotic
/r?/
in some native words, such as
[?b????i]
('my cows',
/?ba?ar?/
being 'cows'), which contrasts with
[?bæ?æ?i]
('cow-like, of cows', a derived adjective). Additionally, in loanwords from European languages, such as
[b?????ot]
('parachute').
- The labial emphatics
/b?/
and
/m?/
also in loanwords; minimal pairs include
/b?aːb?a/
[?b?ːb?]
('patriarch') vs
/baːba/
[?bæːbæ]
('
Paopi
').
Classical Arabic *
/
q
/
became
[
?
]
in Cairo and the Nile Delta (a feature also shared with
Levantine Arabic
),
but
/
q
/
is retained natively in some dialects to the west of the Nile Delta, outside of
Alexandria
,
and has been reintroduced as a marginal phoneme from Standard Arabic, particularly relating to certain religious words,
besides others such as those deriving from the root
/θ-q-f/
, relating to the
intellect
and
culture
.
/q/
may be used to distinguish between homophones, at least in mildly careful speech. For example,
?????
/?æ?nuːn/
may be disambiguated as
[q??nuːn]
('law') vs.
[?æ?nuːn]
('
kanun
, a musical instrument');
???
[??æwi]
as
[?q?wi]
('strong') or the colloquial adverb
[??æwi]
('very').
[7]
/
v
/
,
[8]
/
p
/
,
[9]
and
/
?
/
appear in loanwords such as
[?æ?kettæ,
??æ(ː)ket]
('jacket').
[10]
Allophones
[
edit
]
Assimilation
[
edit
]
- Pharyngeal consonants
before
/
h
/
:
- The sequence
/ħ
h
/
is more commonly pronounced
[ħ
ħ
]
, especially outside of careful speech.
[
citation needed
]
For example,
/fæ?tæħ
h
æ/
('opened it
(feminine)
') →
[fæ?tæħ
ħ
æ]
.
- The sequence
/?h/
is more commonly pronounced
[??ħ?]
(or sometimes
[ħħ]
), especially outside of careful speech.
[
citation needed
]
For example,
/bi?ta?ha/
('hers') →
[be?tæ??ħ?æ]
or
[be?tæħħæ]
.
- Velar fricatives
before
/
h
/
:
- /?h/
→
[x?x?]
:
/di?ma?ha/
('her brain') →
[de?mæx?x?æ]
- /xh/
→
[xx?]
:
/wab?baxha/
('[he] scolded her') →
[wæb?bæxx?æ]
- /
n
/
before
/
b
/
:
- Often, the sequence of
/nb/
assimilates to
[mb]
.
- Examples:
/zanb/
('guilt') →
[zæmb]
;
/?an?buːba/
('tube') →
[?æm?buːbæ]
;
/il?linbi/
('
Allenby
') →
[el?lembi]
.
[note 1]
- Sibilant consonants
before
/
?
/
:
- Word-finally:
- The sequences
/s?/
and
/s??/
are more commonly pronounced
[ss]
, especially outside of careful speech.
[
citation needed
]
For example,
/mabas
?
/
('didn't kiss') →
[mæ?bæ
s(s)
]
- The sequences
/z?/
and
/z??/
are more commonly pronounced
[ss]
.
[
citation needed
]
For example,
/mabaz??/
('wasn't corrupt') →
[m??b?s(s)]
.
- Intervocalic:
- /s?/
→
[??]
:
/kiːs?ibsi/
('
Chipsy
sac') →
[?kiː???ibsi]
Voicing and devoicing
[
edit
]
For some speakers, there is a
voicing and devoicing
assimilation
for the following consonants:
- The sequence
/??/
is more commonly pronounced
[??]
. For example,
/mamanti??/
('didn't montage') →
[mæmæn?te?(?)]
.
- Voiced:
/
t
/
→
[
d
]
;
/
s
/
→
[
z
]
;
/
s?
/
→
[
z?
]
;
/
k
/
→
[
?
]
;
/
x
/
→
[
?
]
;
/
?
/
→
[
?
]
;
/
f
/
→
[
v
]
.
- Devoiced:
/
d
/
→
[
t
]
;
/
z
/
→
[
s
]
;
/
z?
/
→
[
s?
]
;
/
?
/
→
[
k
]
;
/
?
/
→
[
x
]
;
/
?
/
→
[
?
]
;
/
v
/
→
[
f
]
.
When the input consonants are plosives differing only in voicing, the resultant assimilation will be complete.
- Examples on voicing assimilation:
/la
x
bat?/
('he/it confused') →
[?l?
?
b?t?]
;
/ji
s
ba?/
('outrun') →
[?je
z
bæ?]
;
/ma
?
?buːh/
('suspected') →
[mæ
?
?buːh]
;
/la
f
z?/
('utter') →
[l?
v
z?]
;
/mi
t
?daːji?/
('annoyed') →
[me
d
?dæːje?]
, a complete assimilation.
- Examples of devoicing assimilation:
/mo
?
?tama?/
('society') →
[mo
k
?tæmæ?]
;
/jista
?
fa?/
('ask forgiveness [of God]') →
[jes?t?
x
f??]
;
/xa
d
t/
('took') →
[xæ
t
(t)]
, a complete assimilation.
Vowels
[
edit
]
The Egyptian Arabic
vocalic system
differs from
Classical Arabic
. The system of vowels is as follows:
The short vowels
/?/
and
/?/
are realized as
[
i
]
and
[
?
]
respectively at the end of a word. The vowel
[
?
]
is mostly from non-Semitic words if not in words with
emphatic consonants
.
The symbols ⟨
e
⟩ and ⟨
o
⟩ represent vowels that vary between close-mid
[
e
,
o
]
and near-close
[
e?
,
o?
]
. Their centralized allophones (transcribed with ⟨
?
⟩ and ⟨
?
⟩) have the same variable height:
[
?
~
??
]
and
[
?
~
??
]
.
The final allophone of
/u/
varies in height between close
[
u
]
and close-mid
[
o
]
(
[
?
~
?
]
when centralized). For the sake of simplicity, only ⟨
u
⟩ and ⟨
?
⟩ are used in this section.
Long vowels
(always stressed)
|
/iː/
:
[
iː
]
|
/uː/
:
[
uː
]
|
/eː/
:
[
eː
]
|
/oː/
:
[
oː
]
|
/aː/
:
[
æː
]
,
[
?ː
]
|
/eː/
and
/oː/
are close-mid
[
eː
,
oː
]
.
The phonemes
/a/
and
/aː/
are in the process of splitting into two phonemes each, resulting in the four Egyptian Arabic phonemes
/æ
æː
?
?ː/
. The front and back variants alternate in verbal and nominal paradigms in ways that are largely predictable, but the back variants
/?
?ː/
occur unpredictably in some lexical stems, especially those of non-Semitic origin. This is discussed more below.
Vowels
[
e
]
and
[
o
]
are often regarded as allophones of the vowels
/i/
and
/u/
respectively instead of constituting separate vowel phonemes; so they cannot form minimal pairs. For further discussion regarding vowel allophony in Egyptian Arabic, see
Georgiou 2018
.
Also Watson does not consider the short mid vowels
[e]
and
[o]
as phonemes on their own and says that they are not used by most speakers of Cairene.
Woidich argues that educated speakers of Cairene when pronouncing carefully and slowly tend to distinguish short
[e]
and
[o]
as the results of shortened
/eː/
and
/oː/
from short
[?]
and
[?]
which leads to minimal pairs between them, but stresses that this does not happen with normal speech tempo.
[
eː
]
and
[
oː
]
are derived from the
Classical Arabic
diphthongs
/aj/
and
/aw/
, respectively, when occurring in
closed syllables
(i.e. not followed by a vowel). Note that the diphthongs
/aj/
and
/aw/
also occur in the same environment, due to later deletion of unstressed vowels and resulting contraction, e.g.
/mudawla/
[mo?dæwlæ]
('consultation') from Classical
*/mudaːwala/
.
Minimal pairs such as
/?ajla/
[??æjlæ]
('carrying fem. sg.' and
/?eːla/
[??eːlæ]
('burden') also occur. Both of these words are derived from
*/?aːjila/
;
/?eːla/
is the phonologically regular outcome, while
/?ajla/
is an analogical reformation based on the corresponding participial form
/CaCCa/
of other verbs of the same class.
Egyptian Arabic maintains in all positions the early post-Classical distinctions between short
/
i
/
and
/
u
/
. Unlike, for example,
Levantine Arabic
dialects, which merge
/
i
/
and
/
u
/
into
[
e
]
in most positions, and
Moroccan Arabic
, which deletes
/
i
/
,
/
u
/
and
/
a
/
in all positions. In particular, note the different shapes and vowel distinctions between
[ke?tæːb]
('book') and
[?o?mæːl]
('beautiful' pl.) vs.
[?e?mæːl]
('camels') and
[ex?t?ː?]
('he chose'); in most Levantine dialects, all the short vowels in these words are
elided
, leading to the identical shapes
/ktaːb/
,
/?maːl/
,
/xtaːr/
.
An
epenthetic
vowel is automatically inserted after the second of three or more consonants in a cluster to break up such clusters. The epenthetic vowel is analyzed as
/
i
/
, even though there is a minimal pair distinguishing in many cases between
[
e
]
and
[
i
]
, leading to:
- /bint
?a.miː.la/
[?ben.t
e
?æ?miː.læ]
('a beautiful girl')
- /bin.t
i
?a.miː.la/
[?ben.t
i
?æ?miː.læ]
('my girl is beautiful')
Emphasis spreading
[
edit
]
Many spoken
Arabic varieties
have developed two allophones of the
Classical Arabic
vowels
/
a
/
and
/
aː
/
, with fronted allophones
[æ
æː]
occurring in most circumstances, but backed allophones
[?
?ː]
occurring in the vicinity of
emphatic consonants
. This process is known as
emphasis spreading
. The exact criteria of both "vicinity" and "emphatic consonant" varies depending on the individual speech variety. In Egyptian Arabic, the occurrence of
[?
?ː]
is no longer completely predictable, suggesting that these sounds have become
phonemicized
or inherited from the Coptic language, the former language of Egypt; but see below for more discussion.
In Egyptian Arabic, the consonants that trigger emphasis spreading include the
pharyngealized
consonants
/t?
d?
s?
z?/
, the
uvular
stop
/
q
/
, and some instances of
/
r
/
(see below). On the other hand, the
pharyngeal consonants
/ħ
?/
do
not
trigger emphasis spreading; in the prestigious Cairene dialect, the
velar
fricatives
/x
?/
also do not, although this is different in the
Saidi
variant in which they are
uvular
[χ
?]
.
In general, when emphasis spreading is triggered, the back variants
[?
?ː]
spread both forward and backward throughout the phonological word, including any morphological prefixes, suffixes and
clitics
. Note that this is different from many other Arabic varieties. For example, in
Moroccan Arabic
, emphasis spreading usually travels no farther than the first full vowel on either side of the triggering consonant, and in many varieties of
Levantine Arabic
, emphasis spreading is of indefinite extent but is blocked by the phonemes
/j
?/
. Nevertheless, emphasis spreading is not completely reliable, and there is some free variation, especially in the pronunciation of prefixes and suffixes at some distance from the triggering consonant.
Some instances of
/
r
/
trigger emphasis spreading, while others do not. Originally, an
/
r
/
adjacent to
/
i
/
was considered non-emphatic, while others were emphatic and triggered emphasis spreading. Currently, however, this is no more than a rough guideline, as many exceptions have since developed. This situation has led the linguist
Janet C. E. Watson
, who mostly studied the
Yemeni Arabic
dialects, to postulate the existence of two phonemes
/r
r?/
, which both surface as
[r~?]
but where only
/
r?
/
triggers emphasis spreading. This analysis is not completely ideal in that these two resulting "phonemes"
/r
r?/
alternate to a large extent (often unpredictably) in related forms derived from the same root.
Currently, to the extent that the emphatic or non-emphatic variant of
/
r
/
can be predicted, it works as follows: If
/
r
/
is adjacent to a vowel
/i(ː)/
, emphasis-spreading is inhibited; otherwise, it occurs. The
/
r
/
is able to "see across"
derivational
but not
inflectional
morphemes. As an example,
[te???ː??]
('commerce') and
[?tekb??]
('you grow' masc.) both have emphasis spreading, since
/
r
/
occurs adjacent to low
/a(ː)/
but not adjacent to any non-low front vowel. On the other hand, of the derived forms
[te??æː?i]
('commercial') and
[tek?b??i]
('you grow' fem.), only the latter has emphasis spreading. In this case, the derivational suffix
/-i/
('related to') creates a new
lexical item
in the language's vocabulary, and hence the stem is reevaluated for emphasis, with the non-low front vowel
/i/
triggering non-emphatic
/
r
/
; but the inflectional suffix
/-i/
marking feminine singular does not create a new lexical item, and as a result the emphasis in the stem remains. (For these purposes, past and non-past forms of a verb are considered separate stems; hence alternations can occur like
/istamar?r?/
'he continued' vs.
/jistamirr/
'he continues'.)
An emphasis-spreading
/
r
/
is usually adjacent to a low vowel
/a(ː)/
(which in turn is backed to
/?(ː)/
), but that is not necessary, and
/u(ː)/
also triggers emphasis-spreading: Examples
/ma?huːr?/
('famous') →
[m???huː?]
,
/ma?r?uː?/
('project') →
[m???ruː?]
,
/r?ufajja?/
('thin') →
[ro?f?jj??]
.
The alternation between
[
æ(ː)
]
and
[
?(ː)
]
is almost completely predictable in verbal and nominal paradigms, as well as in the large majority of words derived from Classical Arabic. It is also irrelevant for the operation of the numerous phonological adjustment rules (e.g. vowel lengthening, shortening and elision) in Egyptian Arabic. As a result, linguistic descriptions tend to subsume both under an
archiphoneme
/a(ː)/
. On the other hand, there are a number of
lexical items
in which "autonomous"
[?
?ː]
tend to occur irrespective of the presence of emphatic consonants. A few are in Aramaic-derived words, e.g.
[?m?jj?]
('water'), but the majority are in words of non-Semitic origin ? especially those derived from European languages ? where
[?
?ː]
echo the vowel quality of
/a/
in those languages.
Different authors have proposed differing phonemic analyses of this situation:
- Some go ahead and treat all occurrences of
[æ(ː)
?(ː)]
as separate phonemes, despite the additional complexity of the resulting morphological descriptions;
- Some treat only "autonomous" occurrences of
[?(ː)]
as phonemes
/?(ː)/
, with all the rest subsumed under
/a(ː)/
;
- Some have created new emphatic consonants (e.g. analyzing
[?m?jj?]
as
/m?ajja/
, where underlying
/m?/
surfaces as
[
m
]
but triggers the back allophone
[
?
]
);
- Some have ignored the distinction entirely.
The approach followed here is to ignore the distinction in phonemic descriptions, subsuming
[æ(ː)
?(ː)]
as allophones of
/a(ː)/
, but where necessary to also include a phonetic explication (i.e. detailed pronunciation) that indicates the exact quality of all vowels. Generally, these phonetic explications are given for the examples in the section on
phonology
, and elsewhere whenever autonomous
[
?(ː)
]
occurs.
Phonological processes
[
edit
]
Examples of operations on vowels
Operation
|
Original
|
After operation (phonemic)
|
Pronunciation (phonetic)
|
Vowel shortening
|
/?aːl
li/
'he.said ? to.me'
|
/?alli/
|
[??ælli]
'he said to me'
|
Vowel lengthening
|
/katabu/
'they wrote' +
/-ha/
'it (fem.)'
|
/kata?buːha/
|
[kætæ?buːhæ]
'they wrote it'
|
Vowel deletion (
syncope
)
|
/fi/
'in' +
/kitaːb/
'a book'
|
/fiktaːb/
|
[fek?tæːb]
'in a book'
|
Vowel insertion (
epenthesis
)
|
/il/
'the' +
/bint/
'girl' +
/di/
'this'
|
/il
bintdi/
|
[el
?bente?di]
'this girl'
|
Vowel shortening
[
edit
]
All long vowels are shortened when followed by two consonants (including
geminated
consonants), and also in unstressed syllables, though they are sometimes kept long in careful speech pronunciations of loanwords, as in
/qaː?hira/
('Cairo') and a few other borrowings from Classical Arabic with similar shapes, such as
/z?aː?hira/
('phenomenon').
Long vowel
[iː,
uː]
, when shortened collapse with
[e,
o]
which are, as well, the shortened form of
[eː,
oː]
; as a result, the following three words are only distinguished contextually:
- /?ibna/
[??ebnæ]
('cheese')
- /?iːb/
+
/na/
→
/?ibna/
[??ebnæ]
('we brought')
- /?eːb/
+
/na/
→
/?ebna/
[??ebnæ]
('our pocket')
It is worth mentioning that vowel shortening is not made by
rural speakers
of Egyptian Arabic, whose form of speech is in decline.
Vowel lengthening
[
edit
]
Final short vowels are lengthened when the stress is brought forward onto them as a result of the addition of a suffix.
Vowel deletion (
syncope
)
[
edit
]
Unstressed
/i/
and
/u/
are deleted (i.e.
syncope
) when occurring in the context /VC
V
CV/, i.e. in an internal syllable with a single consonant on both sides. This also applies across word boundaries in cases of close syntactic connection.
Three or more consonants are never allowed to appear together, including across a word boundary. When such a situation would occur, an
epenthetic
[
e
]
is inserted between the second and third consonants.
Vowel elision and linking
[
edit
]
Unlike in most Arabic dialects, Egyptian Arabic has many words that logically begin with a vowel (e.g.
/ana/
'I'), in addition to words that logically begin with a glottal stop (e.g.
/?awi/
'very', from Classical
/qawij(j)/
'strong'). When pronounced in isolation, both types of words will be sounded with an initial glottal stop. However, when following another word, words beginning with a vowel will often follow smoothly after the previous word, while words beginning with a glottal stop will always have the glottal stop sounded, e.g.:
- /il
walad
(?)aħmar/
→
[el
?wælæ?d?ħm??]
or
[el
?wælæd
???ħm??]
('the boy is red)
- /inta
kibiːr
?awi/
→
/intakbiːr
?awi/
[entæk?biː?
??æwi]
('you [masc. sg.] are very big')
The phonetic pronunciations indicated above also demonstrate the phenomenon of
linking
, a normal process in Egyptian Arabic where syllable boundaries are adjusted across word boundaries to ensure that every syllable begins with exactly one consonant.
Elision
of vowels often occurs across word boundaries when a word ending with a vowel is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, especially when the two vowels are the same, or when one is
/i/
.
More specifically, elision occurs in the following circumstances:
- When both vowels are the same, one will be elided.
- When final
/i/
is followed by initial
/a/
,
/i/
is elided.
- When any vowel is followed by initial
/i/
,
/i/
is elided.
Examples of elision
Condition for elision
|
Original
|
After elision (phonemic)
|
Pronunciation (phonetic)
|
Both vowels same
|
/inta
aħmar/
|
/intaħmar/
|
[en?t?ħm??]
'you (masc. sg.) are red'
|
Final
/i/
followed by initial
/a/
|
/naːwi
aruːħ/
|
/naːwaruːħ/
|
[?næːw???uːħ]
'I intend to go'
|
|
/xallini
arawwaħ/
|
/xalliːnarawwaħ/
|
[xæl?liːn????ww?ħ]
'let me go home'
|
Vowel followed by initial
/i/
|
/da
illi
ana
?aːwiz+u/
|
/dallana
?awzu/
|
[?dæl?lænæ
??æwzu]
'that's what I want'
|
|
/huwwa
inta
kibiːr/
|
/huwwantakbiːr/
|
[how?wæntæk?biː?]
'are you grown-up?'
|
Multiple processes
[
edit
]
Multiple processes often apply simultaneously. An example of both insertion and deletion working together comes from the phrase
/il
bint
kibiːra/
('the girl is grown up'):
Example of insertion and deletion together:
- Underlying representation:
/il
bint
kibiːra/
- Epenthesis in CCC sequence:
*/il
bintekibiːra/
- Deletion of
/i/
VCVCV:
[il
bintekbiːra]
- Surface realization:
[el
?ben.tek?biːræ]
Compare
/il
walad
kibiːr/
('the boy is grown up'), where neither process applies.
Similarly, an example of both deletion and long-vowel shortening appears in the phrase
/s?aːħiba/
('friend' fem.):
- Underlying representation:
/s?aːħiba/
- Deletion of
/i/
in VCVCV:
*/s?aːħba/
- Vowel shortening in VCC:
[s?aħb+a]
- Surface realization:
[?s??ħb?]
Compare with Classical Arabic
/s?aːħiba/
.
The operation of the various processes can often produce ambiguity:
- /ana
?aːwiz
aːkul/
→
/ana
?awzaːkul/
('I [masc.] want to eat')
- /ana
?aːwiza
aːkul/
→
/ana
?awza
aːkul/
→
/ana
?awzaːkul/
('I [fem.] want to eat')
Hence,
[ænæ
??aw?zæːkol]
is ambiguous in regards to grammatical gender.
Letter names
[
edit
]
In Egypt, the letters are called
??? ??
[??ælef
be]
or
??????
[?æb?æ?dej.jæ]
, and are even taught in entertainment and children's shows, like the
Egyptian version
of
Sesame Street
.
[15]
The following table does not contain the characters which have the same names in Literary Arabic.
Letter
|
Name in Arabic
|
Pronunciation
|
Phoneme
|
?
|
???
|
[??ælef]
|
?
,
?
,
æ(ː)
,
?(ː)
|
?
|
??
|
[be]
|
b
|
?
|
??
|
[te]
|
t
|
?? ??????
|
[teh
mæf?tuːħæ]
|
?
|
??
|
[se,
θe]
|
s
,
θ
|
?
|
???
|
[?iːm]
|
?
|
?
|
??
|
[ħ?]
|
ħ
|
?
|
??
|
[x?]
|
x
|
?
|
???
|
[dæːl]
|
d
|
?
|
???
|
[zæːl,
ðæːl]
|
z
,
ð
|
?
|
??
|
[?e]
|
?
|
?
|
???
|
[zeːn]
|
z
|
?
|
???
|
[siːn]
|
s
|
?
|
???
|
[?iːn]
|
?
|
?
|
???
|
[s??ːd]
|
s?
|
?
|
???
|
[d??ːd]
|
d?
|
?
|
??
|
[t??]
|
t?
|
?
|
??
|
[z??,
ð??]
|
z?
,
ð?
|
?
|
???
|
[?eːn]
|
?
|
?
|
???
|
[?eːn]
|
?
|
?
|
??
|
[fe]
|
f
|
?
|
???
|
[q?ːf]
|
q
,
?
|
?
|
???
|
[kæːf]
|
k
|
?
|
???
|
[læːm]
|
l
|
?
|
???
|
[miːm]
|
m
|
?
|
???
|
[nuːn]
|
n
|
??
|
??
|
[he]
|
h
|
?
|
???
|
[w?ːw,
wæːw]
|
w
,
u(ː)
,
o(ː)
|
?
|
??
|
[je]
|
j
,
i(ː)
,
e(ː)
|
Not considered separate letters
|
?
|
??? ????
|
[??ælef
læj?jenæ]
|
æ
,
?
|
?
|
?? ??????
|
[teh
m???buːt??]
|
t
|
?
|
???? ??? ????
|
[?hæmzæ
??ælæ
?n?b??]
|
?
|
Used in loanwords and names
|
?
|
?? ????? ???
|
[be
be?tælæt
?no??t?]
|
p
|
?
|
??? ????? ???
|
[?iːm
be?tælæt
?no??t?]
|
?
|
?
|
?? ????? ???
|
[fe
be?tælæt
?no??t?]
|
v
|
- Notes
- Traditionally,
/teh
m??buːt??/
(
?
) and
/he/
(
?
) were only distinguished in writing if a
/
t
/
is
finally pronounced
. The final and separate
/je/
(
?
) are written in the same way they are in Ottoman Turkish and
Persian
, but two different characters are used electronically. The
dental
pronunciations of
/se,
zæːl,
z??/
(
?
,
?
,
?
) are uncommon out of learned contexts.
Phonotactics
[
edit
]
Syllable structure
[
edit
]
Egyptian Arabic has the following five syllable types: CV, CVː, CVC, CVːC, and CVCC.
CVː, CVːC, and CVCC are long, or
heavy
, syllables. Long syllables bear
primary stress
, and there is only one stressed syllable per word.
Egyptian Arabic has a strong preference for heavy syllables, and various phonetic adjustments conspire to modify the surface pronunciation of connected speech towards the ideal of consisting entirely of heavy syllables. Examples can be seen below:
- Shortening of long vowels to avoid superheavy syllables (CVːC.CV → CVC.CV)
- Lengthening of short vowels to avoid light stressed syllables (?CV.CV → ?CVː.CV) or the increasingly rarer cases (?CV.CVC → ?CVː.CVC) or avoiding light syllables and converting them into heavy syllables (CVC → CVːC)
- Elision of short vowels to avoid sequences of superlight syllables (CV.CV.CV → CVC.CV)
- Insertion of short vowels to avoid three-consonant sequences, which would result in a superheavy syllable (CVCC.CV or CVC.CCV → CVC.CV.CV)
- Movement of syllable boundaries across word boundaries to avoid vowel-initial syllables (CVC VC VC → CV.C-V.C-VC)
- Insertion of a glottal stop when necessary to avoid vowel-initial syllables
An example of these various processes together:
/da
illi
ana
?aːwiz-u/
→
/dallana
?awzu/
('that's what I want')
Operation
|
Result
|
Original
|
/da
illi
ana
?aːwizu/
|
Deletion of short
high vowel in CVːC
V
CV
|
/da
illi
ana
?aːwzu/
|
Shortening before
two consonants
|
/da
illi
ana
?awzu/
|
Elision of
/i/
next to a vowel
|
/dallana
?awzu/
|
Continuous, resyllabified pronunciation (phonetic)
|
[?dæl?læ.næ??æw.zu]
|
Normal-form pronunciation
|
[?dæl?lænæ
??æwzu]
|
In the following and similar analyses, the normal-form pronunciation is given as the phonetic equivalent of the given phonemic form, although the intermediate steps may be given if necessary for clarity.
Other examples include
/ana
?aːwiz
aːkul/
('I want to eat') →
[ænæ
??æw?zæːkol]
,
/ana
?aːwiz
aːkulu/
('I want to eat it') →
[ænæ
??æw?zæklu]
, and
/humma
?aːwiziːn
jaːkuluː/
('They want to eat it') →
[hommæ
?æw?ziːn
jæk?luː]
.
Prosody
[
edit
]
Stress
[
edit
]
The position of stress is essentially automatic. The basic rule is that, proceeding from the end to the beginning of the word, the stress goes on the first encountered syllable of any of these types:
- A
heavy syllable
: that is, a syllable ending in either a long vowel (CVː), a long vowel and a consonant (CVːC), or two consonants (CVCC)
- A non-final light syllable that directly follows a heavy syllable
- A non-final light syllable that directly follows two light syllables (i.e. ...CVCV?CVCV...)
- The first syllable of the word
Examples of rules of stress placement
Rule
|
Phonemic form (no stress)
|
Phonetic form (stressed)
|
Meaning
|
1a. Syllable closed with a long vowel
|
/kaː.tib/
|
[?kæːteb]
|
'writing' or 'writer'
|
|
/ki.taːb/
|
[ke?tæːb]
|
'book'
|
|
/tik.ti.biː/
|
[tekte?biː]
|
'you (fem.) write it'
|
1b. Syllable closed with two consonants
|
/ka.tabt/
|
[kæ?tæbt]
|
'I wrote'
|
|
/kat.ba/
|
[?kætbæ]
|
'female writer'
|
|
/mak.tab/
|
[?mæktæb]
|
'desk'
|
|
/tik.tib/
|
[?tekteb]
|
'you (masc.) write'
|
2. Nonfinal light syllable following heavy syllable
|
/mak.ta.ba/
|
[mæk?tæbæ]
|
'library'
|
|
/tik.ti.bi/
|
[tek?tebi]
|
'you (fem.) write'
|
3. Nonfinal light syllable following two lights
|
/ka.ta.bi.tu/
|
[kætæ?betu]
|
'she wrote it'
|
4. First syllable
|
/ka.tab/
|
[?kætæb]
|
'he wrote'
|
|
/ka.ta.bit/
|
[?kætæbet]
|
'she wrote'
|
Because the stress is almost completely predictable, it is not indicated in phonemic transcriptions (but
is
given in the corresponding phonetic explication).
Phonological development
[
edit
]
Phonemic developmental stages
[
edit
]
Omar & Nydell (1973)
identifies three stages in the phonological acquisition of Egyptian Arabic, ending with completion of the consonant inventory (with the possible exception of
/
q
/
) at approximately age five.
- Babbling stage: (~6?10 months)
The sound inventory found in the
babbling
stage does not technically consist of phonemes, but rather vowel- and consonant-
like
sounds. Therefore, they are not true speech sounds.
Like children acquiring other world languages, Egyptian Arabic infants produce consonant-like sounds approximating
/
b
/
,
/
p
/
,
/
?
/
,
/
h
/
,
/
?
/
,
/
v
/
,
/
z
/
,
/
m
/
,
/
w
/
,
/
j
/
.
At this stage children have acquired the basic
/i/
,
/a/
,
/u/
vowel triangle, and the consonants
/
b
/
,
/
m
/
,
/
w
/
,
/
j
/
, and
/
h
/
. At this stage
/
?
/
is only produced word-initially (possibly due to speakers’ tendency to insert a glottal stop on words which begin with a vowel). There is typically no voiced-voiceless contrast and no single-
double
consonant contrast.
Newly acquired phonemes are:
/
t
/
,
/
d
/
,
/
k
/
,
/
?
/
,
/
n
/
,
/
f
/
,
/
s
/
,
/
z
/
,
/
l
/
,
/
x
/
,
/
?
/
,
/
æ
/
,
/
e
/
,
/
o
/
. A voiced-voiceless contrast is now apparent in stops and fricatives. Consonant clusters appear but are unstable, often being omitted or simplified (
consonant cluster reduction
). The newly acquired
lateral
/
l
/
is frequently used in place of the
flap
/
trill
[
?
]
~
[
r
]
(
lateralization
). Example:
/mad?asa/
('school') →
[mæd?læsæ]
- Intermediate Stage II-III (~3?5 years)
Vowel length distinction, the
emphatics
/
s?
/
,
/
z?
/
,
/
t?
/
,
/
d?
/
;
/
?
/
(sometimes realized as
/
?
/
) and
/
?
/
(often realized as
[
s
]
) are acquired. A
geminated consonant
distinction is developing, although children have difficulty with
/xx/
and its voiced pair
/??/
.
- Phonemic Stage III (Adult mastery ~5 years)
The flap/trill
/
?
/
~
/
r
/
and all diphthongs and clusters are acquired, and geminate consonant distinction is stable. The phoneme
/
q
/
is rare in Egyptian Arabic and is typically only mastered with formal schooling at around age seven or eight, and is realized acceptably in the dialect as
[
k
]
.
Cross-linguistic comparison and phonological processes
[
edit
]
Egyptian Arabic phoneme acquisition has been chiefly compared to that of English. The order of phoneme acquisition is similar for both languages: Exceptions are
/
s
/
,
/
z
/
, and
/
h
/
, which appear earlier in Arabic-speaking children's inventory than in English, perhaps due to the frequency of their occurrence in the children's input.
Egyptian Arabic differs most from English in terms of age of phoneme acquisition: Vowel distinctions appear at an earlier age in Egyptian Arabic than in English, which could reflect both the smaller inventory and the higher functional value of Arabic vowels: The consonantal system, on the other hand, is completed almost a year later than that of English.
However, the lateral
/
l
/
is acquired by most Arabic-speaking children by age two, a year earlier than English-speaking children.
The most difficult phonemes for young Arabic children are emphatic stops, fricatives, and the flap
/trill
/
?
/
~
/
r
/
.
/
x
/
and
/
?
/
, which are relatively rare sounds in other languages, are the most difficult geminate consonants to acquire.
Phonological processes
[
edit
]
For children under two,
syllable reduction
and
final consonant deletion
are the most common phonological processes.
De-emphasis, involving the loss of the secondary articulation for emphatic consonants (e.g., realizing emphatic
/
s?
/
as
[
s
]
), may reflect the motoric difficulty of emphatic consonants, which are rare in world languages,
as well as their relatively low frequency and functional load in Arabic.
The back fricatives
/
ħ
/
and
/
x
/
are unusually accurate at an early age and less prone to
fronting
than in other languages.
Acquisition of syllable structure
[
edit
]
Most children have mastered all syllable types between the ages of two and three. A preference for three-syllable words is evident (CVːC syllables being the most frequently produced) and production rarely exceeds four syllables. Simplification processes like those detailed above may occur to reduce CVCC syllables to CVːC or CVC syllables; however, when children change the syllable structure, they preserve the prosodic weight of the altered syllable in order to maintain stress relations.
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
An Egyptian popular film called,
El-Lembi
(
??????
), named after
Allenby
, but has no relation to him, it is a light-comedy movie character.
References
[
edit
]
- Abou-Elsaad, T.; Baz, H.; El-Banna, M (2009).
"Developing an articulation test for Arabic-speaking school-age children"
.
Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica
.
61
(5): 275?282.
doi
:
10.1159/000235650
.
PMID
19696489
.
- Amayreh, Mousa M.; Dyson, Alice T. (1998). "The acquisition of Arabic consonants".
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
.
41
(3): 642?653.
doi
:
10.1044/jslhr.4103.642
.
PMID
9638928
.
- Amayreh, Mousa M.; Dyson, Alice T. (2000). "Phonological errors and sound changes in Arabic-speaking children".
Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics
.
14
(2): 79?109.
doi
:
10.1080/026992000298850
.
- Ammar, W. (2002). "Acquisition of syllable structure in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic". In F. Windsor; M. Kelly; N. Hewlett. (eds.).
Investigations in Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics
. Mahwah: NJ: Erlbaum. pp. 153?160.
- Behnstedt, Peter; Woidich, Manfred (1985).
Die agyptisch-arabischen Dialekte, vols. I, II
. Wiesbaden: L. Reichert.
- Georgiou, Georgios P. (2018). "Discrimination of L2 Greek vowel contrasts: Evidence from learners with Arabic L1 background".
Speech Communication
.
102
: 68?77.
doi
:
10.1016/j.specom.2018.07.003
.
S2CID
52297330
.
- Mitchell, T. F. (1978) [1956].
An introduction to Egyptian colloquial Arabic
. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
0-19-815148-9
.
- Omar, Margaret K.; Nydell, Margaret Kleffner (1973).
The Acquisition of Egyptian Arabic as a Native Language
. Georgetown University Press.
ISBN
1-58901-168-6
.
- Saleh, M.; Shoeib, R.; Hegazi, M.; Ali, P. (2007). "Early phonological development in Arabic Egyptian children: 12?30 months".
Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica
.
59
(5): 234?240.
doi
:
10.1159/000104461
.
PMID
17726326
.
S2CID
27575250
.
- Watson, Janet C. E. (2002).
The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-925759-1
.
- Woidich, Manfred (2006).
Das Kairenisch-Arabische : eine Grammatik
(in German). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
ISBN
978-3-447-05315-0
.