| المستخلص: |
The main concern of this paper is to examine the phonetic inventory of classical Arabic language. The consonants and vowels subsumed under this classical inventory are considered separately. Each segment is decomposed into its phonetic components, and classified in terms of the three phonetic criteria posited in the International Phonetic Alphabet chart, i.e. voicing, place of articulation and manner of articulation. Each consonant is further described in terms of other four additional formatives, viz. centrality, nasality, active articulator and passive articulator. Hence, consonants are analyzed on articulatory criteria.The set of the eight vowels in the language is examined in terms of the direct relation between the different tongue-lip positions and the various configurations of the vocal tract as resonance cavities. The indirect relation holding between the various tongue-lip positions and the eight different vowel qualities is established via the different shapes of the vocal tract. Hence, vowels are analyzed on auditory criteria. Two diphthongs, /ei/, /әu/ and six mono-phthongs (/i(i)/, /a(a)/, /u(u)/), are recognized in the language. The phonological value of the six simple vowels is triggered by vowel length as a distinctive feature, i.e. three short vowels and three long correlates. The phonemic significance of each C-segment is attested and proved via contrastive minimal pairs. Certain Arabic phonetic processes are considered. These processes include letter-based Arabic phonetics, emphasis, primary articulation secondary articulations, double articulation, distinctiveness, assimilated Sun-l, non-assimilated Moon-l and geminated consonants. This study paves the way to investigate the assumption that the phonemic system of classical Arabic comprises phonological consonants and phonetic vowels, as it is claimed by Rakas, M. (1981)
|
