Database

Arabic (Palestinian)

(Palestinian West Bank and Gaza; Afro-Asiatic, Semitic)

Summary:
The root shape CCVC is metathesized to CVCC when a vowel-initial suffix is attached and when the root vowel is high.

Examples:
a. Verbs

unsuffixed	suffixed
(CCVC)	(CVCC)
2 sg. m. subj.	2 sg. f. subj.	3 pl.
tu'-drus	tu'-durs-i	yu'-durs-u	‘study’
ti'-lbis	ti'-libs	yi'-libs-u	‘wear’

b. Nouns

fi'lfil

‘pepper’

fi'lifl-i

‘my pepper’

mi'SmiS

‘apricots’

mi'SimS-u

‘his apricots’

Conditions:
a. Metathesis applies when the root vowel metathesizing with a consonant is high. When the root vowel is the low vowel /a/, metathesis fails to apply.

ti'-fham-i

*ti'-fahm-i

ti'-fham-u

*ti'-fahm-u

yi'-fham-u

*yi'-fahm-u

Motivation:
No information currently available.

Related Information:
No information currently available.

Symbols:
V' = stressed vowel
S = voiceless alveo-palatal fricative

Last Updated: 6/20/2007

References:

Yoshida, Shohei. 1993 Licensing of empty nuclei: The case of Palestinian vowel harmony. The Linguistic Review 10. 127-159.