Optimality Theoretic Representation of Stress in Cairene Arabic

Rajaa Aquil

School of Modern Languages, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/ojml.2012.23011                

Abstract

Stress pattern of Cairene Arabic (CA) has played a major role in the development of stress placement theory. Syllable weight plays a role, however, the weight to stress principle does not always apply. Bimodality of a foot is very important and is largely addressed in the literature. Stress in CA is described in the literature as Moraic Trochee, but primary stress is on one of the three leftmost syllables. Many studies investigated primary stress in CA. These studies employed different theoretic formulations based on the segmental rules, the metrical phonological tree, and the metrical phonological grid. Notwithstanding, no recent study has translated the findings of the aforementioned literature into an Optimality Theoretic Constraints framework. The present paper attempts to accomplish this feat. The paper also presents a new set of data based on CA spoken language.

Keywords

Cairene Arabic Primary Stress; Optimality Theoretic Framework; Constraints Hierarchy; Cai-rene Arabic Spoken Data

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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