1999/04/01 by Janet C. E. Watson · 1 citation
Psychology · Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Phonetics and Phonology Research #Linguistic Variation and Morphology #Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation #Emphasis (telecommunications) #Linguistics #Phonology #Markedness #Feature (linguistics) #Directionality #Arabic #Place of articulation #Articulation (sociology) #Phonetics #Distinctive feature #Optimality theory #History #Psychology #Computer science #Vowel #Philosophy #Consonant #Political science
paper · doi:10.1162/002438999554066
openalex publication_date 1999/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/29
Many modern Arabic dialects exhibit asymmetries in the direction of emphasis (for most dialects, pharyngealization) spread. In a dialect of Yemeni Arabic, emphasis has two articulatory correlates, pharyngealization and labialization: within the phonological word, pharyngealization spreads predominantly leftward, and labialization spreads rightward, targeting short high vowels. Since asymmetries in the directionality of spread of a secondary feature are phonetically motivated and depend on whether the feature is anchored to the onset or the release phase of the primary articulation, it is argued that the unmarked directionality of spread should be encoded in the phonology as a markedness statement on that feature.