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Pharyngealization Effects in Maltese Arabic

1. Introduction As is well known, the phonemic inventory of Classical Arabic and nearly all of the modern dialects includes a set of consonants conventionally referred to as the " emphatics. " The emphatics are a series of consonants (usually [t, d, s, z/δ]) that are subjectively characterized as sounding more dark and heavy than the corresponding " plain " ones. Finding a way to characterize these phonemes, both phonetically in terms of perceptual and articulatory correlates, and phonologically in terms of defining features, has been a topic of great interest for phonologists. Several recent discussions specifically treat the nature and behavior of the emphatics in various dialects of Arabic (Davis 1995, McCarthy 1997, Watson 1999). A major goal of these and other studies has been how to distinctively characterize these phonemes in terms of feature geometry, and in what way they relate to the Arabic gutturals (uvulars and pharyngeals). I document here several phonological processes involving these segments, including dissimilation as well as both leftward and rightward assimilation. I then argue that while previous feature-geometric representations can capture the behavior of the emphatics in these processes, more recent proposals in which the relevant node and features involve the tongue root give an equally plausible account. In 2 I describe the behavior of the historical emphatics in Maltese Arabic, a dialect which no longer displays them on the surface, 1 but in which their effects may still be observed by the phonologization of the characteristic backing and lowering effect of emphatics on neighboring vowels. 2 I then account for apparent irregularities in the presence of these effects by positing a guttural dissimilation process similar to that previously documented for Palestinian Arabic (Davis 1995). In 3 I turn my attention to the issue of properly characterizing these classes of segments. Because the Maltese process involves three interacting classes of consonants, rather than the two classes active in Palestinian, it has important ramifications for the feature geometric representation chosen for these consonants and the lower vocal tract as a whole. I evaluate recent competing theories of representation in this light 1 I assume here that historical change has resulted in underlying representations in which vowels contrast rather than emphatic/non-emphatic consonants, and that therefore the processes I describe occurred at a stage of Maltese predating the early 20 th century source material. However, a case could be made that these processes are operative …