On the phonology of h in Arabic

الملخص EN

The aim of this paper is to shed light on some of the phonological aspects of / h / in Arabic.

This sound has not often been amongst the sounds that have received due attention in phonological studies on Arabic.

It is found that the role that / h / plays in the sound system of Arabic requires more detailed investigation, and this paper is meant to bridge a gap in this area.

It is also found that there is phonetic and phonological evidence that / h / together with /      / ‘خ غ ح ع ء’ form a natural class.

As for the role of / h / in the syllable structure of Arabic, it is found that / h / in general behaves in conformity with other gutturals in not allowing three gutturals to occur in the same word, and disallowing the coexistence of two gutturals in the same word unless they are separated by a consonant except in the case of / h / and /  /, / h / and /  / which can co-occur with other guttural sounds subject to certain strong constraints.

/ h / in Arabic is found to be unique among the / h / sounds in the languages of the world because Arabic is one of a number of languages in which / h / can form clusters with other consonants.

This paper also discusses examples of the phonological processes that / h / involves in either as a trigger for change as in post-/ h / vowel lengthening or as an affected sound as in deletion and some cases of assimilation.