Assimilation in Jerash Fallaahi dialect : a non-linear analysis

الملخص EN

The study aims to investigate the phonological assimilation processes which are manifested in Jerash Fallaahi Dialect (JFD), a rural Jordanian dialect spoken in the north of Jordan by 120,000 people.

The study uses non-linear approaches, namely, the autosegemental and the feature geometry approaches to analyze the phonological assimilation processes because of their adequacy in representing these processes in a clear way.

The data are collected by recording spontaneous conversations of twenty subjects of Jerash Fallaahi people who are native speakers of this dialect.

The analysis shows that JFD displays four types of assimilation: First, emphasis assimilation in which the infix dental stop /-t-/ is realized as a dental emphatic [-T-] when it is preceded by an emphatic segment.

Second, voice assimilation which occurs between the coda and the onset when they are coronal obstruents, velars, or pharyngeals of two adjacent words.

Third, nasal homorganic assimilation in which the nasal /n/ adapts the place of articulation of the following consonant.

Finally, total assimilation which produces identical segments exhibits between the definite article and the coronal consonants, in the detransitivizing prefix /t-/ with measure V and measure VI verbs, and when the consonant /h/ of the nominal/ genitive third person dependent pronoun is deleted when it is suffixed to a voiceless obstruent-final word.