La notion de syllabe et la theorie cinetico impulsion Nelle des phoneticiens Arabes

Abstract EN

The syllable, as viewed by the ancient Greeks, was known by the Arabs through translations of ancient studies.

But much prior to this contact between Greek and Arab thought, a conception of speech dynamics already existed.

It was thoroughly original, and based on the concepts of « harf» and « haraka ».

The harf is the minimal segment of the speech continuum.

Al-НаШ (8th century) ascertained that it has two qualities: sound colour (gars) and strength of motion (?arf).

This latter is explained by the word « haraka ».

According to many authors, the haraka is the acoustico-physiological motion which is required both for producing sequentially the harf and for gliding to the following articulation.

Confirmation is given by rhythm conceived by Arab musicologists and experts of metrics.

They have designed the « sabab» as the smallest articular molecule; however, the sabab bears the meaning of « long syllable ».

In fact, a normally uttered speech sequence does not contain syllabic divisions, as is shown by instrumental observation, and the only item which may be presented as a syllable is the speech sequence which can actually be isolated; that is to say, which may be limited by two «sukOn-s » (opposite to « haraka »).

The author brings forward the idea of translating « haraka » by « kinem », the state of a speech segment with haraka:« kinesis » and its opposite « akinesis ».

The concepts expressed by the terms « kineised » and « akineised » seem to him more adequate than the Saussurian concepts « explosive » and « implosive ».