A sociophonetic study of selected morphophonetic alternations in the Egyptian folk epic beibers

Abstract EN

This paper examines selected phonetic and morphological phenomena in early Egyptian Arabic, from about the mid of the 13th century up till, approximately, the end of the 16th century.

It attempts to reveal how certain Egyptian Arabic words deviated from Classical Arabic (CA) pronunciation.

The data are primarily extracted from the epic of Al-Zāhir Beibers, which flourished during that era.

In order to reach this end, the paper adopts a synchronic-diachronic perspective to data analysis under the theory of Lexical Phonology, within the broader framework of Sociophonetics.

The selected sound changes include chosen cases of glottal stop alternations, vowel shortening, emphatic spread, and conversion of interdentals.

The findings show that some of the depicted alternations were used as variants in Al-Jazeera Arabic dialects.

Others are presumed to be a result of false analogical application of originally Classical Arabic rules, the Coptic influence on Egyptian Arabic, and for ease of articulation.

Moreover, the results reflect the adequacy of Lexical Phonology as an analytical tool when dealing with such morphophonological alternations