Robert R. Ratcliffe

The formal aspects of non-concatenative morphology have received considerable attention in recent years, but the diachronic dimensions of such systems have been little explored. The current work applies a modern methodological and theoretical framework to a classic problem in Arabic and Semitic historical linguistics: the highly allomorphic system of 'stem-internal' or 'broken' plurals. It shows that widely-accepted views regarding the historical development of this system are untenable and offers a new hypothesis. The first chapter lays out a methodology for comparative-historical research in morphology. The next two chapters present an analysis of Arabic morphology based on contemporary formal linguistic approaches, and applies this analysis to the noun plural system. Chapter Four shows that neither semantic shift nor ablaut-type sound change account adequately for the data. The fifth chapter offers a systematic comparison of the plural systems of Semitic languages, incorporating much new research on the languages of South Arabia and Ethiopia. Chapter Six proposes a new reconstruction.

Allomorphy and Analogy in Non-concatenative Morphology

The "broken" Plural Problem in Arabic and Comparative Semitic

Mushira Eid

The papers in this volume are a selection of papers presented at the 10th Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics (Salt Lake City, 1-3 March 1996). The contributions are: Remarks on Focus in Standard Arabic: Jamal Ouhalla; Definiteness Realization and Function in Palestinian Arabic: Dina Belyayeva; Case Properties of Nominalization Dps in Classical Arabic: Arthur Stepanov; Underspecification of Lexical Entries for Arabic Verbs: Mark S. LeTourneau; Plural Formation in Arabic: Ali Idrissi; Prosodic Templates in a Word-Based Morphological Analysis of Arabic: Robert R. Ratcliffe; The Suppletive Imperative of Arabic ‘Come’: David Testen; On an Optimality-Theoretic Account of Epenthesis and Syncope in Arabic Dialects: Bushra Adnan Zawaydeh; Acoustics of Pharyngealization vs. Uvularization Harmony: Kimary N. Shahin; Phonological Variation in Syrian Arabic: Correlation with Gender, Age, and Education: Jamil Daher; Arabic speakers and Parasitic Gaps: Naomi Bolotin; Stress Prosody and Speech Segmentation: Evidence from Moroccan Arabic: Younes Mourchid.

Robert R. Ratcliffe

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