Pharyngealization in Syrian Arabic

الملخص

        This research investigates the process of pharyngealization—also referred to as emphasis spread (ES)—in Syrian Arabic (SyA). It gives a detailed theoretical study of pharyngealization. The study provides an articulatory, acoustic, and phonological account of emphatic sounds and their contrast with plain counterparts. The study explores the domain and direction of ES, demonstrating that emphasis spreads bidirectionally within the phonological word and, in certain cases, across word boundaries. Using both autosegmental and optimality-theoretic frameworks, the chapter models how the [RTR] (retracted tongue root) feature spreads. The analysis contributes to a deeper understanding of pharyngealization as a harmony process and its interaction with phonetic and phonological constraints in |Syrian Arabic.