The Even Yearbook 16 (2024)
#122
volume 16 (2024)
pages 55–73
author Mohamad Ali Khalil
title On the biconsonantal roots of Lebanese Arabic
DOI http://doi.org/10.57133/evenyrbk.24kh
keywords biconsonantal/biliteral roots, final-weak roots, Lebanese Arabic, glides, morphophonology, weak verbs in Arabic
abstract This paper examines biconsonantal roots in Lebanese Arabic as a core part of the morphosyntactic paradigm in the language. A better understanding of the templates and patterns by which this type of root manifests allows for a precise description of their behavior and status within the system. Biconsonantal roots show a geminated C2 as well as a glide preceding the inflectional suffixes for the 1st and 2nd persons in form I, typical of final-weak roots, e.g. maddayte ‘you.fem extended’ (biconsonantal) and sallayte ‘you.fem entertained’ (final-weak). Final-weak roots are triconsonantal roots wherein the third and last consonant is either the palatal glide /y/ or the labiovelar /w/. The data shows that the glide in biconsonantal roots (maddayte above) is a byproduct of Arabic morphophonology as dictated by phonotactics, unlike final-weak glides (sallayte above), which are a part of the root. The biconsonantal glide appears after a diphthongization process of a long vowel, which in turn is the result of lengthening an epenthetic vowel. The conclusion reached in this paper thus enables biconsonantal roots to be analyzed systemically and classified properly, morphologically and semantically as well, because the templatic morphology of Lebanese Arabic is closely related to its semantics (being a nonconcatenative language, a process as simple as vowel ablaut can yield different meanings), paving the way for a more comprehensive and complete picture of the Lebanese Arabic verbal system. More specifically, the analysis allows for a rigorous distinction between what is finalweak and what is biconsonantal with an additional glide.
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