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Meccan Arabic

Phylum: Semitic

Genus: Arabic

Lat/lon: 21.408913, 39.852967

ISO code: acw

Consonants

Basic short series

bilabiallabio-velarlabio-dentalalveolarpostalveolarpalatalvelaruvularpharyngealglottal
stopbt, dk, gʔ
trillr
fricativefs, zʃχ, ʁħ, ʕɦ
affricate
nasalmn
approximantwj
lateral approximantl

Short pharyngealised series

alveolar
stoptˤ, dˤ
trill
fricativesˤ, zˤ
lateral approximant

Vowels

Basic short series

frontcentralback
closeiu
opena

Long series

frontcentralback
close
close-mid
open

Diphthongs

/aj/, /aw/

Licit initial clusters

Licit finals

СС

Licit syllabic templates

CV(ː), CVC, word-finally: CVːC, CVCC

Source: Abu-Mansour, Mahasen Hasan. 2008. Meccan Arabic. Kees Versteegh (ed.), Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Vol. 3. Brill: Leiden; Boston. 179–187.

Comments: Word-final clusters are split by an epenthetic vowel when they do not obey the sonority-hierarchy principle. The only minimal pair for /lˤ/ is walˤlˤa 'by God' vs walla 'or else'.

Contributed by: Dmitry Nikolaev (dnikolaev@fastmail.com)