DOI: 10.1075/arli.25001.abu ISSN: 2950-1806

Reduplicative hypocoristics in Makkan Arabic

Mahasen Hasan Abu-Mansour
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Abstract

This paper offers an account of reduplicative hypocoristics in Makkan Arabic using Correspondence Theory couched in Optimality Theory. Reduplicative hypocoristics reference only one of the consonants present in the actual name, not the root. It consists of two identical heavy syllables C1V2V2.C1V2V2, phonetically realized as C1V2V2.C1V2. The vowels of the two syllables are identical, either ii , or uu . Within the syllable, the consonant and the vowel disagree in the features [labial] and [coronal] with some variation. Variation in this area is accounted for using floating constraints within Optimality Theory (

Reynolds, 1994
). Finally, while the first consonant of the name is usually used in the hypocoristic, velars, gutturals, emphatic consonants, and the glides are skipped and one of the remaining consonants, preferably a coronal, is used instead. Preference for coronals is explained as part of the OCP Hierarchy and the universal unmarkedness of coronal sounds (
Prince and Smolensky, 1993
).

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