pronounced as /notice/This article is about the phonology of Egyptian Arabic, also known as Cairene Arabic or Masri. It deals with the phonology and phonetics of Egyptian Arabic as well as the phonological development of child native speakers of the dialect. To varying degrees, it affects the pronunciation of Literary Arabic by native Egyptian Arabic speakers, as is the case for speakers of all other varieties of Arabic.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | emphatic | plain | emphatic | ||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| Stop | voiceless | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| voiced | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | --> | ||||
| Flap/trill | pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/) | |||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
pronounced as /link/, which can come from the deaffrication of foreign pronounced as /link/) in Egyptianized loanwords, tends to merge with pronounced as /link/. For example, جراش ('garage') is mostly pronounced pronounced as /[ɡɑˈɾɑːʃ]/, even by educated speakers.
Non-Egyptianized loanwords with pronounced as /link/ may either be Egyptianized to pronounced as /link/ or approximated to pronounced as /link/, with the front vowel pronounced as /link/ being backed to pronounced as /link/ in a word having an open vowel in the latter case.
pronounced as //ðˤ// in borrowings from Literary Arabic are realized as pronounced as //zˤ//. A few words with original pronounced as //dˤ// became with pronounced as //zˤ//, e.g. from the triliteral root ض-ب-ط as in Arabic: ضابط turned to ظابط pronounced as /[ˈzˤɑːbetˤ]/, "police/military officer".
Non-Egyptianized loanwords having interdental consonants (pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/) are approximated to the sibilants pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/.
Traditionally, the interdental consonants pronounced as //θ ð ðˤ// correspond to the Egyptian Arabic alveolar consonants pronounced as //t d dˤ//. This is a feature common to some North African Arabic varieties and is attested in pre-modern, inherited words:
However, unlike other North African varieties, in Egyptian Arabic, the Literary Arabic interdental consonants pronounced as //θ ð ðˤ// may correspond to sibilant consonants pronounced as //s z zˤ//, particularly in more recent learned borrowings.
The correspondent phoneme of the Classical Arabic , Arabic: ج pronounced as /
The linguist Janet C. E. Watson considers the following to be additional marginal consonants:
Classical Arabic *pronounced as /link/ became pronounced as /link/ in Cairo and the Nile Delta (a feature also shared with Levantine Arabic), but pronounced as /link/ is retained natively in some dialects to the west of the Nile Delta, outside of Alexandria, and has been reintroduced as a marginal phoneme from Standard Arabic, particularly relating to certain religious words, besides others such as those deriving from the root pronounced as //θ-q-f//, relating to the intellect and culture. pronounced as //q// may be used to distinguish between homophones, at least in mildly careful speech. For example, Arabic: قانون pronounced as //ʔæˈnuːn// may be disambiguated as pronounced as /[qɑˈnuːn]/ ('law') vs. pronounced as /[ʔæˈnuːn]/ ('kanun, a musical instrument'); Arabic: قوى pronounced as /[ˈʔæwi]/ as pronounced as /[ˈqɑwi]/ ('strong') or the colloquial adverb pronounced as /[ˈʔæwi]/ ('very'). pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, and pronounced as /link/ appear in loanwords such as pronounced as /[ʒæˈkettæ, ˈʒæ(ː)ket]/ ('jacket').
Examples: pronounced as //zanb// ('guilt') → pronounced as /[zæmb]/; pronounced as //ʔanˈbuːba// ('tube') → pronounced as /[ʔæmˈbuːbæ]/; pronounced as //ilˈlinbi// ('Allenby') → pronounced as /[elˈlembi]/.[1]
For some speakers, there is a voicing and devoicing assimilation for the following consonants:
When the input consonants are plosives differing only in voicing, the resultant assimilation will be complete.
The Egyptian Arabic vocalic system differs from Classical Arabic. The system of vowels is as follows:
| Short | Long | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | Front | Back | ||
| Close | pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
The short vowels pronounced as //ɪ// and pronounced as //ʊ// are realized as pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ respectively at the end of a word. The vowel pronounced as /link/ is mostly from non-Semitic words if not in words with emphatic consonants.
The symbols (IPA|e) and (IPA|o) represent vowels that vary between close-mid pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|e}}, {{IPAplink|o}}]/ and near-close pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|e̝}}, {{IPAplink|o̝}}]/. Their centralized allophones (transcribed with (IPA|ɘ) and (IPA|ɵ)) have the same variable height: pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|ɘ}} ~ {{IPAplink|ɘ̝}}]/ and pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|ɵ}} ~ {{IPAplink|ɵ̝}}]/.
The final allophone of pronounced as //u// varies in height between close pronounced as /link/ and close-mid pronounced as /link/ (pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|ʉ}} ~ {{IPAplink|ɵ}}]/ when centralized). For the sake of simplicity, only (IPA|u) and (IPA|ʉ) are used in this section.
| Long vowels (always stressed) | |
| pronounced as //iː// pronounced as /link/ | |
| pronounced as //uː// pronounced as /link/ | |
| pronounced as //eː// pronounced as /link/ | |
| pronounced as //oː// pronounced as /link/ | |
| pronounced as //aː// pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ |
pronounced as //eː// and pronounced as //oː// are close-mid pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|eː}}, {{IPAplink|oː}}]/.
The phonemes pronounced as //a// and pronounced as //aː// are in the process of splitting into two phonemes each, resulting in the four Egyptian Arabic phonemes pronounced as //æ æː ɑ ɑː//. The front and back variants alternate in verbal and nominal paradigms in ways that are largely predictable, but the back variants pronounced as //ɑ ɑː// occur unpredictably in some lexical stems, especially those of non-Semitic origin. This is discussed more below.
Vowels pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ are often regarded as allophones of the vowels pronounced as //i// and pronounced as //u// respectively instead of constituting separate vowel phonemes; so they cannot form minimal pairs. For further discussion regarding vowel allophony in Egyptian Arabic, see .Also Watson does not consider the short mid vowels pronounced as /[e]/ and pronounced as /[o]/ as phonemes on their own and says that they are not used by most speakers of Cairene.Woidich argues that educated speakers of Cairene when pronouncing carefully and slowly tend to distinguish short pronounced as /[e]/ and pronounced as /[o]/ as the results of shortened pronounced as //eː// and pronounced as //oː// from short pronounced as /[ɪ]/ and pronounced as /[ʊ]/ which leads to minimal pairs between them, but stresses that this does not happen with normal speech tempo.
pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ are derived from the Classical Arabic diphthongs pronounced as //aj// and pronounced as //aw//, respectively, when occurring in closed syllables (i.e. not followed by a vowel). Note that the diphthongs pronounced as //aj// and pronounced as //aw// also occur in the same environment, due to later deletion of unstressed vowels and resulting contraction, e.g. pronounced as //mudawla// pronounced as /[moˈdæwlæ]/ ('consultation') from Classical pronounced as /
Egyptian Arabic maintains in all positions the early post-Classical distinctions between short pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/. Unlike, for example, Levantine Arabic dialects, which merge pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ into pronounced as /link/ in most positions, and Moroccan Arabic, which deletes pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ in all positions. In particular, note the different shapes and vowel distinctions between pronounced as /[keˈtæːb]/ ('book') and pronounced as /[ɡoˈmæːl]/ ('beautiful' pl.) vs. pronounced as /[ɡeˈmæːl]/ ('camels') and pronounced as /[exˈtɑːɾ]/ ('he chose'); in most Levantine dialects, all the short vowels in these words are elided, leading to the identical shapes pronounced as //ktaːb//, pronounced as //ʒmaːl//, pronounced as //xtaːr//.
An epenthetic vowel is automatically inserted after the second of three or more consonants in a cluster to break up such clusters. The epenthetic vowel is analyzed as pronounced as /link/, even though there is a minimal pair distinguishing in many cases between pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/, leading to:
Many spoken Arabic varieties have developed two allophones of the Classical Arabic vowels pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/, with fronted allophones pronounced as /[æ æː]/ occurring in most circumstances, but backed allophones pronounced as /[ɑ ɑː]/ occurring in the vicinity of emphatic consonants. This process is known as emphasis spreading. The exact criteria of both "vicinity" and "emphatic consonant" varies depending on the individual speech variety. In Egyptian Arabic, the occurrence of pronounced as /[ɑ ɑː]/ is no longer completely predictable, suggesting that these sounds have become phonemicized or inherited from the Coptic language, the former language of Egypt; but see below for more discussion.
In Egyptian Arabic, the consonants that trigger emphasis spreading include the pharyngealized consonants pronounced as //tˤ dˤ sˤ zˤ//, the pronounced as /link/, and some instances of pronounced as /link/ (see below). On the other hand, the pharyngeal consonants pronounced as //ħ ʕ// do not trigger emphasis spreading; in the prestigious Cairene dialect, the fricatives pronounced as //x ɣ// also do not, although this is different in the Saidi variant in which they are pronounced as /[χ ʁ]/.
In general, when emphasis spreading is triggered, the back variants pronounced as /[ɑ ɑː]/ spread both forward and backward throughout the phonological word, including any morphological prefixes, suffixes and clitics. Note that this is different from many other Arabic varieties. For example, in Moroccan Arabic, emphasis spreading usually travels no farther than the first full vowel on either side of the triggering consonant, and in many varieties of Levantine Arabic, emphasis spreading is of indefinite extent but is blocked by the phonemes pronounced as //j ʃ//. Nevertheless, emphasis spreading is not completely reliable, and there is some free variation, especially in the pronunciation of prefixes and suffixes at some distance from the triggering consonant.
Some instances of pronounced as /link/ trigger emphasis spreading, while others do not. Originally, an pronounced as /link/ adjacent to pronounced as /link/ was considered non-emphatic, while others were emphatic and triggered emphasis spreading. Currently, however, this is no more than a rough guideline, as many exceptions have since developed. This situation has led the linguist Janet C. E. Watson, who mostly studied the Yemeni Arabic dialects, to postulate the existence of two phonemes pronounced as //r rˤ//, which both surface as pronounced as /[r~ɾ]/ but where only pronounced as /link/ triggers emphasis spreading. This analysis is not completely ideal in that these two resulting "phonemes" pronounced as //r rˤ// alternate to a large extent (often unpredictably) in related forms derived from the same root.
Currently, to the extent that the emphatic or non-emphatic variant of pronounced as /link/ can be predicted, it works as follows: If pronounced as /link/ is adjacent to a vowel pronounced as //i(ː)//, emphasis-spreading is inhibited; otherwise, it occurs. The pronounced as /link/ is able to "see across" derivational but not inflectional morphemes. As an example, pronounced as /[teˈɡɑːɾɑ]/ ('commerce') and pronounced as /[ˈtekbɑɾ]/ ('you grow' masc.) both have emphasis spreading, since pronounced as /link/ occurs adjacent to low pronounced as //a(ː)// but not adjacent to any non-low front vowel. On the other hand, of the derived forms pronounced as /[teˈɡæːɾi]/ ('commercial') and pronounced as /[tekˈbɑɾi]/ ('you grow' fem.), only the latter has emphasis spreading. In this case, the derivational suffix pronounced as //-i// ('related to') creates a new lexical item in the language's vocabulary, and hence the stem is reevaluated for emphasis, with the non-low front vowel pronounced as //i// triggering non-emphatic pronounced as /link/; but the inflectional suffix pronounced as //-i// marking feminine singular does not create a new lexical item, and as a result the emphasis in the stem remains. (For these purposes, past and non-past forms of a verb are considered separate stems; hence alternations can occur like pronounced as //istamarˤrˤ// 'he continued' vs. pronounced as //jistamirr// 'he continues'.)
An emphasis-spreading pronounced as /link/ is usually adjacent to a low vowel pronounced as //a(ː)// (which in turn is backed to pronounced as //ɑ(ː)//), but that is not necessary, and pronounced as //u(ː)// also triggers emphasis-spreading: Examples pronounced as //maʃhuːrˤ// ('famous') → pronounced as /[mɑʃˈhuːɾ]/, pronounced as //maʃrˤuːʕ// ('project') → pronounced as /[mɑʃˈruːʕ]/, pronounced as //rˤufajjaʕ// ('thin') → pronounced as /[roˈfɑjjɑʕ]/.
The alternation between pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ is almost completely predictable in verbal and nominal paradigms, as well as in the large majority of words derived from Classical Arabic. It is also irrelevant for the operation of the numerous phonological adjustment rules (e.g. vowel lengthening, shortening and elision) in Egyptian Arabic. As a result, linguistic descriptions tend to subsume both under an archiphoneme pronounced as //a(ː)//. On the other hand, there are a number of lexical items in which "autonomous" pronounced as /[ɑ ɑː]/ tend to occur irrespective of the presence of emphatic consonants. A few are in Aramaic-derived words, e.g. pronounced as /[ˈmɑjjɑ]/ ('water'), but the majority are in words of non-Semitic origin — especially those derived from European languages — where pronounced as /[ɑ ɑː]/ echo the vowel quality of pronounced as //a// in those languages.
Different authors have proposed differing phonemic analyses of this situation:
The approach followed here is to ignore the distinction in phonemic descriptions, subsuming pronounced as /[æ(ː) ɑ(ː)]/ as allophones of pronounced as //a(ː)//, but where necessary to also include a phonetic explication (i.e. detailed pronunciation) that indicates the exact quality of all vowels. Generally, these phonetic explications are given for the examples in the section on phonology, and elsewhere whenever autonomous pronounced as /link/ occurs.
| Operation | Original | After operation (phonemic) | Pronunciation (phonetic) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vowel shortening | pronounced as //ʔaːl li// 'he.said – to.me' | pronounced as //ʔalli// | pronounced as /[ˈʔælli]/ 'he said to me' | |
| Vowel lengthening | pronounced as //katabu// 'they wrote' + pronounced as //-ha// 'it (fem.)' | pronounced as //kataˈbuːha// | pronounced as /[kætæˈbuːhæ]/ 'they wrote it' | |
| Vowel deletion (syncope) | pronounced as //fi// 'in' + pronounced as //kitaːb// 'a book' | pronounced as //fiktaːb// | pronounced as /[fekˈtæːb]/ 'in a book' | |
| Vowel insertion (epenthesis) | pronounced as //il// 'the' + pronounced as //bint// 'girl' + pronounced as //di// 'this' | pronounced as //il bintdi// | pronounced as /[el ˈbenteˈdi]/ 'this girl' |
All long vowels are shortened when followed by two consonants (including geminated consonants), and also in unstressed syllables, though they are sometimes kept long in careful speech pronunciations of loanwords, as in pronounced as //qaːˈhira// ('Cairo') and a few other borrowings from Classical Arabic with similar shapes, such as pronounced as //zˤaːˈhira// ('phenomenon'). Long vowel pronounced as /[iː, uː]/, when shortened collapse with pronounced as /[e, o]/ which are, as well, the shortened form of pronounced as /[eː, oː]/; as a result, the following three words are only distinguished contextually:
It is worth mentioning that vowel shortening is not made by rural speakers of Egyptian Arabic, whose form of speech is in decline.
Final short vowels are lengthened when the stress is brought forward onto them as a result of the addition of a suffix.
Unstressed pronounced as //i// and pronounced as //u// are deleted (i.e. syncope) when occurring in the context /VCVCV/, i.e. in an internal syllable with a single consonant on both sides. This also applies across word boundaries in cases of close syntactic connection.
Three or more consonants are never allowed to appear together, including across a word boundary. When such a situation would occur, an epenthetic pronounced as /link/ is inserted between the second and third consonants.
Before pronounced as //u// the epenthetic vowel is pronounced as //u//.
Unlike in most Arabic dialects, Egyptian Arabic has many words that logically begin with a vowel (e.g. pronounced as //ana// 'I'), in addition to words that logically begin with a glottal stop (e.g. pronounced as //ʔawi// 'very', from Classical pronounced as //qawij(j)// 'strong'). When pronounced in isolation, both types of words will be sounded with an initial glottal stop. However, when following another word, words beginning with a vowel will often follow smoothly after the previous word, while words beginning with a glottal stop will always have the glottal stop sounded, e.g.:
The phonetic pronunciations indicated above also demonstrate the phenomenon of linking, a normal process in Egyptian Arabic where syllable boundaries are adjusted across word boundaries to ensure that every syllable begins with exactly one consonant.
Elision of vowels often occurs across word boundaries when a word ending with a vowel is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, especially when the two vowels are the same, or when one is pronounced as //i//.More specifically, elision occurs in the following circumstances:
| Condition for elision | Original | After elision (phonemic) | Pronunciation (phonetic) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Both vowels same | pronounced as //inta aħmar// | pronounced as //intaħmar// | pronounced as /[enˈtɑħmɑɾ]/ 'you (masc. sg.) are red' | |
| Final pronounced as //i// followed by initial pronounced as //a// | pronounced as //naːwi aruːħ// | pronounced as //naːwaruːħ// | pronounced as /[ˈnæːwɑˈɾuːħ]/ 'I intend to go' | |
| pronounced as //xallini arawwaħ// | pronounced as //xalliːnarawwaħ// | pronounced as /[xælˈliːnɑˈɾɑwwɑħ]/ 'let me go home' | ||
| Vowel followed by initial pronounced as //i// | pronounced as //da illi ana ʕaːwiz+u// | pronounced as //dallana ʕawzu// | pronounced as /[ˈdælˈlænæ ˈʕæwzu]/ 'that's what I want' | |
| pronounced as //huwwa inta kibiːr// | pronounced as //huwwantakbiːr// | pronounced as /[howˈwæntækˈbiːɾ]/ 'are you grown-up?' |
Multiple processes often apply simultaneously. An example of both insertion and deletion working together comes from the phrase pronounced as //il bint kibiːra// ('the girl is grown up'):Example of insertion and deletion together:
Compare pronounced as //il walad kibiːr// ('the boy is grown up'), where neither process applies.
Similarly, an example of both deletion and long-vowel shortening appears in the phrase pronounced as //sˤaːħiba// ('friend' fem.):
Compare with Classical Arabic pronounced as //sˤaːħiba//.
The operation of the various processes can often produce ambiguity:
Hence, pronounced as /[ænæ ˈʕawˈzæːkol]/ is ambiguous in regards to grammatical gender.
In Egypt, the letters are called ألف به pronounced as /ˈʔælef be/ or أبجديه pronounced as /ʔæbɡæˈdej.jæ/, and are even taught in entertainment and children's shows, like the Egyptian version of Sesame Street.[2]
The following table does not contain the characters which have the same names in Literary Arabic.
| Letter | Name in Arabic | Pronunciation | Phoneme | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ا | ألف | pronounced as /ˈʔælef/ | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| ب | به | pronounced as /be/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ت | ته | pronounced as /te/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ته مفتوحه | pronounced as /teh mæfˈtuːħæ/ | |||
| ث | ثه | pronounced as /se, θe/ | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| ج | جيم | pronounced as /ɡiːm/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ح | حه | pronounced as /ħɑ/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| خ | خه | pronounced as /xɑ/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| د | دال | pronounced as /dæːl/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ذ | ذال | pronounced as /zæːl, ðæːl/ | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| ر | ره | pronounced as /ɾe/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ز | زين | pronounced as /zeːn/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| س | سين | pronounced as /siːn/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ش | شين | pronounced as /ʃiːn/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ص | صاد | pronounced as /sˤɑːd/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ض | ضاد | pronounced as /dˤɑːd/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ط | طه | pronounced as /tˤɑ/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ظ | ظه | pronounced as /zˤɑ, ðˤɑ/ | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| ع | عين | pronounced as /ʕeːn/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| غ | غين | pronounced as /ɣeːn/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ف | فه | pronounced as /fe/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ق | قاف | pronounced as /qɑːf/ | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| ك | كاف | pronounced as /kæːf/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ل | لام | pronounced as /læːm/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| م | ميم | pronounced as /miːm/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ن | نون | pronounced as /nuːn/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| هـ | هه | pronounced as /he/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| و | واو | pronounced as /wɑːw, wæːw/ | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| ى | يه | pronounced as /je/ | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| Not considered separate letters | ||||
| ى | ألف لينه | pronounced as /ˈʔælef læjˈjenæ/ | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| ة | ته مربوطه | pronounced as /teh mɑɾˈbuːtˤɑ/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ئ | همزه على نبره | pronounced as /ˈhæmzæ ˈʕælæ ˈnɑbɾɑ/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Used in loanwords and names | ||||
| پ | به بتلات نقط | pronounced as /be beˈtælæt ˈnoʔɑtˤ/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| چ | جيم بتلات نقط | pronounced as /ɡiːm beˈtælæt ˈnoʔɑtˤ/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ڤ | فه بتلات نقط | pronounced as /fe beˈtælæt ˈnoʔɑtˤ/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
Egyptian Arabic has the following five syllable types: CV, CVː, CVC, CVːC, and CVCC.
CVː, CVːC, and CVCC are long, or heavy, syllables. Long syllables bear primary stress, and there is only one stressed syllable per word.Egyptian Arabic has a strong preference for heavy syllables, and various phonetic adjustments conspire to modify the surface pronunciation of connected speech towards the ideal of consisting entirely of heavy syllables. Examples can be seen below:
An example of these various processes together:
| Original | pronounced as //da illi ana ʕaːwizu// | |
| Deletion of short high vowel in CVːCVCV | pronounced as //da illi ana ʕaːwzu// | |
| Shortening before two consonants | pronounced as //da illi ana ʕawzu// | |
| Elision of pronounced as //i// next to a vowel | pronounced as //dallana ʕawzu// | |
| Continuous, resyllabified pronunciation (phonetic) | pronounced as /[ˈdælˈlæ.næˈʕæw.zu]/ | |
| Normal-form pronunciation | pronounced as /[ˈdælˈlænæ ˈʕæwzu]/ |
In the following and similar analyses, the normal-form pronunciation is given as the phonetic equivalent of the given phonemic form, although the intermediate steps may be given if necessary for clarity.
Other examples include pronounced as //ana ʕaːwiz aːkul// ('I want to eat') → pronounced as /[ænæ ˈʕæwˈzæːkol]/, pronounced as //ana ʕaːwiz aːkulu// ('I want to eat it') → pronounced as /[ænæ ˈʕæwˈzæklu]/, and pronounced as //humma ʕaːwiziːn jaːkuluː// ('They want to eat it') → pronounced as /[hommæ ʕæwˈziːn jækˈluː]/.
The position of stress is essentially automatic. The basic rule is that, proceeding from the end to the beginning of the word, the stress goes on the first encountered syllable of any of these types:
| Rule | Phonemic form (no stress) | Phonetic form (stressed) | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1a. Syllable closed with a long vowel | pronounced as //kaː.tib// | pronounced as /[ˈkæːteb]/ | 'writing' or 'writer' | |
| pronounced as //ki.taːb// | pronounced as /[keˈtæːb]/ | 'book' | ||
| pronounced as //tik.ti.biː// | pronounced as /[tekteˈbiː]/ | 'you (fem.) write it' | ||
| 1b. Syllable closed with two consonants | pronounced as //ka.tabt// | pronounced as /[kæˈtæbt]/ | 'I wrote' | |
| pronounced as //kat.ba// | pronounced as /[ˈkætbæ]/ | 'female writer' | ||
| pronounced as //mak.tab// | pronounced as /[ˈmæktæb]/ | 'desk' | ||
| pronounced as //tik.tib// | pronounced as /[ˈtekteb]/ | 'you (masc.) write' | ||
| 2. Nonfinal light syllable following heavy syllable | pronounced as //mak.ta.ba// | pronounced as /[mækˈtæbæ]/ | 'library' | |
| pronounced as //tik.ti.bi// | pronounced as /[tekˈtebi]/ | 'you (fem.) write' | ||
| 3. Nonfinal light syllable following two lights | pronounced as //ka.ta.bi.tu// | pronounced as /[kætæˈbetu]/ | 'she wrote it' | |
| 4. First syllable | pronounced as //ka.tab// | pronounced as /[ˈkætæb]/ | 'he wrote' | |
| pronounced as //ka.ta.bit// | pronounced as /[ˈkætæbet]/ | 'she wrote' |
Because the stress is almost completely predictable, it is not indicated in phonemic transcriptions (but is given in the corresponding phonetic explication).
identifies three stages in the phonological acquisition of Egyptian Arabic, ending with completion of the consonant inventory (with the possible exception of pronounced as /link/) at approximately age five.
The sound inventory found in the babbling stage does not technically consist of phonemes, but rather vowel- and consonant-like sounds. Therefore, they are not true speech sounds. Like children acquiring other world languages, Egyptian Arabic infants produce consonant-like sounds approximating pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/.
At this stage children have acquired the basic pronounced as //i//, pronounced as //a//, pronounced as //u// vowel triangle, and the consonants pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, and pronounced as /link/. At this stage pronounced as /link/ is only produced word-initially (possibly due to speakers’ tendency to insert a glottal stop on words which begin with a vowel). There is typically no voiced-voiceless contrast and no single-double consonant contrast.
Newly acquired phonemes are: pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/. A voiced-voiceless contrast is now apparent in stops and fricatives. Consonant clusters appear but are unstable, often being omitted or simplified (consonant cluster reduction). The newly acquired lateral pronounced as /link/ is frequently used in place of the flap/trill pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ (lateralization). Example: pronounced as //madɾasa// ('school') → pronounced as /[mædˈlæsæ]/
Vowel length distinction, the emphatics pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/; pronounced as /link/ (sometimes realized as pronounced as /link/) and pronounced as /link/ (often realized as pronounced as /link/) are acquired. A geminated consonant distinction is developing, although children have difficulty with pronounced as //xx// and its voiced pair pronounced as //ɣɣ//.
The flap/trill pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ and all diphthongs and clusters are acquired, and geminate consonant distinction is stable. The phoneme pronounced as /link/ is rare in Egyptian Arabic and is typically only mastered with formal schooling at around age seven or eight, and is realized acceptably in the dialect as pronounced as /link/.
Egyptian Arabic phoneme acquisition has been chiefly compared to that of English. The order of phoneme acquisition is similar for both languages: Exceptions are pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, and pronounced as /link/, which appear earlier in Arabic-speaking children's inventory than in English, perhaps due to the frequency of their occurrence in the children's input. Egyptian Arabic differs most from English in terms of age of phoneme acquisition: Vowel distinctions appear at an earlier age in Egyptian Arabic than in English, which could reflect both the smaller inventory and the higher functional value of Arabic vowels: The consonantal system, on the other hand, is completed almost a year later than that of English. However, the lateral pronounced as /link/ is acquired by most Arabic-speaking children by age two, a year earlier than English-speaking children. The most difficult phonemes for young Arabic children are emphatic stops, fricatives, and the flap/trill pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/. pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/, which are relatively rare sounds in other languages, are the most difficult geminate consonants to acquire.
For children under two, syllable reduction and final consonant deletion are the most common phonological processes. De-emphasis, involving the loss of the secondary articulation for emphatic consonants (e.g., realizing emphatic pronounced as /link/ as pronounced as /link/), may reflect the motoric difficulty of emphatic consonants, which are rare in world languages, as well as their relatively low frequency and functional load in Arabic.
The back fricatives pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ are unusually accurate at an early age and less prone to fronting than in other languages.
Most children have mastered all syllable types between the ages of two and three. A preference for three-syllable words is evident (CVːC syllables being the most frequently produced) and production rarely exceeds four syllables. Simplification processes like those detailed above may occur to reduce CVCC syllables to CVːC or CVC syllables; however, when children change the syllable structure, they preserve the prosodic weight of the altered syllable in order to maintain stress relations.