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Volume :17 Issue : 67 1999
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Fundamental Problems of Intonation in Arabic (in Arabic)
Auther : Mohammed S. El-Dalee
This paper addresses the question of the disregard of intonation in the meticulous phonetic description of old Arab
grammarians. The main reasons for this disregard are:
I - Intonation was not implemented in the phonemic systems of Arabic.
II - A sort of affective phonetic colouring was often realized as a surrogate of what is technically called intonation.
III - Arabic is a particle language, not an intonational language. The above findings are assessed on the following aspects:
1 - Contrasting an intonational language (English) with particle or quasiparticle languages (German and French).
2 - Arabic as a particle language according to markedness scale of Yes/No question behaviour in the following typology of languages:
a - Intonation
b - Morphological and syntactical marker
c - Word-order marker
d - Enclitics and particle marker.
6 - Arab grammarians dedicated most of their works to particles.
7 - Scholars of Quranic recitation described the authorized ways of reciting which include techniques of effective colouring and lengthening, and not of intonation.
8 - Evidence of two contemporary Arabic dialects (Urban Kuwaiti and Benghazi Lybian) illustrate the enclitic marking of address and/or the Yes/No question.
9 - Set of criteria suggested by Laber for recognizing intonation as a linguistic device.