Journal of the International Phonetic Association (2024), 54, pp. 540–558
doi:10.1017/S0025100323000269
I L L U S T R AT I O N S O F T H E I P A
Abha Arabic
Ibrahim Al Malwi1, ∗
, Alfredo Herrero de Haro2
and Amanda Baker3
University of Wollongong/Jazan University, 2 University of Wollongong/Universidad de Granada,
and 3 University of Wollongong
∗
Corresponding author. Email: immam836@uowmail.edu.au
1
(Received 12 November 2021; revised 16 August 2023; accepted 5 September 2023;
first published online 6 December 2023)
Abha Arabic is a dialect of Arabic (ISO 693-3: ara), belonging to the Semitic language family
group, and spoken primarily in Abha city. Abha Arabic can be broadly classified as a variety
of Arabic from the Arabian Peninsula group (Versteegh, 2014), and further sub-classified as
a south (-west) Arabian dialect (Ingham, 1982). Abha city is the administrative capital of the
province of Asir, in south-west Saudi Arabia (Figure 1). The population of Abha is approximately 290,185 and that of the Asir province is 1,601,725, according to the most recent data
on the population (General Authority for Statistics, 2010). The province is named after the
Asir tribe, who first inhabited Abha and the surrounding regions. The present day Abha
Arabic dialect thus represents a blending of Bedouin and urban dialects. The first settlers
to Abha were the Bani-Mghed tribe (an Asir tribe) followed by three additional Asir tribes
(Alkam, Rabiah w Rufeda, Bani-Malik) and other nearby tribes such as the Gahta˘n, Ballahmir, Bal-lasmir, Shahran, Rejal Alma’, all of which had distinct dialects (Al-Azraqi, 1998).
These dialects merged to varying degrees and were further influenced by urban education
and mass media, which were and continue to be dominated by Modern Standard Arabic
(henceforth MSA) (Al-Azraqi, 1998).1
As is the case with other Arabic dialects, Abha Arabic does not have its own writing system, and thus the alphabet of MSA is used instead in the relatively infrequent instances
when Abha Arabic is written. Abha Arabic in written form is typically only used in chat
applications between native speakers and sometimes in advertisements for added impact
to attract people’s attention. Abha Arabic is primarily a spoken dialect which coexists with
MSA in a situation of diglossia (Ferguson, 1959). Abha Arabic is used in informal daily conversations, while MSA is used in formal situations such as in media, education, and formal
meetings.
Like other Arabic dialects, Abha Arabic has received little attention in the literature;
to our knowledge, there are only three studies devoted to this dialect. Al-Azraqi (1998)
focused on selected aspects of syntax while Nakshabandi (1988) focused on the phonology
and morphology of Abha Arabic. However, although Nakshabandi’s phonological analysis
1
For non-phonological features of this dialect, please see Al-Azraqi (1998).
The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The International Phonetic Association.
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creative
commons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article
is properly cited.
C
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025100323000269 Published online by Cambridge University Press
Journal of the International Phonetic Association
541
Figure 1. (Colour online) Map of Saudi Arabia showing Asir region with main cities.
included a description of the sounds, syllable structure, stress, and some phonological
processes of the dialect, the phonetic description is not as detailed as those available for
other Arabic dialects. In particular, an acoustic analysis is not conducted in Nakshabandi
(1988). The third study of Abha Arabic, Al Malwi (2017), provides some acoustic analyses but
it focuses mainly on the effects of age and gender on the production of Voice Onset Time
(VOT).
The present study thus aims to provide a comprehensive description of the main features
of the phonological system of Abha Arabic. Audio data has been collected from participants who are native speakers of Abha Arabic between twenty-eight and forty-six years
of age; the first author is also one of the participants. They all hold a university degree
and speak Abha Arabic at home. The phonemic values of the sounds were identified by
near/minimal pairs/sets. For the VOT, three males and three females uttered the words
four times and only the first three repetitions were measured. For each vowel, five males
and five females pronounced every word five times and only the first four tokens were measured to avoid including a final intonation contour. All samples were recorded in isolation.
The data were analyzed using Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2021). The transcribed passage in
the final section is a reading of ‘The North Wind and the Sun’ by the first author.
Consonants
Abha Arabic has twenty-seven consonants, while MSA has twenty-eight; this is due to the
fact that /d≥/ and /D≥/ merge into /D≥/ in Abha Arabic. A notable characteristic of Arabic is the
existence of pharyngealized consonants, commonly known as emphatic consonants, which
are represented by the symbol / ≥/ in the IPA.
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Al Malwi et al.
Bilabial
Labiodental
Interdental
Plosive
Alveolar
5
t≥5
t
b
Nasal
d
5
PostPalatal
alveolar
Velar
Labialised Uvular
Velar
k g
Pharyngeal Laryngeal
( q)
/
n
m
Trill
r
Fricative
f
T
D
D≥
Lateral
fricative
s
s≥
z
\
Z
x
ƒ
O
Ã
h
l
Approximant
j
w
The following is a list of all the consonant phonemes in Abha Arabic. Details regarding
any phonetic variation, when relevant, are included in the discussion that follows. Since
Abha Arabic does not have a writing system, we use MSA orthography to write the words
used in the list below.
Phoneme
Phonemic example
Orthography
Gloss
/b/
/baːb/
ﺏ
‘door’
/t/
/taːb/
ﺗﺎﺏ
‘he repented’
/tˤ/
/tˤaːl/
ﻁﺎﻝ
‘he became tall’
/d/
/daːm/
ﺩﺍﻡ
‘since’
/k/
/kaːn/
ﻛﺎﻥ
‘he was’
/ɡ/
/ɡaːm/
ﻗﺎﻡ
‘he stood up’
/ʔ/
/ʔaːl/
ﺁﻝ
‘family of’
/m/
/maːl/
ﻣﺎﻝ
‘it inclined’
/n/
/naːb/
ﻧﺎﺏ
‘tusk’
/r/
/raːs/
ﺭﺍﺱ
‘head’
/f/
/faːs/
ﻓﺎﺱ
‘axe’
/θ/
/θaːr/
ﺛﺎﺭ
‘he revolted’
/ð/
/ðaːb/
ﺫﺍﺏ
‘it melted’
/ðˤ/
/ðˤaːɡ/
ﺿﺎﻕ
‘it got tight’
/s/
/saːm/
ﺳﺎﻡ
‘poisonous’
/sˤ/
/sˤaːm/
ﺻﺎﻡ
‘he fasted’
/z/
/zaːr/
ﺯﺍﺭ
‘he visited’
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025100323000269 Published online by Cambridge University Press
Journal of the International Phonetic Association
Phoneme
Phonemic example
Orthography
Gloss
/ʃ/
/ʃaːl/
ﺷﺎﻝ
‘carrying’
/ʒ/
/ʒaːb/
ﺟﺎﺏ
‘he brought’
/x/
/xaːl/
ﺧﺎﻝ
‘uncle: a mother’s brother’
/ɣ/
/ɣaːb/
ﻏﺎﺏ
‘absent’
/ħ/
/ħaːd/
ﺣﺎﺩ
‘sharp’
/ʕ/
/ʕaːm/
ﻋﺎﻡ
‘general’
/h/
/haːk/
ﻫﺎﻙ
‘take’
/l/
/laːʃ/
ﻻﺵ
‘nothing’
/j/
/jaːm/
ﻳﺎﻡ
‘Yam tribe’
/w/
/ ̍waːdiː/
ﻭﺍﺩﻱ
‘valley’
5 5 5
543
Abha Arabic has seven plosives /b, t , d, t≥, k, g, P/ and, except for /g/, they are all found
in MSA. MSA voiceless uvular plosive /q/ corresponds to Abha Arabic voiced velar plosive
/g/. For example, MSA ﻗﺎﻝ/ q‹ a˘la/ ‘he said’ and ﺩﻗﻴﻖ/da q‹ i˘q/ ‘flour’ are /ga˘l/ and /d“ g‹ i˘g/
in Abha Arabic, respectively. /q/, however, appears in Abha Arabic as a phoneme with a limited application by younger speakers and educated people in formal situations, for instance
/qalam/ ‘a pen’. Furthermore, the voiceless glottal stop /P/ can appear word-initially, wordmedially and word-finally in MSA and is pronounced [P] in those contexts. However, in
Abha Arabic, /P/ only appears word-initially; it is /P/ word-initially and /j/ word-medially if
it follows /a˘/, as in MSA ﺳﺎﺋﻞ/ s‹ a˘PIl/ ‘liquid’, which is / s‹ a˘jIl/ in Abha Arabic. If /P/ appears
after a short vowel, it is deleted and the short vowel is lengthened. For instance, MSA ﻣﺆﻣﻦ
‹ u˘mIn/, /Di˘b/ and /fa˘s/ in
/muPmIn/ ‘a believer’, ﺫﺋﺐ/DiPb/ ‘wolf’ and ﻓﺄﺱ/faPs/ ‘axe’ are / m
Abha Arabic, respectively. /P/ is also deleted word-finally, as in MSA ﻋﺸﺎء/Ãa ‹Sa˘P/ ‘dinner’,
which is / Ë “Sa˘/ in Abha Arabic. These are common historical changes in Arabic dialects.
Voice Onset Time differentiates between three types of plosives in Abha Arabic (Table 1):
(1) voiced plosives display voicing-lead, meaning that voicing starts before the burst; (2)
voiceless plosives have long-lag VOT; and (3) the voiceless emphatic plosive /t≥/ is pronounced with short-lag VOT (Figure 2) (Al Malwi, 2017). All possible vowels were used after
a plosive since VOT is affected by the vowel height where VOT tends to be longer in high
vowels than in low vowels (Morris, McCrea & Herring, 2008). In careful pronunciation, the
stop /t/ can be affricated, as in the example provided for /t/ in Table 1 /ti˘n/ ‘figs’.
The voiced plosives /b/, /d/ and /g/ undergo partial devoicing word-finally and are
pronounced [b8], [d8] and [g8], respectively, while /t/ and /k/ are pronounced [th ] and [kh ]
word-finally; an analysis of word-final voiced plosives using the fraction of locally unvoiced
frames function on Praat shows devoicing of between 20% and 50% of the stop consonants
from the beginning of closure up to the beginning of the burst. Therefore, the contrast
between voiced and voiceless stops is mainly based on lack of aspiration or aspiration in
word-final position. For example, ﺟﺪ/Z“dd/ is pronounced [Z“dt] ‘grandfather’ while ﺟﺖ
/Z“t/ is pronounced [Z“th ] ‘she came’. Similarly, ﺷﻖ/S“gg/ is pronounced [S“gk] ‘crack’
whereas ﺷﻚ/S“kk/ is pronounced [S“kkh ] ‘doubt’. The following four spectrograms illustrate the difference (Figures 3, 4, 5 and 6). Furthermore, the voiced plosives are devoiced if
they appear in coda position before a final voiceless consonant (regressive assimilation).
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544
/i˘/
/I/
/e˘/
/a˘/
/“/
/o˘/
/u˘/
/U/
VOT
/t≥/
/t≥i˘n/
/t≥Ibb/
‘medicine’
/t≥e˘f/
‘a female
proper name’
/t≥a˘l/
‘he became tall’
/t≥“nn/
‘tun’
/t≥o˘g/
‘collar’
/t≥u˘b/
‘bricks’
–
‘clay’
18
(3.3)
[125]
/ t/
/ti˘n/
–
/te˘s/
‘cheep’
/ta˘b/
‘he repented’
/t“mm/
–
/tu˘t/
‘berries’
/tUb/
‘repent.
IMP.M.SG.’
65
(14.5)
[107]
/kInn/
‘it looks’
/ke˘f/
‘how’
/ka˘s/
‘trophy’
/k“mm/
‘how many’
/ko˘b/
‘a cup’
/ku˘t/
‘jacket’
/kUbb/
‘pour. IMP.
M.SG.’
64
(13.3)
[143]
/bi˘r/
‘well’
/bIrr/
‘to honor one’s
parents’
/be˘t/
‘house’
/ba˘b/
‘door’
/b“t≥t≥/
–
/bu˘t/
‘sports shoes’
/bUnn/
‘coffee beans’
-79
(32.1)
[125]
/di˘k/
‘rooster’
/dIff/
‘push IMP.M,
SG.’
/de˘n/
/da˘l/
‘letter D’
/d“mm/
‘blood’
/do˘r/
‘one floor’
/du˘d/
‘worms’
/dUbb/
‘loan’
‘bear’
-87
(28.7)
[144]
/gi˘s/
‘measure. IMP.
M.SG.’
/gIdd/
‘already’
/ge˘s/
‘a village name’
/ga˘z/
‘kerosene’
/g“\\/
/go˘s/
‘stuff’
‘bow’
/gu˘l/
‘say. IMP. M.SG.’
/gUmm/
‘stand up.
IMP.M.SG’
-81
(27.5)
[126]
Plosives
‘figs’
/k/
/ki˘s/
‘bag’
/b/
/d/
/ g/
‘done’
‘ducks’
Al Malwi et al.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025100323000269 Published online by Cambridge University Press
Table 1 Mean length (ms) of VOTs in Abha Arabic plosives. Each word was pronounced four times by three male and three female speakers of Abha Arabic. The first
three tokens were measured (n = 770). Standard variations are reported in parentheses and number of tokens are reported in square brackets
Journal of the International Phonetic Association
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Figure 2. (Colour online) Mean length and standard variation (ms) of VOT in Abha Arabic plosives word-initially.
Values taken from 770 tokens produced by six Abha Arabic native speakers (three males and three females).
Figure 3. Partial devoicing of final /d/ in /Z“dd/ [Z“dt] ‘grandfather’.
For instance, ﺍﻟﺴﺒﺖ/l- s‹ abt/ ‘Saturday’ is pronounced [P“s s‹ “b8t]. Another assimilation
appears with the phoneme /n/. This consonant assimilates to the place of articulation of the
following velar or labial consonants, for example, ﺟﻨﺐ/Z“nb/ ‘side’ is pronounced [Z“mb8]
and ﻣﻨﻚ/mInk/ ‘from you M.SG.’ is pronounced [mINkh ].
Abha Arabic has one trill phoneme which is /r/. There is variation between speakers and
/r/ can sometimes be pronounced as a fricative. Although the trill is the dominant, it can be
pronounced as fricative when it’s proceeded or followed by a front vowel. For instance /ri˘S/
‘feathers’ and /ra˘s/ ‘head’ are pronounced as fricative and trill respectively.
Abha Arabic has fourteen fricatives, which makes it the largest consonant group in
this dialect of Arabic. While other varieties of Arabic maintain /dZ/, such as MSA and
San’ani Arabic (Watson, 2002), MSA /dZ/ corresponds to /Z/ in Abha Arabic as well as in
‹ i˘l/ ‘beautiful’ is
Tihami Qahtani (Alqahtani, 2015). For example, the MSA word ﺟﻤﻴﻞ/dZa m
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Al Malwi et al.
Figure 4. Aspirated final /t/ in /Z“t/ [Z“th ] ‘she came’.
Figure 5. Partial devoicing of final /g/ in /\“gg/ [\“gk] ‘crack’.
‹ i˘l/ in Abha Arabic. Pronouncing /dZ/ as /Z/ is a salient feature of Syro-Lebanese/Syro/Z“ m
Palestinian dialects. Yet, the same process has been recorded in a few dialects outside of this
area as well, like certain Gelet-speaking tribes in Iraq and Khuzestan (Bahrani & Ghavami,
2021).
The consonant /Ã/ shows the presence of continuous acoustic energy but no turbulent
airflow, together with a high degree of constriction, “higher than is normally associated with strictures of open approximation” (Heselwood, 2007, p. 9). Therefore, following
(Heselwood, 2007), Abha Arabic /Ã/ could be described as a tight approximant as well
(Figure 7).
While MSA has four pharyngealized consonant phonemes (/D≥/, /d≥/, /t≥/, and /s≥/), Abha
Arabic has three, since /D≥/ and /d≥/ have merged into /D≥/. There is a similar tendency in
many other Arabic dialects such as San’ani Arabic (Watson, 2002), Damascus Syrian Arabic
(Daher, 1998), and Gulf Arabic (Hussain, 1985). The emphatic consonants /D≥/, /t≥/ and /s≥/
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Figure 6. Aspirated final /k/ in /\“kk/ [\“kkh ] ‘doubt’.
Figure 7. A geminated /Ã/ in /»n“ÃÓm/ ‘to soften the grind’ pronounced by a male Abha Arabic speaker.
can trigger pharyngealization of neighbouring /r/ and /l/ in Abha Arabic. For instance, ﺻﺎﺭ
/s≥a˘r/ ‘happened’ and ﻁﺎﻝ/t≥a˘l/ ‘he became tall’ are pronounced [s≥A˘r≥] and [t≥A˘l≥] in Abha
Arabic, respectively. Furthermore, /l/ sometimes occurs as [l≥] after a low vowel /“/ and in
specific lexical contexts, as in ﷲ/“l l‹ a˘h/ [PAl≥ l‹ ≥A˘h] ‘God’.
The lateral /l/ in the definite article /l-/ ‘the’ assimilates to the following consonant when
it is followed by a coronal consonant; this process triggers gemination of the coronal consonant (Table 2). Some speakers, especially older speakers, however, use /Im-/ as the definite
article instead of /l-/. If /Im-/ is used, no assimilation takes place. /Im-/ as the definite article
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Table 2 Assimilation of /l-/ in the definite article
Phonemic representation
Phonetic representation
Orthography
Gloss
/l- ti‹ ˘n/
[/“t t‹ i˘n]
ﺍﻟﺘﻴﻦ
‘the figs’
/l- di
‹ ˘n/
[/“d d‹ i˘n]
ﺍﻟﺪﻳﻦ
‘the religion’
/l- t‹ ≥i˘n/
[/“t≥ t‹ ≥i˘n]
ﺍﻟﻄﻴﻦ
‘the clay’
/l- D‹ ≥e˘f/
[/“D≥ D‹ ≥e˘f]
ﺍﻟﻀﻴﻒ
‘the guest’
/l- s‹ ≥e˘f/
[/“s≥ s‹ ≥e˘f]
ﺍﻟﺼﻴﻒ
‘the summer’
/l- no
‹ ˘m/
[/“n n‹ o˘m]
ﺍﻟﻨﻮﻡ
‘the sleep’
/l- ra
‹ ˘s/
[/“r ra˘s
‹ ]
ﺍﻟﺮﺃﺱ
‘the head’
/l- T‹ o˘b/
[/“T To˘b
‹ 8]
ﺍﻟﺜﻮﺏ
‘the dress’
/l- ze
‹ ˘t/
[/“z ze˘t
‹ h]
ﺍﻟﺰﻳﺖ
‘the oil’
/l- sinn
‹ /
[/“s sInn
‹ ]
ﺍﻟﺴﻦ
‘the tooth’
/l- D‹ e˘l/
[/“D De˘l
‹ ]
ﺍﻟﺬﻳﻞ
‘the tail’
/l- \‹ e˘x/
[/“\ \e˘x
‹ ]
ﺍﻟﺸﻴﺦ
‘the tribe leader’
/l- la
‹ ˘m/
[/“l la˘m
‹ ]
ﺍﻟﻼﻡ
‘letter L’
has been observed in many dialects in southern Saudi Arabic such as Rejal Alma’ dialect
(Asiri, 2009) and Tihami Qahtani (Alqahtani, 2015).
Vowels
Monophthongs
Abha Arabic has eight vowel phonemes: three short and five long: /i˘/, /I/, /e˘/, /a˘/, /“/,
/u˘/, /U/, /o˘/. It should be noted that, although /a˘/ is technically a low front vowel in the
IPA (Cardinal Vowel 4), we are using this symbol to denote a low central vowel. MSA, in
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Table 3 Mean F1 and F2 values (Hz) and duration of each vowel phoneme in Abha Arabic after /s/. Measurements
obtained from a total of 320 tokens from ten speakers (five males and five females). Formant values normalised
using the Nearey 1 formula and scaled to Hz. Standard deviation is given in brackets.
Vowels
–
Non-emphatic environment
/sv(˘)c(c)/
Gloss
Tokens
F1
F2
Length
/i˘/
/si˘b/
‘hallway’
40
389
(22.4)
2096
(92.6)
156
(28.5)
/I/
/sIdd/
‘block.IMP.M.SG.’
40
454
(27.3)
1720
(71.3)
59
(9.1)
/e˘/
/se˘f/
‘sword’
40
513
(21.4)
1768
(94.2)
161
(27.1)
/a˘/
/sa˘d/
‘a snake type’
40
672
(37.8)
1509
(41.6)
171
(20.2)
/“/
/s“dd/
‘dam’
40
561
(32.1)
1563
(68.7)
63
(7.9)
/o˘/
/so˘m/
‘pricing sth’
40
536
(52.7)
1041
(83.2)
169
(26.1)
/u˘/
/su˘d/
‘blacks’
40
416
(25.8)
1013
(69.1)
169
(22.1)
/U/
/sUmm/
‘name a price. IMP.M.SG.’
40
491
(63.8)
1153
(89.8)
53
(9.8)
comparison, has three short and three long vowel phonemes: /i˘/, /i/, /a˘/, /a/, /u˘/, /u/.
Acoustic measurements for the F1 and F2 of each vowel phoneme in Abha Arabic after a
non-emphatic consonant are included in Table 3. Vowel length is phonemic in Abha Arabic
and the average length of each vowel in our samples is also included in Table 3; standard
deviation is given in brackets. The words which have been analysed are those in Table 3. The
vowels were measured in Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2021). Segmentation was performed
manually and the measurements were taken using a script developed by the second author
(Herrero de Haro, 2021). All settings were standard Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2021) except
maximum formant, which was set at 5000 Hz for males, and 5500 Hz for females. The measurement taken for each vowel corresponds to the mean value of the first two formants
from the middle 20% to 80% section of the vowel. Formant values have been normalised
using the Nearey 1 formula (Nearey Terrance, 1977) and then scaled to Hz. The normalisation has been carried out using the NORM application (Thomas & Kendall, 2007) (Table 3).
F1 and F2 ellipses mark 1 standard deviation. The same process in terms of normalisation
has been followed for vowels after an emphatic consonant (Table 4). For vowel plots, nonnormalised mean formant values were used for vowels after a non-emphatic consonant
(Figure 8) and vowels after an emphatic consonant (Figure 9).
The data from Table 3 and Figure 8 support transcribing the Abha Arabic vowels /i˘/, /I/,
/e˘/, /a˘/, /“/, /o˘/, /u˘/ and /U/ as [i˘], [I], [e˘], [a˘], [“], [o˘], [u˘] and [U], respectively, in their
phonetic realisation. As in other varieties of Arabic, the short vowels /i/, /a/ and /u/ are
pronounced as lax when compared to their long counterparts, as it is the case in Gaza City
Arabic (Cotter, 2022).
A comparison of the data in Table 3 with the data in Table 4 shows that, although F1 does
not seem to change much in vowels depending on whether they precede a non-emphatic or
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Al Malwi et al.
Figure 8. F1 and F2 mean values (Hz) for each vowel phoneme of Abha Arabic measured from the middle 20%
to 80% section of each vowel after /s/. Measurements taken from 320 tokens from five male and five female Abha
Arabic speakers. The ellipses show the F1 and F2 values to 1 standard deviation.
Figure 9. F1 and F2 mean values (Hz) for each vowel phoneme of Abha Arabic measured from the middle 20%
to 80% section of each vowel after /s≥/. Measurements taken from 320 tokens from five male and five female Abha
Arabic speakers. The ellipses show the F1 and F2 values to 1 standard deviation.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025100323000269 Published online by Cambridge University Press
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Table 4 Mean F1 and F2 values (Hz) and duration of each vowel phoneme in Abha Arabic after /s≥/.
Measurements obtained from a total of 320 tokens from ten speakers (five males and five females). Formant
values normalised using the Nearey 1 formula and scaled to Hz. Standard deviation is given in brackets.
Vowels
Emphatic environment
/s≥ v(˘)c(c)/
Gloss
Tokens
F1
F2
Length
/i˘/
/s≥i˘b/
‘hit sth IMP.M.SG.’
40
323
(40.4)
1993
(143.4)
167
(27.7)
/I/
/s≥Idd/
‘hunt IMP.M.SG.’
40
434
(34.8)
1551
(74.8)
63
(9.1)
/e˘/
/s≥e˘f/
‘summer’
40
500
(32.5)
1727
(115.7)
169
(26.6)
/a˘/
/s≥a˘d/
‘he hunted’
40
664
(50.2)
1285
(51.9)
171
(18.1)
/“/
/s≥“dd/
‘he blocked’
40
581
(42.8)
1333
(44.1)
68
(8.3)
/o˘/
/s≥o˘m/
‘fasting’
40
531
(62.7)
1080
(40.9)
171
(20.7)
/u˘/
/s≥u˘f/
‘wool’
40
383
(45.4)
983
(58.5)
168
(21.7)
/U/
/s≥Umm/
‘fast IMP.M.SG’
40
483
(43.9)
1095
(76.6)
56
(12.8)
an emphatic consonant, the situation is different for the F2. Vowels display a lower F2 when
they are preceded by an emphatic consonant. This tendency seems to be larger in high front
vowels and in low central vowels. Vowels seem to be slightly longer after an emphatic than
after a non-emphatic consonant (Table 5).
Vowel length is phonemic in Abha Arabic and, as shown in Tables 3 and 4, long vowels
have a duration which is over double that of short vowels. The long mid vowels /e˘/ and /o˘/
correspond to MSA diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/, respectively. For example, MSA ﺟﻴﺶ/dZajS/
‘army’ and ﺛﻮﺏ/Tawb/ ‘dress’ are /Ze˘S/ and /To˘b/ in Abha Arabic, respectively. The emergence of the two long mid vowels is due to the coalescence of vowel-glide sequences, as has
been reported in many Arabic dialects such as Cairene Arabic (Youssef, 2010) and Syrian
Arabic (Almbark & Hellmuth, 2015).
Abha Arabic low vowels /a˘/ and /“/ usually undergo lowering and backing to [A˘] and
[A] in emphatic environments. For example ﺻﺎﻡ/s≥a˘m/ ‘he fasted’ and ﺻﻒ/s≥“ff/ ‘line’ are
pronounced as [s≥A˘m] and [s≥Aff] in Abha Arabic. Furthermore, /r/ can trigger backing in
/a˘/ as /ra˘s/ ‘head’ is pronounced as [rA˘s].
Closed syllable shortening is a process that occurs in Abha Arabic and in many
Arabic dialects such as Cairene Arabic (Watson, 2002), San’ani Arabic (Watson, 2002), and
Palestinian Arabic (Hall, 2017). Closed syllable shortening happens when consonant-initial
subject suffixes are added to the root of /CV˘C/ verbs, as shown in Table 6.
Defective verbs are subject to another type of vowel alteration. As explained in
Nakshabandi (1988), when a consonant-initial subject suffix is connected to a defective
verb that ends with /a˘/, /a˘/ surfaces as [e˘]. However, when the verb is connected to a
vowel-initial subject suffix, /a˘/ is omitted (Table 7).
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Al Malwi et al.
Table 5 Differences between the normalised means of F1 and F2 values (Hz) of Abha Arabic vowels after /s/ and
after /s≥/. Measurements obtained from a total of 640 tokens from ten speakers (five males and five females).
Formant values normalised using the Nearey 1 formula and scaled to Hz
F1 of vowel after /s/ minus
F1 of vowel after /s≥/
F2 of vowel after /s/ minus
F2 of vowel after /s≥/
Duration of vowel after /s/
minus duration of vowel
after /s≥/
/i˘/
8
223
-10
/I/
-19
231
-4
/e˘/
12
40
-8
/a˘/
20
168
-0
/“/
66
103
-4
/o˘/
4
-39
-1
/u˘/
8
57
0
/U/
33
30
-2
Vowel phoneme
Table 6 Closed syllable shortening in Abha Arabic
/CV˘C/ verb
Suffix
Verb + suffix
Closed syllable shortening
/\a˘f/
–
/\a˘f/ ‘he saw’
No
/\a˘f/
/-“t/
/\a˘f-“t/ ‘she saw’
No
/\a˘f/
/-t/
/\If-t/ ‘I saw’
Yes
/\a˘f/
/-na˘/
/\If-na˘/ ‘we saw’
Yes
/ga˘m/
–
/ga˘m/ ‘he stood up’
No
/ga˘m/
/-o˘/
/ga˘m-o˘/ ‘they stood up’
No
/ga˘m/
/-t/
/gUm-t/ ‘I stood up’
Yes
/ga˘m/
/-na˘/
/gUm-na˘/ ‘we stood up’
Yes
Table 7 Pronunciation of /a˘/ in defective verbs
Defective verb
/ b‹ “da˘/ ‘he started’
/m
‹ “\a˘/ ‘he left’
Consonant-initial subject suffix
Vowel-initial subject suffix
/ b‹ “da˘/ + /-t/
[b“ de
‹ ˘t] ‘I started’
/ b‹ “da˘/ + /-“t/
[ b‹ “d“t] ‘she started’
/ b‹ “da˘/ + /-na˘/
[b“ de
‹ ˘na˘] ‘we started’
/ b‹ “da˘/ + /-o˘/
[ b‹ “do˘] ‘they started’
/m
‹ “\a˘/ + /-t/
[m“ \‹ e˘t] ‘I left ’
/m
‹ “\a˘/ + /-“t/
[m
‹ “\“t] ‘she left’
/m
‹ “\a˘/ + /-na˘/
[m“ \‹ e˘na˘] ‘we left’
/m
‹ “\a˘/ + /-o˘/
[m
‹ “\o˘] ‘they left’
Prosodic features
Syllable structure
Syllable structure in Abha Arabic consists of onset, nucleus and coda. Utterance-initially,
the onset is filled with [P] if it is empty. The nucleus of a syllable is always either a short
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Table 8 Abha Arabic Syllable Structure
Syllable
Example
Gloss
CV
/w“/
‘and’
CV˘
/fi˘/
‘in’
CVC
/mIn/
‘from’
CV˘C
/se˘f/
‘sword’
CVCC
/k“lb/
‘dog’
or a long vowel. The coda is optional and may comprise either one or two consonants. The
observed syllable structures in Abha Arabic are included in Table 8.
Lexical stress
The placement of word stress is predictable based on syllable weight. Abha Arabic has three
syllable weights: light (CV), heavy (CV˘ and CVC), and super-heavy (CVCC and CV˘C). The
placement of word stress in Abha Arabic seems to act similarly to other Arabic dialects
such as Hijazi Arabic (Abaalkhail, 1998) and Khuzestani Arabic (Bahrani & Ghavami, 2021).
Word stress in Abha Arabic is governed by three rules:
(1) If the last syllable is superheavy, CV˘C or CVCC, this last syllable carries the stress.
Phonemic Transcription
Phonetic Transcription
Gloss
/k“. » Ti˘r/
[kH“. » Ti˘r]
‘plenty’
/d“. » la˘l/
[d“. » la˘l]
‘a female proper name’
/“. » k“lt/
[P“. » k“ltH]
‘I ate’
/k“. » t“bt/
[kH“. » t“btH]
‘I wrote’
(2) If the last syllable is not superheavy, the stress falls on the penultimate syllable when
the penultimate syllable is heavy, comprising of either CV˘ or CVC.
Phonemic Transcription
Phonetic Transcription
Gloss
/b“. na˘.t“/
[b“. na˘.t“]
‘his daughters’
/k“. » s“r.na˘/
[kH“. » s“r.na˘]
‘we broke’
/k“.t“. b“t.l“/
[kH“.t“. b“t.l“]
‘she wrote for him’
»
»
»
»
(3) If the last syllable is not superheavy and the penultimate syllable is not heavy, the stress
falls on the antepenultimate syllable in polysyllabic words and on the penultimate in
disyllabic words.
Phonemic Transcription
Phonetic Transcription
Gloss
/ » m“.r“.g“/
[ » m“.r“.g“]
‘broth’
/ g“.ra˘/
[ g“.ra˘]
‘he read’
/ » k“.t“.b“t/
[ » kH“.t“.b“tH]
‘she wrote’
»
»
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Al Malwi et al.
Table 9 Intensity, f0, and duration of the vowels in /k“. t‹ “bt/ ‘I wrote’, /k“.t“. b“t.l“
/
‹
‘she wrote for him’, and / k“.t“.b“t
/ ‘she wrote’. Stressed vowels are marked in bold.
‹
Data were measured in ten repetitions of each word (thirty words resulted in ninety
vowels) pronounced by a male Abha Arabic native speaker. Standard deviations are
reported in parentheses.
Words
/k“. t‹ “bt/
‘I wrote’
/k“.t“. b‹ “t.l“/
‘she wrote for him’
/ k‹ “.t“.b“t/
‘she wrote’
Feature
Vowels
/“/
/5 /
Mean
intensity
59
(13.1)
58
(11.9)
Mean f0
120
(9.9)
113
(5.4)
Duration
32
(5.4)
45
(6.6)
/“/
Mean
intensity
–
–
/“/
/5 /
/“/
67
(1.9)
70
(1.1)
70
(0.8)
61
(1.4)
Mean f0
120
(4.3)
125
(3.8)
124
(3.9)
98
(1.9)
Duration
34
(5.3)
33
(3.7)
54
(4.1)
49
(4.9)
/5 /
/“/
/“/
–
Mean
intensity
71
(1.3)
68
(2.2)
61
(2.2)
Mean f0
124
(4.2)
114
(5.8)
95
(3.1)
Duration
48
(4.4)
40
(5.7)
42
(6.7)
Different acoustic correlates were measured to quantify stress in Abha Arabic. These
correlates include intensity, pitch, and duration. The following table shows the stress correlations in three words pronounced ten times each by a male Abha Arabic speaker. It appears
that the duration is the most prominent parameter for stress (Table 9).
Transcription
The transcriptions are based on a reading by the first author, a thirty-four-year-old male
native speaker of Abha Arabic. The English version of ‘The North Wind and the Sun’ was
translated into Abha Arabic by the first author. Even though Abha Arabic has no official
writing system, the translation is written in Arabic script adapted to Abha Arabic.
The order of the presentation is:
Broad phonetic transcription
Orthographic version
Morphemic glossing
Translation
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025100323000269 Published online by Cambridge University Press
Journal of the International Phonetic Association
tʰɐ x̍ ɑːsˤɑmoː
ﺗﺨﺎﺻﻤﻮﺍ
argue.PRF-3F.PL.
rɪ j̍ aːħ
ﺭﻳﺎﺡ
wind
ʃʃɐ m
̍ aːl
wɐʃ ʃ̍ ams
ﺍﻟﺸﻤﺎﻝ
ﻭﺍﻟﺸﻤﺲ
DEF-north and-DEF-sun
The North Wind and the Sun were disputing
̍ʕɐlaː
ﻋﻠﻰ
about
m
̍ ɪn
ﻣﻦ
who
̍ɪlliː
ﺍﻟﻠﻲ
REL.who
̍ʔɐɡwaː
ﺍﻗﻮﻯ
Stronger
about who was the stronger
̍joːm
ﻳﻮﻡ
when
m
̍ ɐrr
ﻣﺮ
pass.by.PRF.3M.SG
̍
mʊ saːfɪr
ﻣﺴﺎﻓﺮ
traveller
̍laːbɪs
ﻻﺑﺲ
wearing
̍fɐrwɐ
ﻓﺮﻭﺓ
Cloak
d̍ aːfɪjɐ
ﺩﺍﻓﻴﺔ
warm-F.
when a traveller came along wrapped in a warm cloak
̍
ʔɪt tɐfɐɡoː
ﺍﺗﻔﻘﻮﺍ
agree.PRF-3F.PL.
̍ʔɪnn
ﺍﻥ
that
̍ʔɐwwɐl
ﺍﻭﻝ
First
̍wɐħdɐ
ﻭﺣﺪﻩ
one-F.
They agreed that the first one
̍
tɪ xɐlliː
ﺗﺨﻠﻲ
3F.SG.make.IPFV.
̍ sˤsˤɑx
jɪ fɐs
ﻳﻔﺼﺦ
3M.SG.take.off.IPFV.
̍
lmʊ saːfɪr
ﺍﻟﻤﺴﺎﻓﺮ
DEF-traveller
̍fɐrwɐtɐ
ﻓﺮﻭﺗﻪ
cloak-3M.SG.POSS.
succeeded in making the traveller take his cloak off
̍
bɪt kuːn
ﺑﺘﻜﻮﻥ
will-3F.SG.be.IPFV.
̍hɪjɐ
ﻫﻴﻪ
PRN.3F.SG.
̍ʔɐɡwaː
ﺍﻗﻮﻯ
stronger
̍mɪn
ﻣﻦ
from
will be stronger than the other.
bɐʕ deːn
̍
ﺑﻌﺪﻳﻦ
then
̍bɪkʊl
ﺑﻜﻞ
with-all
̍ ɐbbɐtʰ
h
ﻫﺒﺖ
blow.PRF-3F.SG.
rɪ j̍ aːħ
ﺭﻳﺎﺡ
wind
ʃʃɐ m
̍ aːl
ﺍﻟﺸﻤﺎﻝ
DEF-north
ɡʊw wɐthaː
̍
ﻗﻮﺗﻬﺎ
strength-3F.SG.POSS.
Then the North Wind blew as hard as it could,
w laːkɪn
̍
̍kʰʊllmaː
h̍ ɐbbɐtʰ
̍ʔɐkθɐr
ﻭﻟﻜﻦ
ﻛﻠﻤﺎ
ﻫﺒﺖ
ﺍﻛﺜﺮ
and-but
every.time.ADV.
blow.PRF-3F.SG.
more
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025100323000269 Published online by Cambridge University Press
θ θaːnɪjɐ
̍
ﺍﻟﺜﺎﻧﻴﺔ
DEF-second-F.
555
556
Al Malwi et al.
but the more it blew
̍kʰʊllmaː
̍lɐff
̍
lmʊ saːfɪr
̍fɐrwɐtɐ
ﻛﻠﻤﺎ
ﻟﻒ
ﺍﻟﻤﺴﺎﻓﺮ
ﻓﺮﻭﺗﻪ
every.time.ADV.
fold.PRF.3M.SG.
DEF-traveller
cloak-3M.SG.POSS.
ʕɐ leːh
̍
bʊ ɡʊwwɐ
̍
ﻋﻠﻴﻪ
ﺑﻘﻮﺓ
around-3M.SG.OBJ.
with-force
the more closely did the traveller fold his cloak around him
fɪlʔɐ xiːr
̍
ﻓﻲ ﺍﻻﺧﻴﺮ
at-DEF-end
̍wɐɡɡɐfɐtʰ
ﻭﻗﻔﺖ
stop.PRF-3F.SG.
rɪ jaːħ
̍
ﺭﻳﺎﺡ
wind
ʃʃɐ maːl
̍
ﺍﻟﺸﻤﺎﻝ
DEF-north
ʔɐlmʊ ħaːwɐlɐ
̍
ﺍﻟﻤﺤﺎﻭﻟﺔ
DEF-try
at last the North Wind gave up the attempt
̍
w bɐʕdɐhaː
̍ʔɐʃrɐɡat
̍
ʃ ʃɐms
̍
bħɐ raːrɐthaː
ﻭﺑﻌﺪﻫﺎ
ﺍﺷﺮﻗﺖ
ﺍﻟﺸﻤﺲ
ﺑﺤﺮﺍﺭﺗﻬﺎ
and-after-3F.SG.OBJ.
shine.out.PRF-3F.SG.
DEF.sun
with-heat-3F.SG.POSS.
Then the Sun shined out warmly,
wmʊ b̍ aːʃɐrɐ
f̍ ɐssˤsˤɑx
ﻭﻣﺒﺎﺷﺮﺓ
ﻓﺼﺦ
and-immediately take.off.PRF.3M.SG.
lmʊ s̍ aːfɪr
ﺍﻟﻤﺴﺎﻓﺮ
DEF-traveller
̍fɐrwɐtɐ
ﻓﺮﻭﺗﻪ
cloak-3M.SG.POSS.
and immediately the traveller took off his cloak.
fɐðˤ t̍ ˤɑrˤr ˤɐtʰ
ﻓﺎﺿﻄﺮﺕ
so-oblige.PRF-3F.SG.
̍
rɪ jaːħ
ﺭﻳﺎﺡ
wind
̍
ʃʃɐ maːl
ﺍﻟﺸﻤﺎﻝ
DEF-north
̍
ʔɐnn
ﺍﻥ
that
t̍ ʰɐʕtɐrɪf
ﺗﻌﺘﺮﻑ
3F.SG.confess.IPFV.
so the North Wind obliged to confess
̍ʔɐnnɐ
ʃ ̍ʃɐms
̍kʰaːnɐtʰ
̍ʔɐɡwɐ
ﺍﻥ
ﺍﻟﺸﻤﺲ
ﻛﺎﻧﺖ
ﺍﻗﻮﻯ
that
DEF-sun
be.PRF-3F.SG.
stronger
that the Sun was the stronger.
Abbreviations
3
ADV
third person
adverb
DEF
F
definite
feminine
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025100323000269 Published online by Cambridge University Press
Journal of the International Phonetic Association
f0
fundamental frequency
F1
F2
IPM
1st formant
2nd formant
imperative
IPFV
M
imperfective
masculine
MSA
OBJ
Modern Standard Arabic
Object
PRF
POSS
perfect
possessive
PRN
PL
REL
pronoun
Plural
relative
SG
VOT
singular
voice onset time
557
Acknowledgements We would like to thank the participants for their participation in the study. We are also
very grateful to the editors, audio manager, and the two anonymous reviewers of the Journal of the International
Phonetic Association for their insightful comments and suggestions during the revision process of this illustration.
Supplementary material To view supplementary material for this article, please visit https://doi.org/
10.1017/S0025100323000269
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Cite this article: Al Malwi Ibrahim, Herrero de Haro Alfredo, and Baker Amanda (2024). Abha Arabic. Journal of the
International Phonetic Association 54, 540–558. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025100323000269
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025100323000269 Published online by Cambridge University Press