A Phonological Analysis of Vowel Intrusion, Elision and ?imaala (Deflexion) in HIA with Reference to English

Abstract

AbstractThe present study deals with three phonological phenomena in Hit Iraqi Arabic (HIA) with reference to standard English (SE). These phenomena are vowel intrusion, elision, and ?imaala (deflexion). This dialect is one of the 'qeltu-dialects' used in Iraq and spoken by people live in Hit city to the west of Iraq. This study aims at determining the main differences between HIA and SE in the phonological phenomena mentioned above. The study hypothesizes that there is such difference. In this empirical study, the spontaneous speech of the individuals who speak HIA has been recorded in natural setting. The three phonological phenomena that concern this study have been explained briefly before starting the phonological analysis of the data collected about HIA. When analyzing the examples taken from the data to point out the intruded, elided and imalized vowels, the way these examples are written and pronounced in standard Arabic (SA) has also been mentioned to know the extent to which HIA is similar or different from SA. This helps to enrich the analysis of the data and make it more authentic. The analysis of the data comes up with a number of conclusions.