Maha Ibrahim Jasim, IPhD  Phonetics and Phonology
Email: m.i.jasim@ncl.ac.uk

Laboratory Phonology

Emphasis in Local and Long Domain Harmony: This research addresses [emphasis] (i.e. heaviness or darkness) as a feature, and an articulatory trigger element present in the production of sounds that are post-velars (PVs) in place of articulation. In Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), and in the dialects of Arabic including the Iraqi Qəltu and Gilit dialects under investigation, the phonological role of PVs is represented in their position as the trigger elements with the feature [emphasis] which surfaces in vowels in both local and long-domain harmony.
Local and long domain imaala harmony in Qəltu, and transguttural harmony in Gilit induced by the triggering element of emphasis in PVs are seen to be determined by three factors: 1- the phonetic identity of the PVs in both dialects; 2- the phonetic identity of the nearby vowel in both dialects, and 3- the phonological context: the presence of segments in the word context identified as secondary emphatics or secondary PVs with the feature specification [emphasis]. Secondary emphatics in Gilit and Qəltu allow the feature specification [emphasis] in PVs to exist in long domain among both vowels and consonants (cf. Bellem, 2007).