An Instrumental-Phonetic Justification for Sībawayh's Classification of ṭā', qāf and hamza as majhūr Consonants
In his eighth-century treatise al-Kitāb the Baghdad-based Persian scholar Sībawayh divided the Arabic consonants into two classes, majhūr and mahmūs . The focus of this study is his inclusion of ṭāʾ, qāf and hamza among the majhūr consonants. 2 Their classification has stimulated much discussion bec...
| Authors: | ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2015]
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| In: |
Journal of Semitic studies
Year: 2015, Volume: 60, Issue: 1, Pages: 131-175 |
| RelBib Classification: | KBL Near East and North Africa |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | In his eighth-century treatise al-Kitāb the Baghdad-based Persian scholar Sībawayh divided the Arabic consonants into two classes, majhūr and mahmūs . The focus of this study is his inclusion of ṭāʾ, qāf and hamza among the majhūr consonants. 2 Their classification has stimulated much discussion because while all other majhūr consonants are voiced, ṭāʾ and qāf are voiceless in Modern Standard Arabic (McCarus 2012), and there has been a general reluctance to describe hamza as voiced. We demonstrate that modern instrumental techniques of phonetic investigation, applied to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) fuṣḥa style speech, can help us to make sense of Sībawayh's classification without having to assume either that he was mistaken about their voicing or that ṭāʾ and qāf were voiced at that time. Aerometric data from three speakers show that volume-velocity airflow at the release of majhūr stop consonants is much lower than for mahmūs stop consonants, and laryngographic and spectrographic analysis of the speech of eight speakers provides evidence that for ṭāʾ and qāf airflow is reduced by laryngeal adjustment while hamza is shown to be voiced, albeit typically with irregular glottal cycles. We relate our results to glottal states as described in Esling and Harris (2005), and conclude that the defining feature of majhūr consonants is low airflow regulated by glottal constrictions of various kinds and possibly also by reduced initiator power in the pulmonic airstream mechanism. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-8556 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Semitic studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jss/fgu035 |