ghawa syndrome

English

Etymology

Named after the resyllabification of dialectal Arabic قَهْوَة (gahwa, “coffee”) as قْهَوَة (ghawa), which is the prototypical example of the phenomenon.

Noun

Examples (dialectal Arabic)
نَخْلَة (naḵla, “palm tree”) to نْخَلَة (nḵala) سَمْعَت (samʕat, “she heard”) to سْمَعَتْ (smaʕat)

ghawa syndrome (uncountable)

(phonology) A phenomenon in some Arabic dialects in which the second consonant in a word forms a cluster with the first consonant.
Synonym: Najdi resyllabification^[1]
(sociolinguistics) Imitation of such resyllabification due to perceived prestige or correctness.

Usage notes

Dialects exhibiting the phenomenon include some Iraqi dialects,^[2] Sana Yemeni,^[3] Najdi, Northern Israeli Bedouin Arabic,^[4] Burayami of Oman,^[5] and Najdi-descendant speakers of Kuwaiti Gulf Arabic.^[6]

Coordinate terms

gahawa syndrome

Translations

resyllabification phenomenon in some Arabic dialects

Arabic: please add this translation if you can

References

^ Palva, Heikki (2009) “From qəltu to gələt: Diachronic notes on linguistic adaptation in Muslim Baghdad Arabic”, in Arabic Dialectology‎^[1], Brill, archived from the original on 24 November 2020, pages 17–40: “[…] and the Najdi resyllabification rule, e.g., gahawa → ghawa, yaxabuṭ → yxabuṭ, katabat → ktibat, zalama → zlima.”
^ Palva, Heikki (2009) “From qəltu to gələt: Diachronic notes on linguistic adaptation in Muslim Baghdad Arabic”, in Arabic Dialectology‎^[2], Brill, archived from the original on 24 November 2020, pages 17–40: “[…] This is an obvious major case of phonetic adaptation by immigrant Bedouin speakers, the ex-Bedouin rural population in southern Iraq included.”
^ Rosenhouse, Judith (2013) “General and local issues in forensic linguistics: Arabic as a case study”, in Comparative Legilinguistics, number 15, pages 53–68; 62.
^ Rosenhouse, Judith (1995) “An Arabic Bedouin story and its linguistic analysis”, in Zeitschrift für arabische Linguistik, number 30, pages 62–83; 71.
^ Grünbichler, Elisabeth (2016) “Linguistic remarks on the dialect of Al-Buraymi, Oman”, in Arabic Varieties: Far and Wide, number 267.
^ Taqi, Hanan A. (2018) “The Ghawa Syndrome in Kuwaiti-Arabic verbs”, in Journal of Advances in Linguistics, number 9, pages 1298–1312.

[1] Palva, Heikki (2009) “From qəltu to gələt: Diachronic notes on linguistic adaptation in Muslim Baghdad Arabic”, in Arabic Dialectology‎^[1], Brill, archived from the original on 24 November 2020, pages 17–40: “[…] and the Najdi resyllabification rule, e.g., gahawa → ghawa, yaxabuṭ → yxabuṭ, katabat → ktibat, zalama → zlima.”

[2] Palva, Heikki (2009) “From qəltu to gələt: Diachronic notes on linguistic adaptation in Muslim Baghdad Arabic”, in Arabic Dialectology‎^[2], Brill, archived from the original on 24 November 2020, pages 17–40: “[…] This is an obvious major case of phonetic adaptation by immigrant Bedouin speakers, the ex-Bedouin rural population in southern Iraq included.”

[3] Rosenhouse, Judith (2013) “General and local issues in forensic linguistics: Arabic as a case study”, in Comparative Legilinguistics, number 15, pages 53–68; 62.

[4] Rosenhouse, Judith (1995) “An Arabic Bedouin story and its linguistic analysis”, in Zeitschrift für arabische Linguistik, number 30, pages 62–83; 71.

[5] Grünbichler, Elisabeth (2016) “Linguistic remarks on the dialect of Al-Buraymi, Oman”, in Arabic Varieties: Far and Wide, number 267.

[6] Taqi, Hanan A. (2018) “The Ghawa Syndrome in Kuwaiti-Arabic verbs”, in Journal of Advances in Linguistics, number 9, pages 1298–1312.

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