Abstract
This study investigates syllable structure andsyllabification patterns in Urban JordanianArabic. The focus falls on the case ofmorphologically derived medial tri-consonantalclusters. Such constructions involve theconcatenation of a CVCC syllable with a -CVsuffix. We argue that morphologically-derivedmedial tri-consonantal clusters in UJA areresolved when two consonants share a single morathrough the process of adjunction-to-mora (Broselow,1992; Broselowet al. 1995, 1997). Thisargument challenges Kiparsky’s (2003) typologywhich maintains that VC-dialects, towhich the dialect of UJA belongs, deal with suchclusters by means of syllable-unaffiliated morascalled semisyllables lexically and bymeans of vowel epenthesis post-lexically.Contrary to this, we argue that CVCC syllablesare bimoraic under a mora-sharing analysis whichthen allows -CCC- clusters to surface withinCVCC.CV syllables without the need to resort tosemisyllables. Keywords: syllable structure, tri-consonantal clusters,mora-sharing, semisyllable, Urban JordanianArabic.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
