Nasal Assimilation in Standard Arabic With Reference To English/ A Phonological Analysis

Abstract

The present study deals with nasal consonants in modern standard Arabic . Modern standard Arabic ; that is used by broadcasters, newspapers and also used in Arabic movies. The study concentrates on nasal consonant manner in connected speech . The study hypothesizes that : (1) Arabic nasals are highly-sensitive i.e. they are liable to be assimilated in place to the following non nasal consonants . (2) Nasal assimilation in nasal consonants (NC )sequences is always regressive. (3) Variants of nasals are highly expected in Arabic.
 The conclusions show that Arabic nasals consonant especially /n/ is very much influenced by the feature of place of the consonant that follows. Consequently , different variants of /n/ occur as a result of regressive assimilation in nasal consonant ( NC) contexts. Thus, variants such as ]ɱ[ ,] ɲ[ ,] ṉ[ and ]ɴ[are frequent in the connected speech of Modern Standard Arabic speakers. In addition, the study confirms the universality of the linear phonological rules of assimilation.