The Arabic Vowels

Abstract

Abstract Concern in this chapter will be with the three positive vowel-units or h@r@kaát. Though the vocalic qualities associated with them greatly exceed three, in response mainly to consonantal context, nevertheless systematic differentiation is never more than threefold. This regular distinction of three vowel phonemes is typical of Classical Arabic and does not always apply to the spoken language, in which certain vernaculars distinguish for the most part only two short vowels, others again four, and distinctions between short and long vowels, in contrast with CA, are rarely congruent. At the sonant level, too, it is a widespread feature of vernacular Arabic that close vowels are subject to elision in contexts where open vowels are not.