Abstract
Two vowel-shortening processes in Palestinian Arabic are dealt with in this paper. The first involves shortening long vowels in unstressed open syllables, and the second involves shortening long vowels in stressed syllables. Both processes can not be described well in purely segmental terms. So a proposition is advanced to analyze the data metrically. The first process is then described by a rule shortening vowels when they occur in weak metrical positions, i.e., after the prominence relations between syllables have been established. The second process, on the other hand, has to take place before the prominence relations are established between syllables, i.e., at the syllabification stage when segments are organized into syllables. Shortening is then analyzed by a syllabification rule shortening the nucleus of a CVVCC syllable whenever such a syllable is generated in the underlying structure. The shortening in this case is motivated by the fact that CVVCC syllables do not occur phonetically in Palestinian Arabic.
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