In the speech of some educated Cairenes, the coronal stops /t d tˤ dˤ/ acquire a secondary palatal articulation before high front vowels and glides, resulting in [t j ] or [d j ]. Based on first-hand data, this article provides a detailed phonetic and phonological investigation of this palatalization process in an attempt to fill a descriptive gap in the literature on Cairene Arabic. By examining the full range of triggers, targets, and potential blockers, I demonstrate that this is a phonetic coarticulatory effect, and that it should be distinguished from phonological assimilation. I also explore the hypothesis that this process -characterized as a sound change in progress -has been phonologized in a different sociolect of Cairene Arabic.

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The R sound exhibits considerable variability both across and within Arabic dialects; one that covers place and manner of articulation, as well as the notorious emphatic-plain distinction. Some R phones are in contrastive distribution, while others are contextually conditioned or free variants. This article aims to establish the underlying R phonemes in the spoken varieties of Arabic, evidence of which is sought in R's dialect-specific phonological behavior: in minimal pair contrasts, distributional phenomena, loanword phonology, and phonological processes that target or are triggered by R. Investigation of such evidence reveals four major patterns based on the nature and number of R phonemes, consequently classifying Arabic dialects into four types: the split-R dialects (primarily Maghrebi and Egyptian dialect groups), the emphatic-R dialects (the Levantine group), the plain-R dialects (the Gulf group together with most peripheral dialects), and the uvular-R dialects (the qeltu-dialects of Mesopotamia). The analysis employs a minimalist, contrast-based model of feature geometry to characterize aspects of the attested R's-such as emphatic-ness, coronality, dorsality, and sonority-and shows that the typology is directly mirrored in the representation. This has theoretical implications as well. Diverse rhotic representations within closely related language varieties demonstrate that distinctive features should not be interpreted as rigidly as is often assumed, and call attention to the semi-arbitrary relationship between phonetics and phonology.

Buchan Scots exhibits a unique phonological process in which mid vowels undergo raising that is triggered by both voiced consonants and stressed high vowels. The fact that the triggers of assimilation do not fall neatly into a single natural class under most feature theories makes it an interesting challenge to straightforward analysis. Given the phonological patterns and a variety of phonetic facts about Buchan, I propose a [Lowered Larynx] feature to explain both vowel height and consonant voicing in this language. I present an autosegmental analysis of the segment inventory and phonological patterns in the framework of the Parallel Structures Model of feature geometry (Morén 2003, 2006, 2007). This analysis provides a unified and minimal account of the assimilation facts and supports the claim that phonological activity is dependent on the structure of the contrast system of a given language (Dresher, Piggot & Rice 1994). Furthermore, the representational analysis fits neatly into a constraint-based model and contributes to the growing body of literature claiming that representations are important even to optimality-theoretic analyses.

This paper examines phonological affrication in Baghdadi Arabie, which is classified as a historical shift. The discussion of the chronological development of this process stretches across the stages by which sound changes take place, namely the outset (phonetic) stage, the active (phonological) stage, and the post-active (phonemic) stage.In addition, the paper explores the featural composition of the segmental classes involved in affrication-its triggers, targets, and outputs-and proposes a straight forward phonological analysis of their interactions.