ghawa syndrome

ghawa syndrome

English

Etymology

Resyllabification of قَهْوَة‎ (gahwa, “coffee”) to قْهَوَة‎ (ghawa), after which the phenomenon was named.

Noun

Examples (Dialectal Arabic)
نَخْلَة‎ (naḵla, “palm tree”) to نْخَلَة‎ (nḵala) سَمْعَت‎ (samʿat, “she heard”) to سْمَعَتْ‎ (smaʿat)

ghawa syndrome (uncountable)

1. (phonology) Also known as Najdi Resyllabification[1], a phenomenon in some Arabic dialects in which the second guttural consonant in a word froms a cluster with the first consonant (e.g. CaCCa --> CCaCa). These dialects include some Iraqi dialects[2], Sana Yemeni[3], Najdi, Northern Israeli Bedouin Arabic[4], Burayami of Oman[5], and Najdi-descendant speakers of Kuwaiti Gulf Arabic.[6]
2. (sociolinguistics) Imitation of such resyllabification due to perceived prestige or correctness.

Translations

phenomenon in some Arabic dialects

Arabic: please add this translation if you can

See also

• Gahawa syndrome

References

1. Palva, H. (2009). From qəltu to gələt: Diachronic notes on linguistic adaptation in Muslim Baghdad Arabic. In Arabic Dialectology (pp. 17-40). Brill. "[...] and the Najdi resyllabification rule, e.g., gahawa —> ghawa, yaxabuṭ —> yxabuṭ, katabat —> ktibat; zalama —> zlima"
2. Previous reference: "[...] This is an obvious major case of phonetic adaptation by immigrant Bedouin speakers, the ex-Bedouin rural population in southern Iraq included"
3. ROSENHOUSE, J. (2013). General and local issues in forensic linguistics: Arabic as a case study. Comparative Legilinguistics, 15, 53-68. Page 62
4. Rosenhouse, J. (1995). An Arabic Bedouin story and its linguistic analysis. Zeitschrift für arabische Linguistik, (30), 62-83. Page 71
5. GRÜNBICHLER, E. LINGUISTIC REMARKS ON THE DIALECT OF AL-BURAYMI, OMAN. Arabic Varieties: Far and Wide, 267.
6. Taqi, H. A. (2018). The Ghawa Syndrome in Kuwaiti-Arabic Verbs. JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN LINGUISTICS, 9, 1298-1312.