Feminine Sound Plurals with /h+a:t/ in Native and Borrowed Words in Arabic

Abstract

This study aimed to compare the ending /h+a:t/ in Feminine Sound Plural of native and loanwords in Arabic, and explain the conditions under which /h+a:t/ appears in the plural of native and loanwords regardless of the source language. A sample of 45 loanwords from English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portugues, Farsi, and Turkish and 80 native Arabic nouns/adjectives with a Feminine Sound Plural ending in /h+a:t/ were collected. Results showed that Arabic speakers pluralize native nouns/adjectives with a stem ending in /h/ or ta marboutah (تاء مربوطة) pronounced /h/ before a pause by simply adding the plural suffix /-a:t/. This means that /h/ is an integral part of the Arabic stem. Whereas in loanwords, they add an /h/ as a liaison consonant between the final long vowel in the stem and the initial long vowel in the /-a:t/ as Arabic phonology does not allow a sequence of two long vowels between a stem and a suffix. By inserting an /h/ in the pluralization of loanwords from French, they are connecting orthography with phonology as French words ending with final /eɪ/ are spelled in Arabic with a final يه"” as in كليشيه، كافيه بوفيه، شاليه. /h/ is also inserted in stems with a final long vowel as in استديوهات /studio-ha:t/ studios. Here, Arabic speakers are assuming an underlying /h/ at the end of singular stems video, stereo, studio, baby, avenue. This rule does not apply to loanwords with stems with a final short vowel as in كيلوات فيتوات and even when all the vowels in the loanword are shortened through a neutralization process. In few cases, the consonant is moved from the stem to the suffix to form a syllable. Arabic speakers form plurals intuitively, i.e., Arabic plural formation rules are internalized. As a result they pluralize foreign nouns by analogy. Some Feminine Sound Plurals of loanwords rhyme with Feminine Sound Plurals of some native Arabic words as in loanwords /kli:ʃeɪha:t//, /bu:feɪha:t/, /vituwa:t/, /kiluwa:t/ & Arabic words /safi:ha:t/, /nabi:ha:t/, /nadawa:t/, /falawa:t/ , /Salawa:t/. When pluralized, the loanword and native have the same length and the same syllable structure.