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MUFLEH SALEM M. ALQAHTANI

Professor

Professor of Theoretical Linguistics (Phonology)

اللغات وعلومها
Department of Linguistics, College of Language Sciences

Serialism in regressive voicing assimilation: The case of heterorganic obstruent clusters in Modern Hebrew

Serialism in regressive voicing assimilation in Modern Hebrew

This paper examines serialism (i.e. serial derivations) in regressive voicing assimilation (RVA) within the framework of harmonic serialism in coping with heterorganic obstruent clusters in Modern Hebrew. The study depends primarily on data gathered from literature, including books, articles, and theses. The findings show that RVA in Modern Hebrew operates through two derivational steps in a feeding order (i.e. transparent rule interaction): the first step involves delinking the [voice] feature of the target consonant feeds and spreading the [voice] feature of the trigger consonant. Heterorganic obstruent clusters are created by attaching the hitpa'el prefix /hit-/ to the root initial [z] and require RVA and metathesis. RVA occurs before metathesis in a counterbleeding order, constituting an opaque rule interaction. In other words, this opaque phonological derivation embodies RVA and metathesis where RVA counterbleeds metathesis. This research shows that harmonic serialism, in contrast to parallel optimality theory (P-OT), effectively expresses the generalization about RVA in Modern Hebrew.

Publication Work Type
Manuscript
Publisher Name
Oxford University Press
Publishing City
Oxford
Volume Number
70
Issue Number
1
Magazine \ Newspaper
Journal of Semitic Studies
Pages
167 to 194
more of publication
publications

This paper examines serialism (i.e. serial derivations) in regressive voicing assimilation (RVA) within the framework of harmonic serialism in coping with heterorganic obstruent clusters in Modern…

by Mufleh Salem M. Alqahtani
2025
Published in:
Oxford University Press
publications

This research discusses the underapplication opacity, namely counterbleeding, of non-local compensatory lengthening in Modern Colloquial Persian, a style of informal speech in Iran (mostly in…

by Mufleh Salem M. Alqahtani
2023
Published in:
Sage Open (indexed in Web of Science)
publications

This study examines how association line crossing in prosodic structure, as well as a bad sonority contour triggered by a glottal approximant in postconsonantal position, is avoided by non-local…

by Mufleh Salem M. Alqahtani
2023
Published in:
Yarmouk University