Testing three theoretical frameworks to account for the stressing of Arabic loanwords in British and American English

This study shows that the stress characteristics of Arabic loanwords are identical in pronunciation dictionaries in British English and American English with a majority of words with penultimate stress, yet a significant number of words with final stress, especially in disyllabic loanwords. This very low stress variation rate implies that the theoretical parameters accounting for the stress patterns of Arabic loanwords are identical for both varieties. The principles of three competing theoretical frameworks are presented and tested to determine which of these three models best accounts for the stress specificities of Arabic loanwords. It appears that the first two models (that is, the Guierrian School and the hypothesis of a default stress pattern on the penultimate syllable) only partially justify the location of primary stress (about 65% of cases). On the contrary, the use of the stress preservation principle based on the parameters developed in the Loan Phonology framework (cf. final section) shows that the phonological properties of Arabic have a decisive influence on the pronunciation of Arabic loanwords in English. The stress match rate between Arabic and English exceeds 90%. This model therefore better accounts for the stressing of such items in English.