Palatalization of feminine marker in Northern Najdi/Ḥā’ili Arabic

This study deals with a morphologically conditioned pattern of palatalization in feminine-marking morphemes in Ha’ili dialect of Arabic, as it is spoken by members of the Shammar tribe. It describes the differential permissibility of palatalization (/t, h/> y) in pausal environment for different morphemes, and demonstrates the failure of (segmental) phonological approaches to predict variation in morphological categories for which the possibility of palatalization appears to vary on a morphological basis. Additionally, the synchronic correspondence of this morphophonemic change extends to the verbal 3rd feminine singular (FSg) perfective forms. I propose that this is due to a naturally motivated phonetic process that diffused analogically to certain morphological categories, in addition to priming effect and internal pressure motivated by resistance-to-being-opaque agreement from preverbal subjects and noun-adjective agreement. I conclude that the variation of allomorphy in these feminine suffixes carries valuable insights with broader implications of the role of MORPHO-phonology in understanding the historical development of this dialect.