Old markers, new motivations: phonological and non-phonological alternations in a variety of Arabic from Aden (Yemen)

Abstract The variety of Arabic spoken by the Jews of Aden (Yemen) exhibits three noteworthy characteristics, all remarkable and distinctive in the Arabic dialectal space. First, it expresses its default final stress as duration, in a way that blurs the difference between phonemically long and short vowels under stress. The difference is nevertheless revealed as stress shifts away when a suffix is added. Second, older stem vocalizations are preserved for some verbs, yet only upon the addition of object suffixes. Synchronically, these cases illustrate non-optimizing allomorphy, in which a form with an object suffix is not necessarily based on the same form without that suffix. Finally, as in Old Arabic, the 3rd masculine singular perfect form has the suffix /-a/, yet its distribution is exclusive to two environments: (i) before /h/-initial object suffixes, and (ii) word-finally after geminate verbs of measure I. The motivation for the emergence of final /-a/ in both cases is strictly phonological.