Some Preliminary Observations on a Variety of Faifi Arabic with a Focus on Emphatic Fricatives

We are delighted to announce that Professor Stuart Davis from Indiana University will be coming once again to give a presentation with his student Abdullah Alfaifi, on "Some Preliminary Observations on a Variety of Faifi Arabic with a Focus on Emphatic Fricatives":

In this talk we present some preliminary observations on a variety of Faifi Arabic spoken in the upper part of Faifa (in Jizan province, Saudi Arabia). We briefly discuss the prefixal /m-/ definite article, the indefinite suffix /-in/, the internal passive, and the use of the demonstratives as relative pronouns. Our main focus, though, will be on the realization of emphatic fricatives and their unusual allophones that include [st] for /sˤ/, as in [staada] ‘he hunted’ (/sˤaada/), [θ] for /ðˤ/ as in [θif.rin] ‘fingernail’ (/ðˤifrin/), and [f] (cognate with /dˤ/) as in [fil.ʕin] ‘a rib’.

All welcome!