The realization patterns of the glottal stop in Sudanese Arabic

Abstract This paper investigates the realization patterns of the glottal stop attested in Urban Central Sudanese Arabic (UCSA). To this end, the paper examines the realizations of forms whose roots consist of glottal stop radicals. Root-initial and root-medial glottal stops are shown to exhibit realization patterns that are explained in terms of a phonotactic constraint against syllabifying the glottal stop in a coda position. This constraint is violated to satisfy a verbal templatic requirement. Root-initial and root-medial glottal stops are also shown to exhibit three more unpredictable patterns in which the glottal stop is not realized even in contexts where it would be syllabified in an onset position. All root-final glottal stops are shown to have been reanalyzed as a palatal glide j in UCSA. The unpredictable patterns of root-initial and medial glottal stops are argued to indicate that this segment may be undergoing a similar reanalysis process.