From: Mate Kapović
Message: 43943
Date: 2006-03-21
> On Mon, 20 Mar 2006 20:30:16 +0100 (CET), Mate KapovićWell, that sounds reasonable enough. It could also be a valuable paralel
> <mkapovic@...> wrote:
>
>>I seem to remember on the other hand that there were claims that
>>Egyptian [g] for the Classic Arabic [dz^] is an archaism not an
>>innovation so these developments need not be the same for all the
>>Arabic dialects...
>
> I used to think Egyptian [g] was an archaism, but a
> discussion about this on sci.lang many years ago left me
> convinced that this is not the case. The Egyptian
> pronunciation is an innovation, and a rare case of phonetic
> "regression", so to speak. The source was obviously not the
> affricate [dz^], but a Common Arabic palatal stop [g^] (~
> Hung. <gy>), which usually developed into the [dz^] or [z^]
> of most Arabic dialects, but in Egypt reverted to [g]. I
> believe the original pronunciation as a palatal stop is
> still current in some dialects of the Arabian peninsula.