The Syllabic Consonants of Zubairi Dialect1: Some Phonological Points

Arabic, like any other language, is manifested by different social and geographical speech communities. within arabic, two general view would be proposed. first, desert (badya) dialects tend to maintain the properties of the language from which it is directly descended. such a tendency is quite natural because speakers of these dialects live in such an environment that they reflect what is inherited. another view gives rise to the fact that urban dialects are usually unstable because of their increasing development in all aspects. although desert (badya) and urban varieties have general linguistic phenomena in common, it is worth underlying that there are also several differences and the phonological differences, among them are the most striking ones in a case that the phonological ‘shape’ of words is somewhat affected (zahid, 1987:65).