Sonority Is Not Sufficient: Syllabification and Syllable Patterns in Jordanian Ammani Arabic

This study presents a novel approach to syllabification and syllable structure in Jordanian Ammani Arabic (JAA), addressing challenges posed by complex syllable patterns and codas. We show that sonority principles alone, as suggested by earlier research, cannot account for syllable structure in JAA. We introduce a new constraint, the Coda Cluster Requirement (CodaReq), which governs the occurrence of coda clusters in JAA, considering factors such as sonority, markedness, and morphological ones. We propose an algorithm that is better able to syllabify JAA complex syllables, adopting mora sharing and semisyllables, which maintain bimoraicity while accounting for complex onsets and codas. We also show that JAA exhibits characteristics of both VC and C dialects, suggesting an intermediate classification. The proposed algorithm may be extended to account for other Arabic dialects.