1 - Transcription system

Summary

In the transcription system, the actual pronunciation is taken into account, therefore, for instance, in ya rabb il-ʿalamīn [ā] is shortened to [a]. Whenever there is doubt in terms of whether Egyptian Arabic (EA) or Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)/Classical Arabic (CA) pronunciation should be applied, the transcription followed a native speaker suggestion (see Methods). Most of the examples, however, represent a mixed variety.

• • In dialectal material, whenever the environment of a sound calls for it, short vowels are dropped, e.g., ya bni, long vowels are shortened, e.g., fakra, mugamalāt, ḥagg, šabb and helping vowels are added.

• • In line with the above, vocative ya is spelled with the short a, whereas in standard examples it is spelled conventionally as yā.

• • Verbs with object pronouns, e.g., yikallimhum, nouns with possessive pronouns, e.g., kitābu and all word combinations in which one word is attached to another as a clitic are written together.

• • The use of hyphen is highly limited, it appears mostly in the article al-/il-.

• • The initial hamza is dropped when it is in a middle of a breath group and elsewhere with only a few exceptions, e.g., in which [ʾ] is the result of the reduction of [q].

• • The process of emphasis spreading, e.g., the occurrence of backed allophones of [a] and [ā] is not noted.

• • Ē in dialectal examples corresponds to the standard diphthong [ay], e.g., ʿalēh.

• • Both h and ḥ may be used to note the future tense particle, depending on the original notation.

• • In original examples the Latin spelling (if available) suggest both yi- and y- in verbal forms, therefore, in some cases short vowels were dropped, e.g., tkūn.

• • In aḷḷāh the final h is retained in consistency with ēh, lēh, etc., although, in most cases, it is silent.

• • The negative particle (la, lā, laʾ) is, for more consistency, spelled always as lā.

• • Individual pronunciation of EA users might differ, therefore, when in doubt, the spelling was

• provided by a native speaker.

• • In EA examples, the punctuation is limited to comas, question and exclamation marks, occasionally a colon might occur.

• • In direct citations the original spelling was retained, e.g. “sheex” (Parkinson 1985: 136).

• • No capitals are used in the transcription.

• • MSA/CA notation is consistent with ISO transcription. In English fragments the conventional notation is employed.