An Extrametrical Consonant in Cairene Arabic and English within Optimality Theory

Abstract

In this paper, I will examine an extrametrical consonant within Optimality Theory. In particular, I examine an extrametrical consonant in Cairene Arabic and in English. An extrametrical consonant has been known not to respect the syllable structure of the host language and not to participate in certain prosodic rules such as stress assignment. In this paper, I argue that the final consonant is licensed by Positional Faithfulness. since it is not licensed by being a coda of a syllable, it is not moraic. In addition, since it is licensed by Positional Faithfulness its being attached as a part of the previous syllable is allowed, and therefore, its undergoing phonological rules whose domain is syllable internal is quite natural.