File:Nonconcatenative-muslim-derivation.png

One (simplistic) version of the derivation of the Arabic word muslim from the abstract triconsonantal root s-l-m within the theory of nonconcatenative morphology (a development of autosegmental phonology). The root consonants are associating with the participle morpheme muCCiC, as shown by the grey dotted lines. Here "C" stands for a consonant slot and "V" for a vowel slot, and the "linearized" pronunciation of the word, /muslim/, is obtained by examining the phonological features linked with each position in the consonant-vowel "skeleton" from beginning to end. These phonological feature bundles are loosely symbolized by letters ("s","l","m","m","u","i") in the diagram.

Note that a full analysis of the morphology of the Arabic language would be rather more complex, and what is shown here as the "Verb Stem IV Active Participle morpheme" muCCiC would in fact probably be a derived composite multi-morphemic object, while the C and V slots would be artefacts of syllable structure.

Converted from the following Vector PostScript source code

%!
/Palatino 40 selectfont
100 297 moveto (C  V  C  C  V  C)show
/GillSans 50 selectfont
93 217 moveto (m )show 4 0 rmoveto(u         )show 4 0 rmoveto(i)show
/Times-Roman 17 selectfont
92 182 moveto(Verb stem IV active participle morpheme)show
/x{284 moveto 0 -33 rlineto stroke}def 2 setlinewidth
113 x 163 x 309 286 moveto 0 -29 rlineto stroke
81 345 moveto 307 0 rlineto 0 -175 rlineto -307 0 rlineto closepath stroke

124 500 moveto 247 0 rlineto 0 -100 rlineto -247 0 rlineto closepath stroke
135 476 moveto(Tri-consonantal root morpheme)show
/GillSans 50 selectfont
172 420 moveto (s   l   m)show
.6 .55 .65 setrgbcolor
3.5 setlinewidth
[6 4] 0 setdash
182 413 moveto 214 329 lineto stroke
[6 4] 1 setdash
238 414 moveto 260 330 lineto stroke
[6 4] 9 setdash
305 413 moveto 360 329 lineto stroke
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2006

AnonMoos

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