The Notion of Syllable and the Kinetic-Impulsive Theory of Arabic Phoneticians
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Abstract
The syllable, as viewed by the ancient Greeks, was known by the Arabs through
translations of ancient studies. But much prior to this contact between Greek and
Arab thought, a conception of speech dynamics already existed. It was thoroughly
original, and based on the concepts of « harf» and « haraka ». The harf is the
minimal segment of the speech continuum. Al-Halil (8% century) ascertained that it
has two qualities: sound colour (gars) and strength of motion (sarf). This latter is
explained by the word « haraka ». According to many authors, the haraka is the
acoustico-physiological motion which is required both for producing sequentially
the harf and for gliding to the following articulation. Confirmation is given by
rhythm conceived by Arab musicologists and experts of metrics. They have
designed the « sabab » as the smallest articular molecule; however, the sabab bears
the meaning of « long syllable ». In fact, a normally uttered speech sequence does
not contain syllabic divisions, as is shown by instrumental observation, and the
only item which may be presented as a syllable is the speech sequence which can
actually be isolated; that is to say, which may be limited by two «sukün-s »
(opposite to « haraka »).
The author brings forward the idea of translating « haraka » by « kinem », the
state of a speech segment with faraka: « kinesis » and its opposite « akinesis ». The
concepts expressed by the terms « kineised » and « akineised » seem to him more
adequate than the Saussurian concepts « explosive » and « implosive ».
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References
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