"Phonological Features of the Syllable in Cairene Arabic: A Descriptive Study Using Computational Analysis"

Document Type : Original Article

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Department of Linguistic Fundamentals, Faculty of Islamic and Arabic Studies for Girls in Beni Suef – Al-Azhar University- Egypt

Abstract

This paper investigates the syllable as a central unit in the phonological system through an applied analysis of Cairene Arabic. The study seeks to integrate linguistic inquiry—based on description and theoretical inference—with computational analysis supported by artificial intelligence tools such as Praat, Speech Analyzer, and Whisper. The aim is to examine syllable structure, stress, rhythm, and related phonetic phenomena, including assimilation, reduction, and deletion.The findings indicate that Cairene Arabic displays marked syllabic flexibility, with a predominance of heavy syllables and frequent occurrences of reduction and vowel lengthening in spontaneous speech. Stress emerges as a dynamic feature, conditioned by context and communicative function, while rhythm operates as a discourse device serving pragmatic purposes such as interrogation and exclamation. The results further demonstrate that computational tools provide highly accurate quantitative data on duration, frequency, and intensity; nevertheless, they remain constrained in capturing contextual and semantic dimensions, thereby underscoring the indispensable interpretive role of linguistic analysis.
The study concludes that the integration of linguistic and computational approaches is scientifically necessary for a comprehensive understanding of syllables in Arabic dialects. It further recommends training computational models on authentic dialectal data and extending research to additional Arabic varieties in order to enrich the phonetic landscape of the language.

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