Pausal Phonology in Quran

This paper addresses the pronunciation of the Quranic words in the location of pause, or vaqf. Data descriptive generalization shows that the indefinite morpheme and short high vowels /u/ and /i/, respectively for nominative and genitive cases, delete in the pause location. This results in forming a heavy or ultra-heavy syllable in the pause location via adhesion of mora of omitted syllable onset to the final syllable. For pronunciation of the indefinite masculine words in accusative case, deletion of the indefinite morpheme is compensated by lengthening the low vowel /a/ through spreading the floating mora to the low vowel slot. The reason behind resistance of the low vowel to delete could be its high degree of sonority. For pronunciation of the feminine words, indefinite and case morphemes delete, and then /t/ converts into [h] through omission of the supra-laryngeal features and staying laryngeal node. The main aim of this paper is to formalize the phonological pattern of the Quranic words in the location of Vaqf. Research methodology is of descriptive and explanatory type. Accordingly the Quranic phonological rules prohibits to license presence of the light syllable in the pause location, while to license heavy and ultra-heavy syllables via deletion and compensatory lengthening processes in the pause location.