An Optimality-Theoretic Account of Partial Nasal Assimilation in the Recitation of the Holy Qur’an

Recitation of the Holy Qur’an has its own phonological features. This paper discusses the two types of partial nasal place assimilation known as ‘Ikhfaa’ and ‘Iqlaab’ in Arabic. Ikhfaa occurs in the environment where the nasal alveolar /n/ precedes fifteen oral obstruents, including /z/, /ẓ/, /s/, /ṣ/, /t/, /ṭ/, /d/, /ḍ/, /q/, /f/, /k/, /ʤ/, /ʃ/, /ð/ and /θ/. ‘Iqlaab’ occurs in the environment in which the nasal alveolar /n/ precedes the bilabial obstruent /b/. Since ‘Iqlaab’ also involves partial nasal place assimilation, it can be considered a type of Ikhfaa. This research aimed at identifying the constraints whose interactions cause different processes of partial nasal place assimilation in the recitation of the Holy Qur’an within the framework of optimality theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993/2004). The results indicate that ‘AGREE [place]’ is the key markedness constrain accounted for partial nasal place assimilation in ‘Ikhfaa’ and ‘Iqlaab’. In addition, *[-long N]Obs is the markedness constrain responsible for nasals before an obstruent..