Phonological Change in Hebrew Words Borrowed into Palestinian Arabic in the Hebron City

Abstract

Introduction: Phonology is one of the core subfields of linguistics that involves the organization and use of human speech sounds, or phonemes, in a language. Over time, the pronunciation principles of a language may change, resulting in a phenomenon called phonological change. Phonological change occurs when language users modify the distribution of phonemes in a language. The current study aimed to explain the phonological changes that occur in Hebrew words borrowed into Palestinian Arabic in Hebron city, using a borrowing scale and to explain the differences in phonological forms between Hebrew and Palestinian Arabic by comparing the original Hebrew words with the borrowed Hebrew words in terms of the phonetic modifications made in Palestinian Arabic. Methodology: The study involved 100 Arabic-speaking Palestinians of both genders residing in Hebron city, most of whom spoke Hebrew and worked with Jews regularly. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with each participant to achieve the objectives of the study. The interviews were recorded, and the questions focused on their profession, favorite meals, daily routines, frequently visited places, education, and technology. A total of 32 hours of conversations were recorded and analyzed. Results: The results indicated that the most common types of phonological changes in Palestinian Arabic were the substitution phenomenon (consonant substitution and vowel substitution), epenthesis, and deletion. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the lexical borrowing of Hebrew words by Palestinian Arabic has led to various phonological changes to the Palestinian Arabic lexicon in Hebron.