Phonological Explanation of Epenthetic [-n] in Qur'anic Arabic

Epenthetic [-n] is one of the four types of singular nūn in Qur'anic Arabic. The present study aims to provide a phonological explanation based on Markedness Theory for the motivation of insertion, the reason of choosing as well as the role that this consonant plays in the existing structures. For this purpose, all the cases in which epenthetic [-n] is used were extracted computationally. Next, the lexical and syntactic categories of linguistic elements and the phonological context in which epenthesis occurs were determined. Then, an explanation for this process was presented based on various concepts such as sonority, syllable structure, perceptual clues etc. The findings show epenthesis has been primarily motivated by the desire to eliminate onsetless syllables and to resolve vowel hiatus. Due to this insertion the phenomenon of opacity occurs which prevents the vowel from undergoing vowel harmony. Furthermore, understanding the nasals’ exact place of articulation is difficult. By inserting this consonant, due to the auditory salience and acoustic clues, the perceived clarity of the place of articulation increases. Moreover, because there is an inverse relationship between the degree of nasal consonant salience and the degree of perception of the vowel nasality; the amount of prominence of the vowel that follows the nasal consonant is reduced. As a result, a less marked structure is created. Therefore, the insertion of this consonant is done with the aim of reducing markedness and is in line with the universal tendency of languages in relation to using less marked structures.