Modern Standard Arabic and Yemeni Arabic Cognate: A Contrastive Study

Abstract

This study aims to investigate identical word pairs, word couples that have a phonemic correspondence, and the sound shift in phonological differences, sound variation, sound addition, and lenition. The study uses empirical data collected from 2 Yemeni college students who studied in Indonesia. Two hundred seven of Swadesh's basic vocabulary was used as the standard procedure for collecting data. The results indicated the relationship between form and meaning as a whole, a different pattern. Specifically, the three dimensions - cognate, phonemic correspondence, and a pair of words contain a different pattern, sound-change, phonological, and morpheme contrast in Modern Arabic Standard, Sana’a Yemeni Arabic (YEMS), Dhamar Yemeni Arabic (YEMD). The other sound change in the form of metathesis exposes that there are six rules: five kinds of word syllable systems and dissimilation, three forms of sound addition, and four types of sound loss. This study focuses on sound correspondence in three Arabic languages that influence more variations of Arabic. MSA, YEMS, and YEMD represent a case where two distinct language varieties exist in Yemen. It is anticipated that the findings of this study will help college students and lecturers to understand a phenomenon in Arabic-speaking communities and the significant impact it has on arranging Arabic teaching materials. The value of this research work is evident from the fact that the Arabic language teaching model has neglected the teaching of Arabic variation even though they are essential.