Maṣdar Formation in Moroccan Arabic: Non-Concatenative Morphology and Lexically-Conditioned Allomorphy

Yassine El Bakhat

Article Details

Maṣdar Formation in Moroccan Arabic: Non-Concatenative Morphology and Lexically-Conditioned Allomorphy

Authors:

Yassine El Bakhat

Publisher:

المجلة الدولية للسانيات العربية

Journal:

International Journal of Arabic Linguistics Vol.12, pp.53-88

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

10/2026

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2001840928

pISSN:

2421-9835

Keywords:

Abstract:

 This paper provides a unified optimality-theoretic analysis for the formation of the maṣdar form in Moroccan Arabic. It focuses primarily on morphological and phonological issues observed in this nominal category. Morphologically, two central issues are observed: The non-concatenative structure expressed by infixation, and the presence of allomorphy whose distribution remains opaque at the phonological level. The analysis advanced in this paper diverges from the morphophonological account of non-concatenative morphology. Adopting an Optimality-theoretic approach, I propose that infixation emerges as an epiphenomenon of morphological requirements, expressed in terms of alignment and anchoring constraints. I further argue that allomorphy is lexically conditioned, as no phonologically natural contexts account for its distribution. They are posited as root-selecting and stem-selecting affixes, whose selection is governed by a lexical category-matching constraint, requiring correspondence between the lexical category of the affix and of its base, and a faithfulness constraint, enforcing the realization of all affixal alternants. At the morphophonological level, optimizations such as glide formation and vowel deletion are also analyzed to ensure phonological well-formedness.

Article Details

Maṣdar Formation in Moroccan Arabic: Non-Concatenative Morphology and Lexically-Conditioned Allomorphy

Authors:

Yassine El Bakhat

Publisher:

المجلة الدولية للسانيات العربية

Journal:

International Journal of Arabic Linguistics Vol.12, pp.53-88

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

10/2026

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2001840928

pISSN:

2421-9835

Moroccan Arabic

maṣdar formation

Optimality Theory

non-concatenative morphology

lexical allomorphy

Issues

Article Details

Maṣdar Formation in Moroccan Arabic: Non-Concatenative Morphology and Lexically-Conditioned Allomorphy

Authors: Yassine El Bakhat

Publisher: المجلة الدولية للسانيات العربية

Journal: International Journal of Arabic Linguistics Vol.12, pp.53-88

Document Type: Article

Publication Date: 10/2026

Document Language: English

Document ID (Org No.): 2001840928

pISSN: 2421-9835

Moroccan Arabic

maṣdar formation

Optimality Theory

non-concatenative morphology

lexical allomorphy

Issues

Authors:

Yassine El Bakhat

Publisher:

المجلة الدولية للسانيات العربية

Journal:

International Journal of Arabic Linguistics Vol.12, pp.53-88

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

10/2026

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2001840928

pISSN:

2421-9835