The Dialect of Gharb (Gozo/Malta)

The Dialect of G arb (Gozo/Malta) proposes a systematic description of the vernacular of the village of G arb based on field research conducted in 2013-2022 and comparative material from the 1970's. This monography focuses on the Semitic matrix of the dialect with a synchronic and diachronic analysis of its structure on phonological, morphophonemic and morphological levels. An innovative theoretical framework introduces prosodic phonology and its alternative hierarchical language model as a means of integrating suprasegmental phenomena like pausal forms into the phonological and grammatical system of this language variety. Furthermore, the data from the village of G arb are compared with other Arabic dialects, resulting in the finding that the G arbian dialect exhibits linguistic phenomena - most prominently pausal diphthongization - that link it to geographically distant Syro-Palestinian dialects and an Aramaic substratum although it is known to belong to the North African Arabic dialect group.