Comparison of Phonology of English and Arabic

Comparison of Phonology of English and Arabic

PART A

Stress is defined as the relative prominence given to specific words in a phrase and specific syllables in words. According to Halliday (1970), there are three-word levels of stress in the Arabic language. These include the primary, the secondary, and the weak levels. Swan and smith (2001) pointed out that stress in the Arabic language is regular and predictable. This means that an individual can determine and predict the stress of the words in Arabic. Furthermore, Swan and Smith (2001) asserted that the learners of Arabic often face difficulties in predicting stress in the English language, specifically in the stress of the word. The difficulty in word stress grasping in English may lead to…