Acknowledgements

This book is substantially based on my doctoral dissertation, submitted to the University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway in 2013. First and foremost, I am grateful to my supervisors, Bruce Morén-Duolljá and Martin Krämer, for their invaluable input and guidance throughout the research and writing process. I also want to extend my gratitude to everyone at CASTL (Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Linguistics) for the enriching academic experience during my graduate study, and especially to Curt Rice and Patrik Bye who left their indelible mark on my development as a phonologist.

My heartfelt gratitude goes to my informants Dina, Fahmy, Heba, Kamilia, Linda, Mohammad, Rana, Rasha, and Sahere – for their patience and goodwill. Without them, this research would not have been possible.

I am most grateful to two experts who were also my external examiners: Stuart Davis, for his scholarly support during my research visit at Indiana University Bloomington and thereafter, and Janet Watson, whose book on the phonology and morphology of Arabic has inspired this project in many ways. This work has also benefited from helpful discussions with (in alphabetical order) Salman al-Ani, Alex Bellem, Sam Hellmuth, Peter Jurgec, Jean Lowenstamm, David Odden, Marc van Oostendorp, Christian Uffmann, Mary Ann Walter, and Manfred Woidich.

Versions of various parts of this monograph have appeared in Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik 52, Nordlyd 40, Lingua 160, and the proceedings of AIDA 9 and AIDA 11, and have benefited from the review process there. I am thankful to all the reviewers, as well as to audiences at the many conferences and workshops where I presented my research.

Many thanks to the Studies in Arabic Linguistics series editors Elabbas Benmamoun and Enam Al-Wer, the anonymous reviewer, and the John Benjamins editorial team, who were all very supportive in the process of turning my dissertation into a book.

Finally, I am most indebted to my family, both in Egypt and Norway, for their unwavering love and support. To my parents, Mohamed and Soheir, my wife, Cvijeta, and our three wonderful boys, Noah, Amin, and Riad: thank you for everything.