ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a general overview of standard syllable-based analyses and highlights their implications on the syllable structure of Moroccan Arabic (MA) and Berber. A rapid comparison between Classical Arabic (CA) and MA actually reveals that the latter lost length contrast in the vowels. In a number of items shared by these languages, there is a regular change whereby the long vowels of CA correspond to short vowels in MA, whereas short vowels in CA disappear in MA, resulting in consonant clusters often simplified by means of vowel epenthesis. The situation depicted in MA reflects the loss of the ability to associate peripheral vowels to non-branching nuclei, according to Jean Lowenstamm. The vowel-zero alternations at issue in MA and Berber are fully handled by this device, which crucially predicts that empty positions cannot be adjacent at the vocalic projection. A large body of literature has been devoted to vowel-zero alternations.
