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►II.17. PAUSAL FORMS
§A. Arabic words have different pausal and junctional forms. This is true only for Standard Arabic words. The modern spoken dialects of Arabic mostly do not have any distinction between pausal and junctional forms.
The junctional forms of words are, of course, the original forms. The pausal forms arose because of apocope, that is, loss of terminal short vowels. Since the Arabic stress does not fall on ultimate syllables, this facilitated their apocope.
§B. The basic rule of pause in the standard form of Arabic is that ultimate unstressed syllables that are light CV are reduced at pause to C, and ultimate unstressed syllables that are heavy CVV, CVC remain intact.
The following examples demonstrate the pausal and junctional forms of some words.
| Junctional form | Pausal form | Meaning |
| صَحْرَاْءُ | صَحْرَاْءْ | a desert (nom.) |
| ṣaħ.ˈrȃ.ʔu | ṣaħ.ˈrȃʔ | |
| صَحْرَاْءَ | صَحْرَاْءْ | a desert (obl.) |
| ṣaħ.ˈrȃ.ʔa | ṣaħ.ˈrȃʔ | |
| ثَمَّ | ثَمّْ | there |
| ˈθam.ma | θamm | |
| نَحْنُ | نَحْنْ | we |
| ˈnaħ.nu | naħn | |
| لَهُ | لَهْ | to/for him |
| ˈla.hu | lah | |
| أَنَاْ | أَنَاْ | I |
| ˈʔa.nȃ | ˈʔa.nȃ | |
| نَعَمْ | نَعَمْ | yes |
| ˈna.ʕam | ˈna.ʕam |
§C. An exception to the basic rule stated above concerns nouns with the case-inflected ending –Vṋ (where V is a case-inflected short vowel). This ending is found in singular and feminine sound plural substantives and non-finite verbs. At pause the nominative ending –uṋ and genitive ending –iṋ are lost, while the accusative ending –aṋ becomes –ȃ.
| Junctional form | Pausal form | Meaning |
| يَوْمٌ | يَوْمْ | a day (nom.) |
| ˈyaw.muṋ | yawm | |
| يَوْمٍ | يَوْمْ | a day (gen.) |
| ˈyaw.miṋ | yawm | |
| يَوْمًا | يَوْمَاْ | a day (acc.) |
| ˈyaw.maṋ | yaw.mȃ | |
| وَلَدٌ | وَلَدْ | a child, boy (nom.) |
| ˈwa.la.duṋ | ˈwa.lad | |
| وَلَدٍ | وَلَدْ | a child, boy (gen.) |
| ˈwa.la.diṋ | ˈwa.lad | |
| وَلَدًا | وَلَدَاْ | a child, boy (acc.) |
| ˈwa.la.daṋ | ˈwa.la.dȃ |
§D. The pausal rule of the tied tȃʔ الْتَّاْءُ المَرْبُوْطَةُ which was explained in §II.6. is also an exception to the basic pausal rule, as can be seen from the following examples.
| Junctional form | Pausal form | Meaning |
| مُعَلِّمَةٌ | مُعَلِّمَه | a female teacher (nom.) |
| mu.ʕal.ˈli.ma.·tuṋ | mu.ʕal.ˈli.ma | |
| مُعَلِّمَةٍ | مُعَلِّمَه | a female teacher (gen.) |
| mu.ʕal.ˈli.ma.·tiṋ | mu.ʕal.ˈli.ma | |
| مُعَلِّمَةً | مُعَلِّمَه | a female teacher (acc.) |
| mu.ʕal.ˈli.ma.·taṋ | mu.ʕal.ˈli.ma | |
| فَتَاْةٌ | فَتَاْه | a young woman (nom.) |
| fa.ˈtȃ.·tuṋ | fa.ˈtȃ | |
| فَتَاْةٍ | فَتَاْه | a young woman (gen.) |
| fa.ˈtȃ.·tiṋ | fa.ˈtȃ | |
| فَتَاْةً | فَتَاْه | a young woman (acc.) |
| fa.ˈtȃ.·taṋ | fa.ˈtȃ |
From the above examples it can be seen that the syllable of the tied tȃʔ is dropped completely at pause, no matter what the case is.
§E. The following table summarizes everything that has been said about pausal forms:
| Junctional form | Pausal form |
| –CV | –C |
| –CVV | –CVV |
| –CVC | –CVC |
| –Cuṋ (nom.) | –C |
| –Ciṋ (gen.) | –C |
| –Caṋ (acc.) | –Cȃ |
| –·tuṋ | –∅ |
| –·tiṋ | –∅ |
| –·taṋ | –∅ |
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الراصد العربي 