The Middle Voice in Najdi Arabic: A Morphological Description

Abstract

Abstract

Voice category is an essential grammatical aspect of verb constructions in linguistics. It is widely known that voice involves two main types: active and passive. However, there is a possibility of having a third grammatical voice known as the middle voice. Based on the relevant literature, the middle voice is a controversial topic that has aroused debate over its linguistic properties. This paper, therefore, aims to investigate some of the middle voice linguistic properties within a morphological context. More specifically, it attempts to identify the middle voice verb patterns and examine their existence using a linguistic test in one of the Arabic varieties, Najdi Arabic (NA). The middle voice morphological patterns that have been obtained in NA are ʔinfiʕal, faʕal, fiʕal, ʔiftaʕal, tifaʕʕal, tifaːʕal, and tifaʕlal. Moreover, this paper argues that the prefix ʔin- and ti- attached to certain middle voice verbs serve a detransitivising function.

Keywords: middle voice, Najdi Arabic, Arabic, morphological patterns.