الفهرس 
Chapter one: Classical Arabic sound systemOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
After the Islamic conquests, everyday Arabic has changed considerably from Classical Arabic (CA), in which the Holy Qur’an was revealed. As a result of such variation, Arab Muslims are required to learn CA, in order to recite the Qur’an in a correct way. Consequently, a set of phonological rules, i.e. tajwiid rules, has been formed to facilitate reading the Qur’an. The framework, which is followed in this paper, is that of the Optimality Theory (OT) in phonology, a theory proposed by Prince and Smolensky (1993) in their book Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar. This study aims to present a constraint-based analysis of some Qurʼanic phonotactics, i.e. Al-ʼIdghaam, Al-’Ikhfaa’, Al-ʼIqlaab, Al-Qɑlqɑlah, and Al-’IȤhɑɑr. Furthermore, the study attempts to introduce a ranking of these constraints, i.e. ’a constraint dominance hierarchy’, according to their importance in CA contexts. The study uncovers that OCP principle (Obligatory Contour Principle); either OCP-total or OCP-feature (place or manner), occupies the highest rank in comparison with the other candidates, followed by *XYZ (M) in the examined cases. In addition, the study reveals that the grandfather effect is highly frequent in the language of the Holy Qur’an. Therefore, the theory should be modified to be able to tackle this phenomenon which prevents the optimal ranking of constraints in Arabic.