Phonetic Harmony in the Works of Raḍī al-Dīn al-Istirābādhī (d. 686 AH)

Abstract

Phonetic harmony is an old  term addressed by Raḍī al-Dīn  al-Istirābādhī  (d. 686 AH) in his book Sharḥ al-Shāfiyah. It refers to phonetic compatibility and to bringing one sound closer to another adjacent sound as a result of mutual influence among these sounds. The research has found that the phonetic phenomena in which phonetic harmony occurs are phenomena that belong exclusively to assimilation. These include imālah vowel inclination, the substitution of a silent nūn with mīm, and the substitution of a geminated yāʾ with jīm, in addition to other phenomena that al-Istirābādhī analyzed and clarified in terms of the degree of phonetic harmony involved.