Fixed vocalism in the broken plurals of Muscat Arabic

Muscat Arabic exhibits unique prosodic tendencies in the formation of broken plurals which,
as a result of their uniqueness, have not received adequate theoretical exploration in the
literature of broken plural formation. Building on McCarthy’s pre-Optimality Theoretic
claims on broken plurals in Classical Arabic, I argue that an ‘affixed mora [μ]’ attached at a
certain locus in the broken plurals enforces two expansions of the iambic foot to be realized
in two distinct shapes of broken plurals in Muscat Arabic. I further show that the affixed [μ]
associates in a position that does not disrupt the prosodic and syllabic canons of the language
as a whole. This is manifested in a ranked set of constraints couched in a unified Optimality
Theoretic analysis which reflects the grammar of Muscat Arabic.