1 Word Stress and Vowel Neutralization in Modern Standard Arabic

Word stress in Modern Standard Arabic is of great importance to language learners, while precise stress rules can help enhance Arabic speech technology applications. Though Ara-bic word stress and vowel neutralization rules have been the object of various studies, the lit-erature is sometimes inaccurate or contradic-tory. Most Arabic grammar books give stress rules that are inadequate or incomplete, while vowel neutralization is hardly mentioned. The aim of this paper is to present stress and neu-tralization rules that are both linguistically ac-curate and pedagogically useful based on how spoken MSA is actually pronounced.