Meaning of deemphaticize | Babel Free

Definitions

To render not emphatic any more.

Examples

“In addition Standard Arabic words may be subjected to other general Nigerian Arabic phonological processes. For example, voiced consonants are devoiced prepausally, and some urban speakers may deemphaticize emphatic consonants. The form lafis < *lafð̥ thus arises via (8h), with devoicing and deemphaticizing of z̥.”

“Undoubtedly, with this many phonologically alien consonants for an English learner of Arabic the accent is expected to be quite distinct. Unfortunately, in addition to the segmental phonological accent there will certainly be a persistent phonetic accent that runs throughout the whole words in which some of those posterior consonants occur, especially the emphatics [sˤص dˤ ض tˤ ط ðˤ ظ]. To demonstrate, consider the word <صَبَرَ> [̯sˤɑbɑrɑ] (became patient) which is fully emphaticized throughout under the influence of the emphatic [sˤ]. If the learner of Arabic fails to properly articulate this emphatic, he will not only transform the whole word semantically to mean <سَبَرَ> [̯sabara] (probed), but will also phonetically deemphaticize the word to sound impressionistically very different from <صَبَرَ>.”

CEFR level