This article examines the phonetic classifications and phonological regularities of the Arabic consonant system in Mahmud Zamakhshari’s Mufaṣṣal, focusing on the “Mushtarak” section. It reconstructs the scope of acoustic, articulatory, and functional descriptions and highlights nafas (breath) as a key explanatory notion for the majhūra/mahmūsa opposition. The study also discusses the shadīd, rakhwa contrast as a mechanism-based account of closure and constriction. Emphatic consonants are addressed through iṭbāq (الإطباق) and secondary articulation (pharyngealization, velarization), alongside special groupings such as qalqala, ṣafīr, and dhalāqa, which reflect fine-grained articulatory insight. Zamakhsharī’s remarks on “secondary consonants” and dialectal variants are interpreted in terms of positional patterns of allophonic variation and phonemic alternation. Finally, the paper argues that Zamakhsharī’s three-level taxonomy of idghām (obligatory, permissible, impermissible) is methodologically innovative, framing idghām as a normative, functional-phonological rule rather than mere articulatory facilitation.

Zamakhshari; Mufaṣṣal; Arabic consonants; nafas; majhūra, mahmūsa; shadīd, rakhwa; iṭbāq; emphatics; idghām; allophony.

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