<strong>ملخص الدراسة:</strong>

Within the framework of Government Phonology syllabic constituents are described as being either branching or non-branching.This categorisation suggests different governing relations holding among these constituents.Verbal and nominal forms in Spoken Iraqi Arabic are found to have branching and non-branching syllabic constituents . Moreover, word-initial branching onsets attested in this language are of the two types of sonority : rising sonority and falling sonority. This finding is contra factual to traditional accounts of word-initial branching onsets. This , in turn , suggests the need to amend some UG-generalisations.