The vowel system of the educated rural sedentary dialect of the West Bank (Palestine) is analyzed from a generative phonological point of view and in relation to three phonological processes: monophthongization, centralization, and pharyngealization. The results of the analysis are compared with Mark Cowell's broader 1964 analysis of Syrian Arabic. Cowell's vowel description is found to be inadequate for the dialect studied here, differing from the present analysis in its degree of precision in locating certain vowels. (MSE)