AN ACOUSTIC STUDY OF COARTICULATION IN MODERN STANDARD ARABIC AND DIALECTAL ARABIC: PHARYNGEALIZED VS. NON-PHARYNGEALIZED ARTICULATION

Mohamed Embarki1, Mohamed Yeou2, Christian Guilleminot3 & Sallal Al Maqtari4
1Praxiling UMR 5267 CNRS-Montpellier III; 2Universite Chouaib Doukkali, El Jadida; 3Centre Tesniere, EA 2283 Universite Franche-Comte, Besancon; 4Universitee de Sanaa

ID 1739
[full paper]

The present study carries out an acoustic investigation of coarticulation in the context of pharyngaealized /t', d', s', d'/ vs non-pharyngealized cosnonants /t, d, s, d/ both in MSA and in four Arabic dialects (Yemeni, Kuwaiti, Jordanian and Moroccan). The speech material, produced by four males per country, consisted of 24 words in symmetrical VCV contexts [iCi, uCu, aCa] where C is either pharyngealized or non-pharyngealized in both MSA and Dialectal Arabic. The results from 4608 CV sequences showed a substantial regularity in coarticulation. Comparison of the two contexts - pharyngealized vs. non-pharyngealized - indicated quite different acoustic cues. Speakers presented comparabale cues, allowing an effective classification by geographical area. Intraspeaker variation showed that the trnasition from MSA to the native dialect was realized by different strategies of programming and production.