ON THE PHONETIC VARIATION OF INTERVOCALIC GEMINATES IN LIBYAN ARABIC Amel Issa University of Leeds
[email protected] ABSTRACT consistent across languages, however, which suggests that duration is the universal attribute of This paper reports on the phonetic and phonological geminates, whereas the temporal compensation of patterns of gemination in Libyan Arabic (LA). It the preceding vowel may be language specific. also reports on the temporal relationship between Arabic geminates also reported to be significantly geminate consonants and vowel length. While longer than their singleton counterparts (e.g. [1, 6]). previous studies on Arabic gemination have either The results of the effect of gemination on the focused on True geminates or reported results on duration of the previous vowel in Arabic are not data that consists more than one type of geminates, consistent as well. For example, [1] have found without investigating its effect on the phonetic evidence of temporal compensation in Jordanian output, the present study investigates the effect of Arabic that is not affected by the place or manner of the phonological status of a geminate on the articulation of the consonant. In contrast, [6] and [8] phonetic realization. did not find any effect of gemination on the duration The results show that intervocalic geminates in of the previous vowel in Lebanese Arabic LA are significantly longer than their singleton There are few phonetic studies of LA , and none counterparts. The duration of the preceding vowels on the acoustic patterns of geminates and/or the role gives evidence in support of temporal compensation played by the proceeding vowel.