Lexical and postlexical prominence in Tashlhiyt Berber and Moroccan Arabic Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität zu Köln im Fach Phonetik vorgelegt von Anna Bruggeman aus Utrecht, Niederlande Köln, 29. Januar 2018 Erste(r) Referent(in): Prof. Dr. Martine Grice Zweite(r) Referent(in): Dr. Sam Hellmuth Datum der mündlichen Prüfung: 16. Mai 2018 Please cite this thesis as: Bruggeman, Anna. 2020. Lexical and postlexical prominence in Tashlhiyt Berber and Mo- roccan Arabic. University of Cologne PhD dissertation. This version supersedes the unpublished version from 2018. iii Abstract Tashlhiyt Berber (Afro-Asiatic, Berber) and Moroccan Arabic (Afro-Asiatic, Semitic), two languages spoken in Morocco, have been in contact for over 1200 years. The influence of Berber languages on the lexicon and the segmental-phonological structure of Moroccan Arabic is well-documented, whereas possible similarities in the prosodic- phonological domain have not yet been addressed in detail. This thesis brings together evidence from production and perception to bear on the question whether Tashlhiyt Berber and Moroccan Arabic also exhibit convergence in the domain of phonological prominence. Experimental results are interpreted as show- ing that neither language has lexical prominence asymmetries in the form of lexical stress. This lack of stress in Moroccan Arabic is unlike the undisputed presence of lex- ical stress in most other varieties of Arabic, which in turn suggests that this aspect of the phonology of Moroccan Arabic has resulted from contact with (Tashlhiyt) Berber. A further, theoretical contribution is made with respect to the possible correspond- ence between lexical and postlexical prominence structure from a typological point of view. One of the tenets of the Autosegmental Metrical approach to intonation analysis holds that prominence-marking intonational events (pitch accents) associate with lexic- ally stressed syllables. Exactly how prominence marking is achieved in languages that lack lexical stress is little-understood, and this thesis’ discussion of postlexical promin- ence in Tashlhiyt Berber and Moroccan Arabic provides new insights that bear on this topic. A first set of production experiments investigates, for both languages, if thereare acoustic correlates to what some researchers have considered to be lexically stressed syllables. It is shown that neither language exhibits consistent acoustic enhancement of presumed stressed syllables relative to unstressed syllables. The second set of production experiments reports on the prosodic characteristics of question word interrogatives in both languages. It is shown that question words are the locus of postlexical prominence-marking events that however do not exhibit association to a sub-lexical phonological unit. A final perception experiment serves the goal of showing how native speakers of Tashlhiyt Berber and Moroccan Arabic deal with the encoding of a postlexical prom- inence contrast that is parasitic on a lexical prominence contrast. This is achieved by means of a ‘stress deafness’ experiment, the results of which show that speakers of neither language can reliably encode a lexically-specified prominence difference. Results from all three types of experiment thus converge in suggesting that lexical prominence asymmetries are not specified in the phonology of either language. v Contents Abstract v Acknowledgments xi Abbreviations xiii Part I Introduction 1 1 General introduction 3 1.1 Aims and goals of thesis ........................... 3 1.2 The linguistic landscape of Morocco .................... 5 1.3 Tashlhiyt Berber and Moroccan Arabic ................... 6 1.4 Overview of thesis .............................. 8 2 Approaches to lexical and postlexical prominence 9 2.1 Introduction .................................. 9 2.2 Defining prosody/intonation, lexical and postlexical prominence .... 9 2.3 Lexical prominence: Word stress ...................... 10 2.4 Postlexical prominence and intonation ................... 19 2.5 Interaction between lexical and postlexical prominence ......... 26 2.6 Research questions .............................. 31 2.7 Summary ................................... 32 Part II Lexical prominence production 33 3 Acoustic correlates of word-level stress in Tashlhiyt Berber 35 3.1 Introduction .................................. 35 3.2 Methodology ................................. 37 3.3 Results ..................................... 40 3.4 Discussion ................................... 45 3.5 Summary and conclusion .......................... 46 4 Acoustic correlates of word-level stress in Moroccan Arabic 47 4.1 Introduction .................................. 47 4.2 Methodology ................................. 50 4.3 Results ..................................... 54 vii Contents 4.4 Discussion ................................... 65 4.5 Summary and conclusion .......................... 67 Part III Postlexical prominence production 69 5 Prominence in question word interrogatives 71 5.1 Introduction .................................. 71 5.2 Syntax, semantics and pragmatics ..................... 72 5.3 Prosodic marking of question word interrogatives ............ 80 5.4 Further points of interest .......................... 86 6 Question word interrogative intonation in Tashlhiyt Berber 89 6.1 Introduction .................................. 89 6.2 Pilot ...................................... 91 6.3 Methodology ................................. 95 6.4 Results ..................................... 99 6.5 Discussion ................................... 109 6.6 Summary and conclusion .......................... 113 7 Question word interrogative intonation in Moroccan Arabic 115 7.1 Introduction .................................. 115 7.2 Methodology ................................. 118 7.3 Results ..................................... 121 7.4 Discussion ................................... 134 7.5 Summary and conclusion .......................... 138 Part IV Prominence perception 141 8 Prominence deafness in Tashlhiyt Berber and Moroccan Arabic speakers 143 8.1 Introduction .................................. 143 8.2 Methodology ................................. 152 8.3 Results ..................................... 157 8.4 Discussion ................................... 158 8.5 Summary and conclusion .......................... 165 Part V Conclusion 167 9 Summary and general discussion 169 9.1 Summary of results .............................. 169 9.2 Language contact: Prominence structure in TB and MA ......... 170 9.3 Phonological theory: Lexical and postlexical prominence structure ... 173 9.4 Directions for future work .......................... 177 viii Contents Appendices 179 A Tashlhiyt Berber scripted telephone conversation 181 B Moroccan Arabic scripted dialogue 183 Bibliography 187 Curriculum Vitae 205 ix Acknowledgments First of all I thank the DAAD for their financial support for the past 3+ years. There are very many people I am indebted to for helping me shape, start and complete this PhD. I owe Martine Grice for a great deal more than I can express here. As a supervisor, and as Martine, she supported, questioned and challenged me. She has contributed enormously to how I have grown academically and personally. She identified and created learning opportunities at every turn, opened doors of whose existence I was not aware and made me steer clear from many potential hurdles. I am immensely grateful for everything that she has done for me on all levels. Sam Hellmuth has been pivotal in getting me back on track when I needed it the most, as a supervisor and in all other possible capacities. I would not have managed if it had not been for her unwavering belief in me, her contagious enthusiasm, and for helping me see clearly through the forest of (metrical) trees. Not least of all, I owe her for entrusting me with her Moroccan Arabic data. This thesis would simply not have had its present form without her. In Cambridge I owe much to Brechtje Post and Francis Nolan, who were exemplary teachers and motivated me to take the path into phonetics. Their continued interest and open doors during my PhD have been invaluable. I am also grateful to Carlos Gussenhoven, Rachid Ridouane, Maarten Kossmann and Harry Stroomer for their input, suggestions and interest throughout. There are a number of other people who have had a profound influence on me aca- demically. Timo Roettger, from and with whom I have learned a great deal, and with whom working together on Tashlhiyt was always stimulating. Francesco Cangemi, for his readiness to share ideas, methodologies and complex thought processes. Stefan Bau- mann, for always making time when I needed input and for invariably being positive. Bodo Winter, for demystifying statistics before I even started my PhD. András Bárány belongs in this list too, for asking both obvious and obscure questions, and for showing what a great PhD could look like. Many other people in the last few years have supported me in various ways. From the IfL Phonetik in Cologne I want to thank Anne, Aviad, Bastian, Christian, Christine Ri., Christine Rö., Doris, Francesco, Henrik, Jane, Janina, Jessica, Luke, Le- onie, Martina, Martine, Simon R., Simon W., Stefan, Tabea, Theo, Timo, and Phuong for everything from a discussion to a laugh, and from a chat (on request even in Ger- man!) to a dance. Martina, Christine and Tabea specifically for joint Muskelkaters, and Henrik, Aviad, the Simons,