Ultrasound study of Moroccan Arabic labiovelarization

In this survey, we have provided some acoustic and ultrasound data from two subjects to characterize a secondary articulation generally analyzed as labialization in Moroccan Arabic. Our results show that the so-called labialized consonants are rather labiovelarized. They also show that the vowel [a] adjacent to the labiovelarized consonants is velarized

The phonetic correlates of pharyngealization and pharyngealization spread patterns in Cairene Arabic an acoustic and real-time magnetic resonance imaging study

The major articulatory differences between plain and pharyngealized speech sounds in Arabic are a secondary posterior constriction and a lowered tongue body implicated in the production of the latter type. This articulatory configuration, pharyngealization, affects neighboring segments according to spread patterns that differ across different dialects in both direction and domain (distance). The most prominent acoustic consequence of this articulatory configuration is a lowering of the second formant frequency in surrounding vowels. The extent of the modification in the formant frequency is determined by the length and quality of the vowel. This study uses real-time magnetic resonance imaging (rtMRI) to investigate the acoustic and articulatory correlates of pharyngealization and pharyngealization spread in Cairene Arabic. The articulatory and acoustic correlates of pharyngealization and pharyngealization spread relate to phonetics and phonology, respectively. This study is thus at the interface of phonetics and phonology, presenting phonetic evidence for a phonological phenomenon. Four male native speakers of Cairene Arabic participated in the study. They were trained to repeat a carrier phrase inside the MRI scanner: /ʔal:aha: X ʔalf mar:a/ (‘He told her X one thousand times’, where X is the target word). Target words are monosyllabic minimal pairs of Cairene Arabic in which the plain-pharyngealized contrast occurs at the edges of the word, and in which the vowels immediately adjacent to the plain-pharyngealized contrast are /a:, i:, u:/ and /a, i, u/. The role of both vowel length and vowel quality in the extent of pharyngealization spread was examined, as well as the influence of rightward versus leftward spread of pharyngealization. The acquired rtMRI data is reconstructed using the Partial Separability model to achieve high temporal resolution (approximately 100 fps) and high spatial resolution (128 × 128 voxels (volume elements), with each voxel measuring 2.2 mm × 2.2 mm × 8.0 mm (through-plane depth). Midsagittal MRI frames are extracted at the middle of the consonants and vowels of the target words. They show the lingual and pharyngeal configuration during the articulation of each speech segment. An edge detection method is applied to identify the contours of the vocal tract from the glottis to the lips. These contours are analyzed in Matlab to examine the articulatory configuration of the sounds of interest. Two articulatory measures, 2D pharyngeal areas and 2D oral areas, are introduced to quantify the magnitude of the pharyngeal constriction and the oral cavity, respectively. These provide articulatory measurements of pharyngealization spread across different vowel qualities, different vowel lengths, and different directions. Results suggest that the magnitude of pharyngealization spread differs with respect to these three factors. Parallel acoustic data is acquired from the same four speakers in a sound attenuating booth and analyzed in Praat to examine the acoustic properties (i.e. the formant frequencies) of the sounds of interest. Results from articulatory measurements are corroborated with results from acoustic measurements of formant frequency modifications

Rhotic Emphasis And Uvularization In Moroccan Arabic

This study investigates the phonological behavior of secondarily post-velarized (‘emphatic’) consonants in Colloquial Moroccan Arabic, focusing primarily on variant pronunciations of the approximant /r/ and the relationship of pharyngeal to uvular articulation. In certain contexts, /r/ independently exhibits phonetic characteristics similar to those of the primary ‘emphatic’ phonemes /ṭ ḍ ṣ/, and for many speakers a combination of borrowing and analogy has extended the context of emphatic variants outside of the original conditioning environment, resulting in a pattern of contrast that approaches phonemic status. Through analysis of interviews with individual speakers, I establish the parameters of phonetic and phonological variation in /r/ and evaluate the phonemic character of these segments through processes associated with phonological emphasis, as well as investigating how post-velar coarticulations in Moroccan Arabic align with uvular and/or pharyngeal place in phonetic and structural terms. My findings indicate that the rhotic emphasis constrast remains both distributionally and phonetically ambiguous at the level of the individual, and that its variation is not sociolinguistically determined. Furthermore, there is evidence that the ambiguity of the contrast is diachronically stable. I propose that this behavior reflects an underlying representational ambiguity related to the perceptual confusability of uvular and upper pharyngeal place and to the phonetic imprecision of rhotics in general. The document is structured as follows: first, I provide an overview of work on phonological categories, representational frameworks for ambiguous variants, and post-velar place specification (Chapter 1), then proceed to describe and problematize the relevant phonological phenomena in Moroccan Arabic (Chapter 2). Chapter 3 describes the methods used in fieldwork, data collection and preparation, while Chapters 4 and 5 present the results of my speaker analysis for Fessi Arabic with respect to acoustic correlates of post-velarization spread and rhotic emphasis distributions respectively. Finally, Chapter 6 offers a theoretical framework for interpreting these results and suggests some areas for further research

Studies on Arabic Dialectology and Sociolinguistics

This volume contains over fifty articles related to various fields of modern Arabic dialectology. All the articles are revised and enhanced versions of papers read on the 12th Conference of the Association Internationale de Dialectologie Arabe (AIDA) held in Marseille in June 2017. Since its first conference in Paris in 1993, AIDA members gather every two years in different country. The collection of the AIDA proceedings offer an updated insight of the development of the field. During the past few decadesthe the study of Arabic dialects has become an important branch of research covering a wide range of subjects from phonological analyses, morphosyntax, semantics to pragmatics, sociolinguistics, folk linguistics, studies on literacy and writings, cultural and artistic practices, etc. As many articles of this volume illustrate, the study of Arabic dialects explores different aspects of the languages and cultures of the contemporary Arab world. A remarkable feature is the growing and constant participation of young scholars from all around the globe

QUESTIONS AMAZIGHES (TACHLHIT) À L'INTERFACE DE LA PHONÉTIQUE ET DE LA PHONOLOGIE

The main concern of my research activities bears on phonological units and questions their physical manifestations and psychological reality as well as their role in phonological grammar. My main source of evidence for my theoretical analyses is drawn from Tashlhiyt, an Amazigh (Berber) language spoken in Morocco. This summary, meant as a complement to my Habilitation mémoire « Questions amazighes (tachlhit) – A l’interface de la phonétique et de la phonologie », provides a synthesis of my work on three main topics. The first topic deals with syllable without vowels. The second topic is concerned with the phonetics and phonology of geminated phonemes. The third topic deals with laryngeal distinctive features and extends to the general issue of laryngeal-supralaryngeal coordination in speech.La préoccupation majeure de mes recherches porte sur la structure et le contenu des catégories phonologiques – trait, phonème, syllabe – et pose la triple question de la place de ces unités de base dans les systèmes phonologiques, de leurs manifestations physiques, et de leur réalité psychologique. Cette problématique, qui constitue un des objectifs fondamentaux de la recherche actuelle à l’interface de la phonétique et de la phonologie, est explorée en examinant plus spécifiquement le tachlhit, langue amazighe (berbère) parlée au Maroc. Au-delà de la richesse de son inventaire consonantique, c’est notamment l’extrême souplesse que cette langue offre pour former de séquences consonantiques qui l’a fait connaître à la communauté des phonologues et des phonéticiens. Locuteur natif du tachlhit, je me suis intéressé depuis ma thèse aux questions soulevées par cet embarras de consonnes dans une démarche alliant questionnements théoriques et investigations expérimentales. L’écriture de ce mémoire a été guidée par le désir de mettre en perspective mes recherches par rapport aux questionnements théoriques généraux sur les unités de représentation. En cela, elle reflète le souci constant de partir du tachlhit pour aborder des questions théoriques dépassant largement le cadre restreint des études amazighes