Acoustic Analysis of Najdi Arabic Short vs. Long Vowels Following Emphatic and Non-Emphatic Consonants

Abstract

This study examines the acoustic characteristics of Modern Standard Arabic vowels produced by 11 Najdi Arabic speakers. In particular, the study explores the difference between short vowels (/i, a, u/) and their long counterparts (/i:, a:, u:/) in terms of duration and quality in two contexts. In the first context, short and long vowels were preceded by plain consonants /t/ and /s/. In the second context, short and long vowels were preceded by emphatic consonants /tˤ/ and /sˤ/. Each vowel was used in a plain frame and in its emphatic counterpart that differed in only the presence of the emphatic feature of the initial consonant (e.g., /t_b/ vs. /tˤ_b/). Each target word or nonword was embedded in a carrier sentence. Vowel duration and F1 and F2 of short and long vowels were measured. The results showed that long vowels (212 ms) were 2.4 times longer than short vowels (88 ms) in the plain context. In the emphatic context, long vowels (219 ms) were also 2.4 times longer than short vowels (92 ms). There was no interaction between vowel length and vowel context, suggesting that the difference in duration of short and long vowels was the same in the two contexts. In terms of quality in plain and emphatic contexts, the vowel /i/ had a higher F1 and a lower F2 than /i:/. The vowel /u/ had a higher F1 and F2 than /u:/. The vowel /a/ had a lower F1 and a higher F2 than /a:/.