English pre-fortis clipping by L2 Saudi speakers

Abstract The current study is a partial replication of Flege and Port (Language Speech 24(2):125–146, 1981), which examined the production pre-fortis clipping (i.e., vowel shortening before voiceless obstruents) by Saudi L2 English speakers. In addition, it whether language experience operationalized as length residence in an English-speaking country, had any positive effect on 16 speakers were requested to produce vowels /æ/, /ɪ/ /i:/ carrier word, once stop /t/ voiced /d/. same context also elicited from reference group native Similar similar obtained Arabic A durational ratio each /d/ was calculated for speaker nonnative groups. findings (1981), both showed broadly less contrast between two contexts than did However, results varied across three vowels. no significant correlation found speakers’ production.