Stress, duration, and intonation in Arabic word-level prosody

This paper presents the results of a study of the expression of word-level prosody in Jordanian Arabic. The study focuses on the durational, spectral, and fundamental frequency correlates of stress and word-"nal juncture in the speech of four speakers. Speakers exhibit extensive "nal lengthening e!ects and a smaller e!ect of stress and penultimate lengthening. Stress lengthening correlates with higher "rst formants, while penultimate lengthening does not. Analyses of fundamental frequency patterns support an analysis in terms of pitch accents associated with stressed syllables and juncture-marking phrasal pitch speci"cations. Finally, lengthening e!ects are sensitive to higher level prosodic juncture. These results are discussed in comparison with similar results in studies of English speakers. ( 1999 Academic Press