Acoustic Cues to the Singleton-Geminate Contrast: The Case of Libyan Arabic Sonorants

This study examines the acoustic correlates of the singleton and geminate consonants in Tripolitanian Libyan Arabic (TLA). Several measurements were obtained including target segment duration, preceding vowel duration, RMS amplitude for the singleton and geminate consonants, and F1, F2 and F3 for the target consonants. The results confirm that the primary acoustic correlate that distinguishes singletons from geminates in TLA is duration regardless of sound type with the ratio of C to CC being 1 to 2.42. The duration of the preceding vowels is suggestive and may be considered as another cue to the distinction between them. There was no evidence of differences in RMS amplitude between singleton and geminate consonants of any type. F1, F2 and F3 frequencies are found to show similar patterns for singleton and geminate consonants for all sound types, suggesting no gestural effects of gemination in TLA. Preliminary results from the phonetic cues investigated here suggest that the acoustic distinction between singleton and geminate consonants in TLA is dependent mainly on durational correlates.